3 Ways to View Activity Count Tutorial for P6

There are three easy ways to count the number of activities in P6, whether you are curious to know the total activities for the entire project or the total number of activities for individual WBS, Activity Code and filter results.  You should be able to answer the following questions if you know how to count the number of project activities,

(1) Total project activities

(2) Total activity count by WBS or Activity Code ( e.g. total engineering activity, procurement activity and construction activity)

(3) Total activity with constraints

(4) Total activity with the external link

(5) Total major milestones out of overall activities

(6) Total activities with broken logic (e.g. no predecessor, no successor)

(7) Total activities more than 20 days Total Floats

(8) Total activities with original duration of more than 30 days

(9) Total task-dependent activities with no resources and so on.

1- How to View Number of Project Activities in EPS layout

1- Open a particular project which you want to see total number of activities.

2- Select Projects to get EPS view (see below).



3- Go to the project that you just open.

4- Then you should be able to see total number of activities for the entire project.

If you are unable to see total activities count in EPS layout,

(1) Go to “Columns”, then “Customize”



(1) Select “Total Activities” and bring it to the right side (selected options). See below.



Below is a simple layout that show total project activities for an open project.



Suppose you are working for multiple projects and you want to know the activities involved for those projects.

1- Select all projects that you want know the details (Press “Ctrl” (Control) key to select all projects)

2- Go to the project that you just open.

3- Go to Group and Sort to organize EPS group.





Then you should be able to see total project activities for the selected projects as below.

2- How to Count Number of Activities in Activity layout 

If you choose to see total number of project activities in the activity layout, you can also view total activity for each grouping as well as overall project activities.

Activity Count by WBS

- Open a selected project and select “Activities” to view activity layout.



- Go to “Columns” to add “Activity Count” column into the layout.

- Select “Activity Count” and bring it to the right side (selected options). Click "OK". 

- Go to Group and sort

(a) Group by WBS If you want to view total activity for each WBS element,

(b) Select “Show Summaries only to display summaries (not to display activity)

(c) Select Name/Description to view group name



- Collapse grouping to view high level WBS group. To do that,

(A) Go to Layout

(B) Select “Collapse To”. Choose WBS level2 in order to count total activities for each construction phase. However, if you want to count total number of activities for lover level WBS, then choose WBS level3, Leve4 etc.

- Finally you should be able to count total activities for each WBS element as well as overall project activities. See below.

Download this layout to view activity count by WBS level2. 


Activity Count by Activity Code 

In case you want to see total activity count by Activity Code, follow the same steps as stated in Activity Count by WBS with the following changes.

- Again, go to Group and Sort

- Select the desired activity code “Item Name” for instance to demonstrate this tutorial.





Enter user text instead of activity code if you also want to count activity by user text.

NOTE: You don’t need to collapse grouping bands for the activity code that doesn’t have any child activity code.

Activity code to be used for grouping must have assigned to project in order to view total number of activity count by Activity Code.

Activity Count by Activity Type 

I hope you learnt by now how to count number of project activity by WBS and Activity Code. Then, you can easily count activity by the type of activities available in your project.

Then, Go to Group and Sort

Select “Activity Type” from Group by column. See fig below.



The following figure shows number of activities by each activity type (i.e. Finish Milestone, Level of Effort, Start Milestone and Task Dependent).

Activity Count with broken logic 

This is handy and quick method for relationship check. Combination with a filter, Activity Count Column and activity type grouping help you to analyse schedule quality. To view this layout,

(1) Firstly, create a filter name “No Predecessors or Successors”.

(2) Set the filter criteria: Where Predecessor equals blank (or) Successor equals blank.

(3) Once again, show “Activity Count” Column

(4) In Group and Sort window, select “Activity Type” and “Show Grand Totals”



(5) Collapse activity grouping bands to “Activity Type” as below.

Then, you should be able to count the number of activities with broken logic (no predecessors or successors).



You can also download the activity layout to view the activity count for activities with broken logic activities. Import this layout back to your project for your easy reference.

Activity Count by Activity Duration 

You might also want to count the number of project activities with a certain duration. For instance, you might want to find out,

(a) Total activity with duration less than 20 days

(b) Total activity with duration 20days and less than 40 days

(c) Total activity with duration 40 days and above

To make a layout to display all items (a, b and c)

(1) Go to Group and Sort , then Select “Remaining Duration” from Group By drop-down list

(2) Enter “20d” for “Group Interval” column in Group and Sort window



(3) Go to “View”> “Collapse to” so as to collapse grouping bands to “Remaining Duration”.

(4) Once again, show “Activity Count” column as usual so that you can view activity count.



Finally, you should be able to count number of activities by activity duration as below.



In case the above criteria don’t match with the one you want to count, you can make a layout with a filter. 

For instance, Total Activity Count with the duration within 20 days to 50 days

- Create a filter that named “duration within 20d-50d

- Set the filter criteria: Where “Remaining duration is within range of 20d to 50d



- Show “Activity Count” Column as usual.

- Select Show Grand Totals in Ground and Sort window (see below).

Activity Count by Activity Name’s Content 

You might also want to count total project activities that contain certain keyword in the activity names. If activity descriptions have been designed consistently in your project, it is very handy to use this layout.

For instance, you want to count number of activities that contain “IFC”, then

- Create a filter that named “Activity Name contains IFC”.

- Set the filter criteria: Where “Activity Name contains IFC.

- Show “Activity Count” Column as usual.

- Select Show Grand Totals in Ground and Sort window.

- Finally, you should be able to see total activity count that contains certain keyword (e.g. IFC) as below.



Note: If you want to return more result, for instance, you want to count total activity that contains either IFC or IFD, and then add new line and use “or” function (see below snapshot).



Summary: You can view number of project activities in various ways with the helps of Filter and Group and Sort function in the activity layout.

3- How to View Number of Project Activities via Excel Export

You can count number of activities in Excel by exporting data to Excel. Group and sorting function doesn’t require if you choose to use this method. This is quick and easy way to count number of activities.

For instance, you want to count activity with duration greater than 30 days.

- Create a filter that named “Duration>30d”.

- Set the filter criteria: Where “Remaining Duration is greater than 30d”.



- Apply filter and see the result. Once you have applied filter, select all data (Enter Ctrl+A).



- Copy and paste it to Excel,

- Select all row data (i.e All Activity ID)

- Finally, you can view total activity count as shown in below



Conclusion: You can view the total activity count in EPS view. The total project activity count and subtotal count grouped by WBS, activity code, activity type, activity duration and activity name's content can be viewed in the activity layout. You can also view the activity count in Excel via P6 export data.