Global Code Change over Multiple Projects

Merged all Projects as One Project.. Each Project shall be in Level 2 WBS.

Apply the Global change.

The template and fragnets I use have reoccuring Activity ID's, "SmartID's" that I use to sort and filter without having to build activity codes for them. Plus only about half of the projects are mine. This is a company wide P6 database at 3 Locations I am resposible for making the change but the 142 projects are in various EPS nodes. This  is an unfeisable solution for my problem. But a good suggestion none the less. Thank you for your input Raymund. but if there is another possibility I would like to hear it.

Hi William

Get PowerProject software where you can open all 142 P6 projects in one file on one screen.

Make your code changes and then save 142 different .xer files.

You can also copy paste directly into your code column from excell.

Better still keep it all in PowerProject and have a much easier life.

Best regards

Mike Testro

PS Spider can probably do the same.

I am not a P6 user but wonder if using xer files you can work it out in batches of 30 to 50 jobs at a time.

In order to enter data into a user defined field you must first create the field and then populate it. Therefore without knowing how P6 works I would suspect you will need two Excel files, one to transfer the user defined field you will use for the activity code and then another to transfer the data into the now available field.

If it works on a single job that did not had such user defined field then it should work on a portfolio of many jobs.

Please understand I am not a P6 user so it might not work.

William,

Had you tried using the excel import file through SDK?

Thank you for all  your responses.

I have not tried SDK. But I am unfamiliar with how to use it.

Now using other software besides MSP, XL, P6, SDK are kind of out of the question. I have the software my company provides. Also the enterprise version I operate in for P6 allows me to open as many projects as I would like. The issue is when I return to initiate the import even though all the open projects are visible as options to "Update Existing Project" I cannot choose multiple projects on that screen. Only one at a time is available as an option and the import adds the extra activities to the project. Essentially pasting all the activities into a single project..

I can see several potential issues.

• First issue is the access to other projects. I do not know how access is controlled within P6 but this I would try to solve with the software administrator so you can work it in a simple way.
• Second issue is with having all jobs consolidated on a single Portfolio, something you shall do, in such portfolio activities ID would be changed by adding some additional code characters.

In Spider I would try the following.

1. Consolidate all jobs into a single Portfolio, this will solve the issue on activity coding.
2. Create my formula to make the desired Global Change on all jobs.
3. Distribute back all jobs at a single click.
4. Use Reference Books to import data.
5. Delete the portfolio if no longer needed, it will delete the Portfolio tables but not the individual projects.

Still I would need access to all jobs in order to be able to tamper with the data tables otherwise access control would be useless.   I would not count on bypassing access security so easily.

In Spider the job files are transferred with the access control, not sure you can bypass security with Primavera xer files. In Spider if you want the recipient to have full access and you defined some access control you will have to release the restrictions as it will retain access control unless you specifically want to change it.

The following figure will show you how activity IDs are modified by the software so it does not get confused. For simplicity I used two versions of the same job so some [so many some becomes all] activities IDs are duplicated. Also you will see how each job has its own code.

I hope this can gives you or someone else some clues on how to best handle your task. I believe you shall be able to do what you are looking for if given adequate rights to access all jobs, for your global change as well for your SDK data imports.

For data imports we use what we call Reference Books, but we are looking to solve it with what you have so I am not including the details of how I would to handle the imports, I suggest using SDK as available in P6, it shall do the simple job of adding the activities.

Good luck.

I just noticed you said some activities are missing, so transfer of basic activity data to existing will not be enough, you will still need to add other data [other tables] such as activity logic. Because each project activity coding for predecessors and successors can be different it can be very difficult if not impossible to transfer the logic using the additional Excel files as required.

In such case a similar approach to Spider consolidation/distribution of your new tasks might be needed. A point you might be missing is that you can see all jobs does not necessarily mean they are loaded into an active project group. I believe P6 shall have similar [not equal but similar] functionality for this purpose.

If full access is not possible [or not desirable] perhaps the P6 administrator can create a copy in your node of all jobs making them accessible for you to work them as a portfolio. Then you can copy and paste the activities of your choice and make the logic adjustments. Using XER you can distribute them back as you will still have no access to the original jobs. In this way also resource assignments along with new resource definitions, new calendars and other data will be transferred. Not as convenient as when given full access but might work.