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Difference between P3 & P3e

9 replies [Last post]
Craig Freake
User offline. Last seen 2 years 50 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 7 Oct 2005
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Hi guys,

I am still a Jr. Planner but working hard to get better....I intend on doing more advanced P3 training in the coming weeks... We are still using P3, any suggestions? The Advanced Training course is P3e...

Any helpfull suggestions to convince my employer (Project Owner) & the EPCM to switch to P3e or P5 for that matter?

Thanks in advance to all....

Cheers,
Craig

Replies

A D
User offline. Last seen 3 years 20 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 20 May 2007
Posts: 1027
James,

If u want mouse scrolling with p3, then u need to do d following:

U need to use Microsoft-Intellipoint 4.1 mouse.


Log out of P3 --> Use the installation Disk that comes with the mouse, Install the driver --> Reboot your computer (open P3 & scroll)

Cheers,

Raviraj
James Barnes
User offline. Last seen 1 year 6 days ago. Offline
Joined: 6 Sep 2007
Posts: 243
yes yes yes, but does it support the mouse scroll wheel :P

Project code ID 4 -> 20 char fekking YES, that is good (and about 20 years behind time :P )

actually, I’d have thought they’d do better than 64 char for Activity descriptions, but it’s enough I suppose...

if I’m correct limits on ectivity code overall length have changed significantly, the limit is 64 in P3 but much longer (unlimited...?) in P3e as far as I heard. That may be a good or a bad thing, I sorta like the discipline of restricted code lengths. No more will I be able to shrug off requests for yet another user code with "sorry, we ran out after the 10th one you wanted, it’s a software constraint" *sigh*
K D
User offline. Last seen 15 years 24 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 25 Sep 2007
Posts: 247
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Hi all.
Below are some difference according to Primavera.

Feature P3 P3e/c
Project Code ID Characters Input 4 20
Project Description Characters Input 48 64
Project Time Unit: switching between Days and Hours No Yes
Activities Character Input 10 20
Project Layout At project level At Project & Global levels
Project Layout with Filters no yes
Security Access for Project Managers Sharing Activites in Same Project Controlled by WBS no yes
Activites Codes At project level At Project & Global levels
Inter-Project Linking of 2 Independent Projects Very tedious, requires external application Very easily done within application
Resource Calender: switching between days and hours No Yes
Number of Baselines Comparision 1 only 3
Number of Baselines in Project 2 50
Number of Resource Costs 1 only Up to 5 costs can be defined
Stacked Histogram no yes
Batched Report no yes
Time-Scaled Logic diagram no yes
Portfolio Analysis no yes
Setting Constraints Primary only Primary & Secondary
Time-Scale 2 tier 3 tier
Coding Project Project/Global
Undo Feature no yes
Export/Import of Projects Very tedious, requires external application (MSP/Excel) Very easily done within application (MSP/Excel/P3)
Edderic See
User offline. Last seen 14 years 11 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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Hi all,

I suggest that learn the fundamentals from P3 then explore P5. It’s a different environment but if you know your basics it won’t be much of a problem.

Regards,

Ed
James Barnes
User offline. Last seen 1 year 6 days ago. Offline
Joined: 6 Sep 2007
Posts: 243
From Pv website;

http://www.primavera.com/customer/products/p3migrate_faq.asp

"Is Primavera planning to discontinue support for P3?

Given the high demand, we are committed to support P3 through the end of 2010. During this support period, we will continue to implement patches to P3 as necessary, although we have no plans to enhance its functionality and no plans to certify P3 on new versions of Windows operating systems beyond XP.

Our goal is to do whatever is commercially reasonable to keep Primavera customers satisfied with and loyal to Primavera products. It is our hope that over the next year, existing P3 users will migrate to a future version of Primavera as we continue to add functionality."

This could be read to confirm with what you said about supporting "at least until 2010" it could also be read that "we won’t support after 2010. Either way, around that date they will be dropping support and this is the info we have form their local offices here.

Not certifying it for Vista will choke it off either way.

Of course market demand may force a change in policy
Ronald Winter
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Joined: 4 Jan 2003
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Primavera has never said that they would drop support of P3 in 2010. Joel Koppelman, CEO of Primavera has publicly said:

1. We promise to sell and support P3 for as long as our customers want to purchase it.

2. We will support SureTrack and P3 for at least through the year 2010.

I heard both of these statements at various Primavera conferences.
James Barnes
User offline. Last seen 1 year 6 days ago. Offline
Joined: 6 Sep 2007
Posts: 243
Pv do still run P3 courses, at least they do in Holland / Belgium. Possibly only on demand though, I’m not aware of a regular schedule, they have come here to teach P3 introductory courses in the last month

The funny thing here is, while we know that they’re going to drop maintenance support for P3 in 2010 / 2011 they (Pv) really don’t seem to be trying to sell us P6. The cynical side of me says the Pv sales dudes think they will get more cash out of us by waiting till they drop support before upgrading. afaik, the "upgrade" afaik is free atm so I suppose there’s no sales in it for the guys to get us to change over. Certainly at the moment they seem to be almost discouraging us from migrating, it’s kinda wierd.
John Raper
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Joined: 17 May 2004
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I don’t think Premavera run courses for P3 any more.
They are trying to drop P3, but the weight of users means they have extended support for the time being.

You may be able to locate an independant trainer for P3, though.
David Kelly
User offline. Last seen 1 year 34 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 19 Oct 2004
Posts: 630
Craig,

A full answer to your question would be very long indeed. P5(6) is a stunning improvement on P3.

BUT IT IS NOT A UPGRADE.

It is a whole new world. Many P3 planners are "given" P5 and expected to just get on with the job, whereas it requires not just the individual planners to be extensively retrained, but the company to establish a project controls infrastructure and project controls proceedures that have not been required in the past.

How do you persuade your employers to migrate? The owners need to see a proper presentation of P5 as a BUSINESS system - not a planning system. Once they understand that P5 can help manage the business, not just print barcharts, you can get that decision.