(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.

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) 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.

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.

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
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.

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.

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

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


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.
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).


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.
- Create a filter that named “Activity Name contains IFC”.
- Set the filter criteria: Where “Activity Name contains IFC.

- 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.
Thanks
ReplyDeleteThank you for this valuable post. Many schedulers are not aware of these kind of methods.
ReplyDeleteP6 Question: How can/Could you show the 'Total Activities' in the footer.
ReplyDeleteHi there, you won't be able to shown total activities on the footer of excel sheet or pdf from P6 automatically. You have to enter them manually.
Delete