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Scenario for Project Management

This scenario provides an example of a process performed by a Siebel administrator, an engagement manager, and the manager's project team members. Your company may follow a different process according to its business requirements.

A Siebel administrator at a large consulting company is responsible for setting up Siebel Professional Services Automation so that users can manage their projects. He has to set up financial components, employee records, project resources, roles, and skills and competencies. He is also responsible for creating templates such as contract and work order templates and project activity templates. He has to set up Microsoft Project field mappings to make sure that users can import and export data between Microsoft Project and Siebel Professional Services Automation. He also may need to set up project-related list of values for drop-down lists used with projects. In order for projects to be billed properly, the Siebel administrator creates a cost list and associates cost list items with it. He also creates a rate list and associates rates and resources with it.

The company's engagement manager has been given the task of performing a global rollout and implementation of a Siebel Incentive Compensation for large hotel chain. She has created the project in Siebel Professional Services Automation, associated the appropriate contacts to it, and provided her team members with access to the project. She is now in the process of determining the tasks or milestones that need to be completed to have a successful and profitable project. She creates a number of activities, manually and using activity plans.

At this point, the engagement manager breaks each milestone down to its component parts by tasks. After she creates a team workbook for the project, sets up roles, associates skills and competencies with each workbook role, sets rates for project staff, and creates and submits resource requests, she assigns the tasks. She can use the Tasks view to assign tasks and set expected completion dates. She is attempting to build the skeletal project plan that she will later export to Microsoft Project. By assigning tasks, the engagement manager can give the other members of her team an idea of the work each will do on the project.

As the engagement manager's team members finish their assigned tasks, they can assess and add risks to the project, create risk resolution activities, create status reports, and associate risks with status reports. Meanwhile, the engagement manager can monitor the team's progress from the My Team's Projects view. Her team can attach files of related information, including diagrams, as necessary. Because these files are embedded in the Siebel application, anyone on the team can open the files and review the work to be done on the project. They can also add notes, create orders for project materials, and change delivery status of the project.