How To Create Obs In Primavera P6

The Primavera P6 EPPM responsible manager is used to manage project ownership and privileges within the P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM) system.

All projects in Primavera P6 EPPM are organized around and within a minimum of three structures: a structure for organizing projects called the Enterprise Project Structure (EPS), a structure for organizing activities within the project called the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), and a structure to organize project responsibility called the Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS).

The OBS typically represents an organization's divisions, departments, teams, and people. The OBS is completely configurable and can be tailored to the specific needs of your business. In P6 EPPM the OBS controls project ownership and responsibility by allowing you to link elements of the OBS to Users with specified privileges. The owner (a department, group, or individual) of a project is referred to as the P6 EPPM Responsible Manager. An OBS element is therefore the Responsible Manager.

This article discusses the concept of the Primavera P6 EPPM responsible manager and how it can manage project ownership and responsibility within the P6 system.

We begin our discussion with the project security profile. The project security profile is a named set of privilege settings pertaining to the data elements of a project. Project security profiles are linked both to users and to OBS elements, i.e. responsible managers.

So, each user has designated responsible managers and accompanying project security profiles. Further, responsible managers are assigned to an EPS node, a project, or WBS elements within a project. In this way system administrators manage project ownership and responsibility within the system.

Let us further explain. In Figure 1, Bob is a P6 EPPM user and has Project Access rights defined for two of the OBS elements.

Figure 1

For projects that have Engineering as the Responsible Manager, Bob has Read Only rights; he can see the projects but cannot modify them. For projects that have R&D as the Responsible Manager, Bob has Project Manager privileges and can interact with the projects, as the Project Manager security profile allows.

The Users and OBS setup pages are as shown for our demonstration Bob, Figures 2 and 3. In the User Administration | Users page, Figure 2, the login for Bob has been created and Project Access rights have been granted for the Engineering and R&D OBS elements.

Figure 2

We confirm that Bob has read only rights to the Engineering responsible manager and project manager rights to the R&D responsible manager. In the OBS page, Figure 3, you can click on an OBS element and see who has access to it, and what level of privilege they have in the lower Users page. In this case, Figure 3, we click on the R&D OBS element, and see that Bob has Project Manager privileges to this responsible manager.

Figure 3

Now we proceed and assign Responsible Managers for respective nodes, projects, and WBS elements. The E&C and ELPR01 nodes are assigned the Responsible Manager, Engineering, Figure 4.

Figure 4

Also, Wellmont-32 project is assigned the Responsible Manager, Engineering, again, Figure 4. We then dive into Wellmont-32 activities page, Figure 5, and make the Above Grade WBS element Responsible Manager, R&D (See Figure 5 bottom details).

Figure 5

All other WBS elements in Wellmont-32 project are assigned the Responsible Manager, Engineering. Now we login into Bob to review his access privileges, Figure 6.

Figure 6

Recall that Bob is assigned the Responsible Manager, Engineering with read only rights. In the EPS, Figure 6, we see that Bob has read only rights to the E&C and ELPR01 nodes, and the Wellmont-32 project. Bob can view projects in the E&C and ELPR01 nodes, Figure 6, but most other features are inactive, Figure 7.

Figure 7

Note in Figure 7 where we select Harbour Pointe Assisted Living Center and left click the gearto view available features in the dropdown menu. Further, we remember that Bob is also assigned the Responsible Manager, R&D with project manager rights. When we dive into Wellmont-32, Figure 8, we find that Bob has project manager rights for the Above Grade WBS element.

Figure 8

Note that we selected the Above Grade WBS element, Figure 8, and looked in the bottom details to confirm the responsible manager, R&D. However, for all other WBS elements Bob is assigned the Responsible Manager, Engineering.

For instance, Bob has Responsible Manager, Engineering, read only rights to the Below Grade WBS element. When in Figure 9, we select Grade Site, an activity for the Below Grade WBS element, we note the inactive options due to the limited read only privileges.

Figure 9

And observe that Bob cannot schedule the project. As mentioned previously, the above Grade WBS element is assigned the Responsible Manager, R&D, with Project Manager privileges. To investigate Bob's R&D project manager privileges, Figure 10, we select Erect Steel Structures, an activity for the Above Grade WBS element, and left click the gear to view the available options.

Figure 10

Note the active and inactive options. Bob can perform many of the duties of the project manager for the Above Grade deliverable. Also, observe that Bob still cannot schedule the project. We learn from our demonstration that you must have Project Manager privileges to the entire project for the Schedule feature to be active.

We also found that we could provide our user project manager privileges to solely an individual WBS element, i.e. deliverable. Each user can therefore have project manager privileges to the deliverables they are responsible for and have read only rights to view project related data in other projects and WBS elements in the database.

Summary

So, responsible managers with project security profiles are linked to users and further distributed among EPS nodes, Projects, and WBS elements. Users logging into the same database will therefore have differing privileges to the databases' EPS nodes, Projects, and WBS elements. And because responsible managers are assigned down to the WBS element level, projects may be assigned across organizational departments. Where each department has privileges to their respective deliverable. And the linchpin connecting users and their respective privileges to EPS nodes, Projects, and WBS elements is the responsible manager.