Oracle Primavera Cloud (OPC) allows you to work with a wide variety of objects – including workspaces, portfolios, and programs. Additionally, like most project management software solutions, OPC lets you work with projects. A project is a formalized plan used to perform a service or create a product. Common examples of projects include constructing a building, performing maintenance, or creating products. Anything that you may need to track using a defined schedule can be created as a project. The project schedule defines when the project will start and finish, how long it will take, and what work will need to be performed throughout it. Oracle Primavera Cloud allows users to create and maintain an unlimited number of project schedules. You can either create these projects from scratch, or you can import them in from other programs – like P6 and Microsoft Project.

In this article, we will cover how to create a new project in Oracle Primavera Cloud. If you’re interested in importing in projects from other programs, please refer to this article here.

Creating a New Project

To create a new project in OPC, select the Object Selector and press Projects. Here, you’ll see a list of your most recently opened projects. You can reopen any of these projects by simply selecting them from the list. At the bottom of the panel, select Add > Project.

The Project Details window will automatically open, allowing you to add information about the project. Any field followed by a red asterisk, like Name and ID, is required to create a project. All other fields are optional, but you should ideally add all known information that you can. Do not worry about making a mistake here – you can adjust all of these details even after creating the project.

Project Details

Under Project Details, you can begin to add some general details about the project.

First, enter in a project name and a project ID. The project name should be a description of the project. The project ID must be unique to the database and is usually either a contract or accounting number. You can also add in a description to provide further details about the project – but this is not mandatory. 

Next, you will need to choose a workspace to place the project into. Workspaces are hierarchical structures that you can use to organize and categorize your projects. Like the EPS in Primavera P6, workspaces allow you to divide your projects into different groups. This is not only useful for organization, but also for security access. If you haven’t already created your workspace hierarchy, you may want to do that first. For more information on how to create and work with workspaces, please refer to this article.

If you haven’t set up your workspaces yet, you can select one of the default workspaces, such as Production or Non-Production. You can always move your project to a different workspace in the future. Select the … icon to select a new workspace.

Expand your workspace hierarchy by selecting the + button and choose the desired workspace. Then, press Select.

Under Status, select a status for the project: Planned, Active, Inactive, or Complete. Most projects that will be actively worked on should have the Active status selected. The Status you choose is solely for organizational purposes – it won’t affect the project itself in any way.

On this page, you can also choose to copy the project from an existing project or template. This will essentially allow you to duplicate a previous project or template already within the database. If you choose this option, you can even pick exactly what you want to copy from another project. Rather than copying the entire project, you could choose to copy the WBS or activities, depending on your needs.

Next, you can choose a Manager for the project. By default, this will be the user creating the project. However, this can be adjusted if you are creating a project for another user to manage.  

You will also need to choose a start date for the project – this is a mandatory field. The Project Start date is the first date within your project. Essentially, this is the date that the first activity within your schedule will begin. Typically, this should be your Contract Award date. Select the calendar icon to adjust the start date field.

Although optional, you can also select a default calendar for the project. The calendar selected here will automatically apply to any activities or resources you add to the project. If you leave this field blank, the project will use the default calendar for the Workspace, instead. Don’t worry if your project will be using multiple calendars – you can choose which calendar each activity will use. The calendar you choose here is just the one that will be assigned by default, when you first add the activity.

The last mandatory field will prompt you to set a currency to use for the project. By default, it will be set to USD, but you can adjust this as needed.

Once finished, press Next to continue.

User & Group Access

The User and Group Access section allows you to select which users and groups should have access to the project. Standard users will not have access to every project within the database. The only users who will have access to your project by default are yourself, the Application Administrators, and any users with access to the project’s workspace. If a standard user does not have workspace access, they will not be able to see your project in the database. However, you can assign your project to any users that you would like to collaborate with.

Here, there is an Available window and a Selected window. Available users will display all users within the database. Under Selected, you’ll only see the users currently assigned to the project. 

Use the search bar in the Available window to search for any users or user groups. Select the desired user and press the right facing arrow to move them into the Selected section. Continue this process until you have added all needed users to the project.

With users added, select Next to continue.

Permission Sets

Under Permission Sets, you can choose what users can do within your project. Assigning access to the user lets them see the project – permissions determine how they can work in it. You will need to assign a Project Permission Set to every user that you add to the project. These permissions determine what the user can and cannot do within the project. For example, do you want your users to be able to add new activities and edit activity details? Or, do you want them to only view the project? You can give assigned users and user groups different permission sets based on your project’s needs.

You can also assign File Permission Sets, Custom Log Permission Sets, and Report Permission Sets.  However, these are not mandatory. If you want your users to be able to use files, custom logs, and reports, you can set these permission sets as needed.

For each user, assign a permission set by pressing the … icon and using the Select button.

By default, the person who created the project will have full administrative permissions. Therefore, you do not need to worry about assigning yourself a permission set.

After setting permissions, select Next to continue.

Companies

Under Companies, you can add any companies who you will need to assign project tasks to. Companies are only used in the Tasks app, which allows you to perform lean scheduling in OPC. You can assign these companies to specific tasks to give them a full list of the work they’re responsible to perform. For your CPM schedule activities, you do not need to add companies. Again, you will only use this field for task management – you will not use them on the Activities screen.

Here, you can only assign companies that your administrator has added to the database. Administrators can add companies using the Global Admin application.

Under Available, you’ll find a full list of companies that are available for you to use. Use the right facing arrow to move any available companies to the Selected window to add them to the project. Again, you will only use companies for task management – you will not use them on the Activities screen. If you’re just using this project to perform CPM scheduling, you can skip this section.

Then, select Next to continue.

Summary

Lastly, the Summary page will let you review all the data entered into the project thus far. If needed, you can edit any of these selections by selecting the pencil icon. This will return you to the selected page in the Add Project wizard where you can adjust these settings.

Once completed, select Add Project to finish creating the project.

The project will automatically open. With the project open, you can now use the Main Menu to access a series of apps to continue adding data. For example, you can use the Schedule app to set up the WBS and add activities.

You can access the project at any time by selecting the Object Selector > Projects, and using the search bar to find the desired project.

Have you acquired an Oracle Primavera Cloud license and are not sure what to do next? Taradigm offers OPC implementation services! Contact us today for more information.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, please use the comment section on the bottom of this page, and don’t forget to subscribe to our blog to get more Oracle Primavera Cloud tips & tricks directly in your inbox!

Lauren Hecker is an Oracle Primavera Cloud Instructor and teaches onsite and virtual Oracle Primavera Cloudcourses. To see her next open enrollment course, please visit our calendar. To schedule an onsite or custom course, please contact us!