Oracle Primavera® P6™

Overview
Primavera is a project management product that is implemented using client/server architecture with a centralized project database. It can be used to manage projects, resources, and methodologies. It consists of the following components: Project Management Client Module; Methodology Management Client Module; Web Access Application Server; Web Client Module; Timesheet client application; Group Server (Timesheet server); Integration API.

Architectural Information
Primavera is intended to be used to plan and control projects. Project data is stored in a central project management database that is located in the IT environment. The TOE provides the following specific capabilities.

• Project management—allows users to plan and control projects. Project management capabilities include centralized resource management, including resource timesheet approval and the ability to communicate with project resources via web-based timesheet interfaces


• Methodology management—allows users to author and store methodologies, which are also called project plan templates. Methodology management capabilities include providing the ability to define project management methodologies, which are called ―best practices‖, and store them in a central methodology management database


• Timesheets—allows users to enter and track time in a timekeeping system. Team members use timesheets to enter information for assignments across projects, including recording time against a project.

Subsystems:

• Project Management subsystem—used to plan and control the projects, resources and methodologies defined within the TOE
  


• Timesheet subsystem—allows users to enter and track time in a timekeeping system
  Web Project Management subsystem—provides user interfaces to access project management and timesheet review/approval functions
  


• Integration subsystem—provides the user with Java language interfaces to the TOE’s business rules and underlying database
  


• Database subsystem—provides an internal interface for interacting with the database
  
  The Project Management subsystem comprises the Project Management Client Module and the Methodology Management Client Module. These are ―heavy‖ clients that execute as applications in user space in a Windows operating system environment. They use DbExpress in the IT environment to establish database connections to the centralized database (also in the IT environment). The Project Management Client Module loads all the projects that the user is authorized to access and enforces controls on the operations the user is authorized to perform on specific project data. Similarly, the Methodology Management Client Module loads all the methodologies the user is authorized to access and enforces controls on the operations the user is authorized to perform on specific methodology data. Additionally, both the Project Management and Methodology Management Client Module enforce restrictions on the security management capabilities available to users.
  The Timesheet subsystem comprises the Group Server and the Timesheet Java Application Module. The Group Server executes as a Windows Service on a Windows operating system and provides the server side component of the Timesheet subsystem. It manages resource security, data integrity and business rules. It connects to the centralized database using ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) in combination with Object Linking and Embedding, Database (OLEDB), both of which are in the IT environment. The Timesheet Java Application Module provides the end-user interface to the Timesheet subsystem and is used to enter time worked against particular tasks.
  The Web Project Management subsystem comprises the P6 Web Access Application Server module and the Web Client module. The P6 Web Access Application Server module is the server-based business rule and security engine for the Web Project Management subsystem, providing browser-based access to project management and time approval functions. It is a Java application that is deployed on an application server (in the IT environment) and uses Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) (also in the IT environment) to connect to the centralized database. The Web Client module is the end-user browser-based interface to the Web Project Management subsystem. It comprises Java applets and HTML pages that are presented to the user in the context of a web browser (which is in the IT environment).
  The Integration subsystem comprises a single module, the Java Integration API module, which provides a Java programmatic interface to the objects and business rules exposed in the P6 Web Access Application Server module. The Java Integration API module in turn consists of client side and server side libraries. In the evaluated configuration, the client side modules can be installed on the end user’s local computer, while the server side libraries are to be installed on a remote, physically secure server. In this configuration, the Integration subsystem uses Java Remote Method Invocation (RMI) in the IT environment for communication between the client and server sides. As with the P6 Web Access Application Server module of the Web Project Management subsystem, the server side libraries use JDBC to connect to the centralized database.
  The Database subsystem comprises a single module, the Primavera Stored Procedures module, which provides mechanisms for automating database tasks, including: stored procedures that
  aggregate multiple database commands into atomic behaviors; triggers, indexes, and database integrity constraints; views; and relational table data and LOB data.

SOLUTION SCHEMATIC
The diagram provides a logical overview of the core components and the connections between them.

Core Component Details

• Database (Oracle/SQL/SQL Server Express) - Central Database
  


• Web App Server (Tomcat/JBoss WebLogic/WebSphere) - Host for Web Client
  


• Collaboration Server - Document Management and Collaboration for Web Client
  


• Group Server (Win 2000/3 Service) - Application Logic for TimeSheet Module
  


• Job Service (Win 2000/3 Service) - Run defined jobs on project data at specified intervals
  


• Primavera Compression Server - Reduce bandwidth utilisation between database (Oracle only) and Client

The following figure illustrates the relationship between P6
components.