Issues and Thresholds — Not Schedule Logic

What a planner means

Issues are known problems in the plan that need attention. Oracle: you can manually create them, or generate them by defining project thresholds. An issue can sit on a WBS, an activity, or a resource. It can have a priority, a tracking layout, a responsible manager (OBS), notes, and a history. It does not change dates, float, or relationships.

Thresholds are tests. You pick a parameter (for example start date variance or total float), set a lower and/or upper value, and apply the threshold to a WBS. Then you monitor it. The monitor compares live project data to those bounds and writes issues.

Oracle’s compare: less than or equal to the lower value, or greater than or equal to the upper value. Example (Oracle): Total Float lower 1d, upper 10d → an issue for any activity with TF ≤ 1d or TF ≥ 10d. Another: Start Date Variance lower −1, upper 3 → issue if the activity starts one or more days early or three or more days late.

Detail to Monitor: Activity → one issue per violating activity. WBS → activities under that WBS (and children, when Detail is Activity) are tested, then issues are summarized to the WBS, not listed per activity.

Monitor time window (window_start / window_end): activities or WBS whose start is after To Date, or whose finish is before From Date, are not reviewed and generate no issues.

Issues are not identified for disabled thresholds. Defining a threshold does not by itself write issues; someone (or a job) must run the monitor.

Auto-generated issues are named after the threshold parameter that fired.

XER tables

PROJTHRS (Thresholds)

PROJISSU (Issues)

ISSUHIST (Notification History)

REST/API issue status strings: 'Open', 'On Hold', 'Closed'. XER stored tokens for status_code, priority_type, and thresh_type are not listed. Do not invent IS_ / TH_ codes.

Threshold parameters (Oracle list)

A parameter is a “test” P6 applies to activities or WBS. Oracle’s list:

Accounting Variance ($); Cost % of Planned (%); Cost Performance Index (CPI) (ratio); Cost Variance (CV) ($); Cost Variance Index (CVI) (ratio); Duration % of Original (%); Finish Date Variance (days); Free Float (days); Schedule Performance Index (SPI) (ratio); Schedule Variance (SV) ($); Schedule Variance Index (SVI) (ratio); Start Date Variance (days); Total Float (days); Variance at Completion (VAC) ($).

thresh_parm_id is a FK. A later XER map TOC lists THRSPARM (Threshold Parameters). Columns for that table are not pulled in this note. Do not invent them.

Microsoft Project

Project has no issues table and no threshold monitor. Notes, flags, and custom fields are not this object. Do not map PROJISSU to Task Notes or to a Deadline. A Project Online issue list (SharePoint) is a different product feature, not MSPDI.

Don't

• Treat an issue or a threshold as a constraint, a relationship, or a date driver.
• Treat a threshold as “the critical-float cutoff.” Critical is a schedule option; a Total Float threshold only writes issues when monitored.
• Assume issues exist in the XER just because thresholds do. Monitor must have run; disabled thresholds write nothing.
• Collapse many PROJISSU rows into one notebook or one MSP Notes field without saying rows were lost.
• Map status_code / priority_type / thresh_type integers you have not seen.
• Call MSP RBS or a flag column “P6 issues.”