Work Management
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- Work Management
Work Management
The Work Management capability’s enablers include Planning and Scheduling, Changes, Risks, and Issues, and Execution and Tracking. Each capability within the Planview Capability Framework has a distinct set of features and functionality, business processes, best practices, and analytics and reports that deliver value to customers in the form of specific business outcomes.
Work Management Business Outcomes
Planning and Scheduling
- We can implement a standardized work planning and scheduling process for projects and other planned work.
- We can plan work milestones and categorize these milestones to drive project status reporting.
- We can define the phases of work or activities at a detailed level that supports resource forecasting and planning.
- We can forecast the effort required to deliver the work, expressing this demand against the relevant organizational and resource type.
- We can use schedule templates to apply planning standards and to drive consistency and efficiency.
Changes, Risks, and Issues
- We have a standard and consistent method for capturing and managing project change requests, risks, and issues.
- We have a single organization-wide repository of change request, risk, and issue information, which can be automatically consolidated into project status reports.
- We can measure the volume of project risks and group and categorize them to understand their impact on the successful delivery of projects.
- We can measure the volume of project issues and categorize them to identify projects that could deliver late, over budget, or outside scope or quality.
- We can understand the impact of change requests on project schedules and financial plans and approve or re-baseline accordingly.
Execution and Tracking
- We can monitor actual effort reported to timesheets and determine how this effort has contributed to project progress.
- We can maintain a forward-looking plan of remaining project phases or activities and work required to execute the project to completion.
- We have a single, timely, and accurate organization-wide view of project status, with all reporting needs being met from this single version of data.
- We can view portfolio level status reports based on project status information.
- We can compare the performance of a project against financial and schedule baselines and schedule variance alerts, ensuring that remedial action takes place.
Work Management Processes
Work management provides project managers the ability to develop a work plan or schedule by defining the timeline, milestones, activities, and resources required to deliver the work. This capability allows work managers to define and classify risks, issues, and change requests, track and manage project execution and delivery, and report on the overall status and health of projects.
Project Planning and Scheduling Process Steps
Planning and scheduling provides work managers the ability to view and manage all work details. They can develop the schedule or plan by defining the timeline, milestones, activities, and resources required to deliver the work.
Project planning and scheduling process flow
Process Step | Description |
---|---|
Define project/work breakdown structure | Define the project by building out the work breakdown structure to form the basis of the project schedule. As part of this step, you should also add dates, durations, dependencies, and assign resources to the project. The project schedule consists of any elements in the work breakdown structure (WBS) that exist below the project level in the hierarchy, such as phases, tasks, and activities as well as dates, durations, and categorizations. You can add the relevant associated resource assignment information to produce a full project delivery plan. |
Determine durations and relationships | Determine the duration of work tasks and establish logical relationships between work items in the project schedule that you defined in the previous step. |
Plan resources | Plan which resources will work on tasks and activities and populate the project schedule with an accurate and realistic role-based forecast in the form of resource requirements. |
Baseline schedule | Take a baseline of the project schedule to capture a snapshot of the project's schedule as it proceeds into execution. This schedule baseline provides a record of the planned work phases, tasks, milestone dates, and durations as of the end of the planning phase to track any variances as the work progresses. |
Assign resources | Assign resources to work on tasks and activities. Resource assignments built out in the project schedule in the form of role-based Reserves and Allocations provide a method of capturing the short-term planned resource effort for named individuals who will be working on projects. |
Change, Risk, and Issue Management Process Steps
Change, risk, and issue management supports the definition and classification of risks, issues and change requests, and the tracking of any subsequent actions, approvals, or escalations.
Change, risk, and issue management process flow
Process step | Description |
---|---|
Add risk |
Record the risks associated with the delivery of the work, including additional details to describe and categorize the risks. Risks identify and track things that may happen, including their impact and likelihood. Risks require a response or mitigation plan to address them. For more information: |
Add issue |
Record the issues associated with the delivery of the work, including additional details to describe and categorize the issues. Issues identify and track things that are happening now that require an owner to take action. For more information: |
Add change |
Record the changes associated with the delivery of the work, including additional details to describe and categorize the changes. Changes are alterations to a project's scope or expected deliverables. Changes can be a result of addressing a risk or an issue or the result of changing needs from the customer or management. For more information: |
Transfer or move |
Modify the subtype of a change, risk, or issue (CRI) from one type to another (for example, from a change to a risk) or move a CRI from one project or work item to another as needed. |
Close |
Close changes, risks, and issues when appropriate in a timely manner to help maintain a current overview of the factors affecting a project's progress. Use the following guidelines to close CRIs: Risks—when they are no longer determined to be risks and have not been escalated or otherwise changed. Issues—when they have been resolved or mitigated. Changes—when all associated actions are finished. |
Execution and Tracking Process Steps
Execution and tracking supports the project manager to manage the project through the execution/delivery stages and to report on the overall status and health of the project. It supports the management of all work types, whether project-based or lights-on work.
Execution and tracking process steps
Process step | Description |
---|---|
Do work |
Resources carry out the work that has been assigned to them. |
Capture data on the progress of work |
As work progresses, resources' actual time spent on work is tracked, project managers update milestones and other dates as needed, and the Progressing Engine integrates actual time reported records with all the planning records in the database. Resources' time can be captured in the following ways:
|
Review progress of work |
Track and monitor the progress being made on work using tools such as baselines to compare the current status with the planned progress. For example, project managers can monitor the scheduled and actual dates and track the variance against initial expectations, such as an initial baseline, to obtain a full understanding of the project progress. Then, they can take a new baseline to compare against a baseline taken at the start of the project. This helps project managers have a clear understanding of how a project is progressing in relation to the original baseline and identify where dates have slipped or been brought forward. Any variance from the original project baseline may have financial implications or require the proactive reassignment of resources in order to negate any negative impact on the project. |
Plan/re-plan remaining scheduled work | Manage the schedule for the remaining scheduled work, adjusting dates and durations if necessary. |
Manage exceptions and report on project status and progress |
Ensure the project/work status and work details are correct and current, evaluating and reprioritizing any items that aren't going to plan. Project managers can review or update the status of work on the Work and Assignments screen. Also, project stakeholders can view a summary of work status information on the WRK14 – Project (and Portfolio) Highlight Report, which is a FastTrack analytic. |
Reports, Outputs, and Analytics
Type | Associated Outputs, Reports, and Analytics | Description |
---|---|---|
Dashboard | FastTrack Dashboard WRK101 - Gated Project | The Gated Project dashboard provides an interactive view of project progress and performance through the organization’s stage gate process, whether for IT or product development. Project managers, product managers, and gate keepers can visualize and investigate status, scoring and financial performance by gate to understand progress and trends. |
Analytic | RES03 - Resource Portfolio Supply and Demand | Organizational (through a resource portfolio) view of resource capacity and the demand against that capacity. The demand is based on requirements, reserves, and allocations in the project schedules. Data can be pivoted by different resource dimensions, time-sliced in weeks or months, and displayed in hours, days, or FTEs. |
Analytic | RES27 - Resource Time Analysis | Resource portfolio-based report that provides an analysis of timesheet actuals: Work (project) and standard activity split, work analysis by any activity attribute (such as billable/non-billable), standard activity analysis by type, drillable table to detailed activities and timesheet hours. |
Analytic | RES28 - Resource Scheduled vs Actual Effort Analysis | Resource portfolio-based report that visualizes planned (scheduled) effort vs. actual/reported effort. Provides resource/activity/weekly level details of the hours planned for each activity and the hours reported. Additional summary charts allow analysis by work or resource attributes such as role or work type. |
Screen | Work and Assignments |
Lets you do the following:
|
Screen | Work Portfolio View | Gives you both an overview of the work items in a portfolio and easy access to the details of each work item in the portfolio. |
Analytic | WRK02 - Work Portfolio Balance | Project or work portfolio-based report that provides project count analysis of projects in the portfolio by a primary and secondary work attribute. |
Analytic | WRK03 - Project Health Trend Analysis | Provides summarization of current condition (red, amber/yellow, and green) status of projects and how these projects have trended historically. |
Analytic | WRK04 - Project Financial Health | Based on an approved financial baseline and the current forecast to complete, this exception based-analytic identifies projects that are financially out of tolerance and are forecasting an over- or underrun on the approved baseline budget. |
Analytic |
WRK05 - Schedule and Effort Variance | Portfolio exception-based analytic that compares the schedule baseline effort and duration to the forecast (scheduled) effort and duration and identifies projects that are forecasting to deliver late or require additional resource to complete. |
Analytic | WRK06 - Work Portfolio Effort | Provides summarization of project/work effort, with a drill-down to detailed project and resource hours. |
Analytic | WRK08 - Change Request Matrix | Change Request Log summary for a portfolio of projects. The matrix is used to classify change requests by two parameterized attributes, including project name. The matrix is drillable to slice/dice the list of change requests. The table shows key change request fields, attributes, ownership, and date information. |
Analytic | WRK09 - Risk Matrix | Risk Register summary for a portfolio of projects. The matrix is used to classify risk by two parameterized attributes, including project name. The matrix is drillable to slice/dice the list of risks. The table shows key risks fields, attributes, ownership, and date information. |
Analytic | WRK11 - Issue Matrix | Issue Log summary for a portfolio of projects. The matrix is used to classify issues by two parameterized attributes, including project name. The matrix is drillable to slice/dice the list of change requests. The table shows key issues fields, attributes, ownership, and date information. |
Analytic | WRK12 - Portfolio Project Health | Tabular summary providing key fields relating to the status of the projects in a portfolio. |
Analytic | WRK13 - Project (and Portfolio) Business Case Report | Summarizes key business case information on the project into a report for project stakeholders and investment review meetings. Includes project attributes and responsibility information, descriptive business case information, milestone information, commentary, and risk lists. |
Analytic | WRK14 - Project (and Portfolio) Highlight Report | Summary of key information on the project into a “one page” report for project stakeholders and project review meetings. Includes project attributes and responsibility information, trend of project condition/RAG/RYG, descriptive information, date and milestone information, commentary, and change request, risk and issue lists. |
Analytic | WRK15 - Milestone Status | Work portfolio-based report that counts and categories milestones across the portfolio. Milestones are categorized according to a milestone type (for example, Governance Milestone, Project Milestone) and grouped as either On Time/Early or Late, compared to the active schedule baseline, or as Dates Not Set, meaning they have not been planned. |
Analytic | WRK17 - Portfolio Gantt Chart | Work portfolio timeline visualization. Parameters to determine the level of detail shown, Gantt bar coloring rules, and time horizon. |
Analytic | WRK21 - Change Request History Analysis | Change Request Register analysis for a portfolio of projects. Used to analyze the volume and type of change requests and rate at which they are being raised and closed. The chart is drillable to slice/dice the list of change requests by a change request attribute or by project name. The table shows key change request fields, attributes, ownership, and date information. |
Analytic | WRK22 - Risk History Analysis | Risk Register analysis for a portfolio of projects. Used to analyze the volume and type of risks and rate at which they are being raised and closed. The chart is drillable to slice/dice the list of risks by a risk attribute, or by project name. The table shows key risk fields, attributes, ownership, and date information. |
Analytic | WRK23 - Issue History Analysis | Issue Log analysis for a portfolio of projects. Used to analyze the volume and type of issues and rate at which they are being raised and closed. The chart is drillable to slice/dice the list of issues by an issue attribute or by project name. The table shows key issue fields, attributes, ownership, and date information. |
Analytic | WRK24 - Work Project Schedule Effort Detail | A work portfolio/project-specific summary of all effort planned against the project, analyzable to the activity, resource, and day. |
Analytic | WRK25 - Work Project Timesheet Monthly Summary | A work portfolio/project-specific summary of all effort report against each project through timesheets. |
Analytic | WRK28 - Portfolio Scheduled vs Actual Effort Analysis | Work portfolio-based report that visualizes planned (scheduled) effort vs. actual/reported effort. Provides resource/activity/weekly level details of the hours planned for each activity and the hours reported.Additional summary charts allow analysis by work or resource attributes such as role or work type. |
Analytic | WRK31 - Work Portfolio Financial Analysis | Work portfolio report that allows the analysis of project and portfolio financial plan data, including effort (FTEs/Days/Hours) or financial data (Cost/Benefit/Revenue). A single financial planning version is selected and the data type selected based on type and/or specific accounts. The slicer can be any work alternate structure or a line attribute of the selected accounts. |
Analytic | WRK32 - Work Portfolio Financial Burndown Comparison | Work portfolio report that allows the comparison of one/many versions of project and portfolio financial plan data, including effort (FTEs/Days/Hours) or financial data (Cost/Benefit/Revenue). |
Analytic | WRK32 - Work Portfolio Financial Burndown Comparison | Work portfolio report that allows the comparison of one/many versions of project and portfolio financial plan data, including effort (FTEs/Days/Hours) or financial data (Cost/Benefit/Revenue). |
Analytic | WRK33 - Project Cost or Revenue/Benefit Bubble | Work portfolio report that can select cost or revenue/benefit based measures from the financial planning data to drive bubble size. |
Analytic | WRK34 - Work Portfolio Investment Balance Bubble | Work portfolio report, based on financial plan data, where the user can select benefit/revenue measures for the X axis, cost-based measures for the bubble size, and a risk-based attribute for the Y axis. |
Analytic | WRK53 - Work Portfolio Balance Dashboard | A work portfolio dashboard providing a count of projects in the portfolio, based on different project attributes to aid analysis of portfolio balance. |
Project Planning and Scheduling Process Steps
Planning and scheduling provides work managers the ability to view and manage all work details. They can develop the schedule or plan by defining the timeline, milestones, activities, and resources required to deliver the work.
Project planning and scheduling process flow
Process Step | Description |
---|---|
Define project/work breakdown structure |
Create a new project to form the basis of the project schedule. In the Work Plan, build out the work breakdown structure (WBS) by adding work items such as sub-projects, milestones, tasks, and sub-tasks. As part of this step, you can define the project start and end date, duration, and dependencies. The project schedule consists of any elements in the WBS that exist below the project level in the hierarchy, such as projects, milestones, and tasks, as well as effort, dates, and durations. The WBS can be displayed as a grid or as an Interactive Gantt view; this view also provides alternative project schedule views in the Gantt settings, such as critical path, baseline, or baseline vs. actuals. For more information: |
Determine durations and relationships |
Determine the dates and durations of work items and establish logical relationships between work items in the project schedule you defined in the previous step, such as establishing a successor or using Shortcuts to add inter-project dependencies to the plan. As a best practice, update the Work (effort) or Duration column in the Work Plan for each work item, and have the system automatically calculate the work item start and due dates. For more information: |
Plan resources |
Estimate the effort required to deliver the work at the project-level or for individual work items; define resource effort in the Work (effort) column using the Work Plan grid view. Use the Work Plan Resource Planning view to check resource availability and assign resources to projects. For more information: |
Baseline schedule |
Create a Work Plan baseline to capture a snapshot of the project's schedule as it proceeds into execution. This schedule baseline provides a record of the planned work tasks, milestones, dates, and durations to be monitored and compared to actual progress. To view baseline values and variances, add them to Work Plan columns, or search for them in the project Property Card. Baseline variances can also be viewed on the resource level in the Resource Planning view in the Work Plan. |
Assign resources |
View resource availability and assign resources to work items using the Work Plan Related Panel, or the Resource Planning View, where project managers can detail out resource assignments by day, week, or month. If multiple resources are assigned to a work item, by default effort is spread equally across the resources, but can be adjusted on an individual basis. Note: the project work load is automatically assigned to the project manager until it is assigned to a resource. |
Change, Risk, and Issue Management Process Steps
Change, risk, and issue management supports the definition and classification of risks, issues and change requests, and the tracking of any subsequent actions, approvals, or escalations.
Change, risk, and issue management process flow
Process step | Description |
---|---|
Add risk |
Risks identify and track things that may happen, including their impact and likelihood, and require a response or mitigation plan to address them. Create standalone risk case types in the Risks module. Add details to the Risk Properties card to describe and categorize the risks (e.g. risk rating), then associate the risks to one or more work items in the Add Related Panel. For more information: |
Add issue |
Issues identify and track things that are happening now that require an owner to take action. In the Issues module, create and record the issues associated with the delivery of the work, including additional details to describe and categorize the issues. |
Convert to change |
Changes are alterations to a project's scope or expected deliverables. Changes can be the result of addressing a risk or an issue, or the result of changing needs from the customer or management. In the Requests module, create requests then associate them to the delivery of a work item in the Request Properties card. Include additional details to describe and categorize the request. Requests that capture changes to project scope, timeline, or budget can be converted into a change request once approved. Requests that are used as an idea intake can be converted into a project request once approved—however, the most efficient method is to create a new project then mark its state as Requested. Managers can view all projects by type (requested, approved, etc.) |
Transfer or move |
Convert a change, risk, or issue from one case type to another (for example, from a change to a risk) or move a change, risk or issue from one project or work item to another as needed. Risks, issues, and changes can be associated to projects or work items as well as converted to other case types in the Property card. |
Resolve/Close |
Close changes, risks, and issues when appropriate in a timely manner to help maintain a current overview of the factors affecting a project's progress. Establish automatic workflow rules to automate resolving a case once a work item is complete. Use the following guidelines to close changes, risks, and issues:
|
Execution and Tracking Process Steps
Execution and tracking supports the project manager to manage the project through the execution/delivery stages and to report on the overall status and health of the project. It supports the management of all work types, whether project-based or lights-on work.
Execution and tracking process steps
Process step | Description |
---|---|
Do work |
Resources carry out the work that has been assigned to them. |
Capture data on the progress of work |
As work progresses, resources' actual time spent on work is tracked, and project managers update milestones and other dates as needed. Resources' time can be captured the following ways:
|
Review progress of work |
Track and monitor work progress using baselines to compare the current status with planned progress, or use Project Roadmaps and the interactive Gantt tool for planned vs. actual, critical path, or other views of the Work Plan. For example, project managers can monitor the scheduled and actual dates and track the variance against initial expectations, such as an initial baseline, to obtain a full understanding of the project progress. Then, they can save the Work Plan as a new baseline to compare against a baseline taken at the start of the project. This helps project managers have a clear understanding of how a project is progressing in relation to the original baseline and identify where dates have slipped or been brought forward. Any variance from the original project baseline may have financial implications or require the proactive reassignment of resources in order to negate any negative impact on the project. |
Plan/re-plan remaining scheduled work |
Manage the schedule for the remaining scheduled work, adjusting dates and durations if necessary. |
Manage exceptions and report on project status and progress |
Ensure the project/work status and work details are correct and current, evaluating and reprioritizing any items that aren't going to plan. Review and update the status of work in the Work Plan, and generate related status reports. |
Reports, Outputs, and Analytics
There are a number of standard reports related to project management. These can be run with specific filters to see the desired outputs. For more information, see Project Manager Reports, Project Highlight Report, and the Period Project Report (PPR).
Additional reports and dashboards can be created by the administrator and shared with the organization and appropriate team members.
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Supported Solutions