What’s new in Oracle Primavera v18?

Website Author’s Note: Please note that with Oracle’s v19.12 EPPM release (and 20.3 Cloud release) a more recent assessment of these latest Primavera versions can be accessed here

Following on from our previous article on the new features included in Primavera v17 we’re providing an update on the summary features of Primavera v18.8 as this will be a significant release for on-premise users as this brings together some of the features of earlier 18.x versions previously only available to Oracle cloud users ~ yes there’s been 8 releases of v18 just this half-year alone hence delaying to write this update.

So firstly in the article below we’ll go through each earlier iteration first as on-premise users will get these for the 1st time with v8 and then say what’s new specifically to v8.

From our downloads section you can download a ‘Cumulative Features‘ comparison spreadsheet which allows you to compare and review changes from your Current release and then compare it against a potential Target release (up to v18.8). This allows you to then decide which progressive release is ‘right’ for you as some users on a day-to-day basis may not use the more recent features.

So if you’re a Primavera Administrator, IT Applications Owner or Planning Manager then you can put in your current release and then compare it against the potential Target release (note: this does not have to be v18.8) and you get a report (in excel) of the delta functionality. Go to our downloads section for your free copy!

Contact us today to learn how you can benefit from a free audit and analysis to deal with these issues addressed from the start.

Features introduced in 18.1

• Progress Spotlight is added to the Activities page.
• Ability to cut, copy and paste multiple WBS nodes was added to the Activities page.
• Ability to import and export views was added to the EPS and Assignments pages.

Features introduced in 18.2

• Import tasks from the Oracle Prime Projects Tasks app for lean scheduling in P6. Tasks are displayed as steps assigned to activities in integrated projects showing task information from Prime, including start and completion dates. Columns can also be added to highlight activities with tasks outside the activity dates.
• Create multiple user views on the EPS, Activities, Resource Assignment, and Project Assignment pages. For example, create multiple user views for departments who need access to consistent views of information ~ this saves time on the number of Global views that have to be maintained!
• Performance Percent Complete Field Based On Labour Units. The Performance % Complete – Labour Units field shows the percentage earned value of the budget at completion as calculated from labour units.
• Import and Export Location with Projects so that when you import and export Projects using the Primavera XML format, location data is included in and retrieved from the XML file.
• View XML Import and Export Logs without the need for Primavera P6 to be installed on Primavera Virtual Desktop.
• Import Zipped XER Files directly from a zipped file with no need to unzip it first.
• Features introduced in 18.3
• Interactive Gantt in the Standard View of the Activities Page and the Capacity Planning Page allowing users to change the duration, start, or finish dates of activities directly in the Gantt in the Standard View of the Activities Page.

Features introduced in 18.4

• Manage personally identifiable information in P6 EPPM and Professional including creating consent notices, auditing consent status, and controlling access to specific data ~ helps in a post GDPR for those that have named resources and use timesheets.
• Improved Visibility of Activity Information and Streamlined Bulk Edit Functionality in P6 for Android. So for example in P6 for Android, more screen space is provided for activity names in the Activity List.
• Upload Graphics to View and Print From Any Location in P6 Professional. You upload graphics to the database allowing you to view and print graphics even when the graphic was added to the report from a different computer.

Features introduced in 18.5

• Integration with Oracle Prime allowing the import of tasks from the Oracle Prime Projects Tasks to P6 Professional when connected to an EPPM database to integrate your lean scheduling process with P6. Prime tasks are visible in P6 Client as tasks assigned to activities in integrated projects. Prime Sync is no longer supported in P6 EPPM. Use Primavera Gateway to configure a connection between P6 and Oracle Prime Projects.
• Special operation event triggers have been added: Publish Audit Data Job Service, Global Search and Replace Job Service, Import Job Service, Export Job Service, and Update Baseline Job Service

Features introduced in 18.6

• Ability to update Project Preferences at the EPS level so that you can quickly make changes to multiple projects at one time. This usability feature will allow Project Managers to update project settings more efficiently.

Features introduced in 18.7

• Included an updated UI in the Risk Register.
• Note: The Classic Views from EPS, Activity, and Resource Assignments were removed in version 18.7.

Features introduced in 18.8

• Ability to import and export Excel files of data on the Enterprise Data page. This feature is helpful for periodic updates of enterprise data. Existing data can be updated and new data can be added. So for example if data fails to import, download a copy of the import file with appended information on why data failed to import. In this release, activity code import and export has been implemented.
• NOTE: all remaining applets have been disabled and unavailable to customers. Version 18 recently included an HTML5 version of the Portfolio Capacity Planning functionality and Dashboard Scorecards. Version 18.8 will also include a new HTML5 user interface for Risk.

Visit our download centre to obtain your free P3M3 Project Maturity tool-sets.

As mentioned before on-premise users will get many of the features mentioned above for the 1st time with v8. This will have some noticeable Team Member Improvements such as:

• Being able to filter based on the primary resource assigned to an activity in both P6 for Android and iOS.
• Searching the activity list based on codes and user-defined fields in P6 for Android and iOS. You can now use up to five criteria to filter activity data and group activities and assignments by project and WBS.
• Setting restrictions whether resources in Team Member Web, P6 for Android and iOS can assign themselves to activities outside the resource’s OBS access.

Moving from Java to HTML5

A video has been released by Oracle on the new features in HTML5 in Primavera P6 EPPM. Moving from Java to HTML5 P6 v18 continues the process of removing Java-based applets from the application in exchange for pages written in HTML5.

So what?

The benefit is that HTML-based pages load faster and do not require additional plug-ins.

Common elements of new HTML pages are demonstrated in the video using the Activities View as an example:

1. Use the Grid to add, edit, and view items on the page, such as resources.
2. Select or hover over an item, and the Row Actions menu becomes available with functions that can be performed on that item. For example, use the menu to cut, copy and paste resources.
3. Use Detail Windows to view and edit the properties of the selected item in the grid.
4. The Toolbar contains various buttons and menus. Features common to many pages include Print and view Full Screen.
5. The Toolbar often contains an Actions menu that offers various functions for the page. For example, on the Resource Administration page, the menu contains options to import from Microsoft Excel.
6. Many pages also contain an option to Customize View. Use this to access the column, filter, grouping and other settings that affect the appearance of the page.