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NUMBER OF CHARACTERS IN ACTIVITY ID’s

24 replies [Last post]
Fri, 2004-08-27 13:17
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DEAR FRIENDS,

I FIND MORE THAN 6 CHARACTERS AS TOO MANY IN ACTIVITY ID’s.
ANY EXPERIENCES / RECOMMENDATIONS FROM FRIENDS.
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Replies

Wed, 2005-10-26 04:11
#1
Jorge Taguinod
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Why all this talk about Act IDs?

It is much more manageable to use Activity Codes. It’s easier to reclassify activities. I use Act IDs to define subproject only. And I don’t use WBS in P3 because it’s so hard to manage. However, when you use PE, WBS is the way to go.

Best regards,

Jorge
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Sun, 2005-01-16 23:46
#2
Jaco Stadler
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In Xls select the Act Column Pres Ctrl F(Find) Search for a Space and Replace it with Nothing.

Cheers
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Sun, 2005-01-16 06:15
#3
Razi Khan
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Add another column in Excel and use left function in Excel.
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Sun, 2005-01-09 04:40
#4
Jaco Stadler
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I like to structure the activity ID for one reason only and that is for exporting purposes and lookup tables. (And linking to other system)

I feel it is a "planner’s" decision to structure / or not his activity codes. (You know we are all different) But must caution against over complex structure’s they tend to make live diffucult.

Cheers


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Sat, 2005-01-08 12:15
#5
Hemanth Kumar
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A well structured activity ID very useful when analizing relationships in projects having complex relationships
as when take the pred-/succ detail column it will show only activity ID s
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Wed, 2005-01-05 10:54
#6
Shahzad Munawar
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Number of characters in Activtiy has nothing value. Actually uniformity in ID is the basic thing which should represent your activity scope
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Wed, 2005-01-05 10:54
#7
Shahzad Munawar
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[Duplicate posting deleted by Moderator.]
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Tue, 2005-01-04 01:13
#8
Erik Jonker
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Peter,

A coded ActID is merely to help you search easier and identifying an activity easier. It’s usually easy to pick up mistakes.

Regards,

Erik
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Tue, 2005-01-04 00:35
#9
Peter Hibberd
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Hi there all, The Act ID is merely a ’number plate’ by which it is uniquely identified. The structure length etc should have no importance whatsoever, WBS and Act Codes should take care of all filtering & sorting needs. This enforces a predefined data integrity since when you enter an incorrect/misspelt code, P3 will ask if you want to add it to the data dictionary. This is a fundemental issue of good database design. For aesthetic reasons it might be nice to have a uniform length of ActID, however by attaching intelligence to it you leave yourself open to poor data integrity.
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Mon, 2004-11-22 02:18
#10
Erik Jonker
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If you change an activity ID in P3, it is actually like deleting the activity and creating a new activity.

If you change the activity code, there is no baseline activity, which means that you have to change the baseline activity as well.

I agree with that the activity should be closed out and a new activity created. You can leave a remark in the old activity, referring to the new one. You can then change the baseline activity to have the new logic etc., and traceability to the old one.

Regards,

Erik
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Thu, 2004-11-18 11:45
#11
Philip Jonker
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If there is a case like you have mentioned for an activity having to move from an area to another, either use the copy/paste activity functions and create a new activity, or alternatively put excluisive on when you open the project, and this will allow you to edit the activity id.
On the subject of id length, my preference is a length of 8 characters made up from the coding structure, as this allows you to find an activity very simply, if you know your codes. You can put a list of codes an this will help.
I have run schedules with up to 35 000 activities, and good structuring helps.
The other reason for using 8 characters is that often a situation where you need to have sub-projects crops up, the you need the two spare characters for the sub-project prefix.
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Thu, 2004-11-11 10:34
#12
Keith Marsden
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An activity should not migrate from one area to another. A new activity should be created instead.

If the first is (for whatever reason) no longer required, it should simply be closed out.

Incidentally, my anal retention around this subject only kicks in after the pogramme has been published. I appreciate that a good deal of to-ing and fro-ing may well take place before this point.

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Thu, 2004-11-11 03:20
#13
Erik Jonker
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What about if an activity migrates from on area to another and the activity ID contains an area code?

Do you just change the activity codes, or rename the activity? It probably just depends on how strict your activity codes are defined.

Regards,

Erik
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Thu, 2004-11-11 03:14
#14
Keith Marsden
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Not sure I agree. What about the other teams who have referenced the ID? There are more knock ons to consider than just the baseline.

What if your commercial team has referenced the ID in a contract document? What if the design team has referenced it in one of their schedules that hang off the programme? What about manufacturers that have embedded it in their manufacturing schedules. Yadda yadda yadaa...

Once the programme has been published, IDs should only be ammended under exceptional circumstances.
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Thu, 2004-11-11 01:07
#15
Erik Jonker
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You can change an activity ID if a area or something changes, you must just change the baseline as well. It is probably easier said than done but you should not use that activity ID again, if you use multiple baselines.

Regards,

Erik

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Thu, 2004-11-11 01:01
#16
Erik Jonker
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A P3 Activity ID should be like planner customised WBS with a number stuck on the end to make it unique.

Regards,

Erik
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Wed, 2004-11-10 12:06
#17
Keith Marsden
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In my role as Information Systems integrator, the P3 activity ID is critical, in its structure rather than its length.

The ability to be able to predict the IDs is very important, as we demand that it is written on all sorts of supporting documentation. The less random it is the more likely it will be written correctly.

Also, once IDs are defined, they should NEVER EVER be altered.
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Thu, 2004-10-21 19:25
#18
Richard Brodit
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Dear All,

6 Activity ID no. or even lesser is good but I think THAT DEENDS. As ALEX WONG said, if you have a good coding structure, Activity ID structure will not really matter but I also agree with ERNESTO that there are programmes (especially long ones where you can use the advantages of just looking at the ID as identifying which zones, section stages, elements of work and can be used sparingly for import/export)

Personally, i prefer lesser activity ID , but one experience I had was the client use my programme as subproject of a bigger network of programmes and he "ate" up the first 5 characters of my programme to suit his updates, I’m trimmed down to 5 more characters which I’m happy to work with (but as you can imagine, my programme bears 10 character Act. ID, 5 of which are not mine)

I suggest you can use a combination of WBS, Activity Coding & Activity ID Structure to make your programme more
flexible "sortable" and identifiable.

Regards,

Richard
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Thu, 2004-10-21 11:15
#19
Erik Jonker
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If 10 characters is too many, you can just use 6. or use a delimiter eg. -.
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Sun, 2004-09-12 10:55
#20
Ernesto Montales
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Thanks for the reply..

You have raised a valid point. You be able to use this technique by relying on the activity description.But I find it easier linking relationship using activity ID specially if you are using the export feature fo the software., thats the reason why I maximize the use of the activity ID characters.

Regards,

E. Montales
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Wed, 2004-09-08 03:11
#21
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Why not just look at the Activity Description ?
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Tue, 2004-09-07 12:02
#22
Ernesto Montales
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Greetings!!

As per practice we maximize the usage of the number of character in an activity ID to 10 the maximum allowed by P3. This is usefull not only in filtering but also in establishing relationship between activities and most important you can identify the activity description by merely looking at the ID.

Regards

E. MOntales
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Tue, 2004-09-07 00:28
#23
Alex Wong
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Activity ID is just a unique identifier. If you have a good activity coding structure you should not rely on the activity Id as a filter. So any no is good enough as long as you can code them correctly.
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Thu, 2004-09-02 18:16
#24
Suresh Devarajan
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Hi,
How do you intend to use it. The more broken down the id the better options to sort or maintain them as you can narrow them down when you filter.
suresh
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