Copying of Projects

When creating new projects, you might want to reuse the same project structure and data in order to save maintenance work and ensure that your projects adhere to internal or external standards. You can do this by copying existing operational projects as follows.

Note Note

In order to standardize your projects, you can also create templates for your project types and use them as a basis for creating new projects (see Templates).

End of the note.

Prerequisites

You have activated the user interface setting 0024 Copying Operational Projects in Customizing for SAP Portfolio and Project Management under Project Management Basic Settings Override Default Global Settings .
If required, you have activated the copying of the following project attributes in Customizing for SAP Portfolio and Project Management under Project Management Global Enhancements to Project Management Business Add-Ins (BAdIs) :
- Project start date (see method COPY_PROJECT_START_DATE_FIX in Customizing activity BAdI: Copying of Projects)
- Staffing and distribution data of roles, object links, names and links of mirrored tasks, documents, and collaborations (see Customizing activity BAdI: Check/Change Fields in Project Management)
- Notes (see method COPY_NOTES in Customizing activity BAdI: Copying of Projects)
For performance reasons, the copying of these attributes is not active in the standard system.

Features

When you create a project using an operational project as a template, the system copies the project structure to the new project. This includes the project definition, phases, tasks, roles, checklists, and checklist items. All project elements are copied in their initial status. For their attributes, the following rules apply:

Only attributes matching the initial status of a project element are copied to the target project. This includes relationships between tasks, and approvals, which are transferred to the new project with the status Created, but excludes actual data, confirmations, and the approval document.
For performance reasons, the following attributes are only copied if explicitly activated in Customizing (see Prerequisites):
- Start date and constraint of the project
  
  If the start date is not copied from the original project, the current date with the constraint Must start on is used as the start date of the new project.
- Staffing of roles
  The system copies staff assignments but not substitutes.
  
  If the staffing is not copied, the corresponding authorizations are automatically deleted in the new project in the same way as when you delete a staff assignment in a project (see Authorizations During Role or Resource Assignment.
- Distribution data of roles
  Distribution data can only be copied if the start date of the source project is copied to the target project. Otherwise, the system uses the default distribution for the roles of the new project.
- Object links
- Mirrored task name and link to source project
  
  The mirrored task link can only be copied if you have chosen to copy object links. Otherwise, you must add the link manually in the target project.
- Collaborations
- Documents
  If you have assigned documents using the document management function in Project Management, the latest document version can be copied to the target project. The system does not copy several document versions or links to the Document Management System (DMS).
- Notes
The following attributes are not copied:
- Portfolio item assignments
- Links to ERP objects (WBS elements of PS projects, internal orders)
- DMS links
- Links to SRM objects
- Data of the Cross-Application Time Sheet (CATS)
- Links to subprojects
- Substitutes
- Approval documents
- Status reports
- Evaluations
- Project versions
- Control plans

Activities

You can copy a project in the project dashboard. Either choose Create and use the template type Project or select a project and choose Copy Project. Copying multiple projects is not supported.