This document provides an overview of reflections in Primavera. It defines reflections as copies of projects that allow changes to be tested before merging back to the source project. It describes how to create, modify, and merge reflections. Key points covered include using reflections for scenario testing and progress updates, modifying fields like dates and assignments in reflections, and previewing and selectively merging changes to the source project. It also addresses frequently asked questions about reflections.

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Introduction to Primavera
Reflections
Prepared by:
Megan Thomas
Primavera Trainer & Consultant
PPM Global Services, Inc.
Session ID#:
megan@ppmglobalservices.com

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3. Agenda
■ What is a Reflection?
■ Why use a Reflection?
■ Creating Reflections
■ Modifying Reflections
■ Merging Reflections with a Source Project
■ Viewing the Merged Changes
■ Frequently Asked Questions (Q/A)

4. What is a Reflection?
■ A reflection is a copy of a project that has the following
characteristics:
▪ Has the same name as the original source project with the word
“reflection” appended to the name.
▪ Contains an internal link to the source project that allows the
application to merge changes from the reflection into the source
project.
▪ Has a what-if status.
■ Changes made to the reflection project can be selectively
merged into the source project.

5. Why use a Reflection?
■ Reflections facilitate the following work flows and processes:
▪ Provides a sandbox area to test different project scenarios.
▪ Enables changes to the reflection to be reviewed and accepted
before merging the reflection back into the source project.
▪ Can be used in combination with Team Member to enable
review and acceptance of progress updates from within P6
Professional thick client.

6. Creating a Reflection
■ A reflection can be created from any project within Primavera.
A new reflection can also be created from an existing
reflection.
■ To create a reflection project from P6 Professional, follow the
steps below:
1. Navigate to the Projects Window
2. From the Projects window, select the project from which you
wish to create the reflection. (note, the selected project will
become the source project for the reflection)
3. Right-click > Create Reflection

7. Creating a Reflection
■ If the source project does not contain a baseline:
▪ Primavera responds by creating a reflection.
■ If the source project contains a baseline:
▪ Primavera responds by displaying the Copy Baselines dialog
box.
▪ For any baselines you want to copy, mark checkbox(s) in the
Copy column of the Copy Baselines dialog box and click OK.
▪ Primavera then creates the reflection.

8. Creating a Reflection

9. Modifying a Reflection
■ To modify the reflection project, simply open the reflection
and make modifications as needed.
■ Modifications made to the reflection project do not affect the
source project until merged.
■ Fields commonly updated via reflection process include:
▪ Dates
▪ Durations
▪ Resource Assignments
▪ Activity Code Assignments
▪ Costs
▪ Notebook items
■ In the example that follows, we will record progress updates
against the reflection project.

10. Modifying a Reflection
Existing Activities Updated
New Activity Added
New Resource Assignment
New Relationship Created

11. Merging Reflections into the Source Project
■ Changes made to the reflection project can be previewed and
selectively merged into the source project.
■ During preview, changes can be grouped by activity or by
subject area.
■ To merge changes, the user must have Project Superuser
privileges to source project and to the reflection project.
■ While merging changes, source project cannot be opened in
Exclusive mode by another user
■ Source project cannot be checked out during merge.

12. Merging Reflections into the Source Project
■ Changes made to unique record identifiers (i.e. Activity ID,
WBS ID) will result in new records added to the source
project.
■ A Reflection Differences Report can be printed from the
Preview Changes dialogue window.
■ User can instruct Primavera to create a backup of the source
project as a baseline and / or to export the source project to
an .XER file, prior to merging changes.
■ User can instruct Primavera to keep, delete or replace the
reflection project upon completion of the merge.

13. Merging Reflections into the Source Project
■ To merge changes from the reflection project into the source
project, follow the steps below:
1. Navigate to the Projects window.
2. From the Projects window, select the reflection project that you
wish to merge.
3. Right-click > Merge Reflection into Source project
4. From the Preview Changes window,
— Select changes to merge
— Select actions that Primavera should take prior to merge
— Select actions that Primavera should take after merge
5. Click the Merge Changes button

14. Merging Reflections into the Source Project

15. Viewing the Merged Changes
■ Upon completion of the merge, results should be inspected
by the user.
■ For this example, we will confirm the following changes
appear within the source and reflection projects.
▪ Activity A1000
— Activity and resource assignment progressed to completion
▪ Activity A1010
— Activity and resource assignment in-progress with expected finish
date of April 29th
▪ Activity A1050
— Activity and resource assignment have been created
— FS relationship has been created between A1040 & A1050
▪ Copy of source project has been created as a baseline.

16. Viewing the Merged Changes

17. Frequently Asked Questions (Q/A)
■ Q. If an item is deleted from the Reflection project, how is the
Source project affected?
▪ A. Merging will not remove items from the source project that
have been deleted from the reflection.
▪ If major elements of a project have been deleted from the
reflection, the user must manually delete the items from the
source project.
▪ Elements that are not deleted during a merge include:
— Activities
— Resource Assignments
— WBS Elements
— Work Products and Documents
— Expenses
— Issues
— Risks

18. Frequently Asked Questions (Q/A)
■ Q. Can I view the link in the reflection to the source project?
▪ A. Yes. From the Projects window, Source Project field
■ Q. Can I have multiple reflections pointing to the same source
project?
▪ A. Yes.
■ Q. What happens to the reflection when I delete the source
project?
▪ A. The link is deleted from the source project field in the
reflection.

19. Frequently Asked Questions (Q/A)
■ Q. Why is the Merge Reflection into Source Project disabled?
▪ A. The right click option is disabled when any of the following is
true:
— The source project is checked out
— The source project and/or the reflection is currently open in Exclusive
mode by another user
— You do not have super user privileges to both the source project and
the reflection
■ Q. What happens if the merge fails?
▪ A. The system responds with a message that the merge process
failed, creating the prmReflectionMerge.log file in the temporary
directory, and notifying of log file's location.

20. Frequently Asked Questions (Q/A)
■ Q. How are changes to dates handled?
▪ A. Scheduling related date fields are not shown in the preview
but may be updated upon merging changes.
■ Q. How are baselines handled when the "Replace reflection"
option is used?
▪ A. The new reflection will be created with the same baselines
that were in the original reflection.

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