Transitioning from P6 to Oracle Primavera Cloud:
Mastering Resource Management
Switching from Primavera P6 to Oracle Primavera Cloud (OPC)? Get ready for a game-changer in resource management! While P6’s centralized, global resource dictionary is familiar territory, OPC shakes things up by housing resources within workspaces. This shift offers powerful flexibility but requires a strategic approach to optimize your setup. Let’s dive into how OPC handles resources and how you can design your environment to crush your project goals.
A New Way to Organize Resources
In OPC, resources aren’t stored in a single, universal dictionary like in P6. Instead, they’re created and managed at the workspace level, giving you the freedom to tailor resource lists to specific needs. Unlike other OPC data dictionaries, resources don’t automatically cascade to child workspaces or projects—you assign them intentionally. This means you can:
- Standardize or customize: Maintain a shared resource pool at a high-level workspace for consistency across projects, or create unique resource lists for specific project types (think commercial vs. residential projects).
- Flex with your needs: If your commercial projects use heavy machinery while residential ones rely on skilled labor, you can maintain separate resource dictionaries at the appropriate workspace level.
This workspace-driven approach empowers you to align resource management with your organization’s structure, ensuring precision and control.
Why Workspace Design Matters
Your workspace hierarchy is the backbone of effective resource management in OPC. Unlike P6, where you could open multiple projects at once for analysis, OPC relies on programs to group projects across workspaces. This means your resource analysis process might need a refresh. Here’s how to set yourself up for success:
- Group projects strategically: Place projects that share resources in the same workspace branch. This makes it easier to roll up data for analysis.
- Set resources at the right level: To streamline management, maintain your resource list at the highest workspace level needed for shared access. For example, if all projects draw from the same labor pool, create the resource list at the top workspace to ensure consistency.
- Plan carefully: Once resources are assigned to child workspaces or projects, removing them can be tricky. Thoughtful workspace design prevents headaches down the line.
By aligning your workspace structure with your resource-sharing needs, you’ll unlock OPC’s full potential for resource optimization.
Key Questions to Guide Your Transition
Ready to migrate your resource list from P6 to OPC? Ask yourself these critical questions to shape your workspace hierarchy:
- Do all projects share the same resource pool? If so, a single, high-level resource dictionary might be your best bet.
- Do resource needs vary by project type? Create separate resource lists at the appropriate workspace levels for different project categories.
- Do any projects require unique resources? Ensure those projects have tailored resource dictionaries to avoid overlap or confusion.
- Where do you need to analyze resource allocations? Design your hierarchy to support roll-up reporting at the right levels.
By answering these, you’ll build a workspace structure that maximizes efficiency and clarity.
Embrace the Power of OPC
Transitioning to OPC’s resource management might feel like a leap, but it’s a chance to rethink how you organize and analyze resources. By leveraging workspace-level resource dictionaries and strategic hierarchy design, you can create a system that’s both flexible and robust. Whether you’re standardizing across projects or customizing for unique needs, OPC gives you the tools to take control.
Ready to make the switch? Map out your workspace structure, align your resources, and watch your project management soar to new heights with Oracle Primavera Cloud!
Meet Kari!

Kari Evans Jackson is a certified PMP, PMI-ACP, and Primavera P6 instructor with over 10 years of experience as a trainer and consultant with Evans Technology and Global PM. She delivers courses in Primavera P6, Oracle Primavera Cloud, and PMI-ACP exam prep, and has led numerous P6 implementations across construction, public, and oil & gas sectors. She holds a B.S. from Georgia Southern University.