The Basic Elements of a Published Project

A published project’s actual content depends on whether this project is based on the content of the original PPM item or on a P6 methodology that reflects standard project-related processes in the organization.

PPM Item

If based on a PPM item, depending on the mapping mode, it can be based on either the item’s sub-items or its life cycle phases, as follows:
  • Sub-Items - the project plan becomes populated with WBS elements which are created corresponding to the published item’s sub-items for the sub-item type selected.

    Note:

    If the item has no sub-items for the sub-item type selected, then the item will be published as a project without any additional elements.
    Each newly created WBS is named after the corresponding sub-item in PPM. Existing WBSs are matched by name to published sub-items from PPM. Once WBSs are matched to sub-items, they have become permanently mapped to each other for future updates. The renaming of either one will not break the mapping. In all publish operations, data will be published from PPM categories mapped as publishing to their corresponding project fields or codes for the mapped item, and to WBS fields for 2nd level WBS elements matching PPM sub-items.

    Note:

    If no PPM categories are mapped to P6 fields, no data is published (not even start and end dates).
  • Phases - the project plan becomes populated with WBS elements and milestone activities based on the item’s life cycle information in PPM.

    Note:

    If a life cycle was not assigned to the item, then it will be published as a project without any other content.
    Specifically, under the project level WBS element, several active WBS elements are created, corresponding to and named after, the mapped item’s phases. These WBS elements will be mapped to the corresponding phases for future updates. They also include the original planned dates of each phase, as recorded in PPM.

    Note:

    If a life cycle was not assigned to the item, then it will be published as a project without any other content.

P6 Methodology

If based on a P6 methodology, the system creates a project plan populated with the WBS elements and activities with their fields and codes as prewritten in the methodology. In addition depending on the mapping mode, the system will know how to match up WBS elements with their identically-named PPM entities, as follows:

Note:

This can be done either by defining the WBS elements in the methodology according to the sub-item names or phase names in PPM, or by naming new PPM sub-items or phases according to the WBS elements in the P6 methodology.
  • Sub-Items Mapping Mode - If there are WBS elements in the selected P6 methodology whose names are identical to those of the sub-items of the published PPM item, the bridge will map these WBS elements to the corresponding sub-items thus enabling the sharing of sub-item information.
  • Phases Mapping Mode - If there are WBS elements in the selected P6 methodology whose names are identical to those of the phases in the PPM item’s life cycle, the bridge will map these WBS elements to their corresponding phases, thus enabling the sharing of phase and deliverable schedule information.

This methodology, which determines how new projects are created, can be selected in one of two ways:

Manually by the end-user: In this case, the administrator provides the user with a form or a scorecard in PPM containing a field that allows the user to select the name of the P6 methodology that user wants to use.

Automatically by the system: When no P6 methodology has been manually selected , the system will automatically select a default methodology.

Note:

If a user has manually selected a methodology, this selection will override the system’s automatic selection.
This selection is dependent on the mapping mode in use, as follows:
  • Sub-Items Mapping Mode: For this mode, the default methodology is the one defined for the server, on the sub-items mode defaults step in the Bridge Server Settings Wizard.
  • Phases Mapping Mode: In this mode, the system will select the P6 methodology whose name is identical to that of the life cycle of the published PPM item. (This requires the administrator to pre-set the life cycle names in PPM to match the names of the P6 methodologies.)

If no methodology was selected either manually or automatically, the WBS structure of the published item will be either empty if in the sub-items mode or will reflect the item’s phases if in the phases mode.