SAP PS Substitutions

We have configured Partner funcitons to used at PD and WBS element level. We want to enter the 'customer number' as partner at the PD level and then want to copy it automatically in all the WBS elements under the project.

Is it possible to do such a thing? We are unable to use substitutions coz Partner fields do not occur in the substitution fields.

This is reasonably easy to achieve with substitution exit, where you can retrieve data from any logically linked objects and use these as substitution source data. This is described in note 440186, chapter 4.

However, with this technique you can only maintain the fields of PRPS, e.g. user fields USR*.

If your intention is to substitute corresponding Partner role in each level of WBS, I think that will not be possible with this technique directly.

You should additionally check if there is a user exit at partner maintenance to complete the scenario.

Normally you can use user exit RGGBS00 to insert a user specific into subsititution.

But in your case, it's a little complex, because the partner is in another table (not in PRPS). however you can try to insert your own field into table GB01 and regenerate with program RGUGBR00 (note 42615).

SAP Progress Analysis to measure EVA

I am currently working on a Chemical industry Re-implementation. My client wants to implement Progress Analysis to measure EVA. They current use WBS elements (No Networks). I have been trying to find an instance where progress analysis (EVA) has been implemented for WBS so I can decide what needs to be in place. Anyone who has some imformation on these should please give me an insight or documentation. This would be greatly appreciated.

Tony

Unfortunately, from my experience, I can say that Progress analysis/ EVA Earned Value Analysis in PS cannot be done without the activities and of course withouth the networks. We had the same problem, as in our company as we had before only WBS and we needed EVA. For EVA PS has the Transaction CNE5 and in this kind of reports (see also CN41) values of rhe the field "actual work" will be "built up" on basis of activities confirmations. As I can suggest you, if the company does not want to change the current structure of the projects, a soulution would be to i! ntegrate PS with BW, if they have BW there, and to generate the needed reports for analysing the EVA in BW.
Otherwise I have not heard to be possible to have Progress Analisys without activities in SAP Standard.

Elena Manole

Thanks for the reply. It is very helpful. It confirms what I thought.

Tony

Progress analysis at WBS level is also possible., Use estimation method and put the ACTUAL WORK DONE.

Mukesh

I agree with Mr Mukesh. We are using the EVA method estimation and actual work done for WBS.
Please create a new "Z" method of EVA which will allow confirmation of WBS in a similar way as being allowed for activities. You can then confirm the WBS for actual progress of work and enter the % completion of actual work to get schedule vs actual curve.

Salim Mohsin Shakir

Using the Estimation method with WBS means you are not really doing EVM in SAP. You would need to calculate the percentage using another tool. Also, since your WBS schedule dates are not dynamic, the forecasts would be very difficult to create. If the company is re-imiplementing, have them implement Networks Activities, at a minimum of one Activity per WBS.

SAP Functional Sequence Of Operations To Get EVA

In my project system I want project progress analysis on the basis of only time proportionality. Cost will not be consider for progress andtheir are different units used like m, m3, km & hr for work in internal & external activities, so is it possible to do such setting on the basis of confirmation in customisation?

Yes it is possible do through activity confirmation. It all depends on EV basis, their you need to set time proportionality.

You need to perform sequence of operations to get EVA. for time prop. you need to maintain scheduling, activity confirmation etc.

Define default meas method as Time prop for objects in customising.

You need to do customization settings for EVA for progress version, statistical key figures, value catagories, progress cost element etc.

You can go the following customizing steps... this will help you to configure as per your needs. This is not as per your need, as only you can understand what all the customizations you need to do........

1. Create Progress Version 101 with exclusive use 'Progress Analysis'. I have selected Plan & Actual check boxes.
2. Settings for Progress Version-
a) Plan version - '0'
b) EV basis - Cost plan (active project, annual values)
c) POC weighting - Cost plan (active project, annual values)
d) Planning type - Basic dates
e) Early / Late - earliest possible
f) Both reference boxes selected

3. SKFs- I created three SKFs 10 (Non-Aggregated POC), 20 (Aggregated POC) and 30 (POC for RA) with unit of measure '%' and selected the Key value category 'Total values'.

4. I need to assign these SKFs to different value categories. I created three value category 10, 20 & 30 with selection 'SKF with total values' and unit of measure '%'. Then I assigned SKF 10 to VC 10, SKF 20 to VC 20, SKF 30 to VC 30

5. I assigned measurement method as default value:
a) WBS (Plan) - Cost Proportional
b) WBS (Actual) - Cost Proportional
c) Internal Activity (Plan) - Cost Proportional
d) Internal Activity (Actual) - Degree of Processing
c) Exernal activity(Plan) - Cost Proportional
d) Exernal Activity (Actual) - Degree of Processing

6. I made progress cost element '6511100' (Secondary cost element) with Cost element category as 61.

7. I maintain a value catagory 6511100 with Cost radio button selected.
And assigned the progress cost element to the value catagory. i.e Cost element 6511100 to value catagory 6511100.

8. I maintain the assignment of cost element group. ie. I assigned progress cost elemnt to cost element group with default radio button selected. In the cost element group, I have selected certain cost elements which we regularly used (cost elements for project materials, project manhours, project contracts, spares etc)

Run CJEN first then CNE1 and CNE5.

SAP Milestones

----Original Message-----
Subject: Milestones

We don't use networks and activities.

The same time we want to use milestones only with WBS-elements for basic POC evaluation.

For instance for WBS we can attach several milestones with different POC, like 10%, 50%, 80%.

What is the tool in the system to confirm that particular milestone is reached? How can I change milestone status?

-----Reply Message-----
Subject: RE: Milestones

each milestone attached to a WBS element will have an actual date field open for entery when u release the WBS element. this will determine if the milestone has been achieved or not.

the %age entered in the milestone for POC will be considered in the progress analysis.

-----End of Message-----

SAP Functional Project profile

----Original Message-----
Subject: Project profile

We have decided not to allow creation of projects with certain project profiles.how can we prevent using the project
profiles.
If we delete the project profiles will it affect the existing projects or completed projects made of those profiles.

-----Reply Message-----
Subject: RE: Project profile

Hi there,

Have you ever used validations rules. That may work well in such a situation. You could use a rule like this : "If profile ID is
ABC then error message 333". If you heve not used these rules before tell us about that and we may help you.

-----Reply Message-----
Subject: RE: Project profile

You can delete the profiles but you may encounter problems creating new WBS elements in the old projects. The profile is
only used to provide defualts to these elements, so you will have to enter the values manually (e.g. Project Type).

The other probelm area that comes to mind are any reports that use the profile as part of dynamic selections.

-----End of Message-----

SAP Capacity Planning in PS module; Calendar like in MS Projects

With Pool Capacity we can generally define capacity for a group of expertise in a given Work Center. Meaning that if I have 10 peoples working at 40 hours a week each, my total capacity on a weekly basis is 400 hours.

If the demands from activities in my various projects using that Work Center exceeds the 400 hours then I'll be under capacity and Gantt's in Planning Board will show in red !!!!!

However if I decide to go for Individual Capacity planning using HR module; then from what I read the individuals already defined in HR as employee number; will be tied to the Work Center and automatically taken and represented in Gantt's chart individually.

The link is to tie them as employee number to the Work Center in HR.

My question is; likewise in MS Projects; where we can define availability via the calendar; we can grey out days when an individual is on vacation or not available.

And that will reflect in the overall availability...

In PS is there a way to get an ''equivalent'' calendar !!!!

I did not see anything in PS itself to lock individual's dates !!!!!

Would this be in HR ???

Mainly when I want to reserve vacation time ahead for indivial labour resources..!!!!

I am not an expert in this area but I know a bit about it (I made it in a customer, but at the end I had to undo it). Actually I cannot work with networks so all I have it is my memory.

The pool capacity works as you say, but it seems that you are using the capacity availabality feature. I understood that if you use that, the system only checks if there is capacity avalibale, but not makes a capacity "commitment", it means, other networks can plan that capacity as own (this is made in the "levelling" section). At last, I only used the first feature so only had a look on the second.

I do not know how to plan people from HR module but:
- In CMP9 you can assign people to networks in basis to its Work Center in individual days (but it is very boring for the user).
- In the activity tag "Personal Assignment" you can assign people to an activity. This uses the HR information (working start time, absences, substitutions...). But this is not a capacity check or plan (at the end, I used that information to make a customer-specific report).
- The function "HR_PERSON_READ_WORK_SCHEDULE" can be used to know the exact avilabilty of a person (it will show you working hours, if that day is holiday, if there is a planned absence or substitution... everything). But you need to report previously that data to the system. (if you use it, take a look to the HR_PERSON_INIT_WORK_SCHEDULE too).
- The working factory calendar of the activity it is used to plan the capacity ==> maybe you would need to make a calendar for each employee (too much work I think).

Note that in MS project when you "gray" days is for all the activities, to make that in PS you should make a factory calendar with those days as no working days. I have talking to "gray" those days for each activity.

Sorry if this is not very clear (it has taken me an hour with several interrupts).

SAP Tips by: Guillermo Lopez

I very much agree with Guillermo, and I would suggest to go for his ideea. In my opinion using personal capacity planing in PS-HR is very inflexible and deficitary.

However, the link PS-HR you are asking for,

1. In work center (Transsaction: change work center) you will have to assign the persons from HR, you will have to be carefull as in the transaction there are 2 methods/buttons to assign persons to a work center. now I cannot tell you by heart which one is effectively linking the HR with PS, as only one works, you will have to try both of them (swich to capacity view and you'll see one button sth. "Link to HR" and then the other option is in the menu bar)

2. In HR - you will have to work with your HR colleagues maybe, should be maintained some HR Infotypes: Transaction PA61,
Infotype 0007 - planned working time (e.g. 8 hr. a day)
Infotype 0005 - vacation
Infotype 2001, type pf Infotype 0100 - absences

For the infotype 0007 - you will have alreadythe Arbeitszeitplanregel "rule to plan the working time", if I translate correct from german, which will set the calender for you. This is made with another HR transaction for the HR calender ....this calender(e.g. factory calender) has to be then generated/activated for every month (separate transaction). I do not remember all the transactions codes now, but is pretty much intuitiv, as the system will give you the steps while maintaining the Infotypes.

3. Then you plan the persons in the Activities for a determined period of time. In CMP9 you'll see the availability with the standard working hours (8Hr/day, as set in HR in calender) and the absences (as planed in HR in infotypes) with empty cells (Nota Bene: these cells have in transactions CMP2 and CMP3 a change modus, are not grey or inactive !!!!!) You can change the planing then with the transactions CMP2 or CMP3, one is from project, the other from workcenter point of view . If you make changes in CMP2 or 3 you will not see the changes in Project builder for example. With CMP9 you can only view the personals planing for a workcenter, a project...

I remember there is another transaction to see the personal availability somewhere in the Infosystem> PS>capacity. You'll have to look for it and generate it from Mandant 000.

Unfortunately, there are some more constraints, which you will discover while testing.

SAP Project System Status -Deletion Flag Active

One problem with the network triggered by a SO with CN08 linkage. The network appears in display mode with system status -deletion flag active. How to change the system status and delete the network?

Here is the deletion flag behavior I have observed.

We are using assembly order processing and also use CN08.

Using CN22 or CJ20N to create DLFG you set the status on the network header Edit>status>deletion flag this rolls the status down to the activity level.

To reverse the deltion flag you must first:

cancel the deletion flag on the network header, then select all activities in the activity overview and cancel deletion flag.

Now some people believe that when the deletion flag is set that it removes all of the activities from the network.

This is false, users who do not see the activities after the deletion flag is set must use the following menu path to "reveal" the activties:

Edit> Object> Display Deleted>On

Which table is the system storing the Project Def, WBS, NW and NWA system and User status?

Check these tables:

PROJ : Master data for project definition
PRPS: Master data for WBS
PRHI: Master data for project Jerarquie

TJ02 - a list of all System Status'. You can use transaction BS23 to see these, or SE16n via normal enquiry
JEST - current System/ User Status by object number (WBS and Network)
JCDS - history of System/ User Status by object number (WBS and Network)

Needless to say, you have to get the object number first by looking at PROJ, PRPS for Projects and AUFK, AFKO, AFVC, AFVU or AFVV for Networks.

Use SE16n to see the contents.

PS: Status "code" contained in JEST for particular object number, after selecting object number of choice from JEST to obtain status text simply join JEST to TJ02T linking JEST-STAT to TJ02T-ISTAT and finally pick language TJ02T-SPRAS .