Clarity PPM | Overcome Scheduling Issues

Curious about the new "Create and Update" process in 14.3 or wondering how to manage schedules when some people don't report time? We have all that plus more in today's Q&A.

And because one of the most frequent questions we're asked by clients is what are the latest best practices and trends you see? We polled 120 of our expert guides and consolidated their feedback into Rego's 7 PPM Trends for 2017. Download it here.

Clarity PPM (CA PPM) Q&A

1. When some resources don't track TIME, how do you MANAGE project schedules and REPORT on cost and schedule performance?

2. Action Item Assignee Problem

3. The new, singular “Create and Update” Process (14.3)

4. How to Query Users in a Specific Group

5. Planned Cost Totals are Missing from Our Investment Hierarchy

Please feel free to comment on any alternative answers you've found. At Rego, we always love your input.

1. On-boarding new areas into Clarity...

We're on-boarding new areas into Clarity. Some folks will track time, and some won't. We understand this will create scheduling challenges. We're also hoping to integrate MSP and concerned about the % complete manual method VERSUS how % complete works in MSP when connected to Clarity.

How do you MANAGE project schedules and REPORT on cost and schedule performance when there is a mix of resources tracking time?

You should avoid trying to track time-trackers and non-time-trackers in the same plan, especially if you’re trying to get some idea of “burn-down.”

However, in the past we’ve created a process to convert allocations at the Project > Team level into Actuals. And you could feasibly convert ETCs to actuals.

Here's a scenario:

1. Resource N is a non-time tracker.
2. She has been assigned to a task spanning 2 weeks with 80 hours of ETCs.
3. At the end of week 1, a process would run that would see that 40 hours of ETCs were scheduled the previous week; it would then create actuals of 40 for that resource and decrement the ETCs accordingly.

There are some details you'd need to iron out, but this could solve a lot of your issues and appears to work well when you're using MSP with the Manual % Complete calculation method. It should also support EVM metrics.

2. I'm trying to assign action items...

I'm trying to assign action items and can only see fields based on the resource browse lookup. I have a few custom fields using Custom Lookups (selecting resource id (not user_id)), but they won’t show up in the AI assignment. Any tricks?

Change the Object on lookup to Resource.

3. Two processes in history?

In 14.3, if you haven't noticed, you can make one “Create and Update” process. So maintaining two processes is history. Why is this useful?

Answer 1

On project create, you may have a required field that could potentially change throughout the life a project. You would have a process fire based on that field. And because it's required, it will initialize when the project is created and if the field changes, the process will fire again for the update.

You might have a process that automatically adds the project manager to the project team. The initial person listed as manager gets set when the project is created (especially if manager is a required field on the project), but if the project manager changes during the project’s lifecycle, the new manager will be added to the team via the update process. Only one process is needed. Create and update handle both start conditions.

Answer 2

You might also have an update based on a Boolean field. An update to another object would be the same but only start if the Boolean field is checked. For this scenario, an update process would be developed. If that field was on the create screen, you could check the Boolean field when you Create, so a second process that just calls the first is generated, and there's no duplicate code.

Another scenario is when an Idea is created; a process that triggers on the idea submit needs to start when the status is set to Submitted. This can happen at the creation of the Idea by clicking the Submit for approval. After it was created, the same steps would apply, so two processes are needed to maintain continuity.

Answer 3

The Work Request notifications would be a good real world example. We are currently using two separate processes to send the notifications (one for when the initial object is created and the other for updates made to the status). This new feature allows us to accomplish work request notifications with a single process.

4. Security group query?

Anyone have a query that pulls users and user status, based on a security group?

Answer

This query pulls users and user status, as long as they are assigned to a security group that is defined by a parameter in the query.

SELECT U.ID
, U.USER_NAME
, U.USER_STATUS_ID
, US.NAME USER_STATUS

FROM CMN_SEC_USERS U
JOIN CMN_LOOKUPS_V US ON U.USER_STATUS_ID = US.ID AND US.LOOKUP_TYPE = 'SEC_USER_STATUS' AND US.LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en'

WHERE 1=1
AND EXISTS (SELECT 1
            FROM CMN_SEC_USER_GROUPS UG
            JOIN CMN_SEC_GROUPS G ON UG.GROUP_ID = G.ID AND G.GROUP_ROLE_TYPE = 'GROUP'
            WHERE UG.USER_ID = U.ID AND G.GROUP_CODE = :group_code)

5. Issue with planned cost not showing up...

I have an issue with planned cost not showing up in the hierarchy tab of the master project. $10k should be visible for the subproject, but it’s showing $0. I’ve tried running the Upgrade Aggregated Data job, and it’s still showing $0. Has anyone seen this issue before?

Answer

Please verify your allocation isn't set to 0%.

Thank You

A special thanks to Jerry Dolak, Rob Greca, Dave Matzdorf, Atul Kunkulol, Sangeet Chourey, James Gille, Kelly Limberg, Danny Massimini, Marlon McKenzie, Sankhadeep Dhar, Rajini Mamidi, Jenn Rinella, Ross Hensel, and the Rego Team for this Q/A material.

Let Rego Be Your Guide

Rego offers free health assessments, webinars, and half-day training classes for Clarity PPM on Roadmaps in the Modern UX, Power BI, Portfolio Management, and Jaspersoft.

For a full list of Clarity PPM Services, visit regoconsulting.com.

Clarity PPM | Overcome Scheduling Issues