Thursday, June 26, 2014

Unable to Delete A Project in Primavera P6?


Takeaway: Sometimes, while deleting a project in Primavera P6, an error message comes up saying “other users have the current project open you may not delete the Primavera project…”. It may come even when there is only one user working on it! And the file just could not be deleted with the Delete command in the Command bar (or from Menu bar). This post shows how to work with this problem.


Creating, opening and deleting a project is easy in Professional 8.3.x (or simply Primavera P6). The steps are GUI driven and can be done with the help of “Project Toolbar”. A Project is created under Enterprise Project Structure (EPS) and it has its own WBS and underlining activities. However, sometimes the users run into problems while deleting a project. To delete a project, the option given with “Delete” command in the “Command Toolbar” (or selecting the project from the EPS and right clicking to get the Delete option), may not work! 

An error message is popped up and prevents you to delete the project. The message is something like:

“other users have the current project open… you may not delete this Primavera project…”

Some of the reasons for this can be as follows.

Reason – 1:
In Primavera P6, when you open a project, by default, it is opened in shared mode. Shared mode allows multiple users to simultaneously edit a project file. This is one of the fundamentals that is needed in any Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM). However, when you want to delete the project file, that might pose problem, as it is in a shared mode.

To know the number of users working on a particular project, go to "File" --> "Open" menu from the “Menu bar”. Select the project and then select "Users" button to find out the number of users working on that project.


If there are multiple users, then the project can not be deleted. In such a case of multiple users, ensure that they are relieved of their accesses or their sessions are properly closed.

There is also a possibility that even with one user, you may not be able to delete. In the below screen, with one user, I tried to delete the project. But I was unable to do so. 


The same message comes up as in shared mode. This, unfortunately may keep on growing  as there may be a number of projects which you have created/opened up for your own use, but later on you want to delete them. But unable to do it. Like in my case, there were some 3 projects, which were used for test purpose, but could not delete, even though the number of users is only one, i.e., myself. So what could be other reason?

Reason – 2:
Primavera P6 is connected to a database, which can be a Professional DB or a EPPM DB, unlike file based backend structure which are maintained in some Project Management software. A session is maintained in the DB, when you connect with the P6 professional client. If the Primavera P6 is not closed properly or you have not logged out properly or the P6 client is not terminated properly, the session will be retained. These sessions are orphaned, but are retained in the Database.

Let us check on this a bit more. Close the Primavera P6 Application window, if you have opened. As the Primavera P6 is closed, the session should have been closed as well. But they are not! And there lies the problem.

To find out, we have to log into the Primavera Database and find out the sessions available. Go to the SQL command prompt and login: Command: sqlplus privuser/privuser@XE. As I am logged in as a privuser, I am using the command. You need to have the respective users to check and delete on the sessions. These usernames and passwords are normally given at the time of installation.
 

Note: Oracle XE database is integrated in my setup, which comes packaged with Primavera P6 installer. 

To audit which users are in which projects, we need to review the UPKLIST, USESSION and PROJSHAR tables.  Let us check the UPKLIST table. As you can see, this one is empty. Now check the session on the USESSION table (can check with the same command), which will list out the sessions. The USESSION table tracks user sessions to support project-level locking and licensing.  The PROJSHAR table identifies which projects are currently locked in shared/exclusive mode by user sessions. Let us check on the PROJSHAR table.

There are 3 projects listed with Proj_ID 4547, 4527 and 4565 and they have the respective sessions IDs. To reconfirm, you can again login to Primavera and check these sessions maintaining the old ids even when a new session is established, which is shown in the below screenshot.

So, time to clear up the unwanted sessions. 

If you have logged in to Primavera application, for the above step, close the Primavera P6 application window again. Give commands in the SQL prompt to delete these sessions. You can give one by one command or chain them together to delete the sessions.  For Oracle DB, don’t forget to give a commit command in the end.

***

After you delete the sessions which are put as orphan records in the DB, the project shown in the Primavera P6 Client can be deleted. Login in again into the Primavera Client Apps and delete the EPS and/or projects from Primavera. Right click on the EPS and/or project and delete.  This time the message popped up will be different. 



You can go ahead. The Project (and also EPS, if you want), will be deleted now.


Note: A course covering Project Management Professional (PMP) certification with Oracle Primavera P6 (and its certification) is available. This has been used by professionals worldwide. For details, check:

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Friday, June 20, 2014

PMBOK 5th Edition with MS Project 2013 - A Practical Guide


Early last year, I had a post on PMBOK with MS Project 2010. In the mean time, Microsoft has come up with a new version of Project, i.e., MS Project 2013. The earlier paper, which guided on  a practical approach to PMBOK guide 5th edition with MS Project  2010, needed an update.  Also, MS Project 2013 has changed in its functionality as compared to MS Project 2010. 

This paper is an update on earlier one, with the latest edition of PMBOK and MS Project. As MS Project 2013 is getting more penetration in the project management tools' market, capturing share and will replace MS Project 2010/2007 over a period of time - it is an appropriate time to update on the earlier paper. The earlier paper has been enhanced with new sections for Float, Free Float, Total Float. A section for Forward and Backward pass, used in Critical Path Measurement, has been added. Also, additional screenshots with example projects, have been added to this paper. 

The edition used here for MS Project in elaborating the principles of PMBOK guide 5th Edition, is the Professional Edition 2013.

Few excerpts:

3.2.6 Free Float/Slack and Total Float/Slack (PMBOK/MSP) 
Float calculation for free float and total float for the tasks in a project, goes hand in hand with the Critical Path Measurement (CPM). The concept of float is same, both in MS Project and PMBOK.  
Total float is the number of days by which a task can be delayed so that the end date of the project is not pushed. A tasks on critical path (critical tasks) will have total float of value zero. Free float is the number of days by which a task can be delayed so that it does not push the start date of the successor task. Free float for critical tasks also will be zero.  
As shown below, all critical tasks have free and total float value as zero. However the non-critical tasks have individual free float and total float values.  

. . .

3.2.7 Forward Pass and Backward Pass (PMBOK/MSP) 
The concept of forward and backward pass is used during the CPM calculation. A task can have 4 such possible values: Early Start (ES), Late Start (LS), Early Finish (EF) and Late Finish (LF). While checking on the forward pass, ES and EF are used, whereas while checking on the backward pass LF and LS are used.  
The ES, EF, LS, and LF dates for each task in the MS Project also can be seen by changing the table to Schedule from default Entry table. To change the table, select Table command under data group of View tab. 

 . . .
The complete paper is available here for your view below. If you have thumbnail views coming up, click on the "<" icon on the left in the view below to close the page thumbnails.


PMBOK Guide 5th Edition & MS Project 2013 - A Practical Guide


The paper also can be seen as a single link. (Link)



You may also like:
1. Synergy Between MS Project 2007 and PMBOK Guide 4th Edition
2. PMBOK Guide 5th Edition and MS Project 2010 - A Practical Step-by-Step Approach


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Wednesday, June 18, 2014

30 Free Questions with Answers on PMI-ACP Examination (Part - 2)




The questions for PMI-ACP have changed. For the latest questions, refer the below link.
 
[NEW PMI-ACP Questions and Answers on Latest PMI-ACP Exam (Link)]
 
It has been quite sometime since I have had my blog post. I could not write in last few months. Nevertheless, I check your mails and respond whenever I can. [This series - Part - 1] 

This one - the free question set on PMI-ACP - has been long pending. A number of people have asked on it. I keep on getting mails on it. Some people have mentioned it is very close to the real exam. And there are comments on this blog as well.  


Would suggest that you take this one and earlier post of 30 PMI-ACP Freee Questions Part - 1  together, when you do your practice. Note that these are not verbatim  questions from PMI-ACP exam, however, the essence of the exam is there. 

Question – 16: Below are the number of stories to be developed in a team. In first iteration, the team was able to complete Story A, Story B, and 50% of Story C. What is the velocity of the team?

A)   9
B)   11
C)   5
D)   4

Note: I remember some additional questions being asked on the same table and there are graphical questions based on burndown chart. You need to be clear in your understanding on those aspects.

Question – 17: Earned value management is Agile project is most appropriately used at which level?

    A)   Story

    B)   Task
    C)   Iteration
    D)   Release

Question – 18: As per Lean methodology in Agile framework, which one of the following is true?


    A)  Most errors are due to oversight of the resources and skill gaps
    B)  Most errors are systematic in nature
    C)  Most errors are due to motivational issues in the team
    D)  Most errors are due to management oversight and organisational structure 

. . . 

. . .



The question set is available in the embedded PDF below. 

For all the questions and answers, subscribe to this blog (on top right corner of this blog) and send a mail, from your gmail id to managementyogi@gmail.com







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