SAP_PS_DATES

Earliest Start + Earliest Finish Calculation..................................................................................................................... 2

Latest Start + Latest Finish dates Calculation................................................................................................................ 4
Scheduling in PS: When better find an alternative tool?................................................................................................ 6
Key strengths of Primavera:......................................................................................................................................... 15
What are the dates in SAP PS?.................................................................................................................................... 17
Important Terminology In SAP PS................................................................................................................................. 17
Developing Proj.......................................................................................................................... ect Summary Schedules
..................................................................................................................................................................................... 17

Earliest Start + Earliest Finish Calculation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQLiPG4qK_4
By maxus knowledge

Latest Start + Latest Finish dates Calculation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnfPOqT6mHA

Scheduling in PS: When better find an alternative tool?

http://scn.sap.com/thread/3257969

Hi Experts,

Many times I have heard that SAP PS is not used for scheduling because it is not good enough and alternative tools are used,
interfacing with PS. Where is the limit (ie, in number of activities) where we can say that SAP can still do a decent job as opposed to
require the use of an alternative tool (ie, MS Projects, Primavera, EPM, etc).

Thank you very much.

Regards,

Georgeo
Helpful Answers by Mahendra Dighe, Sudhakar Pappu

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Helpful Answer Re: Scheduling in PS: When better find an alternative tool?

Mahendra Dighe Oct 27, 2012 1:58 PM (in response to George O)

2 years back I did the assessment of SAP PS scheduling vis-a-vis MS Project. The surprising findins were that SAP PS
scheduling is more resourceful than MS Project scheduling. For example, one of the findings of many findings: Putting
mulitple constraint on one task is not possible in MS project while it is possible in SAP PS.
However why SAP PS still is not very preferred tool for scheduling is due to following reasons which I understand.
a) Its user interface is somewhat not very user-friendly compare to other project planning software: This is due to user
acquiantace with other project planning softwares who were non-SAP users before.
b) It is integrated with Logistics: This is actually advantage of SAP PS, but it also become disadvantage because users always
have fear that if I change something it will impact others.

I feel these are the some of the reasons which goes against SAP PS scheduling.
I think other contributors can highlight some other factors which I have not listed here.
Actually this particular post can become very useful for all the users if we can list down all the reasons why SAP PS
scheduling is good or not good and can become a guide for all of us.

Regards,
Mahendra
o

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Re: Scheduling in PS: When better find an alternative tool?

George O Oct 27, 2012 7:56 PM (in response to Mahendra Dighe)

Thaks a lot for your response Mahendra, it is quite helpful. As you suggested, it is one of those discussions where we
will need as much contribution as possible since having a nice guide on this (which in turn will be good feedback to
provide to our clients) will require views from different experts that have worked with those alternative tools.

I hope we can continue receiving other points of view.

Regards,

Georgeo

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Helpful Answer Re: Scheduling in PS: When better find an alternative tool?

Sudhakar Pappu Oct 28, 2012 4:43 PM (in response to George O)

Hi George,
Both are good tools to use but point comes what, how and where it is being used. We can not degrade any one
of them or say that this is the best and other one is not good. Both have their utilization and widely accepted in
the industry. However, no tool is satisfies 100% requirements but what we have to see context and place of
utilization come into mind to compare pros and cons.

One of my client wanted to use SAP PS scheduling features for their TA (Turn Around) scheduling. After
studying clients requirements I suggested to better use MS Project for such kind of scheduling which requires
very elaborative activities with multiple assignment of Work centers, resources on one activity.

Go ahed with SAP PS for your regular operations which does not require such kind of elaborative activitis for
scheduling and monitoring.

However, SAP provides and ETE (End to end) solutions which integrates with other modules (Finance and
logistics) where this kind of functionality is not available with MS Project.

If you can provide what is the industry type and usage of these tools so that we can discuss more focused on
such requirements rather than generic.

Regards,
Sudhakar

Message was edited by: Sudhakar Pappu

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Re: Scheduling in PS: When better find an alternative tool?

George O Oct 29, 2012 12:29 PM (in response to Sudhakar Pappu)

Hi Sudhakar,

The thread started trying to find out why users dont want to use SAP PS scheduling and seek for
alternative tools. Im not trying to find which is better but when SAP PS does not do the job, if anyone
knows when it cant do a proper job (ie, does it take too long when trying to schedule over a certain
number of ativities).

For the scenario you mentioned, about having to use multiple resources for one same activiy, I thought
this was one of the reasons PS had the activity elements for, where you can plan for an activity as many
resources as needed via the activity elements (and get scheduling done for the activity dates and
constraints since this functionality is not there for the activity elements).

I am at a mining client now and they do huge capital projects (where they use Primavera), but apart from
that, there are some business units that dont have the ownership of these huge projects and do much
smaller projects. Although these are not using Primavera, they are still using other tools for scheduling,
as Seiforma.

Thank you.

Regards,

Georgeo

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Re: Scheduling in PS: When better find an alternative tool?

Sudhakar Pappu Oct 29, 2012 7:12 PM (in response to George O)

Hi George,
We did check that option. That was most available option to
meet our requirements.
However, each project having approximately 5K network activities. So user community has
apprehension about maintenance of such large volume. During turn around project every second
is valuable and not providing correct information to the higher up leads to panic which
subsequently leads to unwanted to situation.

I would like to add some of the points which come to my mind. Let others also speak on this one.
Please note that my views are expressed with respect to the Turn Around project and not related
to regular project monitoring.

1. MS project is more user friendly in terms of

customization of layout and presentation of graphic views.

2. User settings can be done very easily on front

end screen and those are visible upfront.
3. Easy to navigate and understand very easily for
top level people in the organization.
4. SME (Subject Matter Experts) availability is within
the reach (within organization). Dependency on external experts can be
avoided
to meet emergency requirements.
5. More acquainted with legacy system and know in
and out of the system and also navigation.
6. Maintenance is very easy and progress is clearly
visible on the screen at each activity level and total project hierarchy level
also.

When it comes to SAP PS scheduling,

7. Involves lot of customization and its proper synchronization

is very important to achieve desired results.
8. Results are not seen immediately. Back & forth
toggling of screens to be done to view expected results. This makes

cumbersome
and irritate to users.
9. Using of multiple transactions for maintenance. For
example, activity confirmation required to use either CN25/CN27 or CAT2. If
using CAT2 transferring of data which require back ground processing. So
immediate output cant be seen staying on the same screen.
10.Setting of graphic presentation is not easy as
with MS Project.

Coming to your current industry, are you using SAP IS-Mining or ECC system. Mining industry
also requires lot of detailing which lead to creation of more and more activities in system. You
have to differentiate here is regular monitoring of project, you can use SAP PS
unless Turn Around project you can adopt to MS Project or other tool as you mentioned.

I guess your project structure may not be extended beyond 6 levels and activities must be not
more than maximum 200. In that case you can use SAP PS scheduling. By using more often,
acquaintance and navigation will be easy with user community. So acceptance of SAP PS
scheduling is very easy and reduces dependency on other tools. SAP is ERP package and offer
ETE solution so it would be better for user community use on system instead of switching
between different tools.

Hooe this makes sense and let me know if you have questions on this one so that we can discuss
more and wait for others to speak also.

Regards,
Sudhakar

Key strengths of Primavera:

1) Powerful features to maintain, update and schedule complex project structures
2) Cost effective solution for specific needs of analytical and intuitive Project planning & monitoring processes
3) Preferred by planners to plan, simulate and update project structures schedules and other key parameters
4) Useful for collaboration among various project agencies which comprise small-scale contractors / vendors
5) Easy to learn & use graphical interface
6) Easier to install and maintain
7) A proven, reliable way to manage projects of all sizes
8) Industry norm for sharing project planning & progress information u2013 Necessary for Client Reporting

Key Strengths of SAP PS

1) Real time integration of Enterprise transactions related to

-Materials -Costs -Resources
2) Range of exclusive features adding value to business processes
-BOM - PS interface
-Processing of Purchasing cycle
-Cross Application Time-sheets (CATS)
3) Billing procedures and fulfillment of accounting requirements
4) Cash flow Monitoring
5) Reliable project performance reporting with drill-downs to lowest level transaction details
6) High level of Data integrity andu2013 compliance to corporate security policies
7) Highly efficient for standardized tasks
8) Easy integration with other systems via ALE / I-Docs

Then integrating both the application using Inspire can benefit us over the following limitations:

Limitations of u2018Stand Aloneu2019 processes in Primavera and SAP

1) Non-value adding manual efforts needed to update each application with data from the other application
2) Risk of Primavera and SAP project structures becoming disparate entities as tasks are performed in respective applications with no
synchronization of u2018Project Executionu2019 and u2018Project Purchasing & Controllingu2019 perspectives
3) High quality plan and schedule in Primavera may not have actual transaction data to close planning loop; Efficiently executed SAP
transactions may not have dynamic linkage with latest plan updates and finer details of project tasks.
4) u2018Sub-optimalu2019 business process split across technical landscapes can not leverage on individual strengths of good
business applications

Regards,
Ansar

What are the dates in SAP PS?

http://it.toolbox.com/wiki/index.php/Project_Dates

Important Terminology In SAP PS

https://quizlet.com/2564255/sap-plm-test-questions-flash-cards/

Developing Project Summary Schedules

http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/enterprise-solutions/developing-project-summary-schedules-25105
Scheduling Technique