Planning Using Primavera Project Planner P3 Ver 3.0

Rating:
Summary: Learn P3 Step by Step
Review: Approximately 300 pages of instruction on how best to set up and configure P3. As an experienced user of P3, I found the many tips on "pitfalls to avoid" and "best practice" very useful. It is a step by step guide including some 24 workshops that ensured I had understood the material before moving onto the next topic. User access to the software is essential for these workshops. I liked the "New features in Version 3.0" chapter, as it consolidated all that is new into a single handy reference.

Comprehensive, accurate and informative. Great value.

Rating:
Summary: Very good, well written, easy to follow.
Review: I could not find anything else on P3 in the bookstores. I was thrilled to discover this one on Amazon.com. Even happier that I brought this book back in July. I have been using it as a reference ever since. Paul Harris has written an easy to read and follow guide to P3.

I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone that wants to master P3V3.

Rating:
Summary: Lot's of how to, not a lot of why to?
Review: I ordered this book because it was all I could find on P3. I had recently converted my project from MSPROJECT to Primavera P3. I could figure out how to do things such as entering activity codes and resource profiles but was having trouble figuring out how they were interpretted by the software. This book did little to answer my questions on project structure and why to input data into certain fields and omitt it from others.

I will say that if I'd have had the time to follow through the entire workbook, which is what it felt like to me, a lab workbook, and developed a project using the examples from scratch I may have been more enlightened and may have been able to establish the relational ties I was looking for from experience. However I didn't and as a reference book it was bulky and tedious in it's delivery of the facts.

I have since acquired a book put out by Primevera, Scheduling with Primavera and Primavera P3 Reference Manual, that were much more readable and helpful in developing a project with P3 and explained the why's as well as the how's of the software.

Rating:
Summary: Enlightening
Review: I used this book to re-aquiant me with p3; unbelievable. The approach is EXACTLY what you need - wrote by a user, not a techy. It expains in plain Elgish good practices to schedule appraoch and development; multidisciplinary concepts universal to Oil / Gas / Construction / Civils.

An absolute must have - ideal for the uni student to beyond...

Rating:
Summary: Fastest way to become productive with P3
Review: This book cuts through the voluminous, daunting documentation that ships with P3 and gets you quickly started in harnessing the power of this full-featured PM application. If you've used P3 you'll understand the steep learning curve. If you're seeking a book because your company is implementing P3 you'll appreciate the value of this book.

The approach taken by the author is to step you through the common tasks of planning, scheduling and controlling a project, using an example project. The value of this approach is you focus on the important features and functions, instead of getting lost in the myriad of other features that you may or may not use. The book is designed to get you started with P3, not make you a P3 wizard, so this approach boils it down to the essentials. What makes the book effective is the copious use of screen shots from the program, which serve as landmarks, and the way the author conversationally discusses the finer points of project management in general while teaching you how to use P3. For example, in Chapter 9 where you'll be walked through adding logic to activities, you'll not only be shown how to perform this task, but given reasons why you should use one approach from among four possibilities to establish relationships. In this example the choices are start-to-start, finish-to-start, start-to-finish and finish-to-finish. This is but one example in which project management techniques are imparted with P3-specific procedures, and it adds value to the book.

What I most like about this book is the way the author sticks to the basics, uses exercises called workshops, and resists the urge to get fancy and confuse the reader. In this respect, what he wisely leaves out of the book is as important as what is included. The tutorial approach makes this book ideal as a personal learning tool, and the structure and use of workshops makes this book useful as a training guide for companies that intend to conduct in-house training. Another point is the project management techniques that the authors shares are consistent with both the PMI PMBOK and the UK PRINCE2 methodologies, further adding to the book's value. If you are using P3 this book is the quickest way to become productive.

Rating:
Summary: Fastest way to become productive with P3
Review: This book cuts through the voluminous, daunting documentation that ships with P3 and gets you quickly started in harnessing the power of this full-featured PM application. If you've used P3 you'll understand the steep learning curve. If you're seeking a book because your company is implementing P3 you'll appreciate the value of this book.

The approach taken by the author is to step you through the common tasks of planning, scheduling and controlling a project, using an example project. The value of this approach is you focus on the important features and functions, instead of getting lost in the myriad of other features that you may or may not use. The book is designed to get you started with P3, not make you a P3 wizard, so this approach boils it down to the essentials. What makes the book effective is the copious use of screen shots from the program, which serve as landmarks, and the way the author conversationally discusses the finer points of project management in general while teaching you how to use P3. For example, in Chapter 9 where you'll be walked through adding logic to activities, you'll not only be shown how to perform this task, but given reasons why you should use one approach from among four possibilities to establish relationships. In this example the choices are start-to-start, finish-to-start, start-to-finish and finish-to-finish. This is but one example in which project management techniques are imparted with P3-specific procedures, and it adds value to the book.

What I most like about this book is the way the author sticks to the basics, uses exercises called workshops, and resists the urge to get fancy and confuse the reader. In this respect, what he wisely leaves out of the book is as important as what is included. The tutorial approach makes this book ideal as a personal learning tool, and the structure and use of workshops makes this book useful as a training guide for companies that intend to conduct in-house training. Another point is the project management techniques that the authors shares are consistent with both the PMI PMBOK and the UK PRINCE2 methodologies, further adding to the book's value. If you are using P3 this book is the quickest way to become productive.