Work with Programs 

Use

Larger projects are often realized in several different projects that belong together. In order to map these complex project structures, you can assign other projects or programs to a project with the project category program; this gives you an overview of the whole context.

A program has neither tasks nor checklists, only a project definition and the phases that are relevant to all projects. The project definition and the phases can contain objects such as documents, collaborations, or object links.

The following graphic explains the scenario:

Prerequisites

·        Your system administrator has created a project type with the project category program (see Customizing for Collaboration Projects, IMG activity Define Project Types).

·        You have at least display authorization for the projects or programs you want to assign.

·        Note the prerequisites under Alerts if you want the system to be able to inform the responsible persons about changes.

Features

If you assign a project or another program to a program, you can transfer the phases of the project or program to the program automatically or manually according to the phase type. However, automatic assignment only works if no assignment already exists.

Changes made to the dates in the program phases trigger a message which informs the persons responsible for the assigned phases. In the same way, the person responsible for the program receives a message if the dates of the assigned phases change.

The assigned projects and phases do not appear in the project structure but on two separate tab pages:

·        On the Assigned Projects tab page, you assign the projects to the program that belong to the program. You also select the phases of the assigned projects that you want to assign to the program phases. The tab page is available on the project definition level.

·        The Assigned Phases tab page displays all phases that are assigned to the program phase. The tab page is available on the program phase level.

You can open the assigned projects or phases from the overview in display mode. If you have the appropriate authorization, you can switch to change mode here.

Activities

...

       1.      Create a project with the project type program (see Creating a Project Definition ).

       2.      Navigate to the project definition in the project structure.

       3.      Assign other projects to the project on the Assigned Projects tab page.

       4.      Select a project and choose Phase Assignment.

You get an overview of all phases in the current program and all phases in the assigned project.

       5.      Either choose Automatic Assignment or make an assignment manually.

¡        In the automatic assignment, the system assigns the phases to each other according to their phase type. If the assigned project contains several phases with the same phase type, the system assigns the first phase with this phase type. If the program does not contain any phases with the same phase type, the system does not make an assignment.

¡        In manual assignment, you can use the Assign Phasesfunction to assign a selected project phase to a program phase.