Preface

Oracle Primavera P6 is the most sophisticated and widely-used project portfolio management software in the world today. Some people think of P6 as simply a tool for scheduling projects, such as Microsoft Project, but on steroids. But while P6 can be used to plan a project a simple as writing one book, it can also be used to plan and manage a multi-year, globally-distributed set of engineering projects involving tens of thousands of workers, machines, and materials. When used to its fullest, it can give an organization the ability to manage current projects, plan future projects, and make key metrics to improve processes and ensure future success.

Primavera P6 is a vast product, with so many parts and features that it can seem overwhelming to the new user. And there are many aspects to discuss under the topic P6, such as the system architecture and database models, the various APIs and how they work, and fine-tuning P6 for optimal performance under varying conditions. There are also many books on project management and scheduling, centered around the principles set forth in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK).

This book is designed to be a gentle introduction to P6, covering all of the main aspects of the product from a user's point of view. Novices to P6 may read this book from end to end, trying out the features and working through the examples as they read along. For those who already know P6, or perhaps P3, OpenPlan, or some similar product, this book serves as a refresher and shows the capabilities of P6 in its current release, what features there are, what they are for, and how to use them. Each chapter of this book covers one or more core features, and each of these features can be explored at a much greater depth than can be contained in these pages. It is the sincere hope of the authors that this book will serve your needs as you and your team use Primavera P6 to manage your projects and to continually improve your project management expertise.