Skip to main content
Planview Customer Success Center

Self-Serve Admin Workflow

So many features, what to do first?? The following outlines the basic flow for an administrator charged with setting up an entity supported by the self-serve administration feature.

  1. Look at the list of available fields.
  • Do you need all the fields in the list? Hide any fields you know your organization does not want to use.

  • Are there fields you need that are not in the list? Create UDFs, if necessary.

  • Configure common field properties. A common property value is the same for a field regardless of whether they are used in multiple categories or have restrictions. Examples of common properties are whether the field is available for use in reports and filters, and the field title.

  • After hiding standard fields, creating UDFs, and setting field properties, many organizations are ready to arrange the fields on the entity's Details panel. However, some organizations might want to establish more fine-grained control of specific fields by limiting access to these fields to certain teams or types of users. This control is referred to as a "restriction". Note that you can create restrictions at any time - you are not required to do so before laying out the Details panel.

  1. Create classes, if necessary.
  • A Class is the generic term for a high-level entity, such as a Portfolio or Asset. PPM Pro supplies two classes: Portfolio and Application. The name you give the class appears on a tab in the user interface. It is best to limit the number of classes you create - you really only need a class if you need to separate entities that have no relationship to each other.
  1. Create categories, if necessary.
  • PPM Pro supplies a default category. You can think of a category as the bucket that holds all the fields that define your entity, essentially allowing you to create different "types". If your organization has only one type of entity, a task, for example, then you can use the default "Task" category and you don't have to do any thing else. You are ready to layout your Details panel.

  • If you need different types of the entity, then create one or more additional categories. For example, if you have task categories for Phases, Milestones and regular tasks, you can hide the Scheduling tab for the Phases/Milestone tasks, and perhaps the Expenses tab as well.

  1. Layout the Details panel. PPM Pro supplies a set of default fields for each entity - you can add to, remove, or rearrange as desired.
  • Pick the fields that will appear on the entity's Details tab. Order and group them as you like.

  • If you have multiple categories, you can have different Details layouts/fields for each category. If you are using the default category only, then you only have to lay out the Details panel one time.

  • You can also modify field properties from the Details page.

  • You can create restrictions if you decide that you need them. Anything you create here will be reflected in the Available Fields page (and any restrictions you created in Available Fields will be reflected on the Details page).

  • (For Portfolio entity)  Pick the fields that will appear on the portfolio's Finances tab. PPM Pro supplies a set of default fields for each entity - you can add to, remove, or rearrange as desired.

  1. Pick the fields that will appear as grid columns in the entity list page
  • You can use up to 20 fields as default grid columns; this grid is what your end users will see on the entity list page.

  • Configure a subset of properties, if necessary. For example, you can change the grid display name or width by selecting the field in the grid and editing the properties that appear in the grid.

  • You can specify additional fields that users can add to their entity grid. These fields, as well as the the default fields, appear in the Configure Columns dialog, where users can add or subtract fields on the grid. Note that there can never be more than 20 fields on the grid. You can also can modify a subset of properties for Other fields, such as grid display name or field width..

You'll probably want to start by Configuring Available Fields.