Firstly you have to be very clear about the definition of the term data date; The definition of a data date is the first available hour for new work to commence or existing work to continue. For eg: If your status is current as of Thursday at 16:00 (end of working hours), then a data date of Friday at 08:00 (start of working hours) might be appropriate. HENCE ALL YOUR ACTUALS AND PAST RECORDS WILL BE ON THE LEFT OF DATA DATE AND FUTURE PLAN ON RIGHT.
When we first prepare a schedule, the start date of the first activity will be same as data date.
Further, for all future schedule updates the remaining early start and finish dates will be scheduled from the current data dates as per the logical relationships. (if any activity was planned to start prior to the current data date and did not actually start, primavera will re-schedule the new start date of the activity from the current data date)
Also note that if an activity has an actual start, % progress and remaining duration left and has some logical relationship SS+lag , FF+lag which drives the remaining early start or finish; you will see that the remaining early start or finish will be driven by the predecessor relation ship away from the data date.
Answering your queries:
a) "Before you shift the data date, do you "actualize" the start date of the activity or do you do this AFTER you shift the data date? "
Always enter your (actual dates, % complete or remaining duration as the case may be or both depending on the type of activity % complete set) prior to pressing F9 or scheduling which will shift the data date
b) How do you update you dates in P6? BEFORE or AFTER you shift your data date?
I hope the above clarifies your queries. (Update your progress and then shift the data date by pressing F9 or tools->Schedule)
In Principle all your progress is recorded before data date and then the"remaining start/finish dates of partially completed activities + early start dates of not started activities are scheduled"
Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. I put an actual on the Start date of the activity. I recorded it as May 17. Bear in mind that the data date is still April 30th. After doing this, recording the start date as an actual to May 17th, the beginning of the bar for this activity moves to April 30th as well. I have heard that it is not a good practice to put actuals after the data date (Actual Dates, either start or finish, > Data Dates, is not a good practice). However, I couldn't find this "best practice" in the documentation of P6.
Any other idea as to why this might be happening? or should I move the data date to May 31 and then record the actual start date to May 17?
Member for
16 years 7 months
Member for16 years7 months
Submitted by Gary Whitehead on Tue, 2013-05-28 15:14
Member for
15 years 7 monthsFirstly you have to be very
Firstly you have to be very clear about the definition of the term data date; The definition of a data date is the first available hour for new work to commence or existing work to continue. For eg: If your status is current as of Thursday at 16:00 (end of working hours), then a data date of Friday at 08:00 (start of working hours) might be appropriate. HENCE ALL YOUR ACTUALS AND PAST RECORDS WILL BE ON THE LEFT OF DATA DATE AND FUTURE PLAN ON RIGHT.
When we first prepare a schedule, the start date of the first activity will be same as data date.
Further, for all future schedule updates the remaining early start and finish dates will be scheduled from the current data dates as per the logical relationships. (if any activity was planned to start prior to the current data date and did not actually start, primavera will re-schedule the new start date of the activity from the current data date)
Also note that if an activity has an actual start, % progress and remaining duration left and has some logical relationship SS+lag , FF+lag which drives the remaining early start or finish; you will see that the remaining early start or finish will be driven by the predecessor relation ship away from the data date.
Answering your queries:
a) "Before you shift the data date, do you "actualize" the start date of the activity or do you do this AFTER you shift the data date? "
Always enter your (actual dates, % complete or remaining duration as the case may be or both depending on the type of activity % complete set) prior to pressing F9 or scheduling which will shift the data date
b) How do you update you dates in P6? BEFORE or AFTER you shift your data date?
I hope the above clarifies your queries. (Update your progress and then shift the data date by pressing F9 or tools->Schedule)
In Principle all your progress is recorded before data date and then the"remaining start/finish dates of partially completed activities + early start dates of not started activities are scheduled"
Member for
16 yearsHi Gary, Thanks for taking
Hi Gary,
Thanks for taking the time to answer my question. I put an actual on the Start date of the activity. I recorded it as May 17. Bear in mind that the data date is still April 30th. After doing this, recording the start date as an actual to May 17th, the beginning of the bar for this activity moves to April 30th as well. I have heard that it is not a good practice to put actuals after the data date (Actual Dates, either start or finish, > Data Dates, is not a good practice). However, I couldn't find this "best practice" in the documentation of P6.
Any other idea as to why this might be happening? or should I move the data date to May 31 and then record the actual start date to May 17?
Member for
16 years 7 monthsI update my actuals before
I update my actuals before setting the new data date, and don't get any "weird" results when doing so.
"once I record the actual start date, the start date is set equal to the data date. Why?"
-Which start date field is being set equal to the data date? (actual start, early start, remaining early start, planned start, etc)
Other than this, what other "wierd" things are you seing?