Understanding Work Breakdown Structure

If the work breakdown structure (WBS) level that is held in PeopleSoft is less than (the data is held at a summary level in PeopleSoft) what is held in Primavera P6, then Primavera P6 must summarize data for activity dates, duration, resource assignment dates, and planned costs.

It is recommended that you don't make the WBS level smaller in PeopleSoft, after you have set the WBS level. If the WBS level is resynchronized at a shallower level, then the activities that were at a deeper level are not deleted. Instead, these activities are set to an Inactive status and moved to the bottom of the WBS structure. For example, if you import data into PeopleSoft rolled up to WBS level 3, then you should not import it at a level 2 at a later time, which is shallower.

When importing WBS activities from Primavera P6 to PeopleSoft:

  • The level that is selected in the Import Work Breakdown Options section, on the Synchronization Template page, determines the level to which WBS activities are transferred.

  • The Synchronize Existing Projects page enables you to select certain objects such as activities.

    However, the system uses the synchronization template to determine the direction that the data is to be transferred.

  • If the WBS level selected on the synchronization template is less than the level that is held in Primavera P6, then the roll-up of activity dates and percent complete occurs in Primavera P6 prior to the synchronization process.

  • If the WBS level selected on the synchronization template is greater than the level that exists in PeopleSoft (for example, the WBS level on the synchronization template is 4 and the current level for a PeopleSoft project is 2), then all WBS levels (up to level 4) are imported into PeopleSoft when the synchronization process runs.

    If the WBS level selected on the synchronization template is less than the level that was previously imported to PeopleSoft, then a message is displayed indicating that the existing activities will be inactivated, moved to the bottom of the WBS, and costs will not be rolled-up to higher-level activities.

  • If you want to import the percent complete of all activities you can set the Percent Complete calculation method to Manual for the project on the Project Definitions - Project Costing Definition page, and select Include Percent Complete on Activity Import on the synchronization template for the project.

When exporting WBS activities from PeopleSoft to Primavera P6, the activity is transferred on a one-to-one basis. There is no roll-up for activities.