>Do any of you know if in Enterprise version have Primavera >sorted out their flawed FF lag logic link processing. It >adopts the calendar of the predecessor which is wrong and is >one of my main problems with P3.1
>Also do they plan to give user ability to put calendars on >links which would cure this error.

There are four options for scheduling relationship lag with Enterprise version 4.1. This is a scheduling option.
1. Successor activity calendar
2. Predecessoar activity calendar
3. 24 hr calendar
4. Project default calendar

Regards,
Bill

This is just a quick response.

I am something of a P3 / Pervasive expert, who was reluctant to change to P3e - load of hassle for what benefit?

Having changed over, I can now see that the benefit is enormous. The hassle is very limited.

Watch out though! P3e will put many planners out of work and rightly so. Project Managers can use it. Team Leaders with no previous planning experience can be taught to use it competently and effectively for developing resourced project plans.

P3e brings enormous benefits to business - the larger the business, the greater the benfit exponentially. It also returns planning to the ownership of the people who are ultimately responsible for executing it!

Hi Ray,

The following are my answers:

1.Project Manager has concurrent user licens.
Portfolio Analyst has named user license.

2. To my knowledge No.

3. Set up is not hard, providing that you get some IT assistance in setting up SQL and WEB server. The latter only if WEB publishing is required. I have set up my PC as SQL, WEB server and Client in 1 hour. There have been some frustrating issues in connecting to correct data base alias. Generelly, accepting defaults during the set up should give you trouble free installation.

4. My advices - start using it on smaller, non critical project. Alternatively, allow at least 1 week of self training for an experienced planner, prior to working with live project. Do not learn "by the school of hard knocks" on large critical project. P3 e/c is vastly different to P3 3.1

Regards

Nicholas Sero

Good information here. We are also considering migrating to P3e/c and I have a lot of questions.

Are the licenses per concurrent user like Expedition?
Can users access the info for viewing w/o a licence?
How long does it take to setup, convert and train users for a medium size operation?
Have any tips / lessons-learned from experience?

Thanks,

P3 e/c is completely different product. I have found it more complex to operate than P3 3.1.

Whilst P3 e/c has some great advantages over P3 3.1, the following are some of the problems or issues that P3 e/c can not handle:

discontinuous(interuptible)scheduling (MAJOR PROBLEM)
Wild cards characters in WBS filtering and selections
WBS layout can not be saved (page set up)
Very limited filtering and bar formatting with WBS layout

Tabular reports, although great in numbers, are not customised as well as in P3 3.1 nor they are as convinient to use as in P3 3.1.

Page set up is nowhere near as flexible as in P3 e/c.
Temporary variables
Global notebook formating

Physical % complete will not compute the resource usage. I found it hard to believe that having introduced the activity steps and physical % computation from the steps (great feature), they stoped there. Thus, physical % derived from the steps is not processed any further, unless you create global change and remember to run it each time the changes are made.

Processing speed via remote VPN access to SQL server and 1.5 Mbps line is shocking. It took 27 seconds to schedule 1000 activity network. I have used Pentium IV PC as SQL server and Pentium III notebook for remote access.

It is two times slower than P3 3.1 when used in stand alone configuration. It takes 4 seconds to schedule the same network as oposed to P3 3.1 2 seconds.

Having said all of this, P3 e/c is the way to go. However, I will wait for the new release before I contemplate changing over at corporate level.They have to fix up some of the foregoing problems that I consider major flaws.

I have passed on my proposed implementations to P3.

Regards

One issue, I have heard, is that P3 has a "steep learning curve" - resulting on a reluctance of potential users to buy into it. Does P3e address this with its higher Win32 compatibility?

Would someone care to comment on this?

Thanks,

IDM

Shamas,

As you said they are almost the same thing with some extras for construction in P3e/c. The only other difference starting from January as I understand, normal P3e will be sold as named user license only whicg would be cheaper than P3e/c which will be sold as a concurrent license at the same normal price.

Hi Shamas,

P3e/C is a variant of P3e which stands for P3e for construction. What you are possibly talking about is P3e with a concurrent license, which is just the type of the user license.

Back to P3e/c, it is a special version with to an extent more features and improvements than P3e ver. 3 and also Primavera has brought back many features than were originally in P3 and were not implemented in P3e. This version as it can be expected from its name has a handfull of customized items (filters, layouts, reports, codes, templates, etc..) specially made for the construction industry.

You can say that this version was published to encourage the majority of P3 users and lovers whicg are in the construction industry to migrate to P3e/c.

just had my first glimpse of P3e. Must admit, am disappointed with a no. of issues, however appreciate that it will be the tool of the future (2/3 years??.) Id be interested in chatting with anyone who has been working with direct Oracle input.

First I want to thank you guys for this new category. It is really needed and sonner or later it had to come and the sooner the better. So, thanks for this step in improving the site and lets continue!

James,

As for your question, as you might expect there are tons of differences between the two. You can say theyre totally two different software. So whatll do is as you said take just a short while to point out the major and most important differences and from the point of view that you already use and know P3.

Management Method:
P3 used the normal method of project management. Planning, managing and controlling separate independent projects.
P3e introduced a new method of Enterprise Management. Managing a group of dependent projects under the enterprise umbrella. This was done using the EPS (Enterprise Project Structure)

Capabilities:
P3e is superior in scheduling features, resource management, earned value, progress calculation and formatting. Unfortunately it is still weaker than P3 in dealing with material resources and in global changes.

Data Dictionaries:
Almost in every dictionary in P3e (resources, ativity code values, etc) you have the ability to create hierarchical structures. Also you develop some global (enterprise) dictionaries as a one-time created dictionary for the whole company. Dictionaries are a lot more flexible and easier to crete.
There is no more activity ID coding as there was in P3.

Viewing and Reporting:
In P3 you could open a max of 4 projects each in a separate window and of course working separately on them. There was no multi-project reporting.
In P3e there is now 3 additional windows. Projects, tracking and WBS in addition to the normal activities window. You can open even all your projects at one time and work on them actively on the same window (that is applicable for all 4 windows). The WBS now is a dynamic entity with its activities, resources, etc. Reporting is better tabular and graphical. Multi-project reporting is as simple as single project reporting. This is a huge move!

Performance:
P3e is a lot more faster and organized. Using far better hosting environments, SQL and Oracle made this possible. P3e can deal with much larger amounts of records due to the same reason.
True multi-user sharing on the same project is made possible in LAN versions. But...P3e is a lot less stable than P3 and if unlucky you could be a victim of likely cashes. This is why P3e requires a high level of IT technical support.

End Result:
P3e approaches with a new perspective using enterprise management with improved capabilities and features. It should be more of a company adopted system than an individual planner tool. It is currently in its still developing phases, but what is for sure is that Primavera is always working on publishing frequent improved versions. This means that sooner or later in the near future most people will begin changing to P3e and this already beginning now gradually. So starting now to adapt yourself and get used to it would be a wise thing to do. One more thing, Primavera will discontinue P3 anyway, so there wouldnt be a choice to really take in the future!

I hope this can help you get an idea of P3e. I see that I had gone far more than I was expecting to post, but still if anyone still has any questions, Ill be happy to answer them.