Implementing Oracle Project Foundation

This chapter contains instructions for implementing Oracle Project Foundation.

This chapter covers the following topics:

Oracle Project Foundation Implementation Checklists

Oracle Project Foundation provides the common foundation shared across the Oracle Projects products (Project Costing, Project Billing, Project Resource Management, Project Management and Project Collaboration).

For general information about the Oracle Projects implementation checklists, see Oracle Projects Implementation Checklist.

Note: To find out how to access a window, refer to the Navigation Paths index, Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

Oracle Project Foundation Product Setup

The following checklist shows the steps required to implement Oracle Project Foundation. The product setup checklist is organized by area of functionality. The Required/Optional column indicates if the step is required or optional for use of the product.

To implement Oracle Project Foundation, complete the steps in the following order:

  1. Ledgers and Currencies

  2. Organization Definition

  3. Period and Calendar Definition

  4. Implementation Options

  5. Resource Definition

  6. Rate Schedule Definition

  7. Role Definition

  8. Project and Organization Security

  9. Task Definition

  10. Project Definition

  11. System Administration and Maintenance

The following table shows the product abbreviations that are used in the Required/Optional indicators.

Product Abbreviation Product
Required - All Required for all products in Oracle Projects Suite
Optional - All Optional for all products in Oracle Projects Suite
PJF Project Foundation
PJC Project Costing
PJB Project Billing
PJP Project Portfolio Analysis
PJR Project Resource Management
PJT Project Management
PJL Project Collaboration

1. Ledgers and Currencies

The following table lists the steps required for ledgers and currencies:

Step Description Required /Optional Setup Level Responsibility
PJF-P1.1 Define ledger Required - All Site  
PJF-P1.2 Set the profile option GL: Ledger Required - All OU (set at the responsibility level) System Administrator
PJF-P1.3 Enable additional currencies you plan to use Optional - All Site Projects Implementation Super User

Note: For details about the ledgers and currencies steps, see Ledgers and Currencies.

2. Organization Definition

The following table lists the steps required for organization definition:

Step Description Required /Optional Setup Level Responsibility
PJF-P2.1 Define locations Required - All Business Group Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P2.2 Define organizations Required - All Business Group Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P2.3 Set the profile option HR: Cross Business Group Optional - All Site System Administrator
PJF-P2.4 Enable Multiple Organization Architecture Optional - All Site  
PJF-P2.5 Define default operating unit for the project expenditure organizations Required - PJR
Optional - PJC		 Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P2.6 Define organization hierarchies and/or global organization hierarchies Required - All Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P2.7 Assign a project burdening hierarchy for each business group Optional - PJC, PJB Site Projects Implementation Super User

Note: For details about the organization definition steps, see Organizations.

3. Period and Calendar Definition

The following table lists the steps required for period and calendar:

Step Description Required /Optional Setup Level Responsibility
PJF-P3.1 Set the profile option PA: Enable Enhanced Period Processing Optional - PJC, PJB Site System Administrator
PJF-P3.2 Define GL and PA periods Required - All Ledger Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P3.3 Set the GL period status Optional - PJC, PJB Ledger Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P3.4 Define calendar types Required - PJR, PJT
Optional - PJC		 Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P3.5 Define calendar shifts and shift patterns Required - PJR, PJT
Optional - PJC		 Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P3.6 Define calendar exceptions Optional - PJR, PJT, PJC Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P3.7 Define calendars Required - PJR, PJT
Optional - PJC		 Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P3.8 Assign calendar shifts Required - PJR, PJT
Optional - PJC		 Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P3.9 Set the following profile options:
PA: Default Calendar
PA: Global Week Start Day
PA: Availability/Overcommitment Calculation Period
PA: Percentage of Resource's Capacity
PA: Availability Duration		 Required - PJR, PJT
Optional - PJC		 Site System Administrator
PJF-P3.10 Define default calendar for the project expenditure organization Required - PJR
Optional - PJC, PJT		 Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P3.11 Run the Generate Calendar Schedules process Required - PJR
Optional - PJC		 Site Projects Implementation Super User

Note: For details about the period and calendar definition steps, see Periods and Calendars.

4. Implementation Options

The following table lists the step required for implementation options:

Step Description Required /Optional Setup Level Responsibility
PJF-P4.1 Define implementation options (System, Currency, Project Setup, Expnd/Costing, Billing, and Cross Charge). Required - All OU Projects Implementation Super User

Note: For details about the implementation options step, see Defining Implementation Options.

5. Resource Definition

The following table lists the steps required for resource definition:

Step Description Required /Optional Setup Level Responsibility
PJF-P5.1 Define job groups Required - PJR
Optional - PJC, PJB		 Business Group Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P5.2 Define job levels and job codes Required - PJR Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P5.3 Define jobs Required - PJR
Optional - PJC, PJB		 Business Group Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P5.4 Define job mapping Optional - PJR, PJC, PJB Business Group Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P5.5 Set profile option PA Project Resource Job Group, or define the job group for the organization Required - PJR Site System Administrator
PJF-P5.6 Define rating scales Required - PJR Business Group Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P5.7 Define competencies Required - PJR Business Group Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P5.8 Define people, including address, assignment, job, supervisor, and competencies Required - PJR
Optional - All		 Business Group Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P5.9 Migrate resource data from other systems Optional - All Site  
PJF-P5.10 Run PRC: Maintain Project Resources Required - PJR
Optional - PJC (utilization)		 Site Projects Implementation Super User

Note: For details about the resource definition steps, see Resources.

6. Rate Schedule Definition

The following table lists the step required for rate schedule definition:

Step Description Required /Optional Setup Level Responsibility
PJF-P6.1 Define rate schedules Optional - PJC, PJB, PJT OU Projects Implementation Super User

Note: For details about the rate schedule definition step, see Rate Schedule Definition.

7. Role Definition

The following table lists the steps required for role definition:

Step Description Required /Optional Setup Level Responsibility
PJF-P7.1 Define roles Required - PJR, PJT, PJL
Optional - PJC, PJB		 Business Group Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P7.2 Define role lists Optional - All Site Project Super User
PJF-P7.3 Define project roles for organizations Optional - All Site Project Super User

Note: For details about the role definition steps, see Roles.

8. Project and Organization Security

The following table lists the steps required for project and organization security:

Step Description Required /Optional Setup Level Responsibility
PJF-P8.1 Implement responsibility-based security Optional - All Site System Administrator
PJF-P8.2 Set the profile option PA: Cross-Project User - View Optional - All Site System Administrator
PJF-P8.3 Set the profile option PA: Cross-Project User - Update Optional - All Site System Administrator
PJF-P8.4 Set the profile option PA: View All Project Resources Optional - All Site System Administrator
PJF-P8.5 Implement role-based security Optional - PJR, PJT, PJL Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P8.6 Implement organizational authority Optional - PJC, PJR, PJT, PJL Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P8.7 Implement project security extension Optional - All Site  
PJF-P8.8 Define security profiles and/or global security profiles Optional - All Business Group (need to be changed when adding new OU) System Administrator
PJF-P8.9 Set the profile option HR: Security Profile Required - All Site System Administrator

Note: For details about the project and organization security steps, see Project and Organization Security.

9. Task Definition

The following table lists the steps required for task definition:

Step Description Required /Optional Setup Level Responsibility
PJF-P9.1 Define additional task statuses Optional - PJT Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P9.2 Define additional task types Optional - PJT Site Project Super User
PJF-P9.3 Define additional task priorities Optional - PJT Site Projects Implementation Super User

Note: For details about the task definition steps, see Task Definition .

10. Project Definition

The following table lists the steps required for project definition:

Step Description Required /Optional Setup Level Responsibility
PJF-P10.1 Define additional statuses Optional - All Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P10.2 Define additional classifications, class categories and class codes Optional - All Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P10.3 Define service types Required - All Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P10.4 Define project customer relationships Required - PJB Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P10.5 Define contact types Required - PJB Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P10.6 Define probability lists Optional - All Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P10.7 Define resource lists Required - All Business Group Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P10.8 Implement resource classes Optional - PJT Site Project Super User
PJF-P10.9 Define planning resource lists Optional - PJT Business Group Project Super User
PJF-P10.10 Define resource breakdown structures Optional - PJT, PJC(allocations) Business Group Project Super User
PJF-P10.11 Define cycles Required - PJB
Optional - PJT		 Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P10.12 Define work types Required - PJR
Optional - PJC, PJB		 Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P10.13 Define project types
* This step should be revisited after you have defined your desired features across the suite		 Required - All OU Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P10.14 Define project lifecycles Optional - All Site Project Super User
PJF-P10.15 Define user-defined attributes Optional - All Site Project Super User
PJF-P10.16 Define project templates
* This step should be revisited after you have defined your desired features across the suite		 Required - All OU Projects Implementation Super User , Project Super User
PJF-P10.17 Implement project verification extension Optional - All Site  
PJF-P10.18 Implement project workflow Optional - All Site Workflow Builder
PJF-P10.19 Implement project workflow extension Optional - All Site  
PJF-P10.20 Implement the verify organization change extension Optional - All Site  
PJF-P10.21 Setup profile option PA: Home Page Highlights: Number of Weeks Optional - All Site System Administrator
PJF-P10.22 Implement Project Search Optional - All Site Projects Implementation Super User

Note: For details about the project definition steps, see Project Definition .

11. System Administration and Maintenance

The following table lists the steps required for system administration and maintenance:

Step Description Required /Optional Setup Level Responsibility
PJF-P11.1 Define request groups for reporting and processes Optional - All Site System Administrator
PJF-P11.2 Define responsibilities for users Optional - All Site/OU
You may want to create additional responsibilities		 System Administrator
PJF-P11.3 Define additional users Optional - All Site System Administrator
PJF-P11.4 Initiate Deferred Workflow processes Required - PJR
Optional - PJF (utilization), PJT (budgetary controls)		 Site System Administrator
PJF-P11.5 Define frequently used folders Optional - All Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P11.6 Define descriptive flexfields Optional - All Site System Administrator
PJF-P11.7 Define additional page layouts Optional - All Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-P11.8 Set the profile option PA: Highlight Starting Tasks: Number of Days Optional - All Site System Administrator
PJF-P11.9 Gather schema statistics Optional - All Site System Administrator

Note: For details about the system administration and maintenance steps, see System Administration and Maintenance.

Oracle Project Foundation Feature Setup

The following checklist shows the steps required to implement each Oracle Project Foundation feature. The list is organized by feature. The Required/Optional column indicates if the step is required or optional for use of each feature.

To implement Oracle Project Foundation features, complete the steps in the following order:

  1. Organization Forecasting

  2. Utilization

  3. Oracle Sales Integration

  4. Oracle Product Lifecycle Management Integration

  5. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)

Required and Optional Steps by Product

Each step includes indicators showing:

The word All is displayed if all products in the Oracle Projects Suite are applicable.

The following table shows the product abbreviations that are used in the Required and Optional indicators.

Product Abbreviation Product
Required - All Required for all products in Oracle Projects Suite
Optional - All Optional for all products in Oracle Projects Suite
PJF Project Foundation
PJC Project Costing
PJB Project Billing
PJR Project Resource Management
PJT Project Management
PJL Project Collaboration

1. Organization Forecasting

The following table lists the steps required for organization forecasting:

Step Description Required /Optional Setup Level Responsibility
PJF-F1.1 Define an additional status for Organization Forecasting Optional - PJC, PJR Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-F1.2 Update status controls to include project in Organization Forecasts Required - PJC, PJR Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-F1.3 Define an organization project type Required - PJC, PJR OU Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-F1.4 Define an organization project template Required - PJC, PJR OU Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-F1.5 Define organization forecasting options Required - PJC, PJR OU Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-F1.6 Define adjustment reasons Required - PJC, PJR Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-F1.7 Calculate initial forecast amounts Required - PJC, PJR Site Projects Implementation Super User

Note: For details about the organization forecasting steps, see Organization Forecasting.

2. Utilization

The following table lists the steps required for utilization:

Step Description Required /Optional Setup Level Responsibility
PJF-F2.1 Define unassigned time options Required - PJC, PJR OU Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-F2.2 Define utilization categories Required - PJC, PJR Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-F2.3 Set the following profile options for utilization:
PA: Require Work Type Entry for Expenditures
PA: Resource Utilization Calculation Method
PA: Resource Utilization Period Type
PA: Utilization Manager Default Calculation Method
PA: Utilization Manager Default Period Type		 Required - PJC, PJR Site System Administrator
PJF-F2.4 Set up global profile options Required - PJC, PJR Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-F2.5 Set up organization security profiles Required - PJC, PJR Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-F2.6 Define Oracle Daily Business Intelligence for Projects implementation options Required - PJC, PJR Site Project Super User
PJF-F2.7 Update period and organization information Required - PJC, PJR Site Project Super User
PJF-F2.8 Summarize financial and resource data Required - PJC, PJR Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-F2.9 Implement Oracle Discoverer Required - PJC, PJR Site  

Note: For details about the utilization steps, see Utilization.

3. Oracle Sales Integration

The following table lists the step required for Oracle Sales integration:

Step Description Required /Optional Setup Level Responsibility
PJF-F3.1 Implement Oracle Sales opportunities with Oracle Projects Required - All Site Project Super User

Note: For details about the Oracle Sales Integration steps, see Oracle Sales Integration.

4. Oracle Product Lifecycle Management Integration

The following table lists the step required for Oracle Product Lifecycle Management integration:

Step Description Required /Optional Setup Level Responsibility
PJF-F4.1 Implement Oracle Product Lifecycle Management Integration Required - All Site Defined in PLM

Note: For details about the Oracle Product Lifecycle Management Integration step, see Oracle Product Lifecycle Management Integration.

5. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)

The following table lists the steps required for application programming interfaces:

Step Description Required /Optional Setup Level Responsibility
PJF-F5.1 Define control actions Required - All Site Projects Implementation Super User
PJF-F5.2 Define source products Required - All Site Projects Implementation Super User

Note: For details about the Application Programming Interface steps, see Application Programming Interfaces.

Ledgers and Currencies

The following instructions give details about the Ledgers and Currencies steps in the Oracle Project Foundation Product Implementation Checklist.

Define an Oracle Applications Ledger

A ledger determines the currency, chart of accounts, accounting calendar, ledger processing options and subledger accounting method, if used, for a legal entity, group of legal entities, or some other business purpose that does not involve legal entities.

You define ledgers when you create accounting setups in Accounting Setup Manager. Each accounting setup requires a primary ledger and optionally one or more secondary ledgers and reporting currencies.

You perform the following steps to set up your Oracle Applications ledger:

Note: Your ledger must have at least one legal entity associated with it so that it can be used for setting up Oracle Projects.

For more information, see General Ledger Setup Steps, Oracle General Ledger Implementation Guide. If you have already implemented a ledger while setting up a different Oracle Application, you can skip these steps.

Tip: For a description of Fremont Corporation's ledger, see: Fremont Corporation Ledger.

Oracle Projects Considerations when Defining your Accounting Flexfield

Consider the following features when you define accounting flexfields:

Dynamic Inserts

You can define your Accounting Flexfield structure with or without the Allow Dynamic Inserts options enabled. See: Defining Key Flexfield Structures, Oracle Applications Flexfield Guide.

Segment Qualifiers

Two Oracle Projects audit reports, the AUD: Cost Audit Report and the AUD: Revenue Audit Report, list account combinations and require the following flexfield segment qualifiers for your Accounting Flexfield:

Ledger Name Profile Option

To indicate the ledger in use at the site, application, or responsibility level, you set the GL: Ledger Name profile option.

For more information, see: General Ledger Applications Profile Options, Oracle General Ledger Reference Guide.

Enabling Currencies You Want to Use

Before you can process transactions or billing in multiple currencies, you must enable the currencies that you plan to use, using the Currencies window in Oracle General Ledger. See: Defining Currencies, Oracle General Ledger User's Guide.

You also need to use Oracle General Ledger to set up and maintain the exchange rate types and exchange rates.

See: Defining Conversion Rate Types and Currency Rates Manager in the Oracle General Ledger User's Guide.

Multi-Currency Processing

This section describes the steps you need to take to use multiple currencies in Oracle Projects.

Setting up Multi-Currency Transactions

To set up your system to process multi-currency transactions, perform the following steps:

Setting up Multi-Currency Billing

To set up your system to process invoices in currencies different from the project functional currency, perform the following steps:

Define Invoice Currency Attributes for Project Templates and/or Projects.

In the Customers and Contacts options window, enter the project customer invoice currency attributes if the Enable Multi Currency Billing option is enabled for the project template/project.

You can override the project template values when you set up a new project. You can also change the attributes at any time. Changes affect the processing of future project invoices only (not invoices that are already generated). In addition, changes to a project's currency attributes do not affect the currency attributes of credit memos, write-offs, or cancellations of invoices that are generated before the attributes were changed.

Reviewing Invoices

Before you release an invoice, you can use the Invoice Review windows to change the invoice currency attributes (if you are permitted under the project security to do so). The Invoice Review windows display the amounts in the invoice currency, project functional, funding, invoice processing, and project currency.

Generating Invoices

The Generate Draft Invoices process generates invoices in the invoice processing currency, then converts them to the invoice currency, based on the Project Customer setup.

Fremont Corporation Ledger

This section describes the ledger Fremont Corporation uses. It includes Fremont's accounting periods and Accounting Flexfield, including company codes, account codes, and cost center codes.

You may want to familiarize yourself with Fremont's chart of accounts if you plan to experiment with Fremont's Oracle Projects implementation, or if you want to study the way Fremont implemented AutoAccounting.

Fremont Corporation Period Types

The following table shows the accounting period types that Fremont Corporation uses in its calendar:

Accounting Period Type Number of Periods per Year Year Type in Name
Week 52 Calendar
Month 12 Calendar
Quarter 4 Fiscal
Year 1 Fiscal

Fremont Corporation Calendar Periods

Fremont Corporation defines a calendar named Standard for their calendar periods. Fremont uses a 5-4-4 (or 13 week) calendar.

Fremont Corporation Ledger

Fremont Corporation uses a ledger that specifies their calendar, functional currency, and account structure.

Field Name Value
Ledger Name Fremont Corporation
Short Name Fremont
Functional Currency USD
Chart of Accounts Fremont Corporation
Calendar Standard
Period Type Month
Allow Suspense Posting No
Future Periods 2
Balance Intercompany Journals Yes
Enable Budgetary Control No
Require Budget Journals No

Fremont Corporation Chart of Accounts Structure

Fremont Corporation uses a three-segment Accounting Flexfield to represent their chart of accounts. The Accounting Flexfield is constructed as follows:

Company - Cost Center - Account

For example, the account number 02-201-5100 corresponds to the Electrical group's (02-201) expense account for private, billable labor expense (5100).

Company Codes

Fremont Corporation has four subordinate organizations within the business group; Fremont defines company segments for each organization. The Company segment is Fremont's balancing segment.

The following table shows Fremont Corporation's organizations, and the balancing Company segments.

Organization Company
Administration 01
Fremont Engineering 02
Fremont Construction 03
Fremont Services 04

Fremont Corporation Company and Cost Center Codes

Notice that each of the lowest level organizations (groups) in Fremont Corporation's organization hierarchy corresponds to a cost center. The following tables shows Fremont Corporation's organizations, with corresponding company codes and cost center codes.

Organization Company Cost Center
Fremont Corporation   000
Administration 01 100
Executive Office 01 101
Human Resources 01 102
Finance 01 103
Information Services 01 104
Fremont Engineering 02 200
Electrical 02 201
Structural 02 202
Mechanical 02 203
Environmental 02 204
Fremont Construction 03 300
West 03 301
Midwest 03 302
East 03 303
South 03 304
International 03 305
Fremont Services 04 400
Data Systems 04 401
Risk Analysis 04 402

Fremont Corporation Account Codes

Fremont Corporation uses a similar set of accounts for each company and cost center, although not every company and cost center has each kind of account. The Account segment is Fremont's natural account. Fremont's account codes are shown in the following table.

Account Description Type
1000 Cash Asset
1100 Accounts Receivable Asset
1101 Unbilled Receivables Asset
1110 Unbilled Retention Asset
1200 Inventory Asset
1500 Intercompany Asset
1600 Prepayments - Employee Advances Asset
2100 Unearned Revenue Liability
2200 Accounts Payable, Employee Liability
2300 Payroll Clearing Liability
2400 Asset Usage Clearing Liability
2500 Accounts Payable, Supplier Invoice Liability
3100 Retained Earnings Ownership
4100 Private Professional Fee Revenue Revenue
4101 Public Professional Fee Revenue Revenue
4102 Private Borrowed and Lent Revenue
4103 Public Borrowed and Lent Revenue
4200 Computer Fee Revenue Revenue
4201 Vehicle and Equipment Revenue Revenue
4202 Misc Asset Revenue Revenue
4210 Usage Borrowed and Lent Revenue
4300 Expense Report Revenue Revenue
4400 Subcontractor Revenue Revenue
4500 Bonus Revenue Revenue
4520 Realized Gains Revenue
4600 Other Misc Revenue Revenue
5100 Private, Billable Labor Cost Expense
5101 Public, Billable Labor Cost Expense
5102 Private, Non-Billable Labor Cost Expense
5103 Public, Non-Billable Labor Cost Expense
5150 Marketing Labor Cost Expense
5151 Government Marketing Cost Expense
5152 Research & Development Labor Cost Expense
5153 Administration Labor Cost Expense
5154 Bid an Proposal Labor Cost Expense
5170 Holiday Time Expense
5171 Sick Time Expense
5172 Vacation Time Expense
5173 Overtime Labor Cost Expense
5199 Transfer Out to Inventory Expense
5200 Travel & Lodging Expense Expense
5201 Meals Expense Expense
5202 Miscellaneous Expense Expense
5400 Computer Expense Expense
5401 Vehicle and Equipment Expense Expense
5402 Other Asset Expense Expense
5500 Write-Offs Expense
5500 Realized Losses Expense
5600 Construction Subcontracting Expense Expense
5610 Consulting Expense Expense
5620 Miscellaneous Subcontract Expense Expense
5630 Supplies Expense

Related Topics

Conversion Attributes, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Billing Implementation Options

Currency Implementation Options

Customers and Contacts, Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

Organizations

The following instructions give details about the Organization Definition steps in the Oracle Project Foundation Product Implementation Checklist.

Overview of Organizations

The business group organizations you define represent each legislative unit under which your business operates. Within each business group, you can define organizations to represent the structure of your enterprise.

Organizations and employees are partitioned by business groups. Many enterprises choose to use a single business group so that they can manage and report information from all parts of the enterprise at the same time. However, companies that have foreign operations must have a unique business group for each country. This enables them to deal with local legislative requirements and to define unique structures, jobs, benefits, and compensation policies.

You can choose to have multiple business groups even if you do not have foreign operations. If you have multiple business groups, you must first define a top organization that will encompass all business groups.

Within each business group you define the groupings in which employees work, such as divisions, branches, departments, or sections. You also maintain information about various types of external organizations relevant to human resources, payroll, or administration. For example, you might define an organization as external to record a work site address at which employees are stationed for extended periods of time.

Related Topics

Organizations in Oracle Projects, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Representing Organizations, Oracle HRMS Enterprise and Workforce Management Guide

Creating an Organization, Oracle HRMS Enterprise and Workforce Management Guide

Organization Classifications

To control how an organization is used in Oracle Projects, you enable one or more of the following Organization Classifications:

For more information about the organization classifications used in Oracle Projects, see: Organizations in Oracle Projects, Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

Locations

You can define an unlimited number of locations using the Location window. Location names appear in a list of values in any field where you enter a location such as the Organization and Enter Person windows.

Although the Location window allows you to enter detailed information about a location, Oracle Projects requires only that you provide information in the Name field for each location.

You define a location for each address your business uses. Give each location a short name and then assign it to an individual organization or to an employee. A location is easier to type than a full address, especially if many employees or organizations use it. If several organizations are located at the same address, you assign the corresponding location to each organization.

For example, if WHQ is the location for World Headquarters and West is the location for a West coast office, you assign all organizations at World Headquarters the location WHQ, and all organizations at the West coast office the location West.

You can use locations for reporting purposes. For example, you might assign one location to your corporate headquarters and another location to your large branch office on the East coast. Both of these organizations may include several subordinate organizations. You can create custom reports using these locations, such as one that breaks down the total revenue by the location of a project-owning organization.

Fremont Corporation Locations

Fremont Corporation's Oracle Projects implementation team defines the following locations:

The location details are shown in the following table:

Name Description City State Country
HQ Corporate Headquarters Bay Grove CA United States
East Construction: east coast field office Boston MA United States
International Construction: is international field office Marseilles   France

Related Topics

Organizations

Site Locations, Oracle HRMS Enterprise and Workforce Management Guide

Defining Organizations

After you identify your business group, you need to specify all the organizations within the business group. These organizations may be divisions, groups, or other organizational units, as well as organizations representing your external contractors.

Oracle Projects uses organizations for the following business purposes:

You use the Organization window to specify all the organizations within your business group. Organizations you define here appear in lists of values in the Organization Name fields throughout Oracle Projects.

Important: When you define organizations, you need to assign Organization Classifications to each organization that you want to use in Oracle Projects. See: Organization Classifications.

Fremont Corporation Organizations

Fremont Corporation consists of four divisions (Administration, Fremont Engineering, Fremont Construction, and Fremont Services), each of which includes several groups. The following table shows the information that Fremont's implementation team enters to define its organizations. All the organizations are internal.

For all of Fremont Corporation's organizations, the following organization classifications are enabled:

Organization Name Location
Administration HQ
Data Systems HQ
East East
Electrical HQ
Environmental HQ
Executive Office HQ
Finance HQ
Fremont Construction HQ
Fremont Engineering HQ
Fremont Services HQ
Human Resources HQ
Information Services HQ
International International
Mechanical HQ
Midwest HQ
Risk Analysis HQ
South HQ
Structural HQ
West HQ

Related Topics

Creating an Organization, Oracle HRMS Enterprise and Workforce Management Guide

Setting the Cross Business Group Profile Option

In the Oracle HRMS model, the business group is at the country level and a top organization encompasses all business groups in a company worldwide. People, projects, jobs, and organizations can be located in different business groups for different countries and all information can be shared throughout the enterprise.

Oracle Projects allows the visibility of all business groups to one another. For example, you can search staff resources on projects across business groups, and charge any project across the enterprise for a resource.

You control access to single or multiple business groups by setting the profile option HR: Cross Business Group:

For more information, see: HR: Cross Business Group.

Enabling Multiple Organization Architecture

If you intend to use multiple organization functionality, you need to enable multiple organization architecture in your system.

For details, please refer to:

Defining a Default Operating Unit for Project Expenditure Organizations

To enable an organization to own project events, incur expenditures, and hold budgets for projects, you must perform the following tasks when you define the organization:

For instructions on performing these tasks, refer to the following sources:

Defining Organization Hierarchies

An organization hierarchy illustrates the relationships between your organizations. When you define a hierarchy, you tell Oracle Projects which organizations are subordinate to which other organizations.

To define an organization hierarchy (not a global organization hierarchy), you use the Organization Hierarchy window. The organization hierarchy you define here appears in a list of values in the Implementation Options window.

If you have enabled Cross Business Group Access, you can define global organization hierarchies that contain organizations from any business group. To define a global organization hierarchy, you use the Global Organization Hierarchy window. To access the Global Organization Hierarchy window, you must use a responsibility that is associated with a global security profile. For more information about setting up and using security profiles, see Security, Configuring, Reporting and System Administration in Oracle HRMS.

You can create as many organization hierarchies as you need for different reporting and processing needs, and you can create multiple versions of an organization hierarchy. Oracle Projects uses the hierarchy version to determine which organizations are used for reporting and processing.

You specify a start organization to indicate which branch of your organization hierarchy you want Oracle Projects to recognize as the top of your hierarchy for a particular purpose. If you want to use your entire organization hierarchy, your top organization (generally the business group) is the start organization.

The following organization hierarchy versions are assigned in Oracle Projects:

If you currently use Oracle Human Resources, you can use existing hierarchies for Oracle Projects or create new hierarchies. If you do not currently use Oracle Human Resources, you must specify at least one hierarchy for Oracle Projects. You can change these organization hierarchy versions at any time.

Fremont Corporation Organization Hierarchy

Fremont Corporation organizations include the following hierarchy of divisions and groups.

Fremont Corporation's four divisions are further divided into the following groups:

The following diagram shows the Fremont Corporation organization hierarchy:

Fremont Corporation divisions and groups

the picture is described in the document text

Business Groups

You use the Organization window to retrieve the view-all security profile with the same name as the business group. You enter the name of your business group to create your business group.

The business group you define appears in the list of values when you set up the HR: Security Profile profile option.

You must also specify required business group information. Note that even though you must fill in a value for every segment in the Business Group Flexfield, Oracle Projects uses only the following information:

Security Groups

Security groups are a method of partitioning data. When using the standard HRMS security model, you do not use security groups. The business group is the only data partition. Responsibilities are linked to business groups. Therefore, to access different business groups, users must change responsibilities.

If you want one responsibility to be enabled for more that one business group, you must use Cross Business Group responsibility security. In this model, security groups are defined to partition data within a business group. Multiple security groups can then be linked to one responsibility, even if they partition different business groups.

To use security groups you must set the user profile option Enable Security Groups to Yes and run the Multiple Security Groups process.

See: Security Groups, Configuring, Reporting and System Administration in Oracle HRMS.

Fremont Corporation Organization Hierarchy

Fremont Corporation's organization hierarchy contains four organizations directly subordinate to its business group. Those organizations in turn have several subordinate organizations of their own:

Fremont Corporation's four divisions are further divided into the following groups:

Fremont Corporation Organization Hierarchy

the picture is described in the document text

Related Topics

Security Groups

Security Profiles

Providing Data Access Across Business Groups, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Organization Hierarchies, Oracle HRMS Enterprise and Workforce Management Guide

Organizations, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Assigning Project Burdening Hierarchies

Prerequisites:

To specify project burdening hierarchies:

  1. Select an Oracle Projects responsibility with access to the Organization window associated with the Business Group for which you are entering Legal Entities and Operating Units.

    Note: Perform these steps in the corresponding Oracle Human Resources windows if you have installed that application.

  2. Navigate to the Organizations window (Setup > Human Resources > Organizations > Define).

  3. Define an organization or query organizations that you defined as a business group. You must define the hierarchy before you designate it as the project burdening hierarchy.

    Note: Depending on your enterprise organization structure and business process, it is possible for the Project Burdening Hierarchy Version to be different from the Project/Task Organization Hierarchy Version, Expenditure/Event Organization Hierarchy Version, or Default Project Reporting Organization Hierarchy Version that you defined for any operating units associated with the business group. The Cost Distribution processes will not burden expenditures for expenditure organizations that are not in the Project Burdening Hierarchy.

If You Add a New Organization to the Project Burdening Hierarchy Version

If you add a new organization to the Project Burdening Hierarchy Version, you must do one of the following:

If you want to add burden multipliers to a particular schedule version for the organization, you need to compile the affected schedule version.

If you use the parent organization multipliers, you must submit the PRC: Add New Organization Burden Compiled Multipliers process. This process adds multipliers for this organization to all burden schedules versions for which you did not explicitly add multipliers.

If you do not run this process, you will encounter the rejection reason Cannot find compiled multiplier for transactions charged to this organization.

Related Topics

Organizations

Periods and Calendars

The following instructions give details about the Period and Calendar Definition steps in the Oracle Project Foundation Product Implementation Checklist.

Enhanced Period Processing Profile Option

Set the profile option PA: Enable Enhanced Period Processing.

Defining GL and PA Periods

Project accounting periods (PA periods) track Oracle Projects data on a periodic basis. Your PA periods may be more frequent than your GL accounting periods. You can use PA periods for budgeting and forecasting, and for accounting for cost and revenue. You set a current PA reporting period for Oracle Projects to summarize project amounts and to track project status. See: Setting the PA Reporting Period.

PA Periods and GL Periods Compared

If you want to report project information more frequently than your GL periods allow, you can define PA periods that are shorter than your GL periods. For example, you can define weekly PA periods and monthly GL periods. You can also create PA periods that match existing Oracle General Ledger accounting periods (GL periods).

For more information about financial and reporting periods, see Financial Accounting and Date Processing, Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

PA Period Effective Dates

You assign effective dates to each PA period. The effective dates signal the beginning and end of the PA period.

Note: After a transaction is posted to a PA period from any operating unit, the General Ledger Accounting Calendar window will not allow changes to the period date range.

PA Period Open/Closed Status

You specify a status for each PA period. The status must be of one of those described in the following table:

Status Description Entry Allowed Interface Transactions Reopen Period
Never Opened New periods that are in the future, and in which you do not want to allow entry. No No n/a
Future Future periods in which you allow entry and interface of transactions. Yes Yes n/a
Open Current periods. Yes Yes n/a
Pending Close Use for correcting unprocessed items. You can set a period to this status without checking for unprocessed items. No Yes n/a
Closed You cannot close a period if unprocessed items exist. A closed period can be reopened at any time. No No Yes
Permanently Closed You cannot permanently close a period if unprocessed items exist. Once a period is permanently closed, you cannot reopen it. No No No

At least one PA period must be specified as Open or Future in order for Oracle Projects processes to process transactions. The PA Period with a status of Open or Future that includes a project transaction date is the PA Period for the transaction. However, if the transaction date falls in a period that is not Open or Future, Oracle Projects will find the next Open or Future PA Period and use it as the PA Period for the transaction. Oracle Projects will reject the transaction if it cannot find a PA Period for the transaction.

Defining Future PA Periods for Period-Phased Budgeting and Forecasting

If you plan to use period-phased budgeting and forecasting, you must define the future PA and GL periods in which you want to budget or forecast. The periods must first be defined in Oracle General Ledger in the calendar associated with your ledger and then copied using the Maintain PA Period Statuses window.

Prerequisites:

To define PA periods:

Tip: Define your PA periods for a full year when you implement Oracle Projects. Keep the number of Future or Open periods to a minimum to improve system performance on costing and revenue accrual

  1. Navigate to the Maintain PA Period Statuses window.

  2. Choose Copy from GL to copy a set of PA Periods from a GL Calendar according to the PA period type indicated in the Oracle Projects Implementation Options.

Fremont Corporation PA Periods

Fremont Corporation tracks all project accounting data weekly. Since Fremont begins their expenditure week on a Monday, they also start their PA periods on a Monday. Fremont's implementation team defines weekly PA periods for a full year. They assign the first two periods as having a status of Open, the next two with a status of Future, and all other future periods as Never Opened.

Changing the Status of a PA Period

To change the status of a PA period:

  1. Navigate to the Maintain PA Period Statuses window.

  2. Query the PA period for which you want to change the status.

  3. Enter or select the new status.

  4. Save.

Setting the PA Reporting Period

You must specify a current PA Reporting Period for Oracle Projects to summarize project amounts and to track project status.

To set the PA Reporting Period:

  1. Navigate to the Maintain PA Period Statuses (PA Periods) window.

  2. Choose Set Reporting Period.

  3. In the Next box, enter or select the PA period you want to set as the new current PA reporting period.

  4. Choose OK.

Setting the PA Reporting Period to an Earlier Period

When you attempt to set the PA Reporting Period to an earlier period than the current PA Reporting Period, the system checks to see if any projects have been accumulated in a PA period later than the new PA Reporting Period. If this is the case, a message is displayed indicating that if you change the PA Reporting Period you must run the Refresh Project Summary Amounts process. You have the option to cancel the change or proceed with the change.

Note: Setting the PA reporting to a prior period may result in a large volume of additional processing if the change requires you to refresh the project summary amounts for most of your projects.

To see which projects would be affected by a PA Reporting Period change, you can run the Summarization Period Exceptions Report. See: Summarization Period Exceptions, Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

If you proceed with the change to an earlier PA Reporting Period when projects have been accumulated in a later PA period, you need to run the PRC: Refresh Project Summary Amounts process before viewing information in the Project Status Inquiry (PSI) window. See: Refresh Project Summary Amounts, Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

PA Periods in a Multi-Organization Environment

In a multi-organization environment, each operating unit maintains its own PA period status. You use the Maintain PA Periods Status window to maintain the period status and the current reporting period.

Note: In a single organization environment, all projects in your implementation of Oracle Projects share the same PA Reporting Period.

Setup Requirements for the Availability Calculation

The availability calculation looks for defined GL Periods and PA Periods, as well as defined Forecasting Options.

Defining GL Periods and PA Periods for Availability Purposes

In order for the availability of a resource to be calculated, you must have both GL Periods and PA Periods defined for the availability duration. Because the availability of a resource is recalculated every time an assignment is added, this can be a moving target.

Therefore, a suggested formula for determining how far in advance to set up these periods is to double the value you have entered for the PA: Availability Duration profile option. For example, if you have defined this profile option with a value of 2 (for 2 years), then define GL and PA Periods for 4 years out.

If you have resources that have a start date prior to the system date, the system calculates resource availability one year prior to the current system date. This availability is used solely for timeline displays for the prior year. These displays are useful if you are converting and tracking assignments that started in the previous year. GL Periods and PA Periods must be established for the prior year. If these periods are not defined, then any resource with an HR assignment start date earlier than the current system date will not be considered a valid resource.

Defining Forecast Options for Scheduling Purposes

The forecast options must be defined for each operating unit. These forecast options define your preferences on handling resource utilization and financial forecasting. Some of this information is also used for calculating resource availability. For more information, see: Forecasting Implementation Options.

Related Topics

Date Processing in Oracle Projects, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Summarization and Update Processes, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Period Types, Oracle General Ledger Implementation Guide

Adding Periods to a Calendar, Oracle General Ledger Implementation Guide

Setting the GL Period Status

When enhanced period processing features are enabled, you must maintain the status of your GL periods for project transaction processing in Oracle Projects. A GL period can have one of the following statuses:

To update the status of a GL period:

  1. Navigate to the GL Periods for Projects window.

  2. Select a period and click in the Period Status column to display a list of period statuses.

  3. Select a status from the list.

  4. Save your work.

Defining Calendar Types

Calendar types enable you to classify your calendars. For example, you can have a calendar type named Part Time to which you assign to all calendars that are defined with part-time shifts.

To create a calendar type:

  1. Navigate to the Define Calendar page.

  2. Select the Define Calendar Type tab.

  3. Enter a code and description for the calendar type.

  4. Enter effective dates (optional).

Defining Calendar Shifts and Shift Patterns

Shifts define the daily work hours in a week and are defined for a range of dates. The effective dates of the shift or shift pattern override any other preset effective dates on a schedule.

For example, if a shift or shift pattern is not effective for the period or part of the period for which requirement or assignment schedules are created, then the schedule is not created for that period.

To create a shift:

  1. Navigate to the Define Calendar page.

  2. Select the Define Shifts tab.

  3. Enter the name, description, and effective dates of the shift.

To create a shift pattern:

  1. Select the desired weekdays.

  2. Enter the time range.

  3. Enter the effective dates.

Only the total hours for the day are considered for Oracle Project Resource Management. The time values do not have any effect.

Note: A day with zero hours specified in the shift is considered a non-working day.

Defining Calendar Exceptions

Exceptions define holidays and are considered non-working days.

To create a calendar exception:

  1. Navigate to the Define Calendar page.

  2. Select the Calendar Exceptions tab.

  3. Complete the fields for the calendar exception.

You must create calendar exceptions for public holidays and general holidays for every year that they occur. For all other types of exceptions, make administrative assignments. As described for shifts, only the total number of hours are considered for Oracle Project Resource Management, not the actual time segments.

Defining Calendars

You must create a calendar to establish the schedule work patterns of your resources. Work patterns determine the schedule of resource capacity or assignment work required.

Defined calendars are the basis of all schedules for resources, requirements, and assignments. You establish resource schedules based on the calendar assigned to the resource. You can either assign a calendar to a resource or accept the default calendar from the site profile option or the resource organization.

A calendar provides basic information such as working days (for example, Monday through Friday) and non-working days (such as holidays). When a resource is assigned to a calendar, that calendar represents the capacity of the resource. Assignments using these calendars provide information such as the scheduled hours per day for the assignment. This information is used to determine the availability of the resource to do other project assignments. This determination is made by comparing the resource calendar capacity with the project assignment schedules.

You must define at least one calendar. You can set up an unlimited number of calendars to meet your various scheduling challenges. For example, certain people may work specific days of the week. Also, different countries have different holidays. You can create a calendar for each unique work pattern arrangement.

To define a calendar:

  1. Navigate to the Define Calendar page.

  2. Select the Define Calendar tab.

  3. Complete the required information for the calendar.

After you define header calendar information, you must assign shifts to define the work pattern, and define exceptions if there are non-work days in the assigned shifts.

Assigning Calendar Shifts and Exceptions

To assign shifts and exceptions to a calendar:

  1. Navigate to the Calendar Shift/Exceptions page.

  2. Select the desired calendar.

  3. Use the Shifts tabbed region to assign shifts to the calendar.

  4. Use the Exceptions tabbed region to assign exceptions to the calendar.

Changing the Calendar:

Changes to a calendar, such as assigned shift patters or exceptions, or changes in the definitions of the shift patterns, affect only future schedule creations and updates that use that calendar.

Changes that have been made to the calendar are applied to the schedule work patterns by a concurrent program that you can schedule to run on a periodic basis. For more information about this program, see: Processes in Oracle Projects, Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

Setting Calendar Profile Options

Set the following profile options:

Defining Default Calendars for Organizations

You can define default calendars at two levels:

The calendar assignment at the project expenditure organization level is the default calendar for all resources and projects in the organization. This calendar overrides the calendar assigned at the site level.

You define the site level default calendar when you set the profile option PA: Default Calendar.

Note: You must set up a site level default calendar if you plan to take advantage of project team and team role functionality. For more information, see Project Team Definition, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

To define the default calendar for the project expenditure organization:

  1. Navigate to the Define Organization window in the Additional Information section for the Project Expenditure/Event organization classification.

  2. Select Resource Defaults.

  3. Enter the default calendar for the project expenditure organization.

Generating Calendar Schedules

After you create calendars, you must run the PRC: Generate Calendar Schedule for a Single Calendar process or the PRC: Generate Calendar Schedules for a Range of Calendars process before the calendars can be assigned to resources.

For more information, see: Generate Calendar Schedules, Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

Implementation Options

The following instructions give details about the Implementation Option steps in the Oracle Project Foundation Product Implementation Checklist.

Note: In a multiple organization environment, each operating unit has its own implementation options. Oracle Projects implementation options determine how data is interfaced with other Oracle Applications.

Prerequisites

To define implementation options:

  1. Navigate to the Implementation Options window.

  2. Select the tabbed region that contains the option or options you want to set.

  3. Enter the desired settings, and save your work.

For a complete list and descriptions of each implementation option, please refer to the following appendix: Implementation Options in Oracle Projects, Oracle Projects Implementation Guide.

Resources

Resources are the labor, services, materials, equipment, and other items needed to track, complete, and account for project work. Oracle Projects shares organization, job, and employee information with Oracle Human Resources. For more information on Oracle Projects integration with Oracle Human Resources, see People Resources in the Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

Additional setup steps for resources are under the Project Definition section. See Project Definition for more information.

Job Groups

Job groups categorize the jobs into lines of business, such as Consulting, Accounting, Engineering, and Support. Job groups are also useful for reporting and utilization purposes.

In Oracle HR, jobs are linked to employees through employee assignments defined in HRMS. For some companies, HRMS jobs and Project Jobs are the same. However, many companies use a different set of jobs for projects from the set that they use for HRMS:

The Job Groups and Job Mapping functionality include the following major features:

Defining Job Groups

You use the Job Groups window to define job groups. You should consider how you want to use jobs in Oracle Projects before you define your Job Flexfield and job groups.

Prerequisites

To define a job group:

  1. Navigate to the Job Groups window.

  2. Enter a unique Job Group name.

  3. Select a Job Flexfield Structure.

  4. Select a Business Group.

  5. If the job group is the master job group, check the Master Job Group check box.

  6. Save your work.

Related Topics

Jobs, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Define Jobs, Implementing Oracle HRMS

Job Levels and Job Codes

You can use job levels and job codes to identify and rank jobs. You can define job level, job code, billable flag, and utilizable flag only once for a job.

Job Levels

Each job can be associated with one or more job levels. Job levels can be used for resource searching and resource reporting. For more information about performing resource searches using job levels as search criteria, see: Minimum and Maximum Job Levels, Oracle Project Resource Management User Guide.

To define job levels:

  1. Navigate to the Oracle Projects Lookups window.

  2. Query the PROJECT_JOB_LEVEL lookup type.

  3. In the detail section of the Oracle Projects Lookups window, enter the Code and Meaning for the job level. The Job Level Code must be numeric. The system uses it to rank jobs.

    Note: The Code referred to here is a separate entity from the job codes described below.

  4. Save your work.

Job Codes

You can optionally associate a job code with each job.

Jobs

You use the Job window to define jobs. You should consider how you want to use jobs in Oracle Projects before you define your Job Flexfield. Oracle Projects allows you to budget and bill based on jobs. You can also include job titles on your invoices.

Oracle Projects uses project jobs to:

To define jobs, you must complete the following steps:

Job Flexfield Value Sets

You must define job flexfield value sets for your job flexfield segments. For information about Flexfield value sets, see: Defining Key Flexfields, Oracle Applications Flexfields User's Guide.

Job Flexfield Segments

Define the Job Flexfield segments using the Key Flexfield Segments window.

You must use the Job Flexfield structure that you specified for your business group.

You must use the columns SEGMENT1 and SEGMENT2 to properly report Job Level and Job Discipline segments in implementation reports and invoice formats. If you do not use these two columns, these values will be blank in reports and invoice formats; however, the job will be displayed correctly regardless of which segments you use. The level segment specifies the rank of a job, using a job level description such as staff, senior, principal, and so on.

Note: The Job Level segment describes actual project job levels, which are numeric values the system uses to rank jobs on projects. For more information about project job levels, see: Job Levels and Job Codes.

The discipline segment describes the job's vocation, such as engineer, clerk, developer, and so on. For example, the Job Flexfield Senior Consultant tells you that holders of this job have a senior rank and do consulting work. However, you do not have to use two segments for your Job Flexfield, or the two recommended segments.

Job Flexfield Segment Values

You need to specify valid values for the Job Flexfield segments. You use the Key Segment Values window to enter as many different values as you want. These values appear in a list of values in the Job window.

Job Titles

When you finish defining your Job Flexfield, you use it to define individual job titles by combining different job level description and discipline description segment values. For example, you can combine segment values to define job titles such as Senior Engineer, Staff Scientist, and so on.

You use the Job window to enter valid combinations of the two Job Flexfield segments and to provide effective dates.

Extra Information

The Extra Information window contains additional job information. You can enter only one set of data for the extra information types.

Set Up Responsibility Access for Extra Information Types (EITs)

EITs do not appear automatically in any responsibility. You must set up responsibility-level access for EITs. Alternatively, use CustomForm security to add individual EITs to a specific taskflow window. This level of security is usually defined later in the implementation when you need to restrict user access.

Note: This security does not apply to EITs on organizations.

Use the Information Types Security window.

For more information, see: Setting Up Extra Information Types against a Responsibility, Oracle HRMS Implementation Guide.

Job Level and Job Code

Use the Extra Information window to enter a job level and job code for the job. See: Job Levels and Job Codes.

Schedulable Jobs

Specify whether you want this job to be schedulable. If you select Yes, users can schedule resources with this job on projects (using project assignments); otherwise, they cannot.

If you include a job in scheduling (enable the Include in Scheduling box) you must include it in utilization (Include in Utilization box). For more information, see: Implementing Utilization: Oracle Projects Implementation Guide.

Note: You can control whether to include resources with non-scheduled jobs in reporting.

If you change the schedulable option for the job, the change applies to the entire reporting duration of the resource. For example, if the job of the resource is changed to non-schedulable, the resource is no longer displayed in the Scheduled, Overcommitted or Available Discoverer reports, even for past periods. The existing assignments for the resource are not deleted or removed but cannot be updated.

Note: The condition applies to a change in the definition of a job. If the resource is assigned to a different job that is non-schedulable or non-utilizable, the previous utilization and schedule history of the resource is retained and reflected in reporting.

Related Topics

Job Groups, Oracle Projects Implementation Guide

Define Jobs, Implementing Oracle HRMS

Jobs and Positions, Oracle HRMS Enterprise and Workforce Management Guide

Defining Key Flexfields, Oracle Applications Flexfields Guide

Defining Segments, Oracle Applications Flexfields Guide

Job Mapping

In Oracle Projects, each person has a primary job assignment that is defined in Oracle Human Resources. For some enterprises, Oracle HRMS jobs and Oracle Projects jobs are the same. But there are many enterprises that use one set of jobs for project management and a different set of jobs for human resources.

HRMS jobs are often too granular for the purposes of project jobs. For example, you may have a HRMS job defined as Consultant - Level 2, but for the purposes of making project assignments, you want to only see a Consultant definition for all consultant jobs.

You can use the Job Mapping feature to map jobs defined in Oracle HRMS to different job titles for use in Oracle Projects. Job mapping enables you to link similar jobs in different job groups.

When you perform job mapping for your enterprise, you can select job groups for project templates. For example, you can assign a billing job group to contract projects and project templates.

You can also specify a job group to use for searches.

The prerequisites for defining job mapping are:

Understanding Job Mapping

You map a job to another job in two steps, using a master job as the intermediate link:

Step Map From: To:
1 JOB A MASTER JOB B
2 MASTER JOB B JOB C

The mapping is not automatically bidirectional. For example, in the above mapping, Job C is not mapped to Job A. If you want to map Job C to Job A, you must create a separate mapping, as shown in the following table:

Step Map From: To:
1 JOB C MASTER JOB B
2 MASTER JOB B JOB A

Rules for Mapping From a Job to a Master Job:

The following rules govern mapping from a job to a master job:

Rules for Mapping From a Master Job to a Non-Master Job:

The following rules govern mapping from a job to a non-master job:

The following diagram illustrates these rules:

The diagram displays three different job groups: the HR job group, the Master job group, and the PA job group. The HR job group and PA job group are both non-master job groups.

The HR job group contains five jobs, listed by number from Job 1 through Job 5.

The Master job group contains three master jobs: Master Job 1, Master Job 2, and Master Job 3.

The PA job group contains two job groups: PA Job 1 and PA Job 2.

The following illustration shows an example of job mapping.

Mapping from a master job to a non-master job

the picture is described in the document text

To define job mapping:

  1. Navigate to the Job Mapping window.

  2. In the Job Group region, select a From Job Group and a To Job Group.

    If the From Job Group you select is the Master Job Group, the To Job Group can be any job group except the Master Job Group.

    If the From Job Group you select is not the Master Job Group, the system automatically selects the Master Job Group as the To Job Group.

  3. In the Job Mappings region:

    Select From Jobs and corresponding To Jobs. When you have finished entering the jobs, choose Map It.

    or, to map multiple jobs to a single job:

    Choose Advanced to display the Advanced Job Mapping window. Select multiple From Jobs and a single To Job, and choose the Map It button.

Related Topics

Job Levels and Job Codes

Job Groups

Project Resource Job Group Profile Option

Define the Project Resource Job Group Profile Option. See: PA:Project Resource Job Group, Oracle Projects Implementation Guide.

This profile option specifies the job group that is used as the collection of jobs included in searches. It also determines the minimum and maximum job levels that are used in a resource search.

If your system is set up for cross business group access, you set this profile option once for the site. If you are using single business group access, set this profile option for each business group. See: Using the Cross Business Group Profile Option, Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

Job Competencies

You define competencies for jobs in Oracle HRMS using descriptive flexfields.

Proficiency Levels

Each job competency must have proficiency levels defined to be recognized in resource requirement searches. Proficiency levels measure how a competence is exhibited in the work context. You create proficiency levels separately for each competence you create. See: Competencies, Managing Your Workforce Using Oracle HRMS.

Aliases

It is recommended that you define aliases for the competencies. Aliases appear in the competence listing for each resource and in Discoverer reports. Aliases should be descriptive and concise. The following example competencies demonstrate meaningful aliases:

Competence Alias
Proficiency in SQL PLUS SQL
Proficiency in Oracle Customer Relationship Management CRM

Rating Scales

Create rating scales if you want to rank job competencies using a standard scale. To create a rating scale, use the Rating Scales window in Oracle HRMS.

Related Topics

Creating a Competence Profile, Managing Your Workforce Using Oracle HRMS

Defining Descriptive Flexfields, Oracle Applications Flexfields Guide

Defining People

Use the Enter Person window to enter information about people. Oracle Projects requires the following information for employees and contingent workers:

Use API to Load People Information

As an alternative to entering people information manually, you can use an Application Programming Interface (API) if you have fully installed Oracle Human Resources. Implementing Oracle HRMS provides documentation on APIs for creating people records in HRMS. Use the create_gb_employee API to create a U.K. person, create_us_employee to create a U.S. person, and create_employee to create a person for any other legislation.

For more information on these APIs, see APIs in Oracle HRMS, Implementing Oracle HRMS. For technical information about using the HRMS APIs, see: Technical Essays, Implementing Oracle HRMS.

Future-Dated People

Future-dated people are employees and contingent workers whose start date is later than the current date. You can:

Future to Active Status

A future-dated person becomes active when the current date reaches their start date.

Calendar for Future-Dated People

When you create a future-dated person, that person is assigned the default calendar for their organization assignment. This calendar provides the basis of their schedule, capacity, and availability. You cannot change the calendar for a person until they become active. As a result, future-dated people are not visible in the Calendar Assign Resources window until their respective start dates are current.

Use and Restrictions of Future-Dated People

Following are the areas where you can use future-dated people:

Functional Area Future-Dated People Uses and Restrictions
Project Setup You can define future-dated people as team members, and you can define their related setup information including rate overrides and transaction controls. However, the start dates of such definitions must be on or after the person's start date.
Costing and Billing You can enter actual project transactions for future-dated people only after they become active. In a future-dated expenditure batch, you can enter people who will be active as of the transaction dates.
Agreements The agreement administrator can be a future-dated person.
Utilization You can view scheduled resource and organization utilization for a future-dated person for the periods in which they will be active.
Authority and Access You can assign responsibilities or grant organization authority to a future-dated person only after their start date.
Budgeting You can only enter budget amounts for a future-dated person only in the periods in which they are active.

Related Topics

Oracle Project Resource Management User Guide

Entering a New Person, Managing Your Workforce Using Oracle HRMS

Integrating with Oracle Human Resources, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Interface Expense Reports to Payables, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Migrating Resource Data From Other Systems

Project Resource Management relies on the primary assignment of a resource for a number of internal processes. The primary assignment of the resource and the resource information is established in the Oracle HRMS data tables. Resources are created in Project Resource Management from these tables through one of the following methods:

If you are using a different database instance or a different system from Oracle HRMS to maintain your employee data, you must migrate that data into the HR tables within the same database instance that the Project Resource Management application is using.

As an alternative to entering people information manually, you can use an Application Programming Interface (API) if you have fully installed Oracle Human Resources. Oracle HRMS has several API programs you can use to create employee records in HRMS.

These API programs queue up the deferred workflow processes. If the workflow queue becomes too large, you may encounter process failures and errors. To avoid this situation, use the following recommended procedures for migrating your employee data for either a new instance or an existing instance.

For more information on the HMS APIs, see APIs in Oracle HRMS, Implementing Oracle HRMS. For technical information about using the HRMS APIs, see: Technical Essays, Implementing Oracle HRMS.

Note: The migrating data pertains to People, Job, and Organizations, not to all types of resources.

Migrating Data for a New Instance

If you are implementing Project Resource Management for the first time and have a large amount of employee data to migrate from Oracle HRMS, use the following steps to avoid overloading the workflow queue during data migration:

  1. Disable workflow triggers (using the script par1th02.sql).

  2. Migrate your employee data.

  3. Run the PRC:Maintain Project Resources process. It is recommended to run this process multiple times with each process using different parameters. Avoid overlapping the parameters so that the same person is not accessed by multiple processes.

  4. Enable workflow triggers (using the script par1th03.sql).

Migrating Data for an Existing Instance

If you have implemented Project Resource Management and you migrate employee data into Oracle HRMS on a periodic basis, use the following the guidelines:

Small Implementation

Use the Oracle HRMS API programs to migrate data without disabling the triggers. You do not have to run the PRC: Maintain Project Resources process because the deferred workflow process activated from updates in HR tables will synchronize the data into Project Resource Management tables. However, make sure that the workflow background process is running.

Larger Implementation

To prevent the workflow process queue from becoming too large, separate the migration of new and existing employees. For new employees, complete the steps provided in the previous section, Migrating Data for a New Instance.

For migrating updates to existing employee information, use the Oracle HRMS API programs. The deferred workflow process will update the Project Resource Management tables. If you encounter problems with the workflow queue, perform the data migration more frequently.

Maintaining Project Resources

The PRC: Maintain Project Resources process copies resources and their associated attributes from the Oracle HRMS tables to Oracle Project Resource Management data tables.

Related Topics

Maintain Project Resources, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Rate Schedule Definition

The following instructions give details about the Rate Schedule Definition steps in the Oracle Project Foundation Product Implementation Checklist.

You can define four types of rate schedules in Oracle Projects. You specify one of the following schedule types for each rate schedule you define:

Note: In a multi-organization environment, you can share rate schedules across different operating units, or have different rates for the same resource in different operating units.

You can use the different types of rate schedules for various purposes in Oracle Projects:

You can define or copy rate schedules for your entire organization. You can also define or copy separate schedules for individual business units.

Note: Use a naming convention to distinguish between the different uses for rate schedules. No system attribute is available to distinguish among the uses.

Note: When you navigate between rate schedules using the Rates Schedule window, you can disable the Toggle Query Coordination check box if you do not want Oracle Projects to automatically retrieve and display the corresponding rates. When you disable the Toggle Query Coordination check box, you can navigate to the Rates block and run a query, with or without query criteria, to retrieve the rates.

For further information about rates in Oracle Projects, please see Rates: Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

Defining Rate Schedules

You can define employee, job, non-labor, and resource class rate schedules.

Prerequisites

To define a rate schedule:

  1. Specify the operating unit to which your organization and rate schedule belong.

    When you have access to only one operating unit, that operating unit appears as a default value in this field.

  2. Specify the organization that maintains the schedule.

    The organization you enter can be any organization from your organization hierarchy, regardless of whether the organization has the Expenditure Organization classification, and regardless of the start and end dates for the organization.

  3. Enter a schedule name and a description of the schedule.

  4. Specify a currency for the schedule.

    Note: You can specify a different currency for your Bill Rate Schedule if the Enable Multi Currency Billing option is enabled for the operating unit. See: Enable Multi Currency Billing, Billing Implementation Options, Oracle Projects Implementation Guide.

  5. Check the Share Across Operating Units check box to allow other operating units to use this schedule.

    Note: To share bill rate schedules, you must also enable the Share Bill Rate Schedules Across Operating Units options in the Billing tab of the Implementation Options window. See: Share Bill Rate Schedule Across Operating Units, Billing Implementation Options, Oracle Projects Implementation Guide.

  6. Select a schedule type.

  7. Depending on the schedule type, specify rates or markups for employees, job titles, non-labor expenditure types, or resource classes.

  8. Save your work.

Important: Retroactive changes to rates and markups do not automatically create adjustments. You need to adjust and recalculate revenue or costs for affected items manually.

To define an employee rate schedule:

You can use employee rate schedules as planning schedules, cost rate schedules, and bill rate schedules.

  1. Specify the organization, name, description, and currency and indicate whether to share the schedule across operating units.

  2. Select the Employee tab.

  3. Enter an employee.

    Note: If your system is set up for cross business group access, you can select an employee from any business group. If you are using single business group access, you can only select an employee from the business group associated with your current responsibility. See: Setting the Cross Business Group Profile Option, Oracle Projects Implementation Guide.

  4. Enter either a rate or a markup percent for the employee.

  5. Enter an effective from date for the schedule line. Optionally, enter an effective to date.

To define a job rate schedule:

You can use job schedules as planning rate schedules, cost rate schedules, and bill rate schedules.

  1. Specify the organization, name, description, and currency and indicate whether to share the schedule across operating units.

  2. Select the Job tab.

  3. Select a job group

  4. Enter a job. You can choose any active job associated with the job group you selected.

  5. Enter a rate for the job.

  6. Enter an effective from date for the schedule line. Optionally, enter an effective to date.

Note: When a project uses a job-based bill rate schedule, the job group on the schedule must match the project's billing job group. If you need to change to a different schedule, only those schedules that match the project's billing job group are allowed.

To define a non-labor rate schedule:

You can use non-labor rate schedules as planning rate schedules, cost rate schedules, and bill rate schedules. When using a non-labor rate schedule as a bill rate schedule, all expenditure types that you want to bill must be enabled. If you want to bill at cost, you must enter a 0% markup.

  1. Specify the organization, name, description, and currency and indicate whether to share the schedule across operating units.

  2. Select the Non-Labor tab.

  3. Select an expenditure type. You can select any active expenditure type associated with a non-labor expenditure type class.

  4. Optionally, enter a non-labor resource if the expenditure type is associated with the Usage expenditure type class.

  5. If the expenditure type is defined with the rate required option enabled, then you can enter either a rate or a mark up percent. Otherwise, you must enter a markup percent.

  6. Enter an effective from date for the schedule line. Optionally, enter an effective to date.

Tip: When you define bill rates for expenditure types that relate to inventory items, it is recommended that you use cost markups instead of rates. When you specify a bill rate for an expenditure type that relates to inventory items, the base unit of measure for inventory transactions reported under the expenditure type must be the same as the unit of measure for the expenditure type. If the base unit of measure for an inventory transaction differs from the unit of measure for the expenditure type, then the revenue distribution process reports an error and does not process the transaction.

To define a resource class rate schedule:

You can use resource class rate schedules only as planning rate schedules.

  1. Specify the organization, name, description, and currency and indicate whether to share the schedule across operating units.

  2. Select the Resource Class tab.

  3. Select a resource class.

  4. Optionally, enter an organization. The organization can be any active organization.

    Note: If your system is set up for cross business group access, you can select an organization from any business group. If you are using single business group access, you can only select an organization from the business group associated with your current responsibility. See: Setting the Cross Business Group Profile Option, Oracle Projects Implementation Guide.

  5. If necessary, specify a unit of measure. If the resource class is people or equipment, the system automatically sets the unit of measure to hours. Otherwise, you must specify the unit of measure.

  6. Enter a rate and a markup percent as appropriate. You can enter both a rate and a markup percent for the same resource class and organization combination. If you enter both a rate and a markup percent, the system uses the markup percent if the unit of measure is currency. Otherwise, the system uses the rate. Minimally, you must enter either a rate or a markup percent. If you enter a markup percent, you must enter a value greater than zero.

  7. Enter an effective from date for the schedule line. Optionally, enter an effective to date.

Copying Rate Schedules

To minimize the effort of creating new rate schedules, you can copy existing rate schedules. You can then modify the newly copied schedules.

To copy a rate schedule:

  1. In the Rate Schedules window, query the rate schedule that you want to copy.

  2. Click Copy Rate Schedule.

  3. Enter the following details for the new rate schedule:

    • Organization: The default value is copied from the organization of the source rate schedule.

    • Schedule

    • Description

    • Currency: The default value is copied from the source rate schedule.

    • Share Across Operating Units: Indicate whether you want to share this schedule across operating units. The default value is copied from the source rate schedule.

    • Rate Escalation %: Specify a numeric factor to increase or decrease the source rate schedule rates.

    • Markup Escalation %: Specify a numeric factor to increase or decrease the source rate schedule markup rates.

  4. Click OK.

Roles

The following instructions give details about the Role Definition steps in the Oracle Project Foundation Product Implementation Checklist.

Project Roles

Project roles are a part of the project-based security features that are used to control user access to project-level information. Project roles serve two purposes:

Oracle Projects comes seeded with a Project Manager role. To give a project Active status, you must define one team member as Project Manager on the project.

Defining Project Roles

If you are using Project Resource Management, project roles are the templates for creating resource requirements. For each project role, you enter the default for competencies and job information for resource requirements created based on the role. Competencies and job levels are used for requirements search, and job groups and jobs drive forecasting.

To define a project role:

  1. Navigate to the Roles window.

  2. Enter the information shown on the following table.

    Note: If you change processing from single business group access to cross business group access, you must recreate the job defaults for each role so that the roles can be used in each business group and will have appropriate default values for job information by business group and job group. See: HR: Cross Business Group, Oracle Projects Implementation Guide.

Field Description
Role Lists The role lists to which you want the role assigned
Access Menu A security menu that the role can perform on a project
Default Competencies All default competencies required for the role. These competencies are used for requirement definition.
Default Job and Job Group The default job and job group for the role.
Calculations for costing, billing, and transfer pricing use the default job to forecast project resource requirements. The default job can be overridden by a Project Cost Job, Project Billing, and Project Transfer Price Job.
If you are using Cross Business Group Access, you can use job mapping logic to map the default job of the role to the master job if they are in different job groups.
Default Minimum and Maximum Job Levels The minimum and maximum job levels for the role. The job levels of a requirement are compared to these levels when you perform resource searches.
Effective Dates The date range the specified role is effective. In some cases, you may not know the ending effective date because it has not been determined. Therefore, only a start date is required.
Role Controls You use role controls to define an additional dimension of security layering. Role controls determine how you (or other users) can use the role. You must assign the role control Allow as a Project Member.

Role Controls

You can also assign role controls to a role. You use role controls to define an additional dimension of security layering.

You can assign as many role controls to roles as necessary. For example, the control Allow as Scheduled Member indicates that you can schedule any person assigned to the role as their availability permits. You assign this control to any role that should be available for scheduling resources on projects. Because role assignments occur at the project level, you must, at a minimum, assign the role control Allow as Project Member to each role.

You use project roles to grant team members view access to project labor cost details. By default, a project team member can access all project-level information with the exception of labor cost details. To grant view access to labor cost details, you must select the Allow Labor Cost Query role control.

Related Topics

Project Roles Listing, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Role Lists

You use role lists to categorize your roles into logical groupings. Role lists enable enhances control and ease of use when you assign team members to a project.

For example, you may have a role list called Consulting to which all roles relating to consulting are assigned.

To add, modify, or delete role lists:

  1. Navigate to the Role Lists window.

  2. Specify the name, description, and effective dates for the role list.

  3. Select the roles you want assigned to the role list.

    Note: You cannot delete a role list after it has been associated with a project.

Implementing Project Organization Roles

There are two predefined project organization roles: Customer Organization and Partner Organization. You can create additional organization roles.

For example, if you are a real estate developer, you may want to create partner organization roles to reflect the type of role the organization will play on a project, such as Designer, Safety, or General Contractor. When you add an external organization to a project and the external organization is a partner in a new venture, you can assign the organization a role on the project that is more descriptive than just partner.

To create additional organization roles:

When you are logged in under the Projects Super User responsibility, create additional organization roles using the Organization Role Setup page.

Note: All external organizations are defined as parties in the Trading Community Architecture (TCA). For more information on setting up your customers, see: Oracle Receivables Implementation Guide.

Project and Organization Security

The following instructions give details about the Project and Organization Security steps in the Oracle Project Foundation Product Implementation Checklist.

Oracle Projects enables you to set up a responsibility-based enterprise security architecture that provides all users function security access at the application level that is based on their responsibility.

With Oracle Projects, you can also implement an extended project security mechanism based on project and organization roles. You can use role-based security to grant users function security over project and resource information, depending upon the role they have on a project or in an organization. Role-based security also enables you to give users different amounts of function security access on different projects, based on the roles they play on those projects.

For further information about security in Oracle Projects, please see Security In Oracle Projects: Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

Multiple Organization Access Control

The multiple organization access control (MOAC) feature enables users to enter and process transactions in two or more operating units without switching responsibilities.

Providing Multiple Organization Access

You must define a security profile in Oracle Human Resources and assign it to the profile option MO: Security Profile at the responsibility level to provide multiple operating unit access to a responsibility. While defining the security profile, you can use individual operating units and/or organization hierarchies with organizations classified as operating units . Users associated with responsibilities that have been set up in this manner can enter and process transactions in multiple operating units without changing their responsibility.

If the MO: Security Profile option grants a responsibility access to an operating unit that does not have Oracle Projects implemented, then that operating unit will not be displayed in the operating unit list of values on the Projects windows or pages. However, the operating unit list of values in the Implementation Options window will display all the operating units the user has access to and you can implement Oracle Projects for that operating unit here.

Whenever you make changes to the security profile in use – including the addition or deletion of operating units – you must subsequently run the Security List Maintenance process (PERSELM) in Oracle Human Resources.

MO: Operating Unit and MO: Security Profile

The MO: Operating Unit or the MO: Security Profile profile options determine the list of operating units the user has access to for a responsibility.

When you have access to more than one operating unit based on the operating units assigned to the MO: Security Profile profile option, you can define the MO: Default Operating Unit profile option. This profile option determines the default operating unit that will be displayed in the Operating Unit field.

If the MO: Security Profile profile option is not defined, then the operating unit assigned to the MO: Operating Unit profile option is used as the default operating unit.

If the MO: Security Profile profile option is defined, and a responsibility has access to only one operating unit through this profile option, users with that responsibility will see that operating unit as the default operating unit.

Note: The MO: Operating Unit profile option was used in earlier versions of Oracle Projects that did not include Multiple Organization Access Control. When you set the MO: Security Profile option for a responsibility, it overrides the MO: Operating Unit value. But if you do not set any value for MO: Security Profile option, you still need to define MO: Operating Unit profile option.

Responsibility-Based Security

In the responsibility-based security mechanism, a user's login responsibility determines which functions the user can perform. Each responsibility limits user access to information within the operating unit(s) with which it is associated by setting either the MO: Operating Unit profile option or the MO: Security Profile profile option. By setting the MO: Security Profile profile option, you can enter and process transactions in two or more operating units, without changing responsibilities. You assign functions to menus and the menus to responsibilities. Therefore, the responsibility of a user determines what functions the user can perform.

For further information and instruction, refer to the following sources:

Defining Additional User-Level Security for Responsibilities

With the following types of security access, users can be granted access to projects and resources without having a direct relationship with either of them:

Note: Users who are associated with a cross business group access security profile can view and update project and resource information across all business groups in your enterprise. For more information, see Security Profiles.

View All Projects Access

Enables users to view all project information. It gives view-access to all projects across all the operating units.

Note: In Forms applications, it gives view access to projects in the operating units the responsibility has access to.

Note: Users associated with a cross business group access security profile can view projects across all business groups in your enterprise. For more information, see Security Profiles.

You can provide view all projects access by setting the PA: Cross-Project User - View profile option to Yes at the responsibility or user levels. You can customize the default cross-project view privileges by changing the site-level value or by setting values at the responsibility and user levels.

By default the PA: Cross-Project User - View profile option value is set to Yes at the site level. For more information about this profile option, see PA: Cross-Project User - View.

Update All Projects Access

Enables users to update all project information. This applies only to the operating units the responsibility has access to through the MO: Operating Unit profile option or the MO: Security Profile profile option.

Note: Users associated with a cross business group access security profile can update projects across all business groups in your enterprise. For more information, see Security Profiles.

You can provide update all projects access by setting the PA: Cross-Project User - Update profile option to Yes at the responsibility or user levels. For more information about this profile option, see PA: Cross-Project User - Update.

By default, users with view all projects and update all projects access can view summary labor cost information.

View All Resources Access

Users with view all resources access can view the resource information for all resources across multiple operating units whether or not they are the resource manager of the resource or have organization resource authority.

Note: Users associated with a cross business group access security profile can update resource information across all business groups in your enterprise. For more information, see Security Profiles.

You can provide view access by setting the PA: View All Project Resources profile option to Yes at the responsibility or user level. Setting this profile to Yes enables users to view all resources in Oracle Projects and perform resource-related functions, as granted by their responsibilities.

The default value for this profile option is Yes for the Project Super User responsibility. This profile option is generally reserved for super users who need cross-project and cross-organization access. For more information, see: PA: View All Project Resources.

Predefined Responsibilities

The following classes of users typically need access to project and resource information.

The following classes of users have access to the non-HTML architecture within Oracle Projects.

These responsibilities have the following high-level default functions:

Operations Manager (Business Manager)

The operations manager is responsible for managing the operations of projects within an organization or a group of organizations.

Project Manager

The project manager is responsible for the overall successful execution and completion of a project.

Project Administrator

The project administrator assists the project manager in executing the administrative functions of a project, particularly related to collecting and inputting information into the project system.

Resource Manager

The resource manager is responsible for one or more resources.

Staffing Manager

The staffing manager coordinates staffing for a group of resources and/or projects, typically for a given set of organizations.

Team Member (Resource)

A team member is assigned to a project team to perform specific functions on that project.

Project Super User

The Project Super User can view and update everything on all projects and everything related to all resources.

Project Costing Super User

The Project Costing Super User has the ability to view and update costing information for all projects. This responsibility enables use of the non-HTML architecture within Oracle Projects.

Project Billing Super User

The Project Billing Super User has the ability to view and update billing information for all projects. This responsibility enables use of the non-HTML architecture within Oracle Projects.

Projects Implementation Super User

The Project Implementation Super User has the authority to perform all tasks related to the implementation of Oracle Projects. This responsibility enables use of the non-HTML architecture within Oracle Projects.

Project Manager (non-HTML architecture)

The non-HTML architecture Project Manager role enables project managers (see previous definition of this responsibility) to use non-HTML architecture windows within Oracle Projects.

Role-Based Security

Role-based security enables you to control user access based on the user's current role on a project. Every project member is assigned a role. The security granted to a role is in effect for the duration of the role on the project. A user can have different roles on different project teams, and these roles can give the user different amounts of security access.

With role-based security, you assign menus to roles, and menus are in turn comprised of security functions. This security provides more flexibility than the responsibility-based security mechanism.

Note: With role-based security, you define project roles for your entire enterprise. Unlike responsibility-based security, roles are not specific to any operating group or business group.

If you do not have cross business group access, you can define default job and competency information for roles by business group.

Oracle Projects provides a guest role at the project level. A guest role enables you to only view basic information. This role is applied to users who view projects that enable enterprise-wide access but who do not have roles on those projects. The Guest role is associated to the Project Guest Role menu.

In addition, Oracle Projects provides the following predefined roles that you can set at the project level:

To create a role that you can use on project teams:

  1. Navigate to the Roles window.

  2. Enter the name of a role that you would like to include in your role-based security mechanism. You can enter the name of a predefined role or define a new role.

  3. Select Enforce Role-Based Security for this role.

  4. Assign a menu to a role. The menu determines the actions that a user with the role can perform on a project. A role with an assigned menu is considered a secured role.

  5. In the Controls tab, assign the Allow as Project Member control to the role. This control enables you to use this role for project teams.

Note: You cannot change controls for roles that are in use.

For more information about the defining of roles, see Role Definition.

For more information about role-based security, see: Role-Based Security: Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

For detailed information about functions and the implementation of function security, see Managing Oracle Applications Security, Configuring, Reporting and System Administration in Oracle HRMS.

Role-Based Security by Project Status

You can optionally include project status as a level of security, in which you create separate menus for each project status value and then associate the menu set to a role.

To set up role-based security by project status for a role:

  1. Create a role and prepare it to be used on a project team. See Role-Based Security.

  2. In the Roles window, navigate to the Project Status tab.

  3. Define individual menus for project status values. You must choose the level of project status security for which you want to define menus. You can choose between the system status level values or the user status level values.

Role-Based Security Example: Setting Up Security for Financial Amounts

You can use role-based security to configure the Project List table so that it displays a variety of summarized project-level financial numbers for specific users. The numbers are derived from the Project Performance reports. The titles of the financial amount columns on the Project List page are exactly the same as those in the Project Performance report pages.

Note: All financial amounts are displayed in the global currency defined for the project, and the system displays the currency code of the global currency.

The system secures the financial amounts that display in these columns with the Project List: View Summarization Columns function. This function is associated to the Project Manager Role Menu by default. The Project Manager Role Menu is attached to the Project Manager role. Therefore, you can use the Project List: View Summarization Columns function to enforce role-based security for the financial amounts that can appear on the Project List page. For example, you can use the function to ensure that only project managers see financial amounts on the Project List page.

To give users access to financial amounts on the Project List page:

  1. Determine which roles you want to have the ability to view financial amounts for projects, and assign those roles to the appropriate employees.

  2. Create a new menu.

  3. Attach all the functions you need to the new menu.

  4. Attach the security function Project List: View Summarization Columns to the new menu.

  5. Create the project role using the Project Roles window in Oracle Projects.

  6. Specify the menu you just created as the default menu for the role.

  7. Assign people to the project as key members with the project role you just created.

    When the assigned project team members view the Project List page, they can see project-level financial amounts and create views that include or exclude those columns.

Organizational Authority

You do not have to assign roles to users with organizational authority. Organizational authority provides access to all projects, resources, and utilization information for the specified organization.

Note: Organization authority does not acknowledge organizational hierarchies. For example, if a user has resource authority over a top organization, the user does not automatically have resource authority for all organizations subordinate to that top organization. You must specify each organization over which the user has resource authority.

Oracle Projects provides the following three organizational authorities:

You use the Organization Authority page to grant organization authority to a resource. The page enables you to grant a resource different kinds of authority over multiple organizations.

For an overview of organizational authority functionality, see Organization Security: Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

Defining a Primary Contact

For Resource Authority you can specify a primary contact to handle cases where more than one person has authority for an organization. The primary contact receives workflow notifications for assignment approval of organization resources and forecast generation for organization projects. You define primary contacts for organizations using the Organization Authority page.

Note: You can only assign one primary contact per organization.

Project Security Extension

The project security client extension enables you to implement your business rules for project and labor cost security. Some examples of rules that you can define with this extension are:

For more information, see Project Security Extension: Oracle Projects APIs, Client Extensions, and Open Interfaces Reference.

Security Profiles

When you use responsibility-based security, you must assign a security profile to each responsibility. Security profiles control which organizations and employees are accessible to a responsibility.

You associate each security profile with an organization hierarchy. The organization hierarchy determines the relationships between your organizations.

The type of security profiles you define depends upon how your system is configured. If you have configured your system for single business group access, you must set up standard security profiles and standard organization hierarchies. If you have configured your system for cross-business group access, you must set up global security profiles and global organization hierarchies.

Standard security profiles are used for viewing information contained in a single business group, and global security profiles are used for accessing information across business groups.

For more information about setting up and using security profiles, see Security, Configuring, Reporting and System Administration in Oracle HRMS.

HR Security Profile Option

Use the profile option HR: Security Profile to assign a security profile to each responsibility, to restrict access to the organization, positions, and payrolls defined in a security profile.

You define this profile option using the view all projects security profile that you create for the Startup Business Group.

For more information about this profile option, see: Configuring, Reporting and System Administration in Oracle HRMS.

Task Definition

The following instructions give details about the Task Definition steps in the Oracle Project Foundation Product Implementation Checklist.

Task Statuses

Oracle Projects uses task statuses to indicate the status of individual tasks and to control system processing for tasks at each stage of their development. Every task must have a valid status.

Defining Task Statuses

You use the Statuses window to update existing task statuses and define new task statuses.

Each task status must be associated with a system status. The predefined system statuses for tasks are:

You use the Status Controls region of the Statuses window to define actions that are allowed or restricted for the task status. There is only one seeded status control for task statuses: Include in Progress Rollup, This status control causes progress attributes for tasks (dates, progress status, percent complete values) to roll up to summary tasks.

For more information on using the Statuses window to define statuses, set next allowable statuses, and set up workflow based on statuses and status changes, see: Defining Statuses and Status Profile Options.

Related Topics

Defining Statuses and Status Profile Options

Integrating with Oracle Workflow

Task Types

Task types assign default attributes to tasks and control how Oracle Projects processes tasks. You must define at least one task type before you can create tasks for workplans and other structures.

Task types specify basic task attributes. For example:

Oracle Projects includes a predefined Upgraded task type that is used when upgrading from previous releases of Oracle Projects.

Defining Work Items

If you plan to have tasks that measure task progress in terms of work quantity, then you need to select the work item that you are creating on the task. A work item is an exact definition of the work being done on a workplan task. You can assign work items to workplan tasks to plan and track the progress of the work.

You use the Lookups window to set up a lookup list of possible work items to choose from when you set up your task types.

Defining Task Types

This section discusses the definition of task types.

Prerequisites

To define a task type:

  1. Navigate to the Task Types page.

  2. Click Create Task Type. The system brings you to the Task Type Details page.

  3. On the Task Type Details page, enter a unique name and description for the task type and define its effective dates. Fill out the other fields on the page as appropriate for the task type.

  4. Save your work.

Task Type Details Page Reference

Initial Task Status: Select an initial task status for the task type. This value determines the initial Task Status value of tasks associated with the task type.

Workflow Item Type:If you want to associate the task type with a workflow process, choose the workflow item type of the workflow process.

Workflow Process:Use this field to associate a workflow process with your task type. The set of workflow processes you can choose from is determined by the workflow item type that you have entered.

Lead Days: If you associate a workflow process with the task type, you can have the process begin one or more days before the start date of the task. Use this field to indicate the number of lead days for the workflow process.

For more information about task execution workflow for tasks, see Enabling Task Execution Workflow.

Progress Entry Required: Select this box to require progress entry for tasks associated with this task type. You can use task workflow to impose this condition on such tasks.

Initial Progress Status: If you enable progress entry, select an initial progress status for tasks associated with the task type. For example, On Track is a typical initial progress status for a new task.

Additional Information Page Layout: Identify the layout of the additional information section of the page that displays task progress information.

Enable Actuals and ETC Collection: Select this option to enable collection of actual, and estimate to complete for quantity and cost on tasks associated with this task type.

Enable Work Quantity: Select this box to enable planning in terms of work quantity for tasks associated with this task type. You can also measure progress based on the actual work quantity. Oracle Projects can derive the total percent complete by comparing the actual work quantity value with the planned work quantity value.

You must enable work quantity functionality at the workplan level before you can manage work quantity at the task level.

Enable Percent Complete Collection: Select this option to enable collection of progress in terms of percentage of work complete for the tasks associated with this task type.

Oracle Project provides integration with third party scheduling tools, such as Microsoft Project. To send task-level progress information from a scheduling tool to Oracle Projects, you must enable the Enable Percent Complete Collection option for tasks types that you assign to tasks. See: Overview of Microsoft Project Integration, Oracle Project Management User Guide.

Note: When you use Microsoft Project Integration, if you specify a task type for a task, then Microsoft Project sends the specified task type to Oracle Projects. If you do not specify a task type for a task, then Oracle Projects assigns the task a predefined task type named Upgraded Task Type. The Enable Percent Complete Collection option is not enabled for this default task type. Therefore, if you want to send progress from Microsoft Project to Oracle Projects without specifying a task type for each task, then you must enable the Enable Percent Complete Collection option for the Upgraded Task Type.

Physical percent complete collection must also be enabled at the workplan level in order for tasks within that workplan to take advantage of this functionality.

In the case of fully shared workplan and financial structures, you always collect actual quantity and cost in the financial transaction system. Oracle Projects allows you only to view these values on the workplan tasks. In all other structure types, you can control entry of actual quantity and cost directly for the workplan task using this functionality.

You always enter estimate to complete information on workplan tasks.

You must also enable the Allow Actual Effort and Cost Collection option at the workplan level in order for tasks within that workplan to take advantage of this functionality. See: Selecting Progress Options for a Workplan Structure, Oracle Project Management User Guide.

Defining Task Priorities

The system uses task priorities to determine the importance of a task. You use the Lookups window to define task priorities.

To define a task priority

  1. Navigate to the Lookups window.

  2. Open a new lookup record for a task priority.

  3. Select the Enabled box.

  4. Save your work.

For more information on defining and updating lookups in Oracle Projects, see: Oracle Projects Lookups.

Processing Structure Updates

When you change a workplan or financial structure by adding tasks, deleting tasks, or rearranging the task hierarchy, you invoke the Process Updates action to synchronize the update of plan and actual data against the latest structure. The process recalculates task weighting percentages and updates planning elements for budgeting and forecasting. It also rolls up plan data from linked projects to programs.

There are two profile options that enable you to set the rules that determine whether the system always processes structure updates online or if it processes them concurrently with the PRC: Process Structure Updates process when the number of tasks in the structure exceeds a specific threshold. These profile options are:

You use the PA: Process Structure Updates profile to determine whether the system always processes structure updates online, or if it only processes them online when the number of tasks in a project is less than or equal to a threshold value that you set with the PA: Process Structure Updates Threshold profile option.

The Process Updates action can be invoked for more than one projects at a time.The PRC: Process Project Structure Updates process allows you to submit Process Updates for an Operating Unit or Project Range or a combination of both.

Related Topics

Process Structure Updates, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Process Project Structure Updates, Oracel Projects Fundamentals

PA: Process Structure Updates, Oracle Projects Implementation Guide

PA: Process Structure Updates Threshold, Oracle Projects Implementation Guide

Project Definition

The following instructions give details about the Project Definition steps in the Oracle Project Foundation Product Implementation Checklist.

Defining Statuses and Status Profile Options

A status is the state of an object. Objects can have only one status at a time.

Status Types in Oracle Projects

When you implement Oracle Projects, your system includes predefined statuses. For some status types, you can define additional statuses to meet your business needs.

Statuses include the status types shown in the following table:

Status Type Description
Project Status Used to control processing at the various stages of a project.
Task Status Used to control processing at the various stages of a task.
Progress Status Used to control processing for projects and tasks as progress is made towards their completion.
Requirement Status Used to control processing for requirements as they are opened, filled, or canceled.
Assignment Status Used to control processing for work assignments as resources are assigned to them or they are canceled.
Candidate Status Used to control processing for job candidates as they are considered for a work requirement.
Assignment Approval Status Used by workflow processes to control processing for assignment approval requests.
Control Item Progress The owner of an issue or change document owners can periodically update the progress towards resolving the issue while the issue is in Draft, Working, Submitted, Approved, or Rejected status.
Control Item Status Control Item Statuses determine the visibility of an issue or change document, and whether you can update the issue or change. You cannot add control item statuses or make changes to the existing control item statuses.

For additional information, see: Predefined Assignment Approval Statuses.

You can modify the default status controls for each existing user status. You can also create new user statuses based on the available system statuses to meet your business needs and create workflow processes that support those needs.

However, for each existing user status, you must define the next allowable statuses. Defining the next allowable statuses determines the process flow for your objects. For example, you can specify that an assignment with the user status of Provisional can have its status changed to the user statuses of either Confirmed or Canceled. This example shows that you have just determined two possible process flows of a requirement:

Project Statuses

The project status can be used to control what processing is allowed at various stages of a project. Every project must have a valid status.

Oracle Projects predefines the following project statuses:

Note: If your system was upgraded from Release 10 to the current release, you will also see the predefined project status Active, which was defined in prior releases of Oracle Projects.

Defining statuses and status options

To define a status:

  1. Navigate to the Statuses window.

  2. Select the Status Type that you want to define (such as Project).

  3. Enter a unique Status name.

  4. Select a System Status to map to the status. Every status must map to a predefined system status.

  5. Enter a Description for the status.

  6. Enter Effective Dates for the status.

  7. If you want this status to be eligible for use as the starting status for the kind of object it is associated with (such as a project, task, assignment, or candidate), check the Starting Status box.

  8. Status Controls: The Status Controls region contains a list of actions that are allowed or restricted for each status.

    When you create a new status, the system status you have selected for the status determines which actions are allowed for the object to which the status is assigned. If you want to change the status controls from the default settings, you can select or clear the Allow box.

    The Default check box is display-only, and contains the original setting of the Allow check box.

    For some system statuses, there are Allow check boxes that cannot be changed. For example, if a project status maps to the Closed System Status, the project status cannot allow Create New Transactions.

  9. Next Allowable Statuses: Use this region to define the next allowable statuses for each status.

    Four radio buttons control the next allowable statuses you can enter:

    • All: The current status can be changed to any status. This is the default value.

    • None: The current status cannot be changed.

    • System Status: The Next Allowable Statuses are all system statuses.

    • Status: The Next Allowable Statuses are all user-defined statuses.

      If you choose System Status or Status, you can then enter as many next allowable statuses as you want.

  10. Workflow: If you want to initiate workflow when an object is updated to this status, select the Workflow tab. Check the Enable Workflow check box and enter the following fields:

    • Item Type. Enter the name of the Workflow Item Type to be used for this status.

    • Process. Enter the name of the workflow process to submit for this status.

    • Success Status. Enter the status to assign to the object upon successful completion of workflow.

    • Failure Status. Enter the status to assign to the object if workflow fails. (This can be the same as the current status.)

      For more information about workflow in Oracle Projects, see: Integrating with Oracle Workflow, Oracle Projects Implementation Guide.

  11. Save your work.

Predefined Requirement Statuses and Status Controls

The following table provides a list of the predefined requirement statuses and the suggested next allowable requirement statuses:

User Status System Status Description Suggested Next Allowable Statuses
Open Open The requirement is available for resource assignments. Possible
Filled
Canceled
Filled Filled The requirement has an assigned resource. N/A
Canceled Canceled The requirement was canceled. N/A

Three status controls are predefined for requirement statuses:

Use these status controls to restrict allowable actions or requirements based on status.

For information about defining statuses, see Defining Statuses and Status Profile Options.

Predefined Assignment Statuses and Status Controls

The following table provides a list of the predefined assignment statuses and the suggested next allowable assignment statuses:

User Status System Status Description Suggested Next Allowable Statuses
Provisional Provisional A resource is assigned to the assignment on a provisional basis. Proposed
Confirmed
Canceled
Confirmed Confirmed The resource is confirmed and scheduled for the assignment. Proposed
Provisional
Canceled
Canceled Canceled The assignment was canceled. N/A

Two status controls are predefined for requirement statuses:

Use these controls to restrict allowable actions on assignments based on status.

For information about defining statuses, see Defining Statuses and Status Profile Options.

Predefined Candidate Statuses and Status Controls

The following table provides a list of the predefined candidate statuses and the suggested next allowable candidate statuses:

User Status System Status Description Suggested Next Allowable Statuses
Pending Review Pending Review The candidate is nominated for the requirement and is ready for review. Under Review
Suitable
Declined
Withdrawn
Assigned
System Nominated System Nominated The candidate was nominated by the automated candidate search and nomination process. You cannot modify the attributes of this status nor create user statuses for it. All statuses
Under Review Under Review The nomination of the candidate is under review. Suitable
Declined
Withdrawn
Assigned
Suitable Suitable The candidate is a suitable match for the requirement. Under Review
Declined
Withdrawn
Assigned
Assigned Assigned The candidate is assigned to fill the requirement. The status is used only by the workflow process once the candidate has been assigned to fill the requirement. N/A
Declined Declined The candidate is unsuitable for the requirement. The default status control Requires Change Reason requires the user declining the candidate to enter a reason. N/A
Withdrawn Withdrawn The candidate has withdrawn from consideration for the requirement. Under Review

One status control is predefined for requirement statuses:

Use this control to require the user to enter a reason for changing the status of a candidate.

For information about defining statuses, see Defining Statuses and Status Profile Options.

Predefined Assignment Approval Statuses

Assignment approval statuses are used by workflow processes. You cannot add, modify, or delete these statuses. In addition, users cannot manually change these statuses. The status is applied to an assignment based on the action being taken.

The following table provides a list of the predefined assignment approval statuses with their associated next allowable status:

System Status Description Next Allowable Statuses
Working The assignment is new and has not yet been submitted, or the assignment has been changed and is waiting to be resubmitted for approval. Submitted
Submitted The assignment is submitted for approval. Approval can be sought either manually or through an automated workflow process. Approved (Workflow: Success)
Rejected (Workflow: Failure)
Approved The assignment is approved and the resource is confirmed. Requires Resubmission
Canceled The assignment is canceled. N/A
Rejected The assignment is rejected. The user can choose to modify the assignment and resubmit it for approval. Requires Resubmission
Requires Resubmission The assignment has been changed and requires a resubmission for approval. Submitted

For information about defining statuses, see Defining Statuses and Status Profile Options.

Assignment Schedule Statuses

Requirement and assignment statuses are also referred to as schedule statuses because they reflect the status of the schedule for particular days. The following table shows the default settings for assignment schedule statuses:

User Status System Status Success Status Failure Status
Proposed Provisional Confirmed Rejected
Provisional Provisional Confirmed Rejected
Confirmed Confirmed None None
Rejected Canceled None None

With the default settings, when a provisional assignment is approved, the status on the assignment is changed to Confirmed. If the provisional assignment is rejected, then the status of the assignment is changed to Rejected.

Assignment schedule statuses do not launch the approval workflow and you cannot enable workflow processes on these statuses. However, you can change the default workflow success and failure statuses for each provisional assignment schedule status.

Note: You cannot define these settings for any canceled system statuses.

The schedules and timelines reflect all Confirmed and Provisional assignments. The provisional assignment schedule status must be set to a confirmed status upon the completion of an approval process whether manual or automated through Oracle Workflow. Because all assignment schedule statuses are user-defined, you must specify the success and failure statuses for each user-defined status.

Status Profile Options

You must define the following profile options to set the status defaults for the respective objects. Each profile option is set at the site level only:

Defining Project Statuses

Each project status must be associated with a system status. The predefined system statuses for project statuses are:

You use the Status Controls region of the Statuses window to define actions that are allowed or restricted for each project status.

For more information on defining statuses, setting next allowable statuses, and setting up workflow based on statuses and status changes, please see: Defining Statuses and Status Profile Options.

Defining Status Lists

Status lists capture the business process that governs a project entity's transitions from one status to another. This process is often highly organization dependent and subject to changes due business needs. Having status lists as a bridge between project entities like a control item type and user-defined statuses allows for highly customized processes.

Project users will be exposed to only the relevant user-defined statuses and status transitions. In addition, user-defined status lists are also reusable across many instances of the project entities. This eliminates redundant setup steps for the implementation team if a business process is applicable to many project entities.

For example, a simple approval process may be used in several types of change order and change request. In this case, a single status list that captures this process is sufficient.

Status list is defined for a particular status type, since user statuses are defined per status type. For each status list, a default starting status should be selected. This status should be defined as a starting status during creation.

As part of the standard user status functionality, the implementation team can select to define next allowable statuses for a given user status.

A historic log includes the details of the statuses, the person who makes the change, the timestamp, as well as an optional comment for the change.

A status can be associated with an approval workflow. In this case, the next allowable statuses for this status are restricted and defaulted to the success and failure statuses defined in the status. The workflow will be launched when the control item status is changed to this status. The workflow item key will be the same as the unique key for the status change history. When the workflow is running, user cannot set the control item to a different status. First, the workflow has to be stopped using the Abort Workflow button in the UI. When this happens, the control item status is reverted to the status immediately prior to the submission, according to the status change history. Workflow abortion is included in the status change history.

To define status lists:

  1. Navigate to the Status Lists page, and click Create.

  2. On the Create Status List page, enter a name, and optionally a description.

  3. Select an effective from date, and optionally an effective to date.

  4. In the Status table, for each system status:

    • Click on the Update icon

    • Select User Statuses. Check all applicable user statuses.

  5. To save your work, click Apply. Repeat the above steps for other statuses.

    Note: You do not need to select user statuses. Oracle has already established a default flow using these seven system statuses.

  6. Click Apply to save your status list.

Related Topics

Basic Project Information, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Project Statuses Listing, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Project Classifications (Class Categories and Class Codes)

You define project classifications to group your projects according to categories you define. A project classification includes a class category and a class code. The category is a broad subject within which you can classify projects. The code is a specific value of the category.

For example, if you want to know the market sector to which a project belongs, you can define a class category with a name such as Market Sector. You can define class codes for this category such as Waste Cleanup, Risk Analysis, and Environmental Engineering.

You can create a report that displays projects classified by a particular category. For example, if you classify your projects by market sector, you can create reports showing which market sectors generate the most revenue. Or, your marketing department could run a report to determine which markets need to be pursued more aggressively.

Oracle Projects does not predefine any class categories or class codes.

Defining class categories and class codes

To define class categories and class codes:

  1. Navigate to the Class Categories and Codes window.

  2. Enter a unique Class Category name and a Description.

  3. Specify whether the class category is mandatory for every project you define.

    Enable if all projects must have a code assigned to this class category. Do not enable if this class category is optional. If you do not enable this option, you cannot use this class category in your AutoAccounting rules.

  4. Specify whether you want to use the class category in your AutoAccounting rules.

    Note: For each project, you can use only one code with one class category for use with AutoAccounting rules at a given point in time. If an AutoAccounting category already exists within a particular date range, assign an end date to the existing AutoAccounting category and then create a new one.

    Important: When you update the existing class code, the system does not mark expenditure items accounted prior to the change for recalculation.

  5. Specify whether you want to allow entry of only one class code with this class category for a project.

    Note: Defining multiple class codes for one category for a project may affect reporting by class category. Defining multiple class codes may cause your numbers to be included more than once.

  6. The Allow Percent Entry and Total Percent Equal 100 attributes control the ability to associate percentages with classification codes. When you have multiple classification codes associated with a single class category, you can report the relative values of your projects in terms of sales or a similar metric.

    Allow Percent Entry: Enable this option if you want to associate percentages with the class codes associated with this category. When you select Allow Percent Entry for a category, the system requires class code percentages for the category regardless of the project type.

    Total Percent 100: Enable this option if you want the system to require that the sum of all class code percentages be equal to 100 for the selected class category. You can clear this option at any time.

  7. In the Class Codes tabbed region, enter the Name, Description, and Effective Dates for each class code.

  8. In the Project Types tabbed, select each Project Type that you would like to associate with this class category.

    Mandatory: Enable the Mandatory check box for a project type if you want the system to require all projects of the project type to be associated with the selected class category.

    Note: You cannot select Mandatory for project types that are already associated with one or more projects. Also, if the AutoAccounting attribute was enabled in a previous session for the class category, the system does not let you disable the Mandatory selection for a project type until the AutoAccounting attribute is disabled for the class category.

    You can also enable the Mandatory option in the Project Types window. See: Project Types.

  9. Save your work.

Fremont Corporation Project Classifications

Fremont Corporation classifies each project by market sector and funding source. Because Fremont Corporation tries to diversify its contracts, tracking this information is very important to corporate management. Therefore, both categories are required for all of Fremont's projects.

Fremont defines two class categories: Market Sector and Funding Source.

The following table shows the two class categories.

Class Category Name Description Mandatory AutoAccounting Pick One Code Only
Market Sector Market sector in which project work takes place Yes No Yes
Funding Source Source of funding for project Yes No Yes

The class codes for the Market Sector category specify the market sector to which a project belongs.

The class codes for the Funding Source category indicate whether the project is being funded privately or publicly. For publicly funded projects, the class code also indicates at what level the project is funded: Federal, State or Local, or Foreign. Fremont Corporation uses these class codes to produce a report showing the ratio of public versus private projects.

Class codes for the two class categories are shown in the following table:

Class Code Name Class Category Class Code Description
Structural Market Sector Structural design and engineering
Mechanical Market Sector Mechanical design and engineering
Electrical Market Sector Electrical design and engineering
Impact Market Sector Environmental impact studies
Environmental Market Sector Environmental design and planning
Data Market Sector Data services
Risk Market Sector Risk analysis services
Utilities Market Sector Utility/Power Plant construction
Waste Market Sector Disposal/Recycle facility construction
Federal Funding Source Funded by a federal agency
State or Local Funding Source Funded by state or local government
Foreign Funding Source Funded by a foreign government
Private Funding Source Funded by the private sector, foreign or domestic

Service Types

You define service types to represent activities that you want to track for financial purposes. You assign a service type to each financial task. You can use service types in your AutoAccounting setup and to group tasks for custom reporting.

For example, a professional services enterprise could define the following service types to categorize financial tasks:

Note: You must assign a service type to each project type and financial task. The default service type for each top-level financial task comes from the project type that you assign to its project or project template. The default service type for each subtask comes from its parent task.

Defining service types

To define a service type:

  1. Navigate to the Service Type Lookups window. See: Oracle Projects Navigation Paths, Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

  2. Enter the following information for the service type.

    • Code

    • Meaning

    • Description

    • Tag Value (optional -- tag value is not used by Oracle Projects)

    • Effective dates

  3. Check the Enabled check box.

  4. Save your work.

For detailed information on defining and updating lookups in Oracle Projects, see: Oracle Projects Lookups.

Fremont Corporation Service Types

Fremont Corporation relies upon service types in its AutoAccounting rules to process indirect labor items. Fremont has an account for each type of indirect labor cost, such as vacation hours and sick hours.

Fremont's implementation team defines a service type for each kind of indirect labor. Fremont's implementation team maps each service type to the appropriate expense account when it implements AutoAccounting.

Fremont's implementation team also defines several service types for direct work. These service types are used only for reporting purposes.

Service Type Name Description
Field Work Work in the field
Lab Work Work in a corporate laboratory
Documentation Preparing documentation
R & D Indirect Research and Development
Administration Administrative Work
Marketing Indirect Marketing
B & P Bid & Proposal work
Vacation Vacation hours
Sick Sick hours
Holiday Holiday hours
Overtime Overtime hours

Related Topics

Effective Dates

Service Types Listing, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Project Customer Relationships and Contact Types

Project customer relationships help you manage projects that involve multiple clients by specifying the various relationships your customers can have with a project. A customer has exactly one relationship with a given project; one or more customers can have the same relationship with a project.

For example, most projects have a single customer who is the main client on the project; you can define a relationship with a name such as Primary to indicate the major client on a project.

Contact types specify how the contacts of a particular customer are involved with a project. You can use project contacts to direct certain pieces of correspondence, such as invoices, to the appropriate customer contact.

For example, if your client identifies a specific employee as the technical resource for questions about that client's project, you can classify that employee using a contact type. First, you create a contact type with a name such as Technical. Later, when you define a project or modify your definition of that project, you assign the Technical contact type to the appropriate customer contact.

Defining Project Customer Relationships

To define project customer relationships:

  1. Navigate to the Project Customer Relationship Lookups window.

  2. Enter the following information for the customer relationship.

    • Code

    • Meaning

    • Description

    • Tag Value (optional -- tag value is not used by Oracle Projects)

    • Effective Dates

  3. Check the Enabled check box.

  4. Save your work.

For information on defining and updating lookups in Oracle Projects, see: Oracle Projects Lookups.

Fremont Corporation Customer Relationships

Fremont Corporation distinguishes between the major client of a project and collateral clients who have less involvement than the major client. Fremont also distinguishes between major and collateral clients who help pay for a project, or who do not pay at all.

The following table shows Fremont's customer relationships.

Customer Relationship Name Description
Primary Client is contributing majority of payment
Secondary Client is contributing partial payment
Non-Paying Client is involved with project but is contributing no payment

Related Topics

Effective Dates, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Project Contact Types Listing, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Project Customer Relationships Listing, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Defining contact types

You define a contact type by specifying a contact type name and description.

Oracle Projects predefines two contact types:

You can optionally define a billing contact for a contract project. Oracle Projects addresses invoices to the billing contact you specify when you define a project.

To define contact types:

  1. Navigate to the Project Contact Type Lookups window.

  2. Enter the following information for the contact type:

    • Code

    • Meaning

    • Description

    • Tag Value (optional -- tag value is not used by Oracle Projects)

    • Effective dates

  3. Check the Enabled check box.

  4. Save your work.

For information on defining and updating lookups in Oracle Projects, see: Oracle Projects Lookups.

Fremont Corporation Contact Types

Fremont Corporation's client management policies require all correspondence to go to the appropriate customer contact in a client's organization.

To implement these policies, Fremont Corporation uses the predefined contact types and defines the additional contact types shown in the following table:

Contact Type Name Description
Technical Acts as technical resource for the project
Contract Administers the contract

Related Topics

Effective Dates

Probability Lists

Define probability lists if you want to use the probability feature in Oracle Projects.

When you define a potential project, you can enter pipeline information such as the probability percentage of winning the project, the project value, and the expected approval date. This information is used for calculations such as determining the weighted (discounted) value of all projects in your pipeline. If a project has no defined probability percentage, then it is assumed to be 100% for all calculations performed on the project.

You have control over how percentage values are used on a project through the creation of Probability Lists. The probability list is a list of percentages with descriptions. For example, you can create a list called Quarters with the following percentages:

You can attach this list to any project type. When you create a project associated with the project type, these are the values available for selection in the Probability field.

If you use Oracle Sales Online, the win probability value is based on the value of the sales opportunity in Sales Online which is associated with your pipeline project. To share win probability values between Oracle Sales Online and Oracle Projects, you must map the probability values using the Probability Mapping page.

To define probability lists:

  1. Navigate to the Probability Lists window.

  2. Enter a unique name for the probability list.

  3. Enter a description for the probability list.

  4. Enter effective start and end dates for the probability list. These dates determine whether you can use the list on projects.

  5. Enter the probability values: percentage, description, and effective dates. These effective dates determine when the percentages are displayed in the probability list of values.

    Note: You can change the probability list name at any time. You can change the percentages only if they are not currently assigned to any project.

Resource Lists

You can define the resource list as a hierarchy of resources up to two levels. The top level is restricted to resource types, such as organization, expenditure category, and revenue category. You use the following resource types to define the second level of the hierarchy:

Note: You must set up resource lists for each business group. Resource lists are shared among operating units associated with the same business group. You can define a resource list by copying it from an existing resource list in the same business group.

Prerequisites

Oracle Projects setup for different resource elements, such as:

To define a resource list:

  1. Navigate to the Resource Lists window.

  2. You can create a new resource list or use Copy From to edit and use an existing resource list. For a new resource list, enter the Resource List name.

    • If your installation is in Cross Business Group Access mode, then resource list names must be unique across the system.

    • If your installation is in Single Business Group Access mode, then resource names must be unique within each business group.

  3. If the resource list is job-based, then you must enter a job group to be used for summarization. The Resources region then displays jobs that belong to the job group you entered.

  4. Resource Group Region: Choose how you want to group the resource list.

    If you choose to group the resource list, then you enter resource groups. Select the resource group, and override the alias and order if necessary.

    In the Resources region, enter the resources for each resource group.

  5. If you do not use grouping for the resource list, then use the Resources region to enter resources for the resource list.

    For each resource, select the resource type and resource, and override the alias and order, if necessary.

  6. You can update a resource, add new resources, and remove a resource that you have not yet used for budgeting or forecasting.

    Note: To ensure that a used resource is not used in the future, deselect the Enable check box.

  7. Save your work.

Assigning Resource Lists to Project Templates

During project template setup, you assign resource lists to a project to indicate which resource lists you want to use for summarizing project actuals for project status tracking.

You can assign resource lists to project templates, which get copied to every project you create from the templates. This type of template setup facilitates cross-project reporting by using the same resource list across similar projects.

When you create a project template, Oracle Projects automatically assigns a resource list to the project template using the resource list specified on the project type for use in Status Reporting, and creates it as the default drilldown resource inquiry list to use in the Project Status windows.

To assign a resource list to a project template:

  1. Navigate to the Projects form.

  2. Find the project template to which you want to assign the resource list.

  3. In the Project window, select the Resource List Assignment option.

  4. In the Resource List Assignments window, enter the resource list and specify if it is the drill down default for Project Status Inquiry.

  5. Save your work.

Fremont Corporation Resource Lists

Fremont Corporation uses many resource lists. The resource list All by Organization has a two-level hierarchy. This resource list is defined with the attributes shown below:

At the higher level, Resource Groups, resources are summarized into either Labor, Travel, Outside Services, Material, In-House Recoverables, or Other Expenses. The resource groups are shown in the following table:

Resource Group Name Alias Order
Labor Labor 1
Travel Travel 2
Outside Services Outside Services 3
Material Material 4
In-House Recoverables In-House Recoverables 5
Other Expenses Other Expenses 6

At the second level, Resources, a second layer of summarization is defined for the Labor resource group. The resources for the Labor resource group are shown in the following table:

Resource Type Resource Alias Order
Organization Risk Analysis Risk Analysis 1
Organization Data Systems Data Systems 2
Organization Mechanical Mechanical 3
Organization Midwest Midwest 4
Organization South South 5
Organization East East 6
Organization West West 7
Organization International International 8
Organization Environmental Environmental 9
Organization Structural Structural 10
Organization Human Resources Human Resources 11
Organization Finance Finance 12
Organization Information Services Information Services 13

Related Topics

Resource Lists, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Project Status Inquiry, Oracle Project Management User Guide

Overview of Project Budgeting and Forecasting, Oracle Project Management User Guide

Using Budgetary Controls, Oracle Project Management User Guide

Project Summary Amounts, Oracle Project Management User Guide

Resource Classes

Oracle Projects has the following resource classes to group types of resources at a higher level:

Although the resource classes are predefined, you define specific attributes that determine the default behavior of the resource classes when used for creating planning resource lists and resource breakdown structures. These attributes are available only at the enterprise level. You can either modify the attributes when creating a planning resource list and entering data for a task or override the enterprise levels for a planning resource.

Prerequisites

To define resource class attributes:

  1. Navigate to the Resource Classes page.

  2. Select a spread curve to define how the system allocates amounts across periods for planning resources that you select as planning elements in workplans, budgets, and forecasts. For more information, see: Spread Curves.

  3. Select an ETC method to define how the system calculates ETC amounts for effort and cost for planning resources that you select as planning elements in forecasts. For more information, see: Estimate to Complete under Managing Progress, Oracle Project Management.

  4. Select the expenditure type for burdening.

  5. For the Material Items resource class, select values for Item Master and Item Category Set to control the list of eligible inventory items and item categories respectively.

  6. Select a cost type to calculate estimated or forecasted costs for task assignments and financial planning for manufacturing and inventory resources.

  7. Disable a resource class if not required in your business. For example, the consulting industry might not need to plan for the material items resource class.

  8. Save your work.

Related Topics

Planning Resource Lists

Resource Breakdown Structures

Planning Resource Lists

You use planning resource lists for planning a project, task assignments, and financial planning. A planning resource list is composed of planning resource formats and planning resources.

To use a resource list as a planning resource list, run the UPG: Upgrade Resource Lists to Planning Resource Lists process.

Note: When you add or delete a resource from a resource list that has been converted to a planning resource list, the system adds or deletes that resource from the planning resource list as well. However, changes that you make to the planning resource list are not reflected by the system onthe resource list from which it was converted.

Prerequisites

Defining a Planning Resource List

To define a planning resource list:

  1. Navigate to the Create Planning Resource List page.

  2. Enter details for the planning resource list. You specify a job group to have any planning resources with jobs on that planning resource list.

  3. Select the resource class and planning resource formats.

  4. Select one or more planning resources for each selected planning resource format. You can add or delete planning resource formats. You can update, delete, or add planning resources.

    Note: You cannot delete a planning resource that has been used in any project, deleting it will only disable the planning resource.

  5. Select the Enable for Workplan check box to make the planning resource list available for attachment to a workplan.

  6. Select the Centrally Controlled check box to create a centrally-controlled planning resource list.

  7. Save your work.

Related Topics

Resource Lists, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Planning Resource Lists, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Upgrade Resource Lists to Planning Resource Lists, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Resource Breakdown Structures

You build the resource breakdown structure based on the resource types and resources already defined in the system. For each level of the hierarchy, you select the resource type and specify the associated resource.

In addition, you can define your own groupings of resources with the use of the resource type called User Defined Resource. When you select this resource type, you can enter a free-form definition of the grouping, and then create levels below it in the hierarchy that link to actual resource types and resources.

The following table demonstrates how you can use a user-defined resource in a resource breakdown structure:

Outline Number Resource Type Resource
1 Organization Consulting - East
1.1 User Defined Resource Assembly
1.1.1 Inventory Item Gear Assembly
1.1.2 Inventory Item Motor Assembly
1.2 User Defined Resource Maintenance Items
1.2.1 Inventory Item Lubricants
1.2.2 Inventory Item Fasteners

In this example, the planned and actual amounts of Gear Assembly and Motor Assembly will be rolled up under the user defined resource Assembly. Also, amounts for Lubricants and Fasteners will be rolled up under the user defined resource Maintenance Items.

You define the hierarchies of a resource breakdown structure as symmetric or asymmetric.

The following table demonstrates a symmetric resource breakdown structure:

Outline Number Resource Type Resource
1 Organization Consulting - East
1.1 Named Person Amy Marlin
2 Organization Consulting - West
2.1 Named Person John Smith

The following table demonstrates an asymmetric resource breakdown structure:

Outline Number Resource Type Resource
1 BOM - Labor Painter
1.1 Expenditure Type Computers
2 Organization Healthcare
2.1 Named Person John Smith

Important: You can define up to ten levels in a resource breakdown structure.

Automated Level Expansion

You can specify resources at every level in the resource breakdown structure. You can also use the value Any Used Resource in the Resource field to capture all resources that fall under the selected resource type.

The following table demonstrates an example of the use of Any Used Resource:

Outline Number Resource Type Resource
1 Person Type Employee
1.1 Named Person John Smith
1.2 Job Principal Consultant
2 Expenditure Category Expenses
2.1 Projects Non-Labor Resource Any Used Resource

In this example, all costs for John Smith are associated with level 1.1. If other people resources incur costs for the project, this resource breakdown structure will reflect those amounts at the top level, Employee (level 1), because the other individuals are not named. If you prefer to have the sums broken out by person automatically for you, then you could use Any Used Resource for the resource type Named Person instead of identifying the individuals explicitly, such as John Smith.

This example illustrates this concept at level 2.1 There may be several non-labor resources such as crane, telephone charges, and server utility. In place of identifying each non-labor resource that could possibly be used on this project, the resource is simply defined as Any Used Resource. As a result, Oracle Projects automatically creates a level under the outline level 2 for each non-labor resource that incurs costs on the project.

Therefore, the resulting resource breakdown structure may look as illustrated in the following table:

Outline Number Resource Type Resource
1 Person Type Employee
1.1 Named Person John Smith
1.2 Job Principal Consultant
2 Expenditure Category Expenses
2.1 Projects Non-Labor Resource Crane
2.2 Projects Non-Labor Resource Telephone Charges
2.3 Projects Non-Labor Resource Server Utility

Prerequisites

Defining Resource Breakdown Structures

To define a resource breakdown structure:

  1. Navigate to the Resource Breakdown Structures page.

  2. Add a new row and enter the basic details for the new resource breakdown structure.

  3. Enable Use For Allocations if you want to allocate costs with this resource breakdown structure.

    Note: You cannot use user-defined resources if you are enabling the resource breakdown structure for allocations.

  4. Save your work.

  5. Update the working version to build the hierarchy. You view all the existing versions on the Versions page. The frozen versions can be used by projects and only the working versions can be updated. A working version is created every time a resource breakdown structure is created or a version is frozen.

  6. Select the level and introduce new levels, remove levels, or redefine the resource elements.

  7. Apply the changes before moving on to build the structure at a different level.

Important: You cannot delete a resource breakdown structure. However, to stop the summarization of data by an existing resource breakdown structure, you can specify an end date for it.

Working with Versions

Versions provide a history of resource breakdown structures used for resource reporting. You use versions to make changes and control when to transmit these changes to associated projects. The resource breakdown structure version dates can neither overlap nor have gaps.

When you create a resource breakdown structure, a working version is automatically created. You can make changes to the working version until you freeze it. Only a frozen version can be associated with a project.

When you freeze a version, a new working version is created, which can be used to make further changes. The frozen version enabled for current reporting is used for reporting.

Note: At any point of time, you can have only one working version. In addition, although you can have multiple frozen versions, only one is used for current reporting at any given time.

You can change or modify only the working version of a resource breakdown structure. When a structure is enabled for allocations, you can modify only the resource breakdown structure elements that are not associated with amounts.

To modify a resource breakdown structure that has been associated with a project:

  1. Update the hierarchy

  2. Create a version of the resource breakdown structure

  3. Freeze the modified version

  4. To update projects with the latest resource breakdown structure version, run the PRC: Process Resource Breakdown Structure Updates process. This process affects only projects that reference this resource breakdown structure. The process updates the projects to use the frozen version, which has a system date between the start and end dates of the resource breakdown structure version.

Related Topics

Resource Breakdown Structures, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Defining Cycles

In Oracle Projects, user-defined cycles are used to specify when certain actions and processes take place. For example, billing cycles determine how often and on what dates a project is billed. Progress cycles determine when progress is to be entered for project tasks. Reporting cycles determine when new project status reports should be created and define the time period covered by each status report.

You must define cycles that fulfill your business needs, and assign cycles to each project. You can define and maintain as many cycles of each type as you need.

Note: A billing cycle code can optionally call a customized client extension to derive the next billing date.

To define a cycle:

  1. In the Cycles window, specify the cycle name, type, value, effective dates, and a description of the cycle.

  2. Save your work.

Cycles Window Reference

Name. Enter a unique, descriptive name for the cycle.

Type. Select the cycle type that you want to associate with the billing cycle. You can choose any predefined cycle type. The cycle types are shown in the following table:

Billing Cycle Type Description
Billing cycle days The cycle is defined by the number of days that elapse between each automatic invoice generation date for a project. The entry you make under Value is the number of days in the cycle.
Date of the month The cycle starts and ends on the same day of each calendar month. You enter the date under Value.
Dates 29 through 31 are valid in some months only. For the months in which the date is invalid, Oracle Projects uses the last day of the month.
Last day of the month The last day of each calendar month.
First day of the month The first day of each calendar month.
15th and month end The 15th day and last day of each month.
Last weekday of the month The last of a particular weekday in each calendar month. You enter the weekday under Value.
First weekday of the month The first of a particular weekday in each calendar month. You enter the weekday under Value.
Project Completion Completion date of the project.
Weekday each week On the same day of each week. You enter the weekday under Value.
User defined This type is used to indicate that the logic to derive the date has been coded in a cycle extension. You must customize the cycle extension to calculate the cycle that you require.

Value. Enter the value that completes the information for the cycle type you entered. The following table shows the valid entries, depending on the cycle type:

Value Description
Integer For the Bill Cycle Days type, enter an integer greater than or equal to zero.
Range 1 through 31 For the Date of Month type, enter an integer in the range 1 through 31.
Monday through Sunday For the Last Weekday of Month, First Weekday of Month, or Weekday Each Week type, select a weekday. Valid entries are Monday through Sunday.
User-Defined For a user-defined cycle type, the Value can be anything meaningful for the client extension. Oracle Projects is seeded with three validated values (two date values and one day in the week value). You can specify two additional non-validated values.
Weekdays are stored in the database as integers 1 to 7 for Monday to Sunday.

Effective Dates. Enter the Effective Dates during which the cycle is valid.

Description. Enter a description for the cycle.

Related Topics

Billing Cycle Extension, Oracle Projects APIs, Client Extensions, and Open Interfaces Reference

Components of an Invoice, Oracle Project Billing User Guide

Creating a Project Template, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Project Status Reporting, Oracle Project Management User Guide

Workplan and Progress Management, Oracle Project Management User Guide

Defining Work Types

You define work types to represent a classification of work. You use work types to classify both actual and scheduled work. For example, a professional services enterprise could define the following work types:

You can use work types to classify work for the following purposes:

You assign work types when you define project types, project templates, projects, financial tasks, team roles, project requirements, and project assignments. You also assign a work types to expenditure items when you enter transactions.

Note: The default work type for a project or project template comes from its project type. The default work type for each top-level financial task comes from the project-level work type. The default work type for each subtask comes from its parent task. The work type that you assign to a lowest-level financial task is the default work type when you enter or import an expenditure item for that task. If you set the profile option PA: Require Work Type Entry for Expenditures to Yes, then work type is a required value for project types, project templates, projects, and financial tasks.

Important: You must define work types before you can create any of the following items in Oracle Projects:

If no work types exist, then you receive errors when you attempt to create these items.

A work type is distinct from an expenditure type. Expenditure types classify the type of cost incurred on a transaction, whereas a work type classifies the type of work to be performed or actually performed. For example, you can enter and expenditure item for a task with an expenditure type of Clerical Labor to represent the type of cost incurred, and assign the expenditure item a work type such as Analysis to identify the type of work performed.

Profile Options for Work Types

Set the following two profile options for work types:

Billability of Project Work

Billability of scheduled work is determined by the billability of the work type assigned to the scheduled assignments.

You can also choose to drive billability of actual work by the work type assigned to actual transactions. If you choose to do this, then you will have to change the work type on an actual transaction in order to change the billability of the transaction. It is recommended that you do this in order to maintain consistency between processing of actual transactions for customer billing and reporting for billable utilization.

Note: To use work types to determine whether an expenditure item is billable you must set the profile option PA: Transaction Billability Derived from Work Type to Yes.

Cross Charge Classification

Project work performed by resources in one organization for a project belonging to another organization is referred to as cross charged work. Typically the project owning organization provides some compensation to the resource organization for this cross charged work. This compensation can be in the form of sharing revenue with the resource organization or taking on the cost from the resource organization. This allows each organization to be measured on its performance independent of one another.

You can classify the compensation of cross charged work into cost or revenue based on the work type assigned to project work - scheduled or actual. This attribute adds another dimension to the definition of work types.

Utilization Attributes

Utilization is a measure of how an organization is utilizing its resources (labor). This measure is determined by taking a ratio of utilized time to total utilizable time in a specified period for each resource in the organization.

Total utilizable time is also referred to as the total capacity of a resource in a specified period and is determined by summing up the total time available for work in that period.

Work Types provide a classification of work that can be used to determine the utilized time of labor resources.

Examples of work types for determining utilization in a professional services organization include:

The following utilization attributes are considered when defining work types:

Unassigned Time

Unassigned time is the net hours for a given period for which a resource does not have any scheduled assignments (capacity hours minus schedule hours). Oracle Project Resource Management automatically generates totals for unassigned time for all resources who have jobs that are flagged Include in Utilization.

The Unassigned Flag enables you to identify the work type that you want to track as unassigned time.

See Also: Defining Unassigned Time Tracking, Oracle Project Resource Management User Guide

Training

Ongoing training of labor resources is an important activity for many organizations. For example, to stay competitive in the marketplace, a professional services organization must ensure that the skills of their employees are current at all times. Therefore, tracking the amount of time allocated to training is important when managing resources.

The Training Flag enables you to identify the work types to be reported as training. The utilization reports classify work in these categories separately under a training utilization heading.

Non-Capacity Work Types

Resource capacity that goes towards time off, vacation, sick time, etc, is generally excluded from utilization calculations, in order to get a fair measure of a resources utilization. Work types that identify this time can be identified as Reduces Capacity. All work types with this attribute set automatically default to a utilization weighting percentage of zero.

Utilization calculation then reduces these hours from both the capacity and the utilized hours before determining the utilization for the resource involved.

Utilization Categories

Work type classifications become more granular when billability and cross charge classification are factored into the work type definitions and this level of granularity make work types inappropriate for utilization reporting.

For the purpose of reporting utilization, work types rollup into utilization categories. Utilization categories are implementation defined reporting categories for utilization. Similar work types that are defined separately due to billability and cross charge considerations may rollup into the same utilization category for reporting utilization.

Each work type rolls up into two utilization categories, one each for resource and organization utilization reporting.

Weighting Work Types for Utilization

A weighting percentage can be specified for each work type to determine the contribution of the work type in determining utilization. The weighting percentage is applied to actual and scheduled resource hours for utilization calculation. For example a resource may get 100% utilization for customer billable work such as Implementation, Support, etc but only 60% utilization for internal work such as IT Support, Marketing, or Training.

The same work type can carry two weighting percentages, one each for resource and organization utilization calculations. These two percentages will be the same in most instances but can be different in some cases. Rework is an example of when these percentages may be different.

A resource is assigned to complete some rework on an existing project. The organization will not receive any revenue for the extra work performed. The assignment has been allocated the work type Rework which automatically classifies the scheduled and actual work charged to this assignment.

As the organization is responsible for the overall performance of the project, it should not consider this work as receiving utilization credit. Otherwise, the utilization reports provide a false representation of the total number of hours being effectively utilized by the resources of the organization. Hence the weighting percentage for organization utilization should eliminate this time for the purpose of reporting utilization.

However, this should not negatively impact the personal utilization of the resource assigned to complete this work to ensure that resources are not averse to taking on such assignments in the future.

To define work types:

To define work type, navigate to the Work Types page.

A description of each work type attribute is shown in the following table:

Name Required (Yes/No) Description
Name Yes User-defined name
Description No User-defined description
Billable/ Capitalizable Yes Indicates whether the work type is billable or capitalizable depending on the project type class
Cross Charge Amount Type Yes Indicates the amount type for cross charged transactions. Valid values are Cost and Revenue.
Reduces Capacity Yes Indicates whether the hours charged to this work type reduce the capacity of the resource and the appropriate organization. Can only be checked if work type is Non Billable or Non Capitalizable. Default value is unchecked.
Unassigned Yes Indicates if the work type is classified as unassigned. Default value is No.
Training Yes Indicates if the work type is classified as training. Default value is No.
Resource Utilization Category No Resource utilization category for the work type. This category is used for resource utilization reporting. Work types that have no value specified for this field are not considered for resource utilization.
Resource Weighting Percentage Yes Indicates the percentage to be used for resource utilization calculations. Value must be between 0 and 100. If Reduces Capacity is selected, then the value is 0 and not updateable. Default value is 100% if the work type is billable or capitalizable; otherwise the default value is 0.
Organization Utilization Category No Organization Utilization Category for the work type. This category is used for organization utilization reporting. Work types that have no value specified for this field are not considered for organization utilization.
Organization Weighting Percentage Yes Indicates the percentage to be used for organization utilization calculation. Value must be between 0 and 100. If Reduces Capacity is selected, then the organization weighting percentage is 0 and is not updateable. Default value is 100% if the work type is billable or capitalizable; otherwise the default value is 0.
Effective Dates Yes Standard effective dates

The following tables show examples of work types:

Name Billable / Capitalizable Cross Charge Amount Type
Analysis Yes Revenue
Implementation Yes Revenue
Internal Support No Cost
Rework Yes Cost
Apprentice Yes Revenue
Billable- Training Yes Revenue
Unbillable-Training No Cost

The following table shows examples of work types defined under the Utilization tab:

Name Training Flag Reduces Capacity Resource Utilization Category Resource Weighting Percentage Organization Utilization Category Organization Weighting Percentage
Analysis No No External 80 External 80
Implementation No No External 80 External 80
Internal Support No No Internal 80 Internal 60
Rework No No External 80 External 0
Apprentice Yes No External 50 External 50
Billable - Training Yes No External 80 External 80
Unbillable - Training Yes Yes Internal 0 Internal 0

Project Types

The project type controls how Oracle Projects creates and processes projects, and is a primary classification for the projects your business manages. You must set up at least one project type to create projects in Oracle Projects.

The following table summarizes the implementation information that you enter for all project types:

Window Region Information to set up
General information Operating Unit, name, description, class of project (indirect, capital, or contract), and effective dates
Budget Option Budget entry and resource for status reporting
Budgetary Control Budget integration information and budgetary controls
Classifications Make class categories mandatory
Costing Burden cost accounting schedule, if any
Details Service type, probability list, and identify whether this project type will be used for administrative and/or intercompany billing projects
Project Status, Workflow Starting status for new projects and workflows to be used for status changes

For capital project types, you enter the information shown in the following table:

Window Region Information to set up
Capitalization Information Cost type definition, control for complete asset definition, control to allow override of asset assignment, asset cost allocation method, event processing method, asset grouping method, supplier invoice grouping and interface options, capitalized interest rate schedule, and override control option

For contract project types, you enter the information shown in the following table:

Window Region Information to set up
Billing Information Defaults for billing cycle, schedules, and invoice formats
Billing Assignments Billing extension assignments
Distribution Rules Distribution rules for revenue and billing

For additional information, see: Project Types Window Reference.

Project Types in a Multi-Organization Environment

In a multi-organization environment, you must set up project types for each operating unit. It is possible to have the same project type names in multiple operating units. However, each project type has it own attributes to control project processing by operating unit.

Project Types Window Reference

This section describes the regions of the Project Types window.

(All project types) General Information

Name: The name of the project type.

Class: The project type class (Indirect, Capital, or Contract) for the project type. See: Project Types, Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

Note: You can define contract projects only if you have installed Oracle Project Billing.

Effective: The date range within which the project is valid.

(All project types) Class Categories

Category: Select a class category. See: Project Classifications.

Note: Only categories that you have defined as valid for this project type on the Class Categories and Codes window are displayed in the Category list.

Mandatory: Enable the Mandatory check box if you want the system to require all projects of the project type to be associated with the selected class category.

You can also enable the Mandatory option in the Class Categories and Codes window.

Note: You cannot select Mandatory for class categories that are already associated with one or more projects of the project type.

(All project types) Details

Service Type: A service type is a custom reporting attribute that you assign to each financial task to represent activities that you want to track for financial purposes. You can use service types to group tasks for custom reporting. You can also use service types in your AutoAccounting setup. The default service type for each top-level financial task comes from the project type that you assign to its project or project template. The default service type for each subtask comes from its parent task.

Role List: A role list specifies which roles are available on a project. You can specify a role list when you create a project.

Work Type: You define work types to represent a classification of work. You use work types to classify both actual and scheduled work. The default work type for a project or project template comes from its project type. See: Defining Work Types.

Probability List: (optional) Enter a probability list. The probability list you enter provides the list of values for the Probability field for projects.

Administrative: Use this box to identify administrative indirect projects on which that you can create administrative assignments in Oracle Project Resource Management.

Unassigned Time: Enable this option if you want to track available resource time in utilization reporting.

Intercompany Billing: Choose this box if you want to use this project type for intercompany billing projects.

Organization Planning: You must define a unique project type to identify the organization projects that are used in organization forecasting. Define the project type for organization forecasting projects with a class of indirect and then enable the Organization Planning check box.

Sponsored: Enable this check box if you want to fund projects with awards in Oracle Grants Accounting. For additional information, see the Oracle Grants Accounting User Guide.

Contingent Worker Enabled: Enable this check box to include all purchase orders associated with contingent worker enabled projects available for selection when a contingent worker enters a timecard. If you do not enable this, only purchase orders associated with the project that the contingent worker entered on the timecard, are available for selection.

(All project types) Costing Information

Burdened: Indicates whether to burden raw costs charged to projects using this project type for internal costing purposes.

Schedule: The burden schedule to use as the default cost burden schedule. You enter a schedule only if the project type is burdened. If the project type is burdened, this field is required.

Allow Schedule Override: Indicates whether you can override the default cost burden schedule when entering and maintaining projects and tasks. Deselect the check box if you want to ensure that all projects of a project type use the same schedule for internal costing. Check the box to allow updates to the cost burden schedule on the projects and tasks. You can enter this only if you enabled the Burdened check box.

Burdening Options: If you select the Burdened check box, additional fields are displayed:

You can use the Project Status Inquiry Burdening Commitments Extension to override the setup for displaying burden costs of commitments. For more information, use the Integration SOA Gateway responsibility to access the Oracle Integration Repository and navigate to the Projects Suite to find Project Status Inquiry Burdening Commitments Extension.

(All project types) Budget Option

Allow Cost Budget Entry: Indicates if you allow entry of cost budget types.

Allow Revenue Budget Entry: Indicates if you allow entry of revenue budget types. For contract projects, you must enter a revenue budget for a contract project before it can accrue revenue and be billed. For indirect and capital projects, you can choose to not allow entry of revenue budgets.

Resource List for Status Reporting: The default resource list to use for summarizing project amounts for status reporting. You must enter a value to ensure that you can view information in the Project Status windows and project status reports, even when you have not baselined a budget for the project. You typically select the same resource list as one of the resource lists you use for budgeting. When you create a new project template from scratch, Oracle Projects automatically creates a resource list assignment using this resource list.

(All project types) Budgetary Control

Enter values in this tabbed region if you want to set up budgetary controls and/or budget integration for the project type.

Allow Override at Project Level. Check this check box if you want to allow users to modify the default budgetary control settings that you enter for the project type.

The budgetary control settings for the project type are used when a project template or project is created. If this check box is not checked, the user cannot change the values at the project template or project level.

Budget Type.

Control Flag. Check this check box to enable budgetary controls for the corresponding budget type. (Budgetary controls can be enabled for only one budget type per project type.)

Balance Type. This field is used to define top-down and bottom-up budget integration.

Non-Project Budget. This field is used to define top-down and bottom-up budget integration.

Levels. Select a default control level for each budget level:

Time Phase. The system uses these values to calculate available funds.

(All project types) Project Status, Workflow

Starting Project Status: Enter a starting project status for each project type you create. The starting project status used as the default when:

Use Workflow for Project Status changes: Select to initiate Workflow for all workflow-eligible project statuses in projects with this project type. See: Project Statuses.

Use Workflow for Budget Status changes: Select to initiate Workflow for all eligible project budgets in projects with this project type. See: Budget Types.

(Capital project types) Capitalization Information

Cost Type: For the project type, specifies whether to capitalize costs at their burdened or raw cost amount.

Require Complete Asset Definition: Specifies whether an asset definition in Oracle Projects must be complete before you can interface costs to Oracle Assets. If you select this option, you do not need to enter information for the imported asset line in the Prepare Mass Additions window in Oracle Assets. The Asset Interface process places asset lines with complete definitions directly into the Post queue in Oracle Assets.

Override Asset Assignment: This field interacts with the assignment status of the asset to either call or disregard the Asset Assignment client extension, as shown in the following table:

Is Override Asset Assignment selected? Asset assignment of asset lines is... Does the system call the client extension?
No Unassigned Yes
No Assigned No
Yes Unassigned Yes
Yes Assigned Yes

You can set up the Asset Assignment extension to assign any unassigned asset lines that result from the Generate Asset Lines process, or (as described above) to override the current asset assignment for specified lines. See: Asset Assignment Extension, Oracle Projects APIs, Client Extensions, and Open Interfaces Reference.

Asset Cost Allocation Method: You can select one of several predefined allocation methods to automatically distribute indirect and common costs across multiple assets. See: Allocating Asset Costs, Oracle Project Costing User Guide.

Event Processing Method: You can specify a capital event processing method to control how assets and costs are grouped over time. You can choose to use either periodic or manual events. See: Creating Capital Events, Oracle Project Costing User Guide.

Grouping Method: Specify how to summarize asset lines. You can choose from the following options:

Group Supplier Invoices: Select to consolidate the expenditure items on a supplier invoice into one asset line according to the method specified in the Grouping Method field. Deselect to interface the lines to Oracle Assets as separate mass addition lines:

Capitalized Interest Default Schedule: Use this field to specify a default interest rate schedule for capitalized interest. See: Defining Capitalized Interest Rate Schedules, Oracle Project Costing User Guide.

Capitalized Interest Allow Override: Select this check box to allow override of the default capitalized interest rate schedule at the project level.

(All project types) Billing Information

Funding Level: The level at which you allow funding for contract projects of this project type. You can choose from the values of Project, Top Task, or Both.

Billing Job Group: Enter a default job group for billing purposes. The job group you enter serves as the default Billing Job Group when you define a contract project with this project type.

Date-Effective Funds Consumption: Select this option to instruct the system to use the agreement billing sequence and effective dates when it processes expenditure items and events. When you enable this option, Oracle Project Billing bills Expenditure items and events are billed against the agreement with the lowest sequence and expiration date that has funding available greater than or equal to the amount of the expenditure item or event. If you enable this option, then you do not specify contribution percentages for the customers.

You can modify this field at any time. The check box is disabled if Intercompany Billing is selected.

AR Receipt Notification: Select this check box to receive workflow notifications on payment receipts applied in Oracle Receivables to invoices for projects created from this project type that are enabled for supplier payment control. For more information, see Send AR Notification Workflow, Oracle Projects Implementation Guide. See also, Revenue and Billing Information, Oracle Projects Fundamentals .

Automatic Release of Pay When Paid Invoices: Select this check box to ensure that the Release Pay When Paid Holds concurrent program considers all supplier invoices linked to customer invoices of all projects created from this project type. For more information, see Release Pay When Paid Holds, Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

Leave this check box deselected, if you would like to manually review and release pay when paid holds on supplier invoices for projects created from this project type. For example, if you receive 90% of the payment due on a customer invoice from a customer with a good payment record, you, as the project manager, can review the linked supplier invoices on the Supplier Summary page for your project and manually release all linked supplier invoices for payment. For more information on releasing holds, see Payment Control, Oracle Project Costing User Guide.

Bill Rate Schedules:

Labor: Select Bill Rate Schedule or Burden Schedule for labor billing.

When calculating labor revenue and invoicing, the system looks first for the employee-based bill rate schedule. If no employee-based rate is specified, or if none is available, the system uses the job-based bill rate.

Non-Labor: Select Bill Rate Schedule or Burden Schedule for non-labor billing.

The list of values for labor and non-labor schedules are restricted as follows:

Invoice Formats

Labor: Select the default labor invoice format.

Non-Labor: Select the default non-labor invoice format.

Billing Cycle

Billing Cycle: The default billing cycle for projects of this type. See: Defining Cycles.

First Bill Offset Days: The default number of days that elapse between the project start date and the date of the project's first invoice.

Funding

Baseline Funding without Budget: Check this box if you want to automatically create a revenue budget when you baseline your funding.

Revaluate Funding: Check this box if you want to revaluate funding for the project type. This option cannot be unchecked if the Revaluate Funding option is enabled at the Project level.

Funding Revaluation includes Gains and Losses: This option can be enabled only if the Funding Revaluation includes Gains and Losses option is enabled in the Implementation Options window and Revaluate Funding is enabled for the project type. Check this box if you want funding revaluation to include gains and losses. If you enable this functionality you should define the project revenue realized gains and losses event types for account reclassifications.

If this functionality is not enabled, the revaluation process only considers the funding backlog amount.

Realized Gains and Losses Event Types: If the Funding Revaluation Includes Gains and Losses functionality is enabled at the Project Types level, define new gains and losses event types. These event types record the realized gains and losses events while processing funding revaluation.

(Contract project types) Billing Assignments

Name: Select billing extensions to be used in revenue accrual or invoicing, or both.

Amount and Percentage: Enter an amount or percentage to used in the billing extension calculation.

Active: Deselect to disable the billing assignment.

(Contract project types) Distribution Rules

Name: You select the distribution rules that can be allowed for any project of this project type. You can choose any predefined distribution rule:

Variable Description
Cost/Cost Accrue revenue and bill using the ratio of actual cost to budgeted cost (percent spent)
Cost/Event Accrue revenue using the ratio of actual cost to budgeted cost (percent spent), bill based on events
Cost/Work Accrue revenue using the ratio of actual cost to budgeted cost (percent spent), bill as work occurs
Event/Event Accrue revenue and bill based on events
Event/Work Accrue revenue based on events, bill as work occurs
Work/Event Accrue revenue as work occurs, bill based on events
Work/Work Accrue revenue and bill as work occurs

Default: Check the box if you want to use the distribution rule as the default value for projects of this project type. You can only have one default distribution rule for each project type.

Defining Project Types

Prerequisites

To define a new project type:

  1. Open the Project Types window.

  2. Enter the project type information, including any options appropriate for the project type class. See: Project Types Window Reference.

  3. Save your work.

Project Types for Fremont Corporation (Example Setup)

Fremont Corporation uses Oracle Projects to manage indirect, capital, and contract projects.

Fremont Corporation: Indirect Project Types

Fremont Corporation's implementation team defines these indirect project types:

Fremont Corporation: Capital Project Types

Fremont Corporation's implementation team defines these capital project types:

The capital project types are shown in the following table:

Project Type Attributes: Product Development Infrastructure
Name Product Development Infrastructure
Class Capital Capital
Service Type Lab Work Field Work
Description Product development projects for which costs are burdened and later capitalized Capital improvements to infrastructure
Costing Information: Burdened NA Yes
Schedule Internal Costing Labor Burden Only
Allow Schedule Override Yes No
Budget Option: Allow Cost Budget Entry Yes Yes
(Cost) Entry Method Top Task by PA Period Top Task by PA Period
(Cost) Resource List Labor by Job, Non-Labor by Expenditure Type Labor by Job, Non-Labor by Key Supplier
Allow Revenue Budget Entry No No
Resource List for Status Reporting Labor by Job, Non-Labor by Expenditure Type Labor by Job, Non-Labor by Expenditure Type
Capitalization Information: CIP Cost Type Burdened Raw
Require Complete Asset Definition Yes Yes
Override Asset Assignment No No
CIP Grouping Method Expenditure Category Expenditure Category
Group Supplier Invoices Yes Yes

Fremont Corporation: Contract Project Types

Fremont Corporation's implementation team defines these contract project types:

The contract project types are shown in the following table:

Project Type Attributes: Time and Materials Fixed Price Cost Plus
Name Time and Materials Fixed Price Cost Plus
Class Contract Contract Contract
Service Type Field Work Field Work Field Work
Description Project is billed on a time and materials basis Project is completed for a fixed price Project uses cost plus processing
Costing Information: Burdened Yes Yes Yes
Schedule Internal Costing Internal Costing Internal Costing
Allow Schedule Override No No No
Budget Option: Allow Cost Budget Entry Yes Yes Yes
(Cost) Entry Method Top Task by PA Period Top Task by PA Period Top Task by PA Period
(Cost) Resource List Labor by Job Labor by Job Labor by Job
Allow Revenue Budget Entry Yes Yes Yes
(Revenue) Entry Method Project Level by Category Project Level by Category Project Level by Category
(Revenue) Resource List Types by Revenue Categories Types by Revenue Categories Types by Revenue Categories
Resource List for Status Reporting Labor by Job, Non-Labor by Expenditure Type Labor by Job, Non-Labor by Expenditure Type Labor by Job
Billing Information: Funding Level Both Both Both
Labor Schedule Type Bill Rate Schedule Bill Rate Schedule Burden Schedule
Organization Fremont Corporation Fremont Corporation  
Schedule Standard Standard Revenue Schedule: Cost Plus Billing,
Invoice Schedule: Cost Plus Billing
Non-Labor Schedule Type Bill Rate Schedule Bill Rate Schedule Bill Rate Schedule
Organization Fremont Corporation Fremont Corporation Fremont Corporation
Schedule Standard Non-Labor Standard Non-Labor Standard Non-Labor
Labor Invoice Format Job Job Employee
Non-Labor Invoice Format Expenditure Type Expenditure Type Expenditure Type
Billing Assignments none none Fee (default = Yes)
Distribution Rules: Cost/Event No Yes No
Cost/Work Yes No Yes
Work/Event Yes No No
Work/Work Yes (default = Yes) No Yes (default = Yes)

Fremont Corporation: Using an Indirect Project to Track Indirect Costs

You can use Oracle Projects to track all costs your business incurs, including work that is not directly associated with project work. You define as many indirect projects as you need to record various indirect costs.

Tip: Use multiple tasks to organize distinct subcategories of an indirect cost source. For example, if you record employee time off costs in one project, you can define tasks such as Sick Hours, Vacation, and Paid Holidays.

When your employees fill out their weekly timecards, they specify, as applicable, the project and task that corresponds to the appropriate indirect cost.

For example, if an employee takes a sick day during the expenditure week, that employee's timecard displays the indirect project and task your business uses for time off hours, along with one or more additional projects and tasks on which the employee has worked.

The following examples illustrate how Fremont Corporation defines indirect projects for cost collection:

Tracking Administrative Labor Costs

Fremont Corporation records all labor hours its employees spend on general administrative work in an indirect project.

Fremont generally consolidates a variety of administrative labor hours in one indirect project; occasionally, however, Fremont creates a distinct administrative work project to record hours spent on specific efforts. For example, Fremont created an indirect project to record hours spent on implementing Oracle Applications.

Members of Fremont's administrative support staff submit weekly timecards showing hours to be charged to the indirect project for administrative work. In addition, project managers periodically charge hours to this project for the time they spend writing semiannual performance reviews and performing other administrative tasks.

Fremont uses the resulting project information, together with a summary of other expenses such as rent, insurance, and cost of capital, to periodically review its bill rates and markups to ensure that the company is recovering the cost of labor.

Fremont defines the following administrative work project:

Define Administration Tasks

Since Fremont consolidates all administrative labor hours, the Administrative Work project needs only one task:

Fremont implemented AutoAccounting to use the Administration service type to charge administrative labor to the appropriate expense account.

Tracking Employee Time Off Costs

Fremont Corporation records time off hours in an indirect project. These hours represent one source of Fremont's overhead costs since Fremont cannot charge the hours directly to a paying customer's project and, therefore, earns no revenue for them.

When a Fremont employee uses sick, vacation, or holiday benefits, the employee fills out a timecard as usual, but indicates the time off project rather than a direct project on which the employee may also work. Fremont uses different project tasks to distinguish between hours employees record as sick time, vacation time, or holiday time.

Fremont defines the following time off project:

Define Time Off Tasks

Fremont defines three tasks for the Time Off project to distinguish between sick hours, vacation hours, and holiday hours. Fremont assigns each task a different service type and implements AutoAccounting to use the service type on each task to distribute time off costs to the appropriate expense accounts. See: Service Types.

The time off tasks are shown in the following table:

Task Number Task Name Description Organization Service Type
Sick Sick Hours This task holds all sick hours for Fremont Corporation Human Resources Sick
Vacation Vacation Hours This task holds all vacation hours for Fremont Corporation Human Resources Vacation
Holiday Holiday Hours This task holds all holiday hours for Fremont Corporation Human Resources Holiday

Implementing Project Lifecycles

You can use lifecycles to control the transition of a project through various phases and to aid reporting of progress and transition. For details about lifecycles, see: Project Lifecycles, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

To define lifecycles, you must first define phases.

Defining Phases

You use the Statuses window to enter phases. When you define phases, you must follow these rules:

See: Defining Statuses and Status Profile Options.

Deleting Phases

You cannot delete a phase if either of the following is true:

For more information about using phases, refer to the Oracle Product Lifecycle Management User's Guide.

Defining Lifecycles

To define a lifecycle, navigate to the Lifecycles page. When you define lifecycles you must follow these rules:

Lifecycle Details

When you define lifecycle details for a lifecycle that will be used with Oracle Projects, you must follow these rules:

Further instructions for using lifecycles are given in the Collaborative Development product documentation.

Deleting Lifecycles

You cannot delete a lifecycle if it is in use by a project or item.

Related Topics

Project Lifecycles, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Setting Up User-Defined Attributes

Oracle Projects enables you to define unique attributes for projects and tasks that fit the unique needs of your enterprise. These attributes appear in separate page regions that users can access through the Project Setup page (for project-level attributes) and the Task Details page (for task-level attributes).

Note: You can also configure page layouts to display user-defined attribute information. You can add page regions for project-level user-defined attributes to the Project Overview, Project Home, and Project Status report pages. You can add page regions for task-level user-defined attributes to the Task Overview and Task Progress Additional Information pages. For more information about adding page regions to project layouts, see User Defined Attribute Sections.

The steps for creating user-defined attributes are listed below:

  1. Evaluate your need for additional attributes and decide what groups of attributes you want to create. For example, if your company manufactures aircraft, you could create project level attribute groups for Engine Prototypes and Engine Specifications.

  2. Create attributes and add them to the attribute groups that you created. For example, for an Engine Specifications attribute group you could create attributes like Speed, Size, Weight, and Type.

  3. Use attribute contexts to associate your attribute groups with specific projects and tasks.

  4. For each user-defined attribute, you can optionally define a value set with data type and validation rules that the system applies when users enter data. You can reuse the value sets you create for different attributes. It is recommended that you create value sets before you define attribute groups.

  5. You can also optionally create user-defined actions, which you use to associate custom functions with each attribute group. The actions execute the functions at runtime. The actions use function parameters that are mapped to specific attributes in the attribute group or primary keys of specific projects or tasks.

For more information about the creation of attribute groups, attributes, value sets, actions, and functions, please see the Product Lifecycle Management online help describing the setup of attributes, functions, and value sets.

The following sections discuss the setup of attribute contexts, which you use to associate user-defined attributes with projects and tasks.

Defining Attribute Contexts

When you define attribute contexts, you start by setting up their context type. Then you associate attribute groups to them and create page regions for them.

To define a new attribute context

  1. From the Project Super User responsibility, select the Attribute Contexts link.

  2. Select Add Context to create a new attribute context and add it to the list of currently available attribute contexts.

  3. On the Add Attribute Context page, select a Context Type and Name. For more information, see Defining Context Types.

  4. On the Add Attribute Groups page, select one or more attribute groups for the attribute context and define the data level for the attribute group(s). For more information, see Associating Attribute Groups with Attribute Contexts.

  5. To associate the attribute context with a page region, navigate back to the Attribute Context page and select Page Regions for the attribute context.

  6. On the Page Regions page, select a page region and select Apply (or select Add to create a new page region). For more information, see Adding Page Regions to Attribute Contexts.

Defining Context Types

Oracle Projects uses attribute contexts to associate one or more user-defined attribute groups with projects or tasks. Attribute contexts are defined by their context types. There are four context types: Class Category, Class Code, Project Type, and Task Type.

The context type identifies the projects or tasks with which an attribute context is associated. When you create an attribute context, you select and define a context type for it. For example, you could associate a Class Code context type with an Engine Specifications attribute group, and define the context type as Commercial and Government. Thereafter, the system associates the Engine Specifications attribute group with projects and/or tasks using a Class Code of Commercial and Government.

Associating Attribute Groups with Attribute Contexts

After you define the context type of an attribute context, you can associate attribute groups with it. You can associate multiple attribute groups with a single attribute context.

You can associate attribute groups with projects at either the project or task level. You identify this data level when you associate attribute groups to attribute contexts.

You can use the Class Category, Class Code, and Project Type context types to associate attribute groups with projects or tasks. Attribute contexts associated with a Task Type context type can contain only groups of task attributes.

Adding Page Regions to Attribute Contexts

You must also add one or more page regions to each attribute context. Page regions are the containers that display the attribute groups associated with the attribute context. For example, you could have a page region called Engine Information that displays two attribute groups: Engine Specifications and Engine Prototypes. For more information about creating page regions, see the Product Lifecycle Management online help.

Changing Attribute Contexts

When you set up user-defined attributes for a project and then change the project or task attribute to which the attribute context is linked, the values that have been entered for those attributes are deleted by the system and you must enter a new set of user-defined attributes.

For example, say you have a project with a set of user-defined attributes that are associated with a Project Type attribute context. As the project gets under way, you enter values for those attributes. Time passes, and you end up having to change the project type of the project. When you do this, all of the values that you entered for the project's user-defined attributes are lost, because they were linked to the old project type. You have to reenter a new set of values for the new project type.

Related Topics

Page Layouts

User-Defined Project Attributes, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

User-Defined Task Attributes, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Enabling User-Defined Attributes in Project Templates, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Defining Project Templates

You can create a project template by either of the following methods:

To create a project template:

  1. Navigate to the Projects, Templates window or the Projects page.

  2. Enter criteria for a new project template or copy an existing project template.

Updating a Project Template

You can update a project template at any time. All changes to a project template affect projects that are created from the template after the changes are made. The following changes affect projects that were created from the template before the changes were made:

Disabling a Project Template

You can disable a project template by changing the template effective dates. You may want to disable a template if your company policies have changed and you need to replace the existing templates.

You can reinstate a disabled project template at any time by changing the effective dates.

Any projects or templates previously created from a template that is now disabled continue to use the Quick Entry fields and project options as defined in the project template.

Related Topics

Project Templates, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Implementing Client Extensions and Workflows for Project Processing

To extend the functionality of projects you set up, you can implement the following client extensions and workflows.

Name of Extension or Workflow Use This Extension / Workflow to:
Project Verification Extension Control whether an organization change is allowed for a Project/Task Owning Organization.
Project Status Change Workflow Route project status changes to one or more destinations for approval
Project Workflow Extension Control how the system identifies the approver for a project status change
Verify Organization Change Extension Control how the system identifies the approver for a project status change

For details about each client extension, see Client Extensions, Oracle Projects APIs, Client Extensions, and Open Interfaces Reference.

For information about the Project Status Change Workflow, see: Project Status Change Workflow.

Setting the Home Page Highlights Profile Option

Set the profile option PA: Home Page Highlights: Number of Weeks. This profile option controls the range of project assignments that are displayed in the Team Highlights table on the Project Home page.

For more information, see; PA: Home Page Highlights: Number of Weeks.

Project Search

The Project Keyword Search enables you to search for projects based on the project name, project number, project long name, or a text string in the project name, number, or long name. The Project Keyword Search is available on the Project List Search page. When you find a project using Project Keyword Search, you can then drill down to the project workbench.

The following procedures enable you to use Project Keyword Search.

Rebuild the Project Search Intermedia Index

For all projects to be available to Project Keyword Search, you must run the process PRC: Rebuild the Project Search Intermedia Index. Run this process on a regular and frequent basis so that keyword searches are based on the most current project information.

For more information, see: Rebuild the Project Search Intermedia Index, Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

Optimize the Project Search Intermedia Index

After you have run the Rebuild the Project Search Intermedia Index process numerous times, the base table index can become fragmented. The Optimize Project Search Intermedia Index process repairs fragmentation of the table.

For more information, see: Optimize the Project Search Intermedia Index, Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

System Administration and Maintenance

The following instructions give details about the System Administration and Maintenance steps in the Oracle Project Foundation Product Implementation Checklist.

Request Groups

A request group is a collection of reports or concurrent programs. Request groups enable you to control user access to reports and concurrent programs. You can use request groups to control access in two ways:

For instructions for creating request groups, see: Organizing Programs into Request Groups, Oracle Applications System Administrator's Guide.

For more information, see: Defining a Request Security Group, Oracle Applications System Administrator's Guide.

User Responsibilities

A responsibility is a level of authority in Oracle Applications that lets users access only those Oracle Applications functions and data appropriate to their roles in an organization.

When you define an application user, you assign to the user one or more responsibilities. When a user logs in, one of two things occurs:

All Oracle Applications products are installed with predefined responsibilities. You can also define additional responsibilities as part of your security strategy.

For instructions and information regarding defining user responsibilities, see: Defining a Responsibility, Oracle Applications System Administrator's Guide.

Additional Users

An application user is an authorized user of Oracle Applications and/or Oracle Self-Service Applications who is uniquely identified by an application username. An application user can sign on to Oracle Applications and access data through Oracle Applications windows.

Every user of the software should have their own user account. For information on defining users, see: Users Window in the Managing Oracle Applications Security chapter, Oracle Applications System Administrator's Guide.

Deferred Workflow Processes

Oracle Projects uses many deferred workflow process that are not immediately obvious to users. Therefore, you must be sure to set up Workflow. Additionally, you should set up background Workflow Engines to control the load and throughput of the primary Workflow Engine on your system. You can specify the cost threshold level of your primary and background engines to determine the activities an engine processes and the activities an engine defers.

For information, see: Setting Up Background Workflow Engines, Oracle Workflow Administrator's Guide.

Frequently Used Folders

Some windows in Oracle Applications are created as folder blocks, or folder forms, whose field and record layout you can customize. The following characteristics distinguish a folder form:

You can customize a folder block to retrieve a subset of records and display those records in a different layout. You can save your customizations as a folder which defines the layout of your fields and the query criteria used to retrieve your subset of records.

For information about defining folders, see: Customizing the Presentation of Data in a Folder, Oracle Applications User's Guide.

Folder Form Windows

The following list shows some of the windows that are folder forms:

Descriptive Flexfields

Use Descriptive Flexfields to customize your application to fit your unique business needs. For example, you may want to:

You can also create context-sensitive Descriptive Flexfields that let you enter information based on the value you entered in another field. For example, you may want to:

Related Topics

Descriptive Flexfields in Oracle Projects

AR: Transaction Flexfield QuickPick Attribute

Defining Descriptive Flexfields Oracle Applications Flexfields Guide

Page Layouts

Page layouts display and highlight different views of project information. For example, as project owners, project managers are responsible for project progress. They need information that enables them to evaluate the health of their projects. Task managers are responsible for work execution and change management. They need access to workplan and task information. Page layouts contain predefined sections that you can add, remove, or configure for different views. See Sections.

For each page layout you define the following attributes:

Defining Page Layouts

Oracle Projects provides predefined page layouts containing predefined sections for some pages. You can use these layouts to display information for these pages. For example, project managers can configure a page to provide a higher level of direction and focus to their team members. Team members see only the information they need, organized in order of importance.

You can also personalize layouts for some of the pages using the Oracle Applications personalization framework. Personalization provides a set of additional predefined sections.

You can configure layouts for the following pages:

In addition, you can configure the page layouts for the following project performance reporting pages:

Note: To configure page layouts for project performance reporting pages (overview, summary, and analysis), you must use the Oracle Applications personalization framework. If you enable the Page Layout setup option for reporting on the Project Template Setup page, project managers can associate additional project performance reporting page layouts to their projects.

You can also use the Oracle Applications personalization framework to configure the Team Member Home and Project Home pages.

You can use the OA personalization framework to add predefined tabs on the following pages:

Tabs group related information on one page. This enables project managers and team members to view similar information on one page. Project members and team members can personalize the sections for their own views in the Full List page.

Caution: The system does not prevent you from associating a task section to a performance tab on the Project Home page. Therefore, make sure you associate a section to a tab in a meaningful way.

When you personalize the Project Home and Team Home pages, you can rename a tab; choose sections you want to display under a tab, and hide a particular tab. See, OA Framework Personalization and Extensibility Guide.

Caution: The same section cannot be displayed under two tabs.

You can use the following pre-defined tabs to configure the pages:

For information on using OA personalization framework, see OA Framework Personalization and Extensibility Guide.

Predefined Page Layouts

Oracle Projects provides several predefined page layouts. You cannot change the predefined page layouts.

The following table lists the predefined page layouts and their sections:

Predefined Page Layout Names Sections
Default Project Home Page Layout Open Notifications
Phases
Cost
Tasks Estimated to Finish Late
Default Project Home Personalization Key Performance Area Summary
Worklist
Phases
Open Notifications
Tasks Estimated to Finish Late
Deliverable Due
In Trouble Issues
High Priority Change Orders
Cumulative Planned Value, Earned Value and Actual Cost
Cost
Financial Performance
Default Project Home Page Layout for Resource Management Open Notifications
Open Resource Requirements
Upcoming Resource Changes
Default Project Overview Page Layout Customer Details
Directory
Default Project Status Report Page Layout Project Information
General Progress
Document Attachments
Phases
In Trouble Issues
Default Task Overview Page Layout General
Current Schedule
Current Progress
Default Task Progress Additional Information Page Layout General Information
Default Team Home Personalization Assigned Actions
Owned Work
Open Notifications
Task Assignments
Deliverables Due
In Trouble and At Risk Tasks
Open Issues
Open Change Documents
Default Team Member Home Page Layout Open Actions
Open Issues
Open Change Documents
Open and Upcoming Tasks
Open Notifications
Default Performance Overview Page Layout Cost
Earned Value
Effort
additionally for contract projects:
Financial Performance
Revenue
Billing and Collection
Backlog
Billability
additionally for capital projects:
Capital Cost
Default Task Summary Page Layout Cost
Earned Value
additionally for contract projects:
Profitability

Note: Data is displayed by tasks in the work breakdown structure.
Default Resource Summary Page Layout Cost
additionally for contract projects:
Profitability

Note: Data is displayed by resources in the resource breakdown structure.
Default Periodic Summary Page Layout Cost
additionally for contract projects:
Profitability

Note: Data is displayed by the period type given in the period filter.
Default Period-to-Date Summary Page Layout Cost
additionally for contract projects:
Profitability

Note: The end date or to date is taken from the current reporting period set for the selected calendar.

Note: The Profitability section applies only to the summary and analysis page layouts of contract projects.

Configuring the Page Layout

The page is divided into sections. You can choose the sections and specify the order in which they are displayed. For some page layouts, you can also select links and project shortcuts. For more information, see Enabling Project Shortcut Links.

To create a page layout:

  1. From the Project Super User responsibility, select Page Layout.

  2. Select one of the page layout types from the Create Page selection list.

  3. Select the Setup Method of Page Layouts and Click Go

  4. On the Create Page Layout page, enter the information for the new layout.

  5. Optionally, add page sections.

  6. Optionally, and if applicable to the type of page layout, add links.

You can create multiple configurations of each page layout type. However, you can only use one configuration per project (or, in the case of Team Home page, one per person).

To create a page layout using the OA Personalization Framework

  1. From the Project Super User responsibility, select Page Layout.

  2. Select any project performance reporting page layout (Performance Overview, PTD Analysis etc.), Team Member Home, or Project Home from the Create Page selection list.

  3. Select the personalization Setup Method and click Go.

  4. On the Choose Personalization Context page, select Page as a scope of the personalization and a function level. Leave all other fields blank.

    Note: When you create a Team Member Home page, ensure that the function for personalization has the object type as Team Member Home. To ensure that the personalization is available to all users who access the page, you must attach the function to the Projects Page Layout Functions global menu. See: Appendix D, Menus and Responsibilities.

  5. On the Personalization Context page, add, remove, or rearrange the sections according to your requirements.

  6. Optionally, click the Manage Levels to activate, deactivate, or delete a page configuration.

    Note: You cannot add links to a page you have personalized using the OA framework. You cannot deactivate pages configured and provided by Oracle.

  7. If applicable, provide a shortcut for the page by clicking on the Update Shortcut icon on the Page Layouts List.

  8. To use page layouts that you create for a project, either attach them to the project template or enable them for attachment to the project by the project manager.

For information on using OA personalization framework, see OA Framework Personalization and Extensibility Guide.

Specifying the Project Header Section

The project header section contains the basic information that appears on the various project pages. Two predefined header sections are provided:

Header Section Name Information Displayed
Default Project Header Organization, project manager, project type, status, start date, and completion date
Project Header with Customer and Project Value All information in the Default Project Header, plus the customer and project value

For each project, the project manager can select the header information for the project pages and the project home page layout through the Page Layout page.

Sections

Sections determine the contents of a page layout. Sections display the following types of information:

Some sections are predefined and can be selected for use in page layouts. Additionally, you can configure sections to fit the customized needs of your organization. For more details, see: Configuring Sections.

Project Information

Project information pertains to the project as a whole. Display of project information outside the project context is not possible. In addition to the predefined sections, you can configure User-Defined Attribute sections to display specialized project information. See User-Defined Attribute Sections.

Workplan Information

Workplan information pertains to a set of tasks. Information can be rolled up from a group of tasks, or it can be a list of tasks that have something in common. In addition to the predefined sections provided, you can configure the following two types of sections to display different views for workplan information. See Configuring Sections.

Task Information

Task information pertains to a single task. You can include task information sections in only task-related page layouts. In addition to the predefined sections provided, you can configure User-Defined Attribute sections to display specialized task information.

Issues Information

Sections containing issue information display a number of issues that may meet specified criteria such as priority or status. In addition to the predefined sections, you can configure sections to display different views of issue information according to the needs of your organization, in List format. See Personalized List Sections.

Change Document Information

Sections containing change document information display a number of change documents that have something in common. In addition to the predefined sections, you can configure sections to display different views of change document information according to the needs of your organization, in List format. See Personalize List Sections.

Financial Information

Financial information is displayed in predefined Summary sections that display the cost, labor hours, and profitability of the project in summary format. Financial Information sections cannot be configured.

The Financial Summary region displays information for the Approved budget plan type in all scenarios, including when forecasts are being viewed. The Financial Summary region will be displayed on the following pages:

Resource Information

The two resource information sections display resource information for open resource requirements and any future resource changes. Resource information sections cannot be configured.

Performance Information

Sections containing performance information display performance amounts based on the page you are in. For example, performance amounts can be for the project, for each task in the work breakdown structure, each resource in the resource breakdown structure, and for time periods.

Performance information in an analysis page is different from the data in a summary page. A summary page displays performance by a single dimension of tasks, resources, or time whereas an analysis page displays performance by any two dimensions. For example, a task analysis displays performance for the task by resources or time.

You can configure add or remove sections from a page or configure different views of a section per the needs of the business and the organization.

Exceptions Information

Sections containing exception information include performance statuses for key performance areas and the status of exceptions in performance found for measures. A project manager can view project performance by area and exceptions where applicable.

On the Exceptions page, the Project Home page, and in the E-mail notification sent on exceptions to project stakeholders, you can view:

You can also configure Status Reports and the Project Overview pages to include all of the sections above. On the Project List page, you can include exceptions by measure and performance status by key performance area.

Configuring Sections

In addition to the predefined sections available, you can configure the following types of sections for your organization needs:

Personalized List Sections

Using standard personalization features, you can, as a system administrator define List sections for use in page layouts. List sections comprise of lists of issues, change documents, or tasks which have something in common. These sections can contain information from one project or across multiple projects.

Single and Cross Project Views

In project specific views, list views are always in context of that project.

In cross project views, task, issue, and change document lists are displayed in the context of a user's ownership. These views are only displayed on Team Home page layouts.

Personalized List sections that you define can be included in page layouts. See Defining Page Layouts.

In addition, you can personalize all the regions (tables and graphs) on performance reporting pages using the same method. To personalize a region in a particular reporting page, navigate to it and click the Personalize Region link in the region. You can set personalization levels for the context of the view you are creating. While creating views for project performance reports, you can also select sets of rows for a table.

To create a Personalized List section

  1. Ensure that the "Create Seeded Personalizations" and "Personalize Self-Service Definition" profile options are enabled.

  2. Select a project or create a new project.

  3. Select the Personalize Table link under the Task table, Issues tables, Change Request, Change Order, or Change Document tables.

    Note: In sections containing information from one project, change requests are displayed separately from change orders. In cross-projects views, change requests and change orders are displayed collectively as Change Documents.

  4. Select a Personalization Level of User to create a public view.

  5. Select Create View from the Personal Views page.

  6. In the Create View page, enter the information for the new view.

  7. Select Apply.

    Note: You can use views that you create from the Team Member Home page in only Team Member Home page layouts. You cannot use single-project views in Team Member Home page layouts.

User-Defined Attribute Sections

User-defined attributes enable you to define, enter, and maintain information unique for your organization at the project and task level. For example, as an aircraft manufacturer you can use this functionality to create a set of attributes that associate aircraft specifications with specific manufacturing projects.

The attributes are grouped together to form attribute groups. For example, you can have attribute group of Engine Specifications containing attributes of weight, length, size and color of the engine. The attribute groups are linked to project and tasks by attribute contexts.

User-defined attributes groups are associated with attribute contexts. The association can be either at the project level or task level not both. Attribute contexts are defined by their context type. The context type identifies the projects or tasks with which an attribute context is associated. For information on setting attribute contexts and associating attribute contexts with projects and tasks, see Setting Up User-Defined Attributes, Oracle Projects Implementation Guide. For information on creating attribute groups, attributes, and attribute functions, see the online help for Product Lifecycle Management.

There are four context types: Project Type, Task Type, Class Category, and Class Code. For example, you can have the following context types associated with attribute groups of Engine Specifications and Engine Prototypes:

You create and maintain page regions for an attribute context. The page regions display the attribute groups associated with the attribute context. For example. you can create a page region called Engine Information that displays the attribute groups of Engine Specification and Engine Prototype.

When you define page layouts, you can add the available user-defined attribute page regions to your page layouts. Project level user-defined attribute page regions are available for Project Overview, Project Home, and Project Status Report page layouts. Task level user-defined attribute page regions are available for Task Overview, and Task Progress Additional Information page layouts.

Note: Like the pre-defined page layout sections, User-Defined page regions can also be displayed as sections or links.

Attribute contexts for user-defined page region determine whether the page region can be displayed as a section for a page layout. For example, you have a Project Type attribute context of Time and Materials added to a page region (A), and a Project Type attribute context of Fixed Cost added to a page region (B). If you create a page region (A) and associate it with a page layout, you can only display the page layout for a project with a Project Type Time and Materials. You cannot display the page layout for a project type Fixed Cost.

Note: You can control the display of user-defined attribute information for each project at the project template level using a new project setup option called Project Attributes. See Project Definition and Information, Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

Gantt Sections

Gantt charts show graphical representations of data. They display the task schedule, progress, resource, and comparison between date sets. When you define page layouts you can add Gantt regions as sections.

Gantt views can only be created for a group of tasks in a single project and therefore cannot be used on the Team Member Home page. Gantt sections are only applicable for Project Home, Project Overview, and Project Status Report page layouts.

In addition to the predefined Gantt sections provided, you can create new sections for use in page layouts.

To create Gantt sections:

  1. From the Project Super User responsibility, select the Gantt sections link.

  2. From the Gantt Sections page choose a Section Name and select a Style, Tasks, Scale, and Rows for each section created.

    Note: Although the section definition provides a default selection of task, view, and scale attributes, users can access detailed controls from each Gantt to configure it for different views from each predefined section. See Gantt Charts ,Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

  3. Select Apply.

Configurable Section Types Summary

The following table summarizes the page layouts where you can configure the various section types. It also shows the product license required to view each page layout.

Configurable Section Type Page Layout Type Required License
Personalized List
- Cross Project: Tasks
- Cross Project: Issues
- Cross Project: Change Documents		 Team Home Oracle Project Management
Personalized List
- Inside Project: Task
- Inside Project: Issues
- Inside Project: Change Request
- Inside Project: Change Order		 Project Home
Status Report
Project Overview		 Oracle Project Management
User-Defined Attributes Page Region: Project Project Home
Status Report
Project Overview		 Oracle Project Foundation
User-Defined Attributes Page Region: Task Task Overview
Task Progress Additional Information		 Oracle Project Foundation
Gantt Sections Project Home
Project Overview
Task Overview		 Oracle Project Management

Page Layout Types

The predefined sections available for selection in a page layout differ depending on the Page Layout type. The following page layout types are available:

Project Home

This page layout type displays information to all project stakeholders when they access a specific project.

The following table lists the predefined sections available for the Project Home page layout type:

Section Information Displayed
Open Notifications Open notifications for the user
All Tasks All tasks for the project
Critical Tasks All tasks that fall on the critical path for the project
Tasks Estimated to Finish Late All tasks that are estimated to finish late
Tasks Scheduled to Finish All tasks that are scheduled to complete in the next user specified time period that are either At Risk or In Trouble
Milestones Used for workplan approval and publishing purposes. Contains previous scheduled finish date, new scheduled finish date, and variance. Also, highlights the difference with a published workplan version.
Phases The Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) phases table
Gantt The Gantt chart
Compare to Estimated Gantt Compares the current scheduled date to the estimated date of the workplan
Compare to Baseline Version Gantt Compares the current scheduled date to the baseline version date of the workplan
Compare to Latest Published Version Gantt Compares the current scheduled date the latest published date of the workplan
Compare to Prior Published Version Gantt Compares the current scheduled date to the prior published date of the workplan
Milestones Gantt Milestones of the project in Gantt chart
High Priority Issues High priority issues that are currently open
In Trouble Issues Issues that have the progress status In Trouble
All Draft and Open Issues All draft and open issues in a project
Overdue Open Issues All overdue open issues in a project
High Priority Change Requests All open high priority change requests
High Priority Change Orders All open high priority change orders
In Trouble Change Requests All change requests that have the progress status In Trouble
In Trouble Change Orders All change orders that have the progress status In Trouble
All Draft and Open Change Requests All draft and open change requests in a project
All Draft and Open Change Orders All draft and open change orders in a project
Overdue Open Change Requests All overdue open change requests in a project
Overdue Open Change Orders All overdue open change orders in a project
Cost (PSI) PSI summary cost data for the project showing actual, committed, budgeted, and forecasted data
Labor Hours (PSI) PSI summary labor hours data for the project showing actual, committed, budgeted, and forecasted data
Profitability (PSI) PSI summary revenue data for the project showing actual, committed, budgeted, and forecasted data
Open Resource Requirements All open requirements on the project
Upcoming Resource Requirements All resource assignments starting, ending, and pending approval in the next two weeks
Worklist Consolidated list of unfinished project related business objects like tasks, issues, change requests, change orders, and deliverables.

Note: You can also include performance sections on this page. For information on performance sections see Performance Overview.

Project Overview

This page layout type displays an overview of the project and includes project information needed by all project team members and interested parties. The information on this page can also be accessible to people outside the project team.

The following table lists the predefined sections for the Project Overview page layout type:

Section Information Displayed
Customer Details Customer details for a project
Directory Team members of a project
All Tasks All tasks for the project
Critical Tasks All tasks that fall on the critical path for the project.
Milestones Used for workplan approval and publishing purposes. Contains previous scheduled finish date, new scheduled finish date, and variance. Also, highlights the difference with a published workplan version.
Tasks Estimated To Finish Late Tasks that are estimated to finish late
Tasks Scheduled To Finish All tasks that are scheduled to complete in the next user specified time period that are either At Risk or In Trouble
Phases The Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) phases table
Gantt The Gantt chart
Compare to Estimated Gantt Compares the current scheduled date to the estimated date of the workplan
Compare to Baseline Version Gantt Compares the current scheduled date to the baseline version date of the workplan
Compare to Latest Published Version Gantt Compares the current scheduled date to the latest published date of the workplan
Compare to Prior Published Version Gantt Compares the current scheduled date to the prior published date of the workplan
Milestones Gantt Milestones of the project in Gantt chart
High Priority Issues High priority issues that are currently open
In Trouble Issues Issues that have the progress status In Trouble
All Draft and Open Issues All draft and open issues in a project
Overdue Open Issues All overdue open issues in a project
High Priority Change Requests All open high priority change requests
High Priority Change Orders All open high priority change orders
In Trouble Change Requests All change requests that have the progress status In Trouble
In Trouble Change Orders All change orders that have the progress status In Trouble
All Draft and Open Change Requests All draft and open change requests in a project
All Draft and Open Change Orders All draft and open change orders in a project
Overdue Open Change Requests All open overdue change requests in a project
Overdue Open Change Orders All open overdue change orders in a project

Note: You can use page personalization to include performance sections on this page. For information on performance sections see Performance Overview.

Project Status Report

This page layout type determines information to be displayed on the status report for a project. Multiple status report types can be associated with each project, allowing different recipients to receive different status report information depending on the page layout associated with the status report.

Sections in the Project Status Report page layout type are displayed as follows:

Note: An object selected for display in a section will change to reflect the state of the object in the system. For example, if a high priority issue which is displayed when the report is initially created changes to a medium priority issue, the issue will no longer be displayed in the high priority issues section the next time the report is updated. During the creation of the report, information is refreshed to display the current information in the system until the report is published, at which point the status report and its contents are frozen.

The following table lists the predefined sections for the Project Status Report page layout type:

Section Information Displayed
Project Information Project information for status report and workplan layouts
General Progress Allows entry of general progress information for status reporting
Document Attachments Allows attaching of documents for status reporting
All Tasks All tasks for the project
Critical Tasks All tasks that fall on the critical path for the project.
Milestones Used for workplan approval and publishing purposes. Contains previous scheduled finish date, new scheduled finish date, and variance. Also, highlights the difference with a published workplan version.
Tasks Estimated To Finish Late Tasks that are estimated to finish late
Tasks Scheduled To Finish All tasks that are scheduled to complete in the next user specified time period that are either At Risk or In Trouble
Phases The Project Lifecycle Management phases table
Gantt The Gantt chart
Compare to Estimated Gantt Compares the current scheduled date to the estimated date of the workplan
Compare to Baseline Version Gantt Compares the current scheduled date to the baseline version date of the workplan
Compare to Latest Published Version Gantt Compares the current scheduled date the latest published date of the workplan
Compare to Prior Published Version Gantt Compares the current scheduled date to the prior published date of the workplan
Milestones Gantt Milestones of the project in Gantt chart
High Priority Issues High priority issues that are currently open
In Trouble Issues Issues that have the progress status In Trouble
All Draft and Open Issues All draft and open issues in a project
Overdue Open Issues All overdue open issues in a project
High Priority Change Requests All open high priority change requests
High Priority Change Orders All open high priority change orders
In Trouble Change Requests All change requests that have the progress status In Trouble
In Trouble Change Orders All change orders that have the progress status In Trouble
All Draft and Open Change Requests All draft and open change requests in a project
All Draft and Open Change Orders All draft and open change orders in a project
Overdue Open Change Requests All overdue open change requests in a project
Overdue Open Change Orders All overdue open change orders in a project
Cost (PSI) PSI summary cost data for the project showing actual, committed, budgeted, and forecasted data
Labor Hours (PSI) PSI summary labor hours data for the project showing actual, committed, budgeted, and forecasted data
Profitability (PSI) PSI revenue summary data for the project showing actual, committed, budgeted, and forecasted data

Note: You can use page personalization to include performance sections on this page. For information on performance sections see Performance Overview.

Task Overview

This page layout type displays an overview of the task information that is available to all project team members and interested parties. The information on this page can also be accessible to people outside the project team.

The following table lists the predefined sections for the Task Overview page layout type:

Section Information Displayed
Financial Information Financial information about the task
Dates Task dates
Work Quantity Work quantity information
General General information about the task. This section is required for all Task Overview page layouts.
Current Schedule Current schedule of the task
Schedule Change History Schedule change history of the task
Current Progress Current progress of the task
Progress History Progress history of the task
Progress Options Progress options of the task
Financial Setup The financial setup of the task
Attachments The attachments attached to the task

Task Progress Additional Information

This page layout type displays information used by task managers in reporting task progress. A different format of the displayed information can be selected for each unpublished task in a project.

The following table lists the predefined sections for the Task Progress Additional Information page layout type:

Section Information Displayed
General Information General information about the task and project

Team Member Home

This page layout type displays information for use by individual team members. Using Team Member Home, team members can easily access information for they are part of, such as issues, tasks, and change documents. The information displayed is across projects, and the information contained in each page is personalized for individual use. The format of the Team Home page can be different for each site, user, or responsibility, and is set by a profile option called PA: Team Home Page Layout.

The following table lists the predefined sections for the Team Member Home page layout type:

Section Information Displayed
Open Notifications Open notifications for a user
Open and Upcoming Tasks All tasks whose status is not Canceled, Closed, or On Hold. Also, all tasks whose start date is fewer than 7 days in the future, or less than a user-defined value.
Open and Upcoming Tasks All tasks whose status is not Canceled, Closed, or On Hold. It also displays all tasks whose start date is less than 7 days, or less than a user-defined value.
All Tasks All tasks for the task manager
In Trouble and At Risk Tasks All tasks for the task manager that have the progress status In Trouble or At Risk
Open Issues All open issues for the user
Overdue Open Issues All overdue and open issues
High Priority Issues High priority open issues
In Trouble Issues All issues that have the progress status In Trouble
Open and Draft Issues Open and draft issues for a user
Open Change Documents Open change documents for the user
High Priority Change Documents High priority open change documents
In Trouble Change Documents All change documents that have the progress status In Trouble
Open and Draft Change Documents All open and draft change documents for a user
Overdue Open Change Documents Overdue open change documents for a user
Open Actions Open actions for a user
Closed Actions Closed actions for a user
Cancelled Actions Cancelled actions for a user
All Actions All actions for a user
Owned Work Consolidated list of unfinished project related business objects like tasks, issues, change requests, change orders, and deliverables owned by team member
Assigned Actions Consolidated list of unfinished actions assigned to the team member for any of the issues, change requests, change orders, and deliverables.

Performance Overview

This page layout type displays information used by project managers to manage project performance.

The following table lists the predefined sections for the Performance Overview page layout type.

Section Information Displayed
Cost Displays to-date cost information including variances, and commitments for the duration of the project and the reporting period.
Capital Cost Displays to-date capital and non-capital costs incurred separately and as a percentage of the total cost incurred for the duration of the project and the reporting period.
Earned Value Displays metric for earned value including schedule and cost variances for the duration of the project till date.
Effort Displays to-date effort or labor for the duration of the project and the reporting period.
Financial Performance Displays at-completion and to-date revenue, cost, margin, and margin percent for the reporting period and for the duration of the project.
Revenue Displays to-date revenue information including variances and change orders for the reporting period and for the duration of the project. Also displays forecast revenue for the project to date.

Note: Only displays revenue amounts for which you have generated revenue accounting events.
Billing and Collection Displays billing and invoice data for the project to date.
Backlog Displays backlog information and revenue at risk for the project to date.
Billability Displays to-date cost and effort or labor for the reporting period and for the duration of the project.

Note: You can use page personalization to include performance sections on the Project Home, Project Overview, and Project Status Report pages.

Task or Resource Summary

This page layout type uses the hierarchy of tasks in the work breakdown structure or the hierarchy of resources in the resource breakdown structure associated with the project to displays performance information by tasks or by resources.

The following table lists the predefined sections for the Task Summary and Resource Summary page layout types.

Section Information Displayed
Cost Displays and compares to-date cost and effort by task or resource for the reporting period and for the duration of the project.
Profitability Displays and compares to-date revenue and margin by task or resource for the reporting period and for the duration of the project.
Earned Value Displays metric for earned value including schedule and cost variances for the duration of the project till date.

Note: This section only applies to the Task Summary page layout.

Periodic Summary and Periodic Analysis

The periodic summary page layout type displays performance information for the project by period whereas the periodic analysis page layout type reports performance for a task or resource by period.

The following table lists the predefined sections for the Periodic Summary and Periodic Analysis page layout types.

Section Information Displayed
Cost Displays budgeted, burdened, and committed cost by period.
Profitability Displays cost and revenue including budgeted and forecast revenue and margin by period.

Period-To-Date Summary and Period-To-Date Analysis

The period-to-date summary page layout type displays performance information for the project by prior period, period-to-date, quarter-to-date, year-to-date and from the start of the project till date. The period-to-date analysis page layout type reports performance for the same periods but for a selected task or resource

The following table lists the predefined sections for the Period-to-Date Summary and Period-to-Date Analysis page layout types.

Section Information Displayed
Cost Displays period-to-date commitments and cost (budgeted, actual, ETC, and EAC).
Profitability Displays period-to-date revenue, cost, and margin and compares budgeted revenue with actual revenue.

Task or Resource Analysis

The task or resource analysis page layout type displays performance information for a task by the resources working on the task or for a resource by the tasks marked against the resource.

The following table lists the predefined sections for the Task or Resource Analysis page layout types.

Section Information Displayed
Cost Displays and compares period-to-date and inception-to-date cost and effort.
Profitability Displays and compares period-to-date and inception-to-date revenue and margin.

Note: The Profitability section applies only to the summary and analysis page layouts of contract projects.

Enabling Project Shortcut Links

Using standard menu functionality in the System Administrator responsibility, you can define a variety of shortcut menus using the Menus window. By tying together submenus, you can create a hierarchical shortcut menu with a maximum of three levels. The lowest level menu is always the shortcut link.

Note: For detailed information about the operation of the Menus window, see the Oracle Applications System Administrator's Guide.

Shortcut links are composed of user functions and are therefore subject to role-based security. This enables you to control link access based on the role of a user on a project. For example, you can make the Add Team Members link visible only to project managers and other users whose role includes the ability to perform this function. In addition, certain links are subject to product licensing.

Note: You cannot associate a section both as a link and as a section on the same page.

Project Home Shortcut Links and Menus

Oracle Projects provides predefined shortcuts for quick access to information under the following five tabs: Project, Resources, Workplan, Control, and Financial. Oracle Projects also delivers the following two predefined shortcut menus:

The following tables show the predefined shortcuts for Oracle Projects.

The following table shows the predefined shortcuts to project information:

Shortcut Name/Menu Prompt Menu Function Target Page Name Security Function Included in Default Shortcut Menu
Add Team Members Add Team Members Add Team Members Projects: Options: Key Members Yes
Add to Project Set Add to Project Set Add to Project Set Projects: Project Sets: Create and Delete Yes

The following table shows the predefined shortcuts to resource information:

Shortcut Name/Menu Prompt Menu Function Target Page Name Security Function Included in Default Shortcut Menu
Add Requirements Add Requirements Add Requirements Projects: Assignment: Create and Delete Yes
Add Assignments Add Assignments Add Assignments Projects: Assignment: Create and Delete Yes
Apply Team Template Apply Team Template Apply Team Template Projects: Assignment: Create and Delete Yes

The following table shows the predefined shortcuts to workplan information:

Shortcut Name/Menu Prompt Menu Function Target Page Name Security Function Included in Default Shortcut Menu
Update Work Breakdown Structure Update Work Breakdown Structure Handler Update Work Breakdown Structure Projects: Options: Workplan: Workplan Structure Yes
Update Tasks Update Tasks Page Handler Update Tasks Projects: Options: Workplan: Workplan Structure Yes
Delete Tasks Delete Tasks Page Handler Delete Tasks Projects: Options: Workplan: Workplan Structure No

The following table shows the predefined shortcuts to control information:

Shortcut Name/Menu Prompt Menu Function Target Page Name Security Function Included in Default Shortcut Menu
Create Issue Create Issue Page Handler Create Issue Projects: Control Items: Issues: View Yes
Create Change Request Create Change Request Page Handler Create Change Request Projects: Control Items: Change Requests: View Yes
Create Change Order Create Change Request Page Handler Create Change Order Projects: Control Items: Change Orders: View Yes

The following table shows the predefined shortcuts to financial information:

Shortcut Name/Menu Prompt Menu Function Target Page Name Security Function Included in Default Shortcut Menu
Edit Cost Budget Edit Cost Budget Page Handler Edit Cost Budget Financial: Financial Plan Security
Financials: Project: Budgets and Forecasts
Financials: Project: Maintain Cost Versions		 Yes
Edit Revenue Budget Edit Revenue Page Handler Edit Revenue Budget Financial: Financial Plan Security
Financials: Project: Budgets and Forecasts
Financials: Project: Maintain Revenue Versions		 Yes
Edit Cost Budget in Excel Edit Cost Budget Page Handler Edit Cost Budget in Excel Financial: Financial Plan Security
Financials: Project: Budgets and Forecasts
Financials: Project: Maintain Cost Versions		 Yes
Edit Revenue Budget in Excel Edit Revenue Budget Page Handler Edit Revenue Budget in Excel Financial: Financial Plan Security
Financials: Project: Budgets and Forecasts
Financials: Project: Maintain Revenue Versions		 Yes
Edit Cost Forecast Edit Cost Forecast Page Handler Edit Cost Forecast Financial: Financial Plan Security
Financials: Project: Budgets and Forecasts
Financials: Project: Maintain Cost Versions		 No
Edit Revenue Forecast Edit Revenue Forecast Page Handler Edit Revenue Forecast Financial: Financial Plan Security
Financials: Project: Budgets and Forecasts
Financials: Project: Maintain Revenue Versions		 No
Edit Cost Forecast in Excel Edit Cost Forecast Page Handler Edit Cost Forecast in Excel Financial: Financial Plan Security
Financials: Project: Budgets and Forecasts
Financials: Project: Maintain Cost Versions		 No
Edit Revenue Forecast in Excel Edit Revenue Forecast Page Handler Edit Revenue Forecast in Excel Financial: Financial Plan Security
Financials: Project: Budgets and Forecasts
Financials: Project: Maintain Revenue Versions		 No

Configurable Tab Structure

Project managers can either accept the default tab structure, or override it for a specific project by selecting a configured tab structure.

Configuring the Tab Structure

To create a configured workbench tab structure

  1. Navigate to the Menu window

  2. Create HTML tab menus

  3. Create a Home Page menu with HTML menus as sub-menus

  4. Attach the Home Page menu to all the projects responsibility menus that will access the project.

  5. Assign the home page menu to the project templates or projects.

Related Topics

Project Definition and Information, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Using the Gantt Display View, Oracle Project Management User Guide

Home Page Highlights Profile Option

To indicate the number of days used to calculate whether a task is highlighted as Upcoming., set the profile option PA: Highlight Starting Tasks: Number of Days.

For more information, see; PA: Home Page Highlights.

Gathering Schema Statistics

Oracle Applications uses cost-based optimization to choose the most efficient way to execute SQL. statements. To function accurately, the Cost Based Optimizer (CBO) requires current data volume and distribution statistics.

Oracle Applications provides a concurrent program, Gather Schema Statistics, to update and store schema statistics.

Recommended Execution

Weekly execution of Gather Schema Statistics is preferred, but not required. The right schedule depends on how often your data changes. Start by gathering statistics once per month for all your schema objects belonging to Apps.

Also, update the statistics after you apply a family pack.

Always gather statistics with no active users, or when the system load is very low.

Recommended Parameters

Percent: The percent parameter refers to the sample size (percentage of rows used to estimate the statistics). A 10% sample size is recommended.

Related Topics

Gather Schema Statistics, Cost-Based Optimization in Oracle Applications, Oracle Applications System Administrator's Guide.

Organization Forecasting

The following instructions give details about the Organization Forecasting steps in the Oracle Project Foundation Feature Implementation Checklist.

This section describes the activities that you must perform to implement organization forecasting. These activities include:

Prerequisite Implementation Tasks

Before you can implement organization forecasting, you must perform the following tasks:

Related Topics

Defining Scheduled Team Members, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Implementing Organization Forecasting for Resources

Transfer Pricing, Oracle Project Costing User Guide

Defining a Project Status for Organization Forecasting

To ensure control over forecast transactions and the behavior of your organization projects, it is recommended that you create a new project status for use with your organization projects. Create a project status with the following status controls disallowed:

For information on defining project statuses, see Defining Statuses and Status Profile Options.

Updating Project Status Controls

You can use the project status controls action Include Project in Organization Forecasts to determine which projects to include in your organization forecasts.

During implementation, determine which project statuses that you want to have this control and perform the required updates. For information on defining project statuses and status controls, see Defining Statuses and Status Profile Options.

Defining a Project Type for Organization Forecasting

You must define a unique project type to identify organization projects. To distinguish organization projects from other project types, a new attribute called Organization Planning is available in the Details tabbed region on the Project Types window.

To define a project type for organization projects, log in using the Projects Implementation Super User responsibility.

Define the project type with a class of indirect. Designate the project type for organization projects by clicking the Organization Planning check box on the Details tabbed region. You need only define the following attributes to create a project type for organization projects:

For information on defining a project type, see Project Types.

Creating an Organization Project Template

You must define a project template for organization projects. During forecast generation, the system checks for the existence of an organization project. If none exists, the Generate Organization Forecast process automatically creates a new project based on the project template that you specify for organization forecasting in the Forecasting Implementation Options window.

Note: You cannot use the organization project template to manually create a project.

To create a project template for organization projects:

  1. Log in using the Self Service Project Super User responsibility.

  2. Choose Project Templates. The Project Templates page displays a list of project templates based on your security privileges.

  3. Choose Create Template to open the Create Project Template page.

  4. Enter a name and number for the template.

  5. Select the operating unit to which the organization belongs.

  6. Select the project-owning organization in the project/task owning organization hierarchy that you have access to through your role.

    The system replaces the template name, number, and organization values when organization projects are created during the Generate Organization Forecast process.

  7. For project type, specify the project type defined for organization forecasting.

    For more information, see Defining a Project Type for Organization Forecasting.

  8. Choose Continue to open the Project Template Setup page.

  9. Specify a default status by selecting the Update icon for the Project, Basic Information option and selecting a status on the Basic Information page.

    The status you select, as well as the corresponding status controls, will be the default settings for projects created from the template. You can specify any status for the template. However, it is recommended that you use a unique status defined for organization projects. For more information, see Defining a Project Status for Organization Forecasting.

  10. Specify default page layouts by selecting the Update icon for the Project, Page Layouts, and Tab option and specifying the following values on the Page Layouts page:

    Field Value
    Project Header Section Default Project Header
    Project Home Layout Default Org Project Home Page Layout
    Project Overview Layout Default Project Overview Page Layout
    Project Workbench Tab Structure Org Project Tab Menu

  11. Enable the financial structure for the project template by selecting the Update icon for the Project, Structure option and enabling the Financial Structure check box.

  12. Create a financial task by selecting the Update icon for the Financial, Financial Breakdown Structure option and selecting the Create Tasks button on the Update Financial Breakdown Structure page.

  13. Enable the template Quick Entry feature and specify prompts for Project Number, Project Name, and Organization. Mark each field Required. These fields are used to create organization forecast projects during the Generate Organization Forecast process.

You do not need to define any other settings for the template.

Related Topics

Project Templates, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Creating Projects, Oracle Projects Fundamentals

Defining Forecasting Implementation Options

To define implementation options for organization forecasting, perform the following steps:

  1. Log in using the Applications Project Resource Management Super User responsibility.

  2. Navigate to the Organization Forecast Options tabbed region in the Forecasting Implementation Options window.

  3. Select whether to report forecast amounts by PA or GL period.

  4. Specify a starting period to define the first period of your forecasts.

    A starting period can be the current period or any future period. You must periodically update the starting date in order to reflect the appropriate forecast periods on your forecast entry and view pages.

  5. Specify the number of periods to include in forecasts.

    This parameter indicates the number of periods to include in the forecast beginning with the specified starting period. Together, the starting period and number of periods option control the display of forecast periods on forecast entry and view pages.

  6. Specify the project template to use for creating organization projects.

  7. Specify an amount rollup option.

    When you select Weighted Numbers, the system factors (discounts) revenue, internal revenue, cost, and internal costs by project probability percentages. When you select Full Numbers, the system does not factor the forecast amounts.

  8. Save your work.

Defining Adjustment Reasons

To support the entry and reporting of forecast adjustments, you must predefine the list of adjustment reasons that you use to categorize manual adjustment amounts.

To define adjustment reasons for organization forecasting, log in using the Applications Project Resource Management Super User responsibility and navigate to the Financial Plan Adjustment Reason Lookups window.

Create an adjustment reason by entering an adjustment reason in the Code field, and by entering a corresponding meaning, description, and effective dates. The Tag field is not used by Oracle Projects. For more information on defining lookups, see Oracle Projects Lookups.

Calculating Initial Forecast Amounts

After you complete all other implementation steps, you can submit the processes to calculate initial forecast amounts, generate organization projects, and generate the initial forecast version for each project.

Submit the following concurrent programs to complete the implementation of organization forecasting:

For information on each of these processes, see: Process Overview, Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

Utilization

The following instructions give details about the Utilization steps in the Oracle Project Foundation Feature Implementation Checklist.

Defining Unassigned Time Options

Unassigned time options determine how the system handles resource time that is unassigned.

Note: You must define unassigned time options for each operating unit.

To define unassigned time options:

  1. Navigate to the Forecasting Implementation Options page.

  2. Select the Unassigned Time Options tab.

  3. Enter the following information in both the Billable People and the Non-Billable People regions:

    Field Description
    Include in Forecast Enable this check box if you want the project financial forecast totals to include summarized unassigned time.
    Unassigned Time Project The name of the project to which unassigned time should be reported
    Expenditure Type Class The expenditure type class with which unassigned time should be associated
    Expenditure Type The expenditure type with which the unassigned time should be associated

You must enter values for these fields as applicable to billable and non-billable unassigned time.

If you make changes in how you handle unassigned time, such as changing the unassigned time project or associating a different work type to the project, only new transactions will reflect the change. If you want all existing transactions to reflect the change, you must run the PRC: Maintain Project Resources process.

Defining Utilization Categories

Utilization categories are classifications of work types for reporting purposes. Work types are summarized into utilization categories and can carry different weighting percentages, to provide two distinct views of the work that resources and their organizations have performed or will perform:

You can use each utilization category for one or both of the utilization views.

To Define Utilization Categories

  1. Navigate to the Utilization Category page.

  2. Enter a Utilization Category code.

  3. Enter the following fields:

    Field Description
    Description (Optional) A long description for the utilization category.
    Reporting Order Determines the display order for the categories in windows and reports.
    Effective Dates The beginning and ending date for which the category is effective.

Defining Profile Options for Utilization

Define the following profile options for utilization:

Setting Up Oracle Business Intelligence System Profile Options

Define the following global profile options for Oracle Business Intelligence System:

Related Topics

Defining Global Business Intelligence Profile Options

Oracle Daily Business Intelligence Implementation Guide

Defining Organization Security Profiles

You define security profiles in Oracle Human Resources for users or responsibilities to enable access to utilization reporting information by operating unit and organization. You must ensure that you specify the organization hierarchy and the top organization for the security profile. For more information on defining and assigning security profiles by organization and organization hierarchy, see the Oracle Human Resources Management Systems Configuring, Reporting, and System Administration Guide.

Next, assign the security profile you define in Oracle Human Resources to the following profile options.

Related Topics

Security Profiles

Defining Oracle Daily Business Intelligence for Projects Implementation Options

Define the following implementation options on the Project Intelligence Setup page:

The reporting time period affects how your utilization totals are calculated. By default, Oracle Daily Business Intelligence for Projects summarizes utilization every quarter. On the Project Intelligence Setup page, you can select to report utilization for your enterprise weekly, periodically, quarterly, or yearly. You can also select additional period types for organization-level utilization reporting.

Note: If you change any of your selections on the Project Intelligence Setup page, then you must run the utilization programs again.

The following table describes all the periods that you can use to report utilization.

Reporting Period Description
GL Period Utilization totals are summarized by general ledger period.
PA Period Utilization totals are summarized by PA period.
Enterprise Period Utilization totals are summarized by the global period. This option is useful for obtaining an accurate picture of the totals in an enterprise whose organizations use different general ledger periods.

For more information on setting up Oracle Daily Business Intelligence for Projects, see the Oracle Daily Business Intelligence Implementation Guide.

Updating Period and Organization Information

Periodically run the Update Time Dimensions concurrent program to import new and changed GL periods that Utilization uses. In addition, periodically run the HRI: Load All Organization Hierarchy Versions program to populate time and organization dimensions. For more information, see the Oracle Daily Business Intelligence Implementation Guide.

Summarizing Financial and Resource Data

Run the Oracle Daily Business Intelligence for Projects concurrent programs to summarize financial, resource, and resource management data for utilization reporting. For more information, see: Utilization Reporting Processes, Oracle Projects Fundamentals and the Oracle Daily Business Intelligence Implementation Guide.

Implementing Oracle Discoverer

You must implement Oracle Discoverer to access the workbooks, worksheets, and End User Layer (EUL) reports for resource utilization information by organization and resource manager. For more information, see: Implementing Discoverer Reporting and Discoverer Workbooks in Oracle Projects, Oracle Projects Fundamentals .

Oracle Sales Integration

The following instructions give details about the Oracle Sales Integration steps for Oracle Sales in the Oracle Project Foundation Feature Implementation Checklist.

Mapping Organization Roles, Person Roles, and Probability Values

You can map opportunity owner defined in Oracle Sales to roles defined in Oracle Projects. After you define the role mappings, all people and organizations that fulfill a mapped role on an opportunity are copied to the resulting projects. Opportunity owner that is mapped is included in the project directory as project team member.

You can define role mappings for organizations and people for either pursuit or delivery project requests, depending on the requirements you have for copying opportunity owner and their roles.

Mapping Organization Roles

You can specify organization roles for customers and partners. You must map a customer organization role before you can copy customer information from opportunities to projects. The default opportunity organization role is Customer. You must map this role to a project organization role with the role class Customer.

To map organization roles:

  1. Select the Project Super User responsibility.

  2. Choose Organization Role Mapping.

  3. Choose a Project Request Type (Pursuit or Delivery) from the list of values.

  4. Choose Go. The Opportunity Organization Role Customer is displayed.

  5. Select a Project Organization Role from the list of values.

  6. Choose Save to save the mapping.

Mapping Person Role

You can map opportunity owner in Oracle Sales to roles defined in Oracle Projects. After you define the person role mappings, the opportunity owner that fulfills a mapped role on an opportunity is copied to the resulting projects.

To map person role

To map opportunity owner:

  1. Login using the Project Super User responsibility.

  2. Select Person Role Mapping.

  3. Select a Project Request Type (Pursuit or Delivery) from the list of values.

  4. Click Go. The Opportunity Owner defined in Oracle Sales is displayed.

  5. For each Opportunity Owner Role, you can select a Project Person Role from the list of values.

  6. Save your mapping.

Mapping Probability Values

You can map the win probability information defined in Oracle Sales to probability information defined in Oracle Projects. After you define the probability mapping, you can use the opportunity win probability information to weight the revenue forecast for the project.

Probability Mapping

You can define probability mappings for both pursuit and delivery project request types. Typically, probability mappings are appropriate for delivery project request types.

To map probability information:

  1. Login using the Project Super User responsibility.

  2. Select Probability Mapping.

  3. Select a Project Request Type (Pursuit or Delivery) from the list of values.

  4. Select a Probability List from the list of values.

  5. Click Go. The Opportunity Win Probability values defined in Oracle Sales are displayed.

  6. For each Opportunity Win Probability value, you can select a Project Probability value from the list of values.

  7. Click the Save button to save the mapping.

Tip: Ensure that the mapped probability list is assigned to the project type when you map the win probability in Oracle Sales to probability information in Oracle Projects. Otherwise, users will not be able to see the mapped probability when they create a project.

Setting Up Project Templates

When you set up project templates to create projects from project requests, you must set up project templates with Quick Entry fields to display the project request information and the default values. Typically, the following Quick Entry fields are used for delivery projects, not pursuit projects:

When you create a project, if you enter a probability, you must also enter an expected approval date. The same is true in Quick Entry fields: If you set up one of the values (probability or expected approval date) as a Quick Entry field when you define a project template, you must also set up the other value as a Quick Entry field. For more information on setting up project templates, refer to the following sources:

Setting Up Product Hierarchy

If you are integrating Oracle Projects with Oracle Sales, you can set up the product hierarchy using the Catalog Manager responsibility. This enables you to assign product or project work to opportunities. You can select any node of the product hierarchy when you run the Manage Project Requests and Maintain Projects process.

When you enter opportunity information, you can enter product categories to identify project related opportunities to create project requests. All opportunities that have a product category assigned to it matching the product category selected are processed.

For information about the Manage Project Requests and Maintain Projects process, see: Manage Project Requests and Maintain Projects, Oracle Projects Fundamentals.

For information about setting up the product hierarchy, see: Advance Product Catalog Implementation Guide.

Oracle Product Lifecycle Management Integration

The following instructions give details about the Advanced Product Catalog steps in the Oracle Project Foundation Feature Implementation Checklist.

Include the EGO_MANAGE_ITEM Function

If you are using Oracle Collaborative Development and you want to use the Item Associations feature, you need to include the appropriate menu entry within the existing Projects menus.

The following responsibilities enable the use of the Item Associations feature, if the Collaborative Development product is installed. To enable drilldown into the Item workbench to view further details of associated items, you need to include the EGO Items menu (EGO_ITEMS_MENU) as a submenu within the following Projects menus:

Note: Do not enter a prompt for the submenu.

Include Item Associations in Page Layouts

If you want to view item association information using the Project Overview tab, you must include the item associations region in your configurable page layouts for the Project Overview.

Related Topics

Oracle Product Lifecycle Management User's Guide

Oracle Product Lifecycle Management Implementation Guide

Application Programming Interfaces

The following instructions give details about the Application Programming Interfaces steps in the Oracle Project Foundation Feature Implementation Checklist. To use Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)in Oracle Projects, complete the tasks outlined in the following sections:

You can use Oracle Projects Application Programming Interfaces to integrate Oracle Projects with non-Oracle applications. Share projects, budgets, resources, actuals, and percent complete data between your systems while preserving controls you have defined in each application.

Your implementation of Oracle Projects APIs involves steps that you must perform within Oracle Projects. You can write PL/SQL code to develop your own integration application, or you can purchase an existing integration application. Whether you create a new or use an existing application, complete the following steps to implement the APIs:

If you use Oracle Projects APIs, read this section in conjunction with the Oracle Projects APIs, Client Extensions, and Open Interfaces Reference.

API Controls

The API Controls windows enable you to keep information consistent between Oracle Projects and all integrated external systems.

Use the Control Actions window to set up controls over data imported from an external system that you use in conjunction with Oracle Projects.

Use the Source Products window to enter the name and description of your external system, or to modify effective dates for existing source products.

Control Actions Window

Use the Control Actions window to set up controls over data imported to Oracle Projects from an external system. Entering an action in this window prevents users from performing the action in Oracle Projects on a record that originated in the specified external system. The actions available in this window currently include the following:

For example, consider the following scenario:

To enforce these rules, you would enter the following actions in the Control Actions window for the source product (external system):

To set up controls for integrated project data:

  1. Navigate to the Control Actions window.

  2. Enter or query the source product for which you want to set up controls.

  3. For each action that you want to control:

    • Select the action

    • Select the budget type (for budget actions only)

    • Enter effective dates for the control

  4. Save your work.

Source Products Window

Use the Source Products window to enter names and descriptions of the external systems you use in conjunction with Oracle Projects, or to modify effective dates for existing source products. If you wish to set up restrictions in the Control Actions window for a product, you must first enter the product as a source product.

Oracle Projects currently integrates with a number of commercial project management systems. As a result, Oracle Projects already contains Source Product records for these systems. To view these records, select Find All from the Query menu in the Source Products window.

To enter or modify a source product:

  1. Navigate to the Source Products Lookups window.

  2. Enter the following information for the unit.

    • Code

    • Meaning

    • Description

    • Tag Value (optional -- tag value is not used by Oracle Projects)

    • Effective dates

  3. Save your work.

For detailed information on defining and updating lookups in Oracle Projects, see: Oracle Projects Lookups.