PPM 4.5: Relationship between initiative phase DP, item DP & project phase

[Former Member]

Hi Folks,

We are using a stage-gate process for managing projects. Stages 1-4 have gates and stages 5-6 do not need approval and thus no gates are needed. The process is illustrated below

Stage 1 <> Gate 1 --> Stage 2 <> Gate 2 --> Stage 3 <> Gate 3 --> Stage 4 <> Gate 4 --> Stage 5 --> Stage 6

I have defined these stages accordingly in cProjects and using the phase type I am controlling whether or not an approval is required. I have also done the mapping between cProjects phase and Portfolio Item decision point. However, since Stage 5 and 6 do not map to a decision point (I am assuming the decision point should be the gate), I do not see these phases in the item overview "quick information".

Question - is this the correct usage of the cProjects Phase and Item Decision Point mapping? Ideally what I would like to do is to use status synchonization when the cProjects phase approval begins to sync the decision point status (i.e. cprojects phase "for approval" = decision point "in progress", cprojects phase "complete" = decision point "approved")

How does the initiative phases and decision points map to portfolio item decision points? Again I can see how this is done in config, however it implies that the initiative and it's items need to have the same phases and decision points?

Hope my question is not too confusing (let me know if I need to clarify anything). Appreciate any info and examples you could share with me.

Thanks,

Lashan

[former_member201206]

Hi Lashan,

regarding the question about initiative phases and decision points map to portfolio item decision points, there is an action 'manage the related objects'. You can select the object, and if needed click of button, 'subobjects'. You can then do the assignment between Initiative DP and item DP.

The status synchronzation between Initiative DP and item DP should be possible, it is the typically vertical synchronization, should be supported in standard. Please check the customizing of DFM (Decision Flow Management).

Kind regards

Zhenbo

[Former Member]

Thanks Zhenbo,

I am in the process of doing the customizing to setup the vertical synchronization which I think should work fine.

My confusion is that if I do not map an item DP to a cProjects phase (for stages with no approval gates), the phase is not shown in the item overview - is this correct?

As for the 2nd part of the question, the business scenario is as follows.

We have projects where stage 1-4 (concept to development) happens at a global level, and stage 5-6 is implemented locally (i.e. multiple projects). So what I am thinking of is having an iniaitive "Global Brand XX" with 2 phases - Phase 1 Global Development and Phase 2 Local Rollout. I will be having several items/projects in this initiative - Brand XX Germany, Brand XX US, Brand XX France and so on. In each of these items stages 1-4 should map to phase 1 of the initiative and stages 5-6 should map to phase 2 of the initiative.

Is this type of scenario supported?

Thanks,

Lashan

[Former Member]

Hi Lashan,

we are now implementing PPM5.0 with a very similar process flow to that one you're mentioning above, in which item Decision Points don' match exactly with project phases.

In our case, we don't create the project until we have completed first DP of the item, so the linkage between item DP and project phases starts on the second item DP and besides we have a review DP in the item that again doesn't map with a project phase:

item / Project:

DP1

DP2 = Phase1

DP3 = Phase2

DP4 = Phase3

DP5 = Phase4

DP6

Based on your experience, could you please let me know if you think that the synchronization between item and project in this scenario is possible?

Many thanks for your help.

Best regards