Reflection projects are a little known but very handy feature in Primaveras P6 Power Client.

A Reflection is essentially a copy of a project but with one snazzy built in trick ! the ability to mer"e the copied project back into the ori"inal at any time. #f the "enius of this trick hasnt struck you yet$ it will. %his mer"in" ability was desi"ned to help planners work with scenario projects. &ets say youre the planner for a lar"e capital project that is a fallin" behind schedule. %he boss wants you to assess the impact of addin" an e'tra shift to the work schedule. (ow much time can be cau"ht up with this approach )ie* scenario+, %he thin" to do here is to create a Reflection of the project$ add an e'tra shift and verify the finish date. #f the boss approves the e'tra shift$ then you can mer"e this scenario project into the ori"inal project alon" to keep the chan"es you made. %his saves you the time of renamin" projects$ resettin" permissions and copyin" and pastin" chan"es from one project to another. %here are also some nice options to help you create a backup of the ori"inal project in case you need to reference it a"ain in the future. -tep . ! Creatin" a Reflection of a project Primavera P6 Projects window /rom the Projects window$ ri"ht click on the ori"inal project and select Create Reflection from the menu. Creatin" a Reflection Project in Primavera P6 #f the ori"inal project has any baselines you will see pop up window where you can select whether or not to copy those baselines alon" with the project. -imply mark the checkbo' in the Copy column if you want to preserve any baselines in the Reflected project. Copy 0aselines in Reflection Project 1ou should now see a copy of your project in the Projects window. %he copy will have the same Project #2 with 3 ., appended. %his reflection project will also be marked with a -tatus of 34hat #f5 which is Primaveras way of indicatin" the project is a 3scenario5 project and not a real project plan. Reflection Project in Projects 4indow -tep 6 ! 7pen the Reflection project and Activity &ayout 8ow its time to run your scenario. ie* make chan"es to the Reflection project to test out your scenario$ hypothesis$ etc. #n this tutorial$ well make a small chan"e to the reflection projects resources. 7pen the Project and then 7pen the Activity &ayout provided the tutorial downloads section. -tep 6 the Activities window and Activity &ayout are opened

0efore we make any chan"es$ youll need to make sure a key settin" for workin" with resources is set correctly in 9ser Preferences. :o to ;dit < 9ser Preferences$ and click on the Calculations %ab. P6v= 9ser Preferences Calculations %ab -et the 3Recalculate the 9nits$ 2uration$ and 9nits>%ime for e'istin" assi"nments based on the activity 2uration %ype5 option. %his will make sure that Primavera will perform the necessary recalculations when resources are added or removed from an activity. Close the 9ser Preferences window. -tep ? ! @akin" chan"es to the Reflection project /ind Activity A.A6A ! Convert &e"acy 2ata. 1oull be addin" another resource to A.A6A to see how this will affect the projects finish date. -ince the activitys 2uration %ype is set to 3/i'ed 9nits5$ addin" an additional resource will have the effect of shortenin" the activitys duration and spreadin" the units eBually over the ? resources assi"ned. &ets "ive it a try.

@akin" Chan"es to the Reflection Project before @er"in" Add %om 0ell as a new resource assi"nment to A.A6A. Reschedule the project usin" the current data date and check the projects finish date. Addin" a resource to the reflection project and reschedulin" %he project should now finish on 2ec 6A$ 6A.A whereas before it was scheduled to finish on @arch .$ 6A.A. -tep ? ! Reviewin" the 2ifferences Report :o back to the Projects window and ri"ht click on the Reflection project. Choose 3@er"e Reflection into -ource Project5 from the menu. 1ou should now see the 2ifferences Report window. %his screen is really nice. #t provides you with a report on the differences between the ori"inal project and the reflection. /rom here you can choose which chan"es you want to mer"e into the ori"inal$ or leave out by checkin" the bo' in the 3@er"e5 column. 2ont like the updates on a particular activity, Cust leave them out. P6 also "ives you some options to archive the ori"inal project$ either as a baseline or as an .'er e'port file. %his is essential as youll likely need to keep the ori"inal project around. And you can also choose how to handle the reflection ! keep it$ delete it or replace it )update it+ with the new mer"ed project. %he Reflection @er"e 2ifferences report in Primavera

-tep D ! @er"in" the Reflection into the ori"inal project plan #f you a"ree to mer"in" the projects$ you can "o ahead and set the options as above$ and click 3@er"e Chan"es5 to finalize the mer"e. 1ou may want to print this differences report first$ or you mi"ht even copy and paste it into a te't document before you @er"e. 1ou can do either of these by clickin" the 2isplay bar. %he Reflection project is mer"ed back to the -ource project 4rap 9p %he Reflection and mer"in" features in Primavera are "reat features for the planner or scheduler who needs to run project scenarios or hypothetical analysis. %hin"s for you to try* %ry makin" more than . reflection of the same project to compare multiple scenarios 4hat else you should know about reflections* the Reflections features are only available in the P6 Power Client and not in P6 4eb Access A Buote from the Primavera help file* 3@er"in" will not necessarily remove items from the source project that have been deleted from the reflection. #f major elements of a project have been deleted from the reflection$ you will have to manually delete them from the source project if you do not want to keep the elements in the source project. ;lements that are not deleted durin" a mer"e include Activities$ Resource Assi"nments$ 40- elements$ 4ork Products and 2ocuments$ Project ;'penses$ Project #ssues$ and Project Risks.5