Create Project WBS Using Excel and Notepad

Introduction

Primavera is one of the strongest tools in planning, it has an easy and simple interface that anyone can use and make his own schedule, recently it became very urgent to finish the scheduling process in the minimum possible time specially in mega projects, a manual way can be used to add WBS and activities but it can be very time consuming if we are facing a large number of WBS but no worries here is a way of making things faster and easier, all we need is Excel and the windows notepad.

How to Add WBS in Primavera P6 Using Excel and Notepad Step 1:

Start Primavera P6 and log in to your project management account. After creating a project, (here I made a new one), go to Project tab then choose WBS

Adding a project will be as the following: Enterprise then from the menu choose project, on the right most side press the (+) to add a new project

we need to add a new WBS that we use later on, to do this follow this sequence project then WBS and finish the helping wizard.

After completing the helping wizard, you will end up with a situation like this

Now we need to export this project in form of XER File

Choose the P6 version that you want to export to

we will need to export the entire project, so we will need to choose Project

choose the project name and tick the box under Export

choose the export file location and press finish.

Step 2:

After finishing with exporting, go to the location where the exported XER is saved and then right-click on the file and open it with Notepad

When the Notepad is opened, scroll down till you get to the highlighted part and then copy it.

Step 3:

Open a New Excel sheet that will be used to add the WBS names, ID and parent ID We then need to paste the copied data from the note pad to the excel.

But first, we need to keep the following in mind:

WBS ID: A unique number identifying each WBS element.

WBS Name: A description indicating each WBS element.

Parent WBS Code: Identifies the parent element for hierarchical relationships.

Adding your new WBS data will be as the following:

We add %R as we go and the last value in the column should be %E

This column related to the WBS ID, Add the WBS ID as you need, but don’t change the first 2 values

These are some fixed values related to how P6 identify the project relating to the project ID, the OBS and Enterprise that project exists under, you need to keep them as they are, so just copy & paste them as you go

Add these values in sequence starting from the 2nd value in the column and stop the sequence with the last WBS you add

Here you can add the short name for the WBS

Here you can add the name for the WBS

The remaining values are also fixed so you can just copy and paste them

Here you can add the parent WBS ID for the WBS you want to form the hierarchy, notice that the first ID is always the project ID so keep it.

Review the entered WBS hierarchy for accuracy and make necessary adjustments or refinements to ensure alignment with project requirements.

Finally, after checking that everything is right in place, select and copy all the table after filling it with the values and paste them in the note pad again replacing the part the was highlighted in the previous screenshots.

Step 3:

Import the XER file to the P6, so choose the XER file format.

Choose the XER directory and select the XER file

we need to use the XER file as an update to the one already existing in P6, so let it update the existing project by choosing “update existing Project” from import action tab Finally, after completing the helping wizard, congratulations! you will end up with this: