Future Period Planning: Entering and Editing Data

Entering differing values for Planned Units and Remaining Early Units for the same time period.

For assignments on activities that have not started, if the Link planned and at completion for not started activities option is selected on the Calculations tab of the project preferences, the total values of the Planned Units and Remaining Early Units for the assignment will always be equal. If this setting is not marked, you can enter different values for the same future period in the Planned Units and Remaining Early Units fields; in this case, the total values for each field are calculated independently for the assignment.

For activities that are in progress, you can always enter different future period values in the Planned Units and Remaining Early Units fields.

Entering data by financial period.

You can enter data by financial period for the range of financial period dates defined in the Financial Periods calendar assigned to the project. For example, if you have defined weekly financial periods from January 1st, 2015 to December 31st, 2016, you can enter data in weekly financial periods beginning on or after January 1st, 2015, and ending on or before December 31st, 2016. You should set the Timescale to Financial Period in the Usage Options dialog box to enter data by financial periods.

Overallocating resources and roles when entering future period values.

If the resource or role on the assignment has valid worktime for a time period, you can enter more units for the time period than the resource or role's Units/Time would allow, thus overallocating the resource or role.

Representing planned work for time periods where no work is planned.

You can leave a time period blank (or enter zero) to represent a period when no work is planned. P6 treats a blank value the same as a zero value.

Entering future period values for an assignment that already has an assigned resource curve.

You can enter future period data when a resource assignment already has a resource curve assigned. In this case, P6 will change the resource curve to Manual. To simplify the process of planning future period assignments, you can apply a resource curve to the assignment that has a similar resource distribution to the distribution you intend to plan, then make any necessary modifications to the future period values.

Note: When you apply a resource curve to an assignment and then modify future period values for that assignment, the resource curve is removed from the assignment when the assignment is designated as a Manual curve. If you then reapply a resource curve, the data you entered into future periods will be lost and future period data will be spread according to the resource curve you select.

Entering zero units.

If you enter zero into the first future periods of an assignment, P6 will interpret the zero units as lag and reduce the duration of the assignment. If zero is entered into the first Planned Units future periods, P6 will decrease the Planned Units and Planned Duration of the assignment. If zero is entered into the first Remaining Early Units future period, P6 will decrease the Remaning Early Units and Remaining Duration of the assignment.

For assignments to not started activities, if the Link planned and at completion for not started activities project option is not selected and you enter zero into the first future periods for an assignment, lag is added to both the Planned Start and Remaining Start dates. This occurs regardless of the field in which you enter the leading zero (Planned Units or Remaining Units) because the Planned Start and Remaining Start dates must be the same for activities that are not started.

If you enter a zero value in between non-zero values for an assignment, P6 considers the zero value to be part of the planned resource distribution.

When you enter zero in the last future periods for an assignment,P6 does not store the zero value as part of the manual curve. These zero values will not add to the duration of the assignment.

Entering negative values.

Negative values are valid when planning future periods if the total Planned Units or Remainign Early Units value for the assignment is negative.

Future Period Planning and Suspend and Resume dates.

You can enter or edit values in future periods between Suspend and Resume dates if the suspended time has not been scheduled (in other words, the project has not been scheduled since the suspend and resume dates were added to the activity).

When the project is scheduled, the suspend and resume dates for the activity are scheduled accordingly and you can no longer enter or edit data in future periods which are scheduled to be suspended. Units which have been entered against a resource assignment between the suspend and resume dates of an activity are moved to the resume date when the project is scheduled.

Changing the view timescale after entering future period data.

If you change the view timescale to a smaller unit after entering future period data (for example, changing the timescale from showing months to showing weeks) future period values will be spread linearly across the smaller timescale periods. If you change the view timescale to a larger unit, future period data is aggregated into the larger timescale periods.

Entering differing values for Planned Units and Remaining Early Units for the same time period.

Entering data by financial period.

Overallocating resources and roles when entering future period values.

Representing planned work for time periods where no work is planned.

Entering future period values for an assignment that already has an assigned resource curve.

Entering zero units.

Entering negative values.

Future Period Planning and Suspend and Resume dates.

Changing the view timescale after entering future period data.

Related Topics