[Interactive] How to Build Lookahead Filters in Oracle Primavera Using Date Variables

7/27/2019 [Interactive] How to Build Lookahead Filters in Oracle Primavera Using Date Variables

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nter active] How to Build Lookahead Filters in Oracle Primavera Using Dateriables2.07.12, In Tutorials , by Michael Lepageeeteet

l Info

Program: Primavera P6 Project ManagementVersion: All VersionsDifficulty: IntermediateTime to Complete: 15 minutes

ahead reports are one of the centerpieces of consistent project reporting and controlling. Lookahead reports show and highlight upcoming activities in the project. Mostmon lookahead reports focus on activities scheduled for the upcoming week, next 2 weeks, next 3 weeks, next month and next 3 months. Of course there are other variationshe determining factor will be the type of project being worked. The nice thing about Primavera is that you can build a custom filter that will lookahead any period that suitsneeds.

ey to a lookahead report is building a proper activity Filter. Recall that an activity Filter will show only activities that meet the Filters criteria all activities that dont meet thea will be hidden. Knowing how to program the Filters criteria is essential. And in this tutorial well show you how to do it.

orial Files

lete this tutorial by downloading the following files:

Ptuts -Lookahead-Filters-Files.zip

p 1 Finding Your Footing With Filters

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http://www.plannertuts.com/primavera-p6-tutorials/interactive-how-to-build-lookahead-filters-in-oracle-primavera-using-date-variables-979/#https://premium.plannertuts.com/?utm_source=plannertuts&utm_medium=menu-button&utm_campaign=ptutshttp://www.plannertuts.com/http://www.plannertuts.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Ptuts-Lookahead-Filters-Files.ziphttp://www.plannertuts.com/primavera-p6-tutorials/interactive-how-to-build-lookahead-filters-in-oracle-primavera-using-date-variables-979/#http://www.plannertuts.com/author/michael-lepage/http://www.plannertuts.com/primavera-p6-tutorials/http://www.plannertuts.com/primavera-p6-tutorials/interactive-how-to-build-lookahead-filters-in-oracle-primavera-using-date-variables-979/http://www.projectcontrolsystems.co.uk/free-xer-viewer/?utm_source=plannertuts&utm_medium=banner&utm_campaign=ptutshttp://www.plannertuts.com/recommendations/http://www.plannertuts.com/usage/http://www.plannertuts.com/advertise/http://www.plannertuts.com/tag/video/http://www.plannertuts.com/tag/quick-tip/http://www.plannertuts.com/articles/http://www.plannertuts.com/primavera-p6-tutorials/http://www.plannertuts.com/https://premium.plannertuts.com/?utm_source=plannertuts&utm_medium=menu-button&utm_campaign=ptutshttp://www.plannertuts.com/about/http://www.plannertuts.com/about/write-a-tutorial/http://www.plannertuts.com/https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.plannertuts.com%2Fprimavera-p6-tutorials%2Finteractive-how-to-build-lookahead-filters-in-oracle-primavera-using-date-variables-979%2F&text=%5BInteractive%5D%20How%20to%20Build%20Lookahead%20Filters%20in%20Oracle%20Primavera%20Using%20Date%20Variables&tw_p=tweetbutton&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.plannertuts.com%2Fprimavera-p6-tutorials%2Finteractive-how-to-build-lookahead-filters-in-oracle-primavera-using-date-variables-979%2F&via=PlannerTuts


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by opening a project plan. You cant build any filters in Primavera unless you have a project open.

the Filters icon on the toolbar OR goto Views -> Filters in the menus. Click New to add a new custom filter.

p 2 Creating A Custom Filter In P6

your filter 1 Month Lookahead Basic. Now to do the programming part.

in the empty field in the Parameter column. You should get a dropdown box with a long list of field names. In this list, find the entry Start which is the column that
http://www.plannertuts.com/primavera-p6-tutorials/interactive-how-to-build-lookahead-filters-in-oracle-primavera-using-date-variables-979/#


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click in the High Value column. This type were going to type in a short formula. Type in DD+1M. This formula sets the upper range to 1 month more than our currentDate. For example, if our current Data Date is March 3rd, this formula would set the upper range to March 3rd + 1 month which is April 3rd.

E: If you hit Enter after typing in DD+1M, you will likely have a new line added to your screen. Go ahead and delete that line by clicking the Delete button on the right.

p 5 Viewing The Filtered Results

OK to lock in your custom filter. You should notice that your new filter is checked on. Click OK to view your project with the filter on.

lter should show you a short list of activities scheduled to start in the next month (assuming your Data Date is set to reflect the last status date and you are statusing on astent basis). In our sample project, were only showing 2 activities planning to get started in the next month.


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kahead report can be essential for focusing on soon-to-be-starting activities. You could easily print this layout or create a Report from this data to discuss at your weeklyct meeting.

eating a Better Lookahead Filterasic lookahead filter youve just built works well in ideal situations but it doesnt quite meet the mark in other cases. For example, it leaves out in-progress activities which

will likely want to be aware of. In the case where activities started earlier than planned, it wont show you those either. So lets show you how to build a better lookahead

p 6 Make A Copy Of The Basic Lookahead Filter

ck to the Filters window by clicking the Filter icon on the toolbar. Highlight your 1 Month Lookahead Basic filter, click the Copy button and then the Paste button.ight the new copy and click the Modify button.


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p 7 Tweaking The Primavera Filter To Include In-Progress Activitiesme the filter to Better 1 Month Lookahead. Start reprogramming by changing the paramete in the Value column (currently DD). Well change this to PS instead thect Start Date.

click the Add button to add a line. Click the Parameter dropdown box and find Activity Status in the list. Change the Is column to Is Not Equal To and set thee column to Completed. Click OK.

Place a checkmark next to your new filter to turn it on and uncheck afilters to turn them off. Click OK to view the project.


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u can see, the new filter includes the original 3 activities due to start in the next month PLUS any activities are that are still in-progress. This new filter is much more completeand will ensure you report on all planned and in-progress activities in the filtered range.

ractive Tutorial

whipped up a short interactive application so you can try enhancing our Lookahead Filter even more. Please give it a try. NOTE: another window will open make sure youpop-ups or disable your pop-up blocker for this to work.

ap-Up


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ahead filters are fundamental to reporting and monitoring your project on an ongoing basis. Create these filters in your Oracle Primavera database and make them Global soan share them with your colleagues and start to set a standard for reporting in your organization.

forget to download the Tutorial Files back at the top of this post. Weve included a layout your can import that has all 3 Lookahead Filters.

knowledgements

ks to Ted Lister for contributing his recommendations on tweaking the basic lookahead filter.

4 Votes

hael Lepage

ael is a Primavera P6 and Project Management expert working with companies large and small. He's also a trainer, instructional designer, and is pretty good at flying remoteolled helicopters. He writes tutorials because he loves to teach and is pretty keen on technology. He also holds a Project Management Professional cerfication from PMI.org.

Authors Website | Read more posts by Michael Lepage

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active] How to Build Lookahead Filters in Oracle Primavera Using Date Variables

Responses

hmed12

stic tutorials on filters. The way of presentation is superb, vry easy to understand

ael Lepage12

ks for the great feedback Adil!

Evans

12

ave an nice website michael. Good ideas. Can you help me? I only have three options on the filter IS parameter, equals, is not equal to and, is under. How can i get the other o appear, especially, within/not within range?

ael Lepage12

b,ks for the feedback.
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shows up in the IS dropdown depends on what is in the previous dropdown (parameter). It seems like you may not have a date field set or showing in the parameter own. In the tutorial, we set Start (which is the activity start date) in the parameter field. I would check the parameter dropdown to see if a date is set there. Let us know if elps.

mest regards,ael

012

stic 100% tutorials on filters. The way of presentation is superb, vry easy to understand

l m2012

elpful tips

a alot

n012

way of explaining !!

ld like to know how will we send a 3 weeks look ahead report ????I mean how do we create one ????

ks in advance !

ds ,

n

ael Lepage012

n,

thing in this tutorial still applies. But where you see DD+1M change it to DD+3w. There you go!ael

ous012

beginner in the use of Primavera, I really enjoyed the tutorial. Excellent presentation!

k you Michael.
http://www.plannertuts.com/primavera-p6-tutorials/interactive-how-to-build-lookahead-filters-in-oracle-primavera-using-date-variables-979/http://www.plannertuts.com/http://www.plannertuts.com/primavera-p6-tutorials/interactive-how-to-build-lookahead-filters-in-oracle-primavera-using-date-variables-979/http://www.plannertuts.com/primavera-p6-tutorials/interactive-how-to-build-lookahead-filters-in-oracle-primavera-using-date-variables-979/


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mmed Umer 2012

n soo many things from your free tutorial

k You

y

013

tutorial sir.. Could you please emphasize more the use of Custom Date, Custom Month. How about I want to filter the date I prefer up to 2weeks How to do it?ks and more power

Kia013

Comments : Thanks Michael, I have two questions and appreciate of your response, 1- When i copy and paste a file in project or EPS mode, while opening the file, it seemsty code is missing? 2- Filter windows doesnt show all data that we need to filter it.

ael Lepage013

mir 1) Have you added the Activity Code your layout as a column? Check the Codes tab for some activities on the Activities screen does it exist there?hat data is missing that you would like to filter by?

ael Lepage013

nthyuse custom dates, then you can specific a specific date range like Jan 1 for Value and Jan 14 for High Value. There is no formula when using custom dates in filters in

ope that helps.ael

013

new to Primavera and working on a schedule for a project, I have completed assigning resources to the activities, but now I have a problem, the s curve is not accurate , ino get it in proper shape i need to adjust the units distributed in the activites , but i am not able change the units , so can you help me figure out a way out of this.

ael Lepage013

khil
http://www.plannertuts.com/http://yourwebsite/http://www.plannertuts.com/http://www.plannertuts.com/http://www.plannertuts.com/primavera-p6-tutorials/interactive-how-to-build-lookahead-filters-in-oracle-primavera-using-date-variables-979/http://yourwebsite/http://yourwebsite/


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ks for reaching out. You can adjust how labor hours are spread out over the duration of each activity. By default, P6 spreads all labor hours linearly over the duration of anty. If you want to manually set the spreads (which is called bucket planning in P6 documentation), you can do this by using the Resource Usage Spreadsheet (View -> Showottom -> Resource Usage Spreadsheet). Configure the columns to show budgeted or planned labor hours. You can edit the allocations on the spreadsheet on the bottomof the screen. This will be a topic for a future tutorial.that helps.

mest regards,ael

en013

icheal, Just to add a piece to your explanation, u can user the attribute REMAINING EARLY START to filter out all the activities in progress.

it helps.

ds,en Talla

sish Mitra013

I can use the filter to see how many projects are in progress under each Stages ?

sish Mitra013

ally good to see it.I can get the number of Inprogress projects under each stages ?

erTuts013

sish,s a bit more complex and I think you are asking to see a list of projects that are currently in-progress and would like to see also what stage they are in. Start on the Projectsand build a filter there. You might filter on a range of Data Dates (DD) where Data Date is within range of CD-1m (which is current date minus 1 month) to CD+1mnt date + 1 month). Try this to see a list of current progress in progress.

tish Kumar 013

k you for sharing.

interactive kindly include the final screen shot after applying the filter so that i can confirm (myself) the correctness(i could still see the WBS summary bars!)
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ael Lepage013

Satish there is a final screenshot in the tutorial and yes, the WBS bars are showing but the filter will not remove those only the special WBS Summary activities if youct has any. This sample project did not have any WBS Summary type activities to begin with.

mest regards,ael

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[Interactive] How to Build Lookahead Filters in Oracle Primavera Using Date Variables