Primavera P6 – Building and Applying A Customized Resource Calendar

 

With Primavera P6, you can create and apply or assign calendars to a resource, an activity or the entire project. While the project calendar is only one, the resource calendars can be many. For non-labor resources, the resource calendars can also be shared. 

In Primavera P6, resource calendars are applicable to all types of resources – Labor, Non-labor and Material. Yes, even the material ones can have calendars. In this post, we will learn how to create, build and apply a resource calendar for a labor resource. 

The content of this article is taken from the Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons course – an exhaustive course covering various functionalities and capabilities Primavera P6 Professional with respect to project management. 

Now, let’s begin by creating a personal calendar for a labor-resource. 

Create the Resource Calendar

For our project, there are many resources – labor, non-labor and material. First and foremost, we need to have an upcoming plan for our resources to be used in the project. For a labor resource, it includes the resource’s availability, holidays, exception days etc. 

The best way to create the calendar is to go to the Resources window and select the resource. Next, from the Details tab, check the Profile section and click on the Create Personal Calendar button.  

In our case, we are going to create a Personal Calendar for Catherine R. This is shown below.  

As you click on the button, the calendar for Catherine R will be created. But here lies an important aspect. You’ve to select this personal calendar as the child of the Project’s calendar.  In our case:

• Project Calendar: WebMS Project Calendar, which is the Parent Calendar.
• Personal Resource Calendar: CatherineR – Catherine Rice, which is the calendar to be used specifically for Catherine. This is a Child Calendar. It’ll inherit the properties of the Parent Calendar, but can have its own characteristics.

As shown below, the Resource Calendar for CatherineR is the child calendar of the WebMS Project Calendar.  

After you inherit the properties of the parent calendar, which in our case is the WebMS Project Calendar, click on the OK button shown above. Then the resource specific calendar will be created. 

Visualize the Resource Calendar

Calendars, unlike other project elements such as activities, are enterprise-specific data. Hence, to visualize the calendar, you’ve to use the Enterprise menu.

To check the newly created Resource Calendar, go to Enterprise > Calendars as shown below. 

This will launch the Calendar Dialog Box, listing out all the following calendars:

• Global Calendars.
• Resources Calendars, including the shared ones.
• Project Specific Calendar 

As shown, now Catherine’s personal calendar is available under the resource specific calendars. 

Modify the Resource Calendar

To modify the Personal Resource Calendar, select the respective calendar and click on the Modify button in the above figure. This is to the middle-right and highlighted above.

This will launch the Personal Resource Calendar, shown in the second figure. Next, you have to go to your Project’s timeline and select the Detailed work hours/day for Catherine. It’s shown below. 

As you’d have noticed in the above figure, there are certain holidays (non-working days other than Saturdays and Sundays) for this calendar. These holidays are from the WebMS Project Calendar (parent) and hence available in the Resource Calendar – CatherineR. 

Modify the Working and/or Non-Working Hours

In this step, we are going to change the Workweek for Catherine. Let’s say Catherine will be available at a 50% capacity for the entire project duration, which is starting from October, 2027 and the project is expected to go-on for months. 

To change the work-week for Catherine, click on the Workweek button as highlighted in the above figure. This will launch the Calendar Weekly Hours Dialog Box for Catherine shown below. I’ve made the changes to match with Catherine’s 50% capacity.

As shown now Catherine will be working at 50% capacity for the entire project, or in other words, 4 hours in a working day.

Apply the Personal Resource Calendar

As explained in the above video, when you create the Personal Resource Calendar, it’s automatically assigned to the resource. However, you’ve to change the Activity Type to Resource Dependent for the calendar to take effect.

This can be done by going to the Activities window and changing the Activity Type. It’s changed to Resource Dependent, in place of Task Dependent. You can learn more on Activity Types in this article. 

As shown for the activity of Design and Develop Frontend – 1, the Activity Type is Resource Dependent. In certain cases, you may have to change the Duration Type. 

In Summary 

Calendars play a key role in managing projects. Because only with a calendar, we can know the followings:

• Working and non-working days for each calendar days
• National holidays
• Organizational holidays
• Project specific working and non-working days
• Resource specific working and non-working days.
• Available capacity for the individual resource, among many others.

Unlike MS Project, Primavera P6 does not create a resource calendar automatically. The software design and functionalities are different. Like MS Project, Primavera P6 is also a robust project management software with a dedicated backend database. 

If you want to use the Primavera P6 software properly and hence, manage your projects, learning the Calendar functionality in Primavera P6 is a must-have. 

I believe with this article, now you have a clear understanding on the usage of Personal Calendars in Primavera P6. 

References

[1] * NEW * Course – Primavera P6 Pro Live Lessons, with Full Money-Back Guarantee, by ManagementYogi.com 

[2] Article: Primavera P6 - Understanding Various Activity Types, by Satya Narayan Dash

[3] Course: Practical PMP with Oracle Primavera P6, by Satya Narayan Dash

[4] Course: Practical RMP with Oracle Primavera Risk Analysis, by Satya Narayan Dash