Project management requires you to maintain multiple variables simultaneously. Oftentimes, you’ll have a set time frame and budget that you’ll need to follow. As the unexpected occurs, such as weather delays or labor strikes, it can become more difficult to ensure that your project is staying on track.

In Oracle Primavera Cloud, alerts can help you manage project variables. Alerts allow you to create custom thresholds to monitor your project with. For example, you could create a threshold to track the project’s budget, or its expected finish date. If your project’s data surpasses the set threshold, you’ll receive an alert via notification or email. This will allow you to quickly respond to issues and get your project back on track.

In this article, we will outline the process of setting up and running alerts in Oracle Primavera Cloud. This tool is available to any OPC user assigned the Schedule Cloud Service license type.

Creating Alerts

To create an alert, first open the desired project. Alerts are project specific and will only apply to one project. If you wish to have the same alert apply to all projects, you will need to individually recreate it for each. Within the open project, select the Main Menu > Summary & Settings.

In the Summary & Settings window, select the Alerts tab on the left side of the screen. Here, you can create all the alerts you need to monitor your project. You can have multiple alerts on one project – such as if you want to track both dates and costs.

To create a new alert, select Add.

First, you’ll need to choose what type of data you want the alert to monitor. You can create an alert to track Activity data, such as Total Float, or Project data, such as Project Planned Finish. If you make use of the Scope app, you can even track variables associated with Scope Assignments, like EAC and ETC Cost.

In this example, let’s say that we have a strict Must Finish By date that we need to abide by. We want to ensure that the project’s completion date does not extend past that date. If the project is set to occur after this date, we want to be notified immediately to try and correct it. For this type of alert, I’ll select the Project field of Project Planned Finish. With the field selected, press Select.

The alert will open, and you can adjust its settings using the Threshold panel on the right side of the screen.

Setting Thresholds for Alerts

In the Thresholds panel, you can define the parameters of the alert. First, you’ll need to choose an operator and a value. This will determine when an alert will generate for the project.

In this example, my project’s current Must Finish By date is September 25th. I want to receive an alert if the planned finish date extends past this date. To do this, I’ll set the operator to is greater than and the date to September 25th. If the project finish date goes beyond September 25th, the program will send an alert.​

Under Alert, you can adjust how you’ll receive notice of this alert. First, select Assign to choose which users to send the alert to. You can add various users to the alert, including your entire project team if needed. Select the desired user or users from the list, and then press Select. The selected users will appear in the table.

For each user, you can specify exactly how the program will alert them – either by Notification, Email, or both. Notification will send them a notification within Oracle Primavera Cloud if the project goes beyond the set threshold. Here’s an example of what this OPC notification will look like:

Email, on the other hand, will send them a direct email if the project surpasses the threshold. Here’s what that email notification will look like:

It’s recommended to select Email here, as it will ensure that each user is properly notified of the issue.

You can also choose to add a Message with the notification or email that’s sent. If you wish to provide more information about the alert, you can enter that here. However, you can’t customize this message per user – the same message will be sent to all users attached to the alert.

Then, select Save to save your settings. Now, if the project expands past the Must Finish Date, users will be alerted immediately.

Permissions & Security

There are a few things to note about alerts in regards to permissions and security settings. First, users will only receive an alert for an associated project if they have access to the project. . You must have access to the project to receive project-specific notifications

Another important thing to note about alerts is that only one alert will be sent for the set threshold. In the example above, an alert would send the moment that the project’s planned finish date extends past September 25th. However, additional alerts will not occur if the finish date continues to increase. Instead, you’ll need to create additional alerts with further thresholds if you want to see all future project changes.

Summary

Project schedules require constant monitoring and maintenance. If issues occur, such as weather delays or late shipments, it can affect the entire project schedule. As changes occur within the project’s scope, time, or cost, project managers will need to react quickly to ensure the project gets back on track. In Oracle Primavera Cloud, you can identify these issues immediately using alerts. Alerts allow you to set up custom thresholds for your project, such as a Must Finish Date or a Maximum Allowed Budget. If the project surpasses these thresholds, set users will be identified via email or notification. With alerts, you don’t need to worry about manually analyzing each project schedule every day. Instead, the program will alert you to any potential problem areas for quick resolution.

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Lauren Hecker is a Microsoft Project, Primavera P6, and Oracle Primavera Cloud Instructor who teaches onsite and virtual scheduling courses. To see her next open enrollment course, please visit our calendar. To schedule an onsite or custom course, please contact us!