Projects: Concepts

A project is a set of tasks associated with an activity. In the Projects module, you can manage projects in an activity. You can add multiple projects to an activity. All projects associated with an activity are listed on the View Activities - Projects page. From this page, you can create projects, view and edit projects, access task worksheets for projects, and delete projects.

You can assign team members to a project at the activity level or at the project level.

You access these modules from the Projects module to manage project information:

Task Worksheet
Task List in a project
Gantt Chart
Work Schedules in a project
Snapshots

Example:
You are a project manager. You need to create a project to prepare for a trade show. You know a template exists that contains most of the tasks you need for your trade show preparation. You apply the template to create your new project. You use the task worksheet to add and modify tasks. You use the Gantt chart to monitor project progress. You modify work schedules as needed, and you add snapshots at project milestones for comparison when the project is completed.

Cards

Card	Description
Agile Board	This card provides a project specific agile board allowing you to add, view and edit tasks.
Content	Provides a mosaic view of the content being used in the project. Asset – Displays DAM Assets associated to the project Attachment – Displays project specific and Activity level attachments Collection – Displays the contents of a collection
Project Chat	This card provides the project chat board where users can chat in real time.

Card

Description

Agile Board

This card provides a project specific agile board allowing you to add, view and edit tasks.

Content

Provides a mosaic view of the content being used in the project.

Asset – Displays DAM Assets associated to the project
Attachment – Displays project specific and Activity level attachments
Collection – Displays the contents of a collection

Project Chat

This card provides the project chat board where users can chat in real time.

Configuring Overview

A user with the Project, Overview Configuration right will have the ability to add or remove cards from the overview screen. When a user has this right an add new card button will be available next to the three dot menu. Additionally, within the three dot menu of each card will be an option to delete the card. Configuration changes are unique per project and are saved automatically

Note:
Deleting the card does not delete any data contained within the project or card.

Key Fields

Details
Additional Fields, Sections, and Tabs
Roles

Details

Field	Description
Type	Select the additional fields tracked for the project. The type field is optional. Types are defined in System Tools in the System Types module in the Configuration navigation group. Point to the action icon next to Projects and click View Details to see the list of types.
Timezone	Select the time zone that all tasks associated with the project use when calculating task times. This field defaults to the time zone assigned to the activity.
Project Manager	You can add the project manager to the access list for the activity.
Activity	Select the activity with which the project is associated. Users can access the activity via a hyperlink from their task.
Enable ALAP	Select Yes or No depending on whether the project uses tasks with start dates of As Late As Possible (ALAP). If you set the Enable ALAP field to Yes, tasks cannot use As Soon As Possible task start dates in the project. If you set the Enable ALAP field to No, tasks cannot use As Late As Possible start dates. The following scenario can occur only for a project in Draft status. If you create a project with tasks using the As Late As Possible start type, and you select No for the Enable ALAP field, the tasks that use the As Late As Possible start type are changed automatically to use the As Soon As Possible start type. Likewise, if you create a project with tasks using the As Soon As Possible start type, and you select Yes for the Enable ALAP field, the tasks that use the As Soon As Possible start type are changed automatically to use the As Late As Possible start type.
ALAP Flexible Duration	Select whether the workflow uses flexible durations for ALAP (As Late As Possible). If the ALAP Flexible Duration is set to Yes, tasks and the project will maintain the end date. Therefore, if a task finishes early the subsequent task will start early, but the end date of that task will stay fixed giving the user more time to complete this task. If the ALAP Flexible Duration is set to No (default option), the subsequent task will start early but the end date of the task will move forward and keep the estimated duration. Therefore, users will not be given extra time to the complete the subsequent task.
Status	This read-only field displays the project's status. Initializing Aprimo is setting up the project. If the project is based on a template, the initial tasks are created. Initialize Failed An error occurred during the project setup. This can happen when fixed-begin-date tasks reference unassigned date attributes, in which case you receive a notification that indicates the tasks and the date fields. If you don't receive a notification about missing dates, the error occurred for some other reason. Ask your system administrator to check the [Server Name].Workflow.Workflow log to learn what caused the error. The Services Reference includes instructions. Draft You can change the project and its tasks and dates. Tasks are not yet assigned. Starting Aprimo starts the project and assigns the first set of tasks and any projected tasks. Start Failed An error occurred during the project start. Ask your system administrator to check the [Server Name].Workflow.Workflow log. The Services Reference includes instructions. In Process Work is being done and any additional tasks are assigned. Paused You have paused the project. Closed All the project's tasks are closed, and the project is complete. Canceled You have canceled the project.
Outlook	This field displays the projected outlook of the project with regard to the baseline for the project. The project outlook is determined by the tasks in the project. It is based on the current date and the date that the tasks are due to be completed. If the outlook color of a project is red when it is closed, it remains red. Otherwise, a closed project's outlook is green. The end task's baseline date for the project appears next to the Outlook field on the View Project - Details page after the project is started. Gray The project associated with the task has not yet started. Green The task is projected to end on or before its baseline end date. Yellow The project has an end date after the baseline end date, but the baseline end date has not yet passed. Orange The task is green but has a predecessor that ends after the scheduled start date of this task. Red The baseline end date for the project has passed.
Begin Date	This field displays the date that the project status moved from Draft to In Process. This field is read-only.
End Date	This field displays the actual end date or canceled date from the end task after the project is closed or canceled. This field is read-only.
Estimated Work	This field displays the estimated amount of time needed to complete the project. This field is read-only.
Actual Work	This field displays the actual work entered for the project. This field is read-only.
Template Name	This field displays the name of the template that was applied, if a template was used to create the project. This field links to the workflow design for the template. You cannot modify the information on the Details tab and the Workflow Design tab.
Project Scale	This field will always default to the Default project scale. If other project scales have been activated in the Project Scale system type those will be available for selection here. When a project scale is selected it will use the duration entered in each task/review task in the project. If a specific task does not have the scale filled in that corresponds to the selection in this field, the Default value will be used. Note: This project scale field can be set on the Details page by a user who can access the Project Details, or it can be set by adding the ‘Proposed Project Scale’ field to a Data Collection Template. If the latter is selected, a user assigned to a task who can access this DCT in the task inbox would be able to set the project scale. In this use case, the project scale would be changed on task closure. Upon close, the Project Scale field is changed to the value selected in the Proposed Project Scale field and in subsequent DCTs, the Proposed Project Scale will again appear blank in order to accept another proposed change.

RM Communication

Note: This feature is available in Aprimo Marketing Studio 9.1 only.

This section appears if you use the Customer Interaction Manager integration and the project type is RM Communication. See the key fields in the Customer Interaction Manager Integration topic.

Additional Fields, Sections, and Tabs

Your system administrator can create additional fields for some objects and make them available for certain system types. Additional fields appear on the Details tab in the Additional Details section or in other sections or on other tabs that the system administrator creates.

For more information about an additional field, section, or tab, contact your system administrator. For more information about additional fields in general, see Additional Fields.

Chat Access

Any user who is put onto the Additional Chat User list either manually or through detection mechanisms present when a chat message is posted, will be granted access to the chat board relevant to the Project. It will not give them any additional elevated rights to interact with the Project or its parent Activity, though these can be granted at a later time if so desired.

Roles

Field	Description
Role	Select the role of the user or the group you are defining. Note: Users assigned to a project role whose Exclude from Project Chat Boards field is set to Yes cannot access chat boards for that project.
Users/Groups	Select users and groups for the role for this project. The users and groups you select are assigned to the roles on the tasks in this project. If you apply a team to the project, the application adds all users and groups assigned to the roles for that team to the project. Note: If the Append Roles when Applying Teams system parameter is set to Yes, the application adds users from the team roles to the same project roles, regardless of whether the project roles already had users defined. You can select users for this project who are not assigned to the role for the team. If you add a single role to the project, all users and groups assigned to the role are available for you to select.

Field

Description

Role

Select the role of the user or the group you are defining.

Note:
Users assigned to a project role whose Exclude from Project Chat Boards field is set to Yes cannot access chat boards for that project.

Users/Groups

Select users and groups for the role for this project. The users and groups you select are assigned to the roles on the tasks in this project.

If you apply a team to the project, the application adds all users and groups assigned to the roles for that team to the project.

Note:
If the Append Roles when Applying Teams system parameter is set to Yes, the application adds users from the team roles to the same project roles, regardless of whether the project roles already had users defined.

You can select users for this project who are not assigned to the role for the team.

If you add a single role to the project, all users and groups assigned to the role are available for you to select.

Expired Digital Assets

When you create a project by applying a template, you might see a page that alerts you to expired digital assets. You can choose to either continue or cancel. If you click the Continue button, you can create the project using the template, but the expired digital assets will not be available. Click the Cancel button to manage the digital assets.

To manage expired digital assets, you need to fix the digital asset expiration date. The Expired Digital Assets page displays the title of the expired assets and how they are used in the project. After you fix the digital asset expiration, you need to re-validate and re-promote the project template. See Validating, Promoting, and Reverting a Workflow.

Tasks Without Dates

When you create a project from a template, you might receive a page that lists tasks without dates. You need to update the date information for each task on the page.

Deleting Content Items From Projects

There may be times you want to delete a content item in the DAM used in a project. The following is guidance around deleting content items from projects.

A user has made a mistake and uploaded the wrong content item to the project: If the project is a project that should continue, then a person who has access to the project manager view (able to access through task worksheet or task list page) should go into the project, open the task where the wrong content item is showing and remove it by editing the User Data tab and deleting. The task and project can be in any status when removing the link from the workflow. If this is the only project where the content item is used, it will release the lock and the asset can be deleted with no additional permission necessary.

The entire project is a mistake, or a test project: If the project is a project that is closed and never needs to be accessed again, doesn’t need to continue and doesn’t need to be used again, then you can leverage the DAM permission “Override Delete Usage Lock”. If you have that permission then you can delete the asset without removing the lock. Just keep in mind, that if you go with this approach, there will be errors if you ever need to access the project again. DO NOT delete using this override right to remove a mistake in a running project. If you do this, the project will break.