In PPM, all components are stored in hierarchies. This enables you to quickly find objects, understand what content is available, and determine when tasks need to be performed.
Hierarchies also make it easier to apply and manage system security. The hierarchical storage of objects allows administrators to assign permissions to several high-level objects, and then selectively propagate these permissions down to other objects in the hierarchy. This saves time and provides a systematized, logical approach to dealing with security issues in a complex enterprise environment.
The following kinds of objects are organized into hierarchies:
- Items and Portfolios (This is a single hierarchy. Items are organized by portfolio.)
- Color Templates
- Maps
- Scorecards
- Forms
- Dashboards
- Versions
- Graphs
- Tabs
- Tables
- Categories
- Value lists
- Life cycles
- Phases
- Filters
- Users (This is a flat hierarchy. It is not possible to organize users in folders.)
- User groups (This is a flat hierarchy. It is not possible to organize groups in folders.)
- Processes
- Workflows
- Alerts
- Modules
You form hierarchies by grouping objects in containers. Portfolios serve as containers for items and other portfolios. For all other objects besides users and user groups, folders are used as the containers. Folders can usually contain other folders.
Each object type has its own hierarchy. For example, it is not possible to have scorecards in a Maps hierarchy. Each hierarchy has its own root. For example, the Scorecards hierarchy has the Scorecards root. Some hierarchies can be viewed in different modules. For example, you can view the Scorecard hierarchy in the Scorecard module or the Setup module.
Objects and folders may appear in multiple containers. This allows information to be shared in different contexts. For example, the Application Operational Review scorecard appears under both App Review and App Support.
Each object has just one Home Folder. All other instances of that object are referenced objects. A red dot next to an object's icon indicates that the currently selected folder is the object's home folder. For example, the Budgets folder is the home folder for the Budget, Budget Impact, Total Budget Impact, and What-if Budget scorecards. The Financial Analysis scorecard is a referenced object from another folder, so a red dot is shown next to its name.
Note: Objects located in their home folder only display the home folder icon in the setup module, and not in the other modules.
In each hierarchy, objects must have a unique name. However, names can be repeated in different hierarchies. For example, there may be a folder called Risk in the scorecard, map, form, and category hierarchies, but only one Risk folder can appear in each one of the hierarchies.