Work Products and Documents
Work Products and Documents is an extremely useful and highly underutilized feature in Primavera P6. The work products and documents functionality provides a detailed list of references associated with the project. These documents are divided into two distinct areas, work products, and documents.
- A work product is a result of action associated with the deliverable of an activity.
- A document is any reference associated with an activity such as a drawing, test plan, change order, or user manual.
To start using the Work Product and Documents functionality set up the global settings for Document Categories and Document Status under “Admin” on the main menu.
Under the WPs & Docs directory, you can add the Document title and in the Document details section enter relevant details about the document.
NOTE: This is NOT a document management system. This is a means or method to keeping track of project documents and actually linking them to specific WBS elements or activities. This feature can be set up to work with document management programs including Share Point as one example.
WPs & Docs Details Section
- General Tab– As shown above you can enter or select from lists specific details relating to a document.
- Description Tab– Where you can enter a short description or any specific information you feel is required to define the document.
- Files Tab– Provides for entering a location where the document is stored. There are two types of locations. The Private location allows for a level of security that affords only P6 client uses that have access to the specific project to see or launch the document in its native format. This location type is primarily used draft documents that are not ready for general distribution. The public location allows all P6 uses to launch the document from either the WPs & Docs library, or from the activity WPs & Doc details tab, or also from the WBS WPs & Docs details tab if the document is assigned to the WBS.
- Assignments Tab– Where you can link the document to activities or WBS elements. A document can be assigned to more than one activity or WBS element. Once this assignment is made users can then launch the document from the WBS, or the Activity WPs & Docs Details tabs. This can be a very useful option for those using the P6 Web at remote locations that may need to review or have access to specific documents relating to activities.
- Activity WPs and Doc Details Tab– From the activity or the WBS you can open the document in its native format. If it is an MS Word document it will open in MS Word, Excel, PDF, DWG, etc. The user must have the appropriate software on their computer or an appropriate reader for the specific document format.
Our goal was to provide instruction for using the Work Products and Documents tool in P6. Smooth scheduling!
By Ken Wagner
