Introduction to Primavera Project Management
In today’s super competitive and volatile business environment, large and complex projects are on rising. Unfortunately, project managers are not left with any effective project management tools that can manage and track such huge-scale complex projects. Here, ‘Oracle Primavera’ comes to the rescue! “Oracle Primavera’ is a standard and comprehensive project management tool designed to monitor and manage complex projects.
It is one of the widely recognized project management tools, which offers unparalleled monitoring and management of projects to the project stakeholders. The software tool is used across the globe in various industrial sectors such as Oil & Gas, Energy/Power, Construction, Manufacturing and Information Technology.
The ‘Primavera software suite’ includes:
P6, Prosight, PertMaster, Contract Manager, SureTrak, Cost Manager, Inspire and Evolve. The recent upgrades are Professional Project Management (PPM) and Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM).
Versions of Primavera software
Based on the type of project and accessibility, Primavera offers two versions to its users. Both versions offer a robust and easy solution for the execution and management of projects. These are:
1. Professional Project Management (PPM): PPM is a standalone offline tool primarily used to manage small-scale projects up to 1,00,000 activities. The users can access the software from any device it is installed onto.
2. Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM): EPPM is a web-based software tool used to execute huge-scale or multiple projects simultaneously. With internet access, the tool is accessible from any location. Thus, it allows for easy transfer, access, and sharing of data from anywhere to the enterprises, without having to download the application. It gives a comprehensive view of project status promptly in the form of graphical representations, charts, and pivot tables. It also offers more space for data storage, unlike the conventional tool.
Key Attributes of Primavera Project Management Application
Primavera Project Management offers many essential attributes to the project managers:
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- Schedule Alerts: Primavera consists of many scheduling notifications and tools to report whether or not the schedule is filled in properly. This helps the project managers to keep the project within the timeline and budget.
- Risk Mitigation & Opportunity Management: Primavera helps project managers in identifying initial and recurring risks. It conducts opportunity analysis within the schedule, helps the project managers to forecast any risks and analyze the impact of the same on the project schedule. Thus, it facilitates the development of a risk mitigation plan.
- Inventory Management: Primavera helps the project managers to monitor inventory usage and generates alerts by forecasting about any changes in the availability of inventory. It identifies the options available to replace unavailable resources so as to keep the project going.
- Management of contracts: The software enables enterprises to monitor multiple assignments across many projects. When a new project resembles the previous one, it enables the project managers to transfer information from the Oracle database within seconds.
Advantages of Primavera Project Management Tool
A large-scale project which involves thousands of variables could be cumbersome for the project managers to manage and keep track of. Therefore, for a project manager, it becomes essential to keep the project moving in the right direction. The software tool thus helps facilitate the same and offers many benefits such as:
1. Simplification of Complex Projects: The tool enables the project managers to simplify complex projects by breaking them into smaller, achievable tasks and activities.
2. Increased Transparency: As the software allows the data to be entered, monitored and analyzed at one location, there are negligible chances of any data violation. Thus, it assures transparency and compliance with environmental and political regulatory protocols.
3. Risk Management: The project expenses are directly proportional to the inconsistencies in the project schedule, project errors, and overruns. Thus, it is necessary to streamline the important aspects of the project so as to make it cost-effective. Primavera helps the project executors to identify and manage risks during the entire project life-cycle.
4. Facilitate Communication and Team-work: Primavera software allows the top management to easily communicate with the other project workers and managers. The users can make notes in the schedule of the software, which can be accessed by the entire project team.
5. Forecast Unplanned Project Tasks: As the project gradually develops, there might be an additional requirement for inventories, tasks or assignments so as to align with the demands of the stakeholders. With Primavera, project managers can create forecasts for such additional resources or any other project requisites.
6. Resource Optimization: The software allows the project managers to monitor and adjust resources so as to meet the project demands. Additionally, the software helps to determine areas where costs can be reduced by analyzing the ongoing resource trends and costs.
With so many benefits the software offers, the major strength of the tool lies in the several ways it can be customized as per the needs of the user. Oracle Primavera offers seamless integration into other existing enterprise software’s. The hardware setup for Primavera vary depending on customer-specific requirements, but general technical requirements are applicable to all software packages. Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista Business or Citrix are the required operating systems for Primavera. For web-based tool, Internet Explorer 6 or 7 is required.
Despite the user-friendly set-up of the software, it is very important to learn the basics and fundamentals of the tool. Understanding the fundamentals of the software can make the implementation significantly easier and less cumbersome, thus enhancing the ‘Return on Investment’. And the best way to do this is to enroll on a training course in Primavera.
The training course will not only allow to effectively use of all the features of Primavera but develop the skills that are required to handle any challenges during the course of the project. The hands-on experience will enable the users to leverage best practices to one’s advantage and develop various methods that the team and stakeholders will benefit from on a consistent basis.
Want to be a Primavera expert? Get yourself primavera ready and enroll on a training course!!
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