Managing Projects

In the Simple Model, a project is a piece of work delivered within a program. Each project has its own owner, dates, and fields, and carries its own benefits, costs, RAID items, and schedule. Projects are created on the program they belong to, and managed from the program's Project Register and each project's Properties page.

This article covers the Simple Model. For the Advanced Model, see Managing Initiatives. Projects can only be created once the program has at least one project type — see Configuring Project Classifications (Simple Model).

Creating a project

To create a project:

1. Navigate to the program, open the Create menu, and select Project.

   

2. Select the project's Reporting Group. Reporting groups place the project within the program's structure, and every project needs one.

   

3. Enter a Name and Description.
4. Select a Start Date and End Date.
5. Select an Owner, the person responsible for managing the project.
6. Fill in any other fields, then click Create. To create another project straight after, check Create another first.

   

Which fields appear on the form, and which are required, is set on the project type's Properties tab. See Custom Fields (Simple Model).

Finding projects

The program's Project Register, under Registers on its side menu, lists every project in the program. Use it to view, filter, and update projects in one place. See Register Views.

The project's Properties page

Each project's Properties page, on its side menu, shows all of its fields. Edit them there, as your role allows.

The page's menu also has:

• Update Project Baseline — see Updating the baseline.
• Archive — see Archiving, restoring, and deleting a project.

Tracking changes

Every change to a project — its fields, approvals, stage gates, and more — is recorded on its Timeline, along with comments from the team and messages from Chat. Select Timeline on the project's side menu. A project always sits directly under its program, so moving it within the program — by changing its workstream or other reporting group fields — shows as an update. See Activity Timelines.

Updating the baseline

In the Simple Model, baselines are recorded for the whole program, not for each project separately. Where baselines are enabled for the program, its baseline holds a copy of the program and its projects, for comparing later changes against.

Update Project Baseline updates the program's current baseline with this project's current values, and those of everything within it, such as its benefits, costs, and schedule. It isn't available where:

• The level above the project isn't part of the baseline.
• The current baseline was taken at a stage gate. Stage gate baselines can't be updated.

For taking baselines, and how they show on dashboards and ledgers, see Baselines.

Archiving, restoring, and deleting a project

Archive a project that's no longer active from Archive, in its Properties page menu. Archiving a project also archives everything within it.

An archived project shows a banner at the top of its pages, with options to:

• Restore — return the project, and everything within it, to active use.
• Delete — permanently delete the project, everything within it, and its data.

A project must be archived before it can be deleted. Archiving, restoring, and deleting each need their own permission in your team role.

Archived projects stay in the Project Register. Show the Active column to tell them apart: archived projects show as not active.

For setting up the program itself, see Configuring a Program.