A Look into P6 Team Member
Written on . By CPM Solutions
The first introduction of P6 Team Member was back in 2010 with the release of P6 EPPM R8, but brought hesitancy from project managers and stakeholders alike. Now with the latest release of P6 EPPM R8.3, the Team Member application is updated with more control and communication from team members to project managers than ever before.
What is P6 Team Member?
The P6 Team Member application is for your workers on-site that need to be updating activities and tasks in real-time. Team members can only view and provide status updates to the tasks and activities that they are assigned to or associated with. There are three different Team Member interfaces that are available to you:
1. The iPhone Application
P6 Team Member is available by download thorugh iTunes but must be configured to your company’s database (this is a very technical!). The iPhone app gives team members the ability to:
- Status tasks through simple one or two clicks to mark that it is completed
- Sort lists by projects and status, including Active, Overdue, Starred, or Completed
- Communicate to project managers and other team members via e-mail or discussions
2. The Web Application
P6 Team Member is available to run on any web browser but is especially configured to work on tables, including iPads and the Samsung Galaxy. The Web app has all the functionality of the iPhone (above) plus more, including the ability to:
- Review and udpate steps, codes, and user-defined fields (UDFs)
- Reivew predecessor and successor tasks and their documents and notebooks
- Review the steps for your tasks and enter & complete to update progress
3. E-mail Statusing
P6 Team Member e-mail statusing gives users the ability to:
- Request their current list of tasks from the project manager
- Update tasks by replying via emails to project managers to be approved and implemented
How do project managers retain control over their project schedules?
A problem that many project managers foresee with giving team members access to update their tasks is how the project schedule can retain its integrity while adding the value of real-time updates. P6 Team Member R8.3 gives project managers more control than ever before through stringent approval processes, history changes, and tracking.
Before an update can be inputted into the final project schedule, it needs to be reviewed by the project manager. Project managers have the control to approve pending updates, put updates on hold while they are being reviewed, and overridden with new information. Project managers can also see changes to what fields have been updated, who updated them, when it was updated, who approved the update, what stage the update is at, and finally what data change would occur. Pending approvals are grouped together for efficiency so that they are tgether in one place rather than having data come in from different places and lost along the way. Project managers also have control over what fields are available to team memebrs when they are updating project data, providing regularity and standards for project updating statuses.
These updates to P6 Team Member give project managers complete control over the data that is being inputted into Primavera P6. Team members become accountable for the data they are inputting, decreasing the amount of mistakes and slack in the project schedule.
Benefits of P6 Team Member
- Team members do not need to learn how to use the entire Enterprise Project Management application, only the Team Member application. This will save on training time and costs as well as software licencing.
- Get real-time updates from people in the field on your project.
- All pending updates are received in one area for project managers to approve, meaning all project data can be processed efficiently.
- Increase communication from the lower level team members to project managers and higher level stakeholders through discussions and e-mails.
- Create more accountability for team members and increased quality of work in your project schedule.