Use this tab to view and specify summarization information and project-level settings for the project. The fields on the Settings tab instruct P6 Professional how to summarize data for the EPS node or project when you use the Summary service to perform summary calculations automatically at scheduled intervals or on demand. The Settings tab also includes the settings for the first month of the fiscal calendar, the character for separating code fields for the WBS hierarchy, and defining the critical activities.
Summarized Data
Contains Summarized Data Only (P6 Professional Only): Mark this checkbox if you want P6 Professional to maintain only summarized data (no individual activities) for this project. This enables an organization to keep summary-level data for projects managed externally from the P6 Professional database, and allows the P6 Professional Summary service to summarize data from external Microsoft Project .MPD format files and import this data into the P6 Professional database for summary-level tracking and reporting.
Last Summarized On: Noneditable date field that displays the last time data was summarized.
Summarize to WBS Level: Maximum summary WBS levels stored in the database.
Project Settings
Character for Separating Code Fields for the WBS Tree: The character that separates codes for work breakdown structure elements to indicate hierarchy levels. You can type a new character.
Fiscal Year Begins on the 1st Day Of: The month the project’s fiscal year begins. You can select a new month.
Baseline for earned value calculation: Choose to calculate earned value using the project baseline or your primary baseline (as defined in the Assign Baselines dialog box).
Critical Activities
Define critical activities
Total Float less than or equal to: Choose to identify your critical activities based on total float. Specify the maximum float time for activities before they are marked critical. You can type a new number and time unit.
Longest Path: Choose Longest Path if you want to identify your critical activities based on the longest path in the project network.
If your project uses multiple calendars, defining critical activities based on the longest path in the project provides an alternative to viewing critical activities based on float. Defining float in a multicalendar project is more complicated, since P6 Professional bases float calculations on calendar definitions, including workperiods, holidays, and exceptions. Using float to identify critical activities may prove misleading, since some activities have large float values due to their calendar assignments but are still critical to the completion of the project.
In a multicalendar project, P6 Professional calculates the longest path by identifying the activities that have an early finish equal to the latest calculated early finish for the project. P6 Professional identifies all driving relationships for these activities and traces them back to the project start date.