| Agile Product Lifecycle Management Product Portfolio Management User Guide Release 9.3.3 E39293-05 |
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| Agile Product Lifecycle Management Product Portfolio Management User Guide Release 9.3.3 E39293-05 |
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This user guide provides detailed descriptions of all Agile Product Portfolio Management (PPM) features and explains how you can use PPM to record, monitor, and track progress of projects and programs.
Agile Product Portfolio Management is a web-based application that enables users to manage all aspects of a project or program. PPM is fully integrated with the complete Agile PLM suite of products to maintain a centralized view of project records and associated product information within the organization.
Executives use the PPM Dashboards to view portfolio data pertaining to all projects or programs. Portfolio data includes risks such as schedule slips, lack of resources, and project costs that directly contribute to the overall status of the project.
Project or program managers use PPM to:
Create and manage project tasks, resources, and schedules
Assign projects, phases, tasks, and deliverables
Conduct project discussions
Generate action items
View and distribute project content
Oversee project status
Manage project budgets
Resource pool managers use PPM to:
Manage resource pools
Assign resources to tasks
Project participants use PPM to:
Manage daily task assignments
Report the completion of tasks
Upload documents
Participate in project discussions
Agile PPM 9.3.3 introduces the following features and enhancements:
The Microsoft® Project plug-in has been replaced by a new XML-based integration with Microsoft® Project. The XML-based integration enables you to:
Generate and export XML output from Agile PPM and import into Microsoft® Project.
Import Microsoft® Project XML files to create or update Agile PPM projects
Enhanced data validations for import and export. See "Data Supported in the Integration."
Change in Microsoft® Project version support - Microsoft® Project 2010 is supported. Previous versions are no longer supported.
Cross-server project import - See "Replicating a PPM Project Across Servers."
Direct ownership change for activities and gates.
SDK enhancement to create and retrieve timesheets. See the Agile PLM SDK Developer Guide.
For documentation on the common features and enhancements introduced across Agile PLM in this release, see the Getting Started with Agile PLM guide.
During an upgrade from a previous version of PPM, data migration is necessary, so the existing data complies with new or changed business rules.
To facilitate the data migration, a post upgrade utility is available. For information on using this utility, see the guide Installing Agile PLM for WebLogic.
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Note: The PPM post upgrade utility is not supported on WebSphere Application Server. |
For Japanese and Chinese operating systems, an Agile PPM database instance can only be configured to use UTF-8 language encoding. Agile PPM sets the browser's character encoding to UTF-8, and it is not recommended to change the character encoding setting in the browser.
If the Agile PLM server is running on JRE 1.4, the Gantt application requires JRE 1.5.x. The higher versions such as JRE 1.6 are supported, if the Agile PLM server is running on JRE 1.5.
Common Agile PLM functionality is not described in the PPM User Guide. The following manuals provide comprehensive information on all common Agile PLM features and administrative requirements.
Agile PLM Getting Started Guide
Agile PLM Administrator Guide
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Note: The PPM post upgrade utility is not supported on WebSphere Application Server. |
PPM enables project managers to track and control all aspects of a project, providing visibility into all levels of project activity. You can use PPM features to do the following:
Project Planning
Create projects based on existing project templates
Create a project
Create baselines for projects
Convert Microsoft® Project files to PPM projects to associate project information with related product records in Agile PLM
Import and export root-level information about the projects
Import project details from file formats such as XLS and CSV into PPM
Manage project schedules
Manage project milestones and gates
Resource Management
Assign projects and tasks to resources
Manage resource pools
Track time and effort spent on projects
Project Collaboration
Initiate and respond to project-related discussions
Post news and action items related to the project
View notifications on assignments and action items
Maintain a project dashboard
Project Tracking
View project summary to track overall status of a project
Track project costs
Monitor overall status of the project
Generate project reports for analysis
View notifications on assignments and action items
Web Client is recommended for the project team members who need to view information and input data specific to the activities they own.
Use Web Client to:
View notifications and assignments
Manage assignments
Use timesheets
View a personalized dashboard
View project summary and status
Change workflow status
View reports
Manage subscriptions
Manage content
Participate in discussions
Project participants use Web Client for all their activities.
Gantt chart is recommended for program and project managers, whose primary responsibility is to monitor and manage programs and projects.
Use Gantt chart to:
Assign and manage tasks and resources
Monitor resource utilization
Add and manage activities, gates, and dependencies
View progress and modify project schedule
Project Management process involves management of schedules, tasks, statuses, discussions, documents, phases, gates, and resources.
At a minimum, a typical Agile PPM project consists of:
A root-level project
A series of child objects such as phases, programs, tasks, gates, or other projects.
The following table describes the various objects in the Agile PPM solution.
| Icon | Object | Description |
|---|---|---|
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Project | A Project is a unique set of related projects, phases, tasks, sub-programs, milestones, and gates that is driven by a time schedule with target start and end dates, and dependencies. A Project is the top-level object, but can also be a child of another project.
If the organizational practice uses Programs as the top-level object, to enable program creation in PPM, contact your site's Agile Administrator. |
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Program | A Program is a unique set of related programs, phases, tasks, sub-programs, milestones and gates. Programs are driven by a time schedule. A Program can be the top-level object or a child object of another project or program. |
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Phase | A Phase, sometimes called a stage, is a segment of a project.
Phases define the activities required to create a set of deliverables. When phases end, Project Managers may hold a phase exit or gate review to examine the completion status of each phase. A Phase comprises activities such as tasks and gates. It derives the date and status information from the project elements. |
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Task | A Task is a segment of work that one or more resources can complete over a period. Progress or status of a task rolls up to higher levels of the program. Phases, projects, programs, or other tasks can contain tasks. |
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Gate | A gate marks a point in the project timeline that typically requires a review of a group of project tasks, activities, or deliverables.
Gate status is 'Closed' by default. Gate status can be set to 'Review' or 'Open' based on work performed in the project. The work performed is typically defined in the form of deliverables. If a gate is set to 'Review', the project can be on hold until it is opened. When a gate is 'opened', directly or after a review, project progress can resume. Decision Gate: A decision gate is a special gate type used in phase-gate project methodologies. Decision gates mark a point in the project timeline when tactical and strategic decisions about a project need to be executed. Each phase of a project in a phase-gate model has a corresponding decision gate. Standard projects for New Product Development are typically five or six phases, each with a decision gate. Stationary Gate: A stationary gate is a gate type used to restrict users from modifying critical dates on the project schedule. A gate is usually moved forward automatically if tasks preceding the gate are moved forward. If you define a gate as 'stationary', only users with explicit privileges to move the gate can move the preceding tasks forward. To learn how to define a stationary gate, see "Defining Stationary Gates." Note: A Gate cannot have any Activities/Gates/Milestones as its children, therefore a Gate cannot be imported into PPM if it has children. |
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Milestone | Milestones are points in the project timeline that indicate the need for additional or secondary activities. Milestones can mark billing cycles, sub-project launch points, project metrics, or project team notifications. Milestones may or may not be dependent on deliverables.
Note: A Milestone cannot have any Activities/Gates/Milestones as its children, therefore a Milestone cannot be imported into PPM if it has children. |
| Deliverable | A Deliverable represents a unit of work required for a project's success, usually fulfilled by generating a digital file. (Word processing documents, spreadsheet documents, PDFs, presentation documents, and so on.) Deliverables can also be Agile PLM objects and processes.
Deliverables are managed in the Content tab of a project and often used to control the status of tasks and gates. |
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Discussion | Discussions are informal conversations specific to a project or program, found in the Discussions tab within the Collaboration tab of the project object. Discussions are frequently sub-classed into Risks and Issues sub-classes to capture and store all risks and issues related to projects. |
| News | Information or announcements that need to be communicated to everyone who has access to the project object. News is a tab within the Collaboration tab of the project object. | |
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Action Item | Action items are created in the Collaboration tab of a project and used to track non-essential activities that do not impact the project timeline. Action items can be assigned at any level of the project hierarchy. Action items are tracked and available to users in the project's Summary page and the My Assignments page. |
Programs, projects, phases, tasks and gates can be fully customized. For further information, see your site's Agile administrator.
The following figure illustrates the various PPM objects in a project.
Projects, programs, phases, tasks and gates can be customized. A 'Program' with multiple projects is 'Complete' only if all the projects within it are 'Complete'. Each of these projects has its own set of phases and gates. The following figure illustrates 'Projects' within a 'Program':
If your organization uses 'Programs' instead of 'Projects', contact your site's Agile Administrator to modify settings in Java Client.
An example of a project tree structure as seen in the navigation pane:
The following flowchart shows typical PPM processes and workflow participants.
| Your role... | Where to find information… |
|---|---|
| Project or Program Management Office | "Setting Up Project Management Processes."
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| Project Manager | "Creating and Managing Projects."
"Working with Microsoft Project." |
| Resource Pool Owner | "Creating and Managing Projects." |
| Task Owner, Resource | "Participating in Projects." |
| Administrator | "Configuring Product Portfolio Management." |
| Any PPM User | "Understanding the Interface."
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