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Using Foresight to update your schedule

Time to complete: 4 mins

For Primavera P6:

1. Set up Primavera P6 and Foresight (Single-Time Setup)

  1. Open your P6 schedule and create an export to .xlsx - don't worry about which columns to include or not as we just need to get a line of data from the second tab in the Excel file.
  2. Open the Excel file, go to the USERDATA tab, and copy the 3rd row of text, which will start with DurationQtyType=....

  3. In Foresight, go to the Project Activities page, and find the Export to P6 Format option under the Export button. Opening the P6 Excel Export options, paste your copied settings into the P6 USERDATA text box.

🗒️ Note: Different Primavera P6 users may have different USERDATA settings, so if you have multiple users updating a schedule, each one should go through Step 1 individually.

2. Users add progress updates to their activities

💡 Tip: Ensure activities are assigned to responsible owners. It helps ensure everyone is aligned on responsibility and accountability, helps users find their activities more easily, and tells colleagues who they should be talking to.

  1. Users find the activities they need to update in the Project Activities board, using the range of available filters. For example, they may use the "Assigned to me" filter to find those activities they have been marked as responsible for.
  2. If an activity has recently been started, users can update the Activity Status from To Do to In Progress, and the activity can be given a Start Date. If an activity has been completed, the status can be updated to Done, and the activity can be given a
  3. Users can add progress updates to activities in a number of ways*:
    1. Updating the Activity Status (To Do, In Progress, Done)
    2. Updating Actual Dates (Start Date, Finish Date)
    3. Updating the activity's Percentage Complete
    4. Updating the activity's Remaining Duration
    * The activity data that can be updated by users is configurable via User Access Groups.
  4. Once the card is saved, the status will now show with an "Edited" icon (✎) to highlight that the activity has been updated since the schedule was uploaded into Foresight. 

3. Export project updates out of Foresight

  1. Use the Status filter in the Project Activities page to filter down to the activities which have been updated with progress since the schedule was uploaded into Foresight.
  2. Use the Export button to download an Excel file containing all the activities that have been updated - alongside the correct USERDATA we defined in Step 1 which will allow P6 to import your data without any issues.
  3. If users are including Progress % Complete or Remaining Duration in their progress updates, ensure you check the relevant box.

🗒️ Note: If given both % Complete and Remaining Duration, Primavera P6 will prioritize Remaining Duration when calculating Early and Late dates via the CPM.

4. Import the Foresight excel export into Primavera P6

💡 Tip: Before importing your Foresight updates, be sure to export an .xer file of your existing data, to ensure you can always revert back if needed

  1. Open your Primavera P6 schedule and go to File > Import > Spreadsheet (XLSX). Find and select the spreadsheet you just exported out of Foresight.
  2. Follow through the Import Wizard, ensuring you select to import the data into the Project you have open, and the Import Action is set to Update Existing Project
  3. Once you have finished, you will see your activity Statuses, Actual Dates, Remaining Durations and % Completion data has been updated accordingly (depending on what you chose to export from Foresight).

5. Schedule your P6 and upload into Foresight

  1. Schedule (F9) your file, ensuring the data date is set as the date you pulled the export from Foresight.
  2. Export your new schedule to .xer, and upload your update into Foresight.

 

For Microsoft Project:

1. Users add progress updates to their activities

💡 Tip: Ensure activities are assigned to responsible owners. It helps ensure everyone is aligned on responsibility and accountability, helps users find their activities more easily, and tells colleagues who they should be talking to.

  1. Users find the activities they need to update in the Project Activities board, using the range of available filters. For example, they may use the "Assigned to me" filter to find those activities they have been marked as responsible for.
  2. If an activity has recently been started, users can update the Activity Status from To Do to In Progress, and the activity can be given a Start Date. If an activity has been completed, the status can be updated to Done, and the activity can be given a
  3. Users can add progress updates to activities in a number of ways*:
    1. Updating the Activity Status (To Do, In Progress, Done)
    2. Updating Actual Dates (Start Date, Finish Date)
    3. Updating the activity's Percentage Complete
    4. Updating the activity's Remaining Duration
    * The activity data that can be updated by users is configurable via User Access Groups.
  4. Once the card is saved, the status will now show with an "Edited" icon (✎) to highlight that the activity has been updated since the schedule was uploaded into Foresight. 

2. Export project updates out of Foresight

  1. Use the Status filter in the Project Activities page to filter down to the activities which have been updated with progress since the schedule was uploaded into Foresight.
  2. Use the Export button to download a CSV file containing all the activities that have been updated - alongside the correct USERDATA we defined in Step 1 which will allow P6 to import your data without any issues.
  3. If users are including Progress % Complete or Remaining Duration in their progress updates, ensure you check the relevant box.

 

 

🗒️ Note: If given both % Complete and Remaining Duration, Primavera P6 will prioritize Remaining Duration when calculating Early and Late dates via the CPM.

4. Import the Foresight excel export into Primavera P6