You can define workplans that meet the specific requirements of your various projects or project templates. You can:
Set up basic starting information for a work breakdown structure, including the structure name, lifecycle, current phase, and default display outline level.
Enable workplan versioning.
Enable work quantity planning and progress collection for a workplan and each of its tasks
Update the tasks transaction dates automatically.
Automatically update the tasks' transaction dates.
Define approval options for the workplan (if versioning is enabled).
Select a planning resource list for the workplan with either resource classes enabled or disabled.
Enable workplan cost tracking.
Enable multiple currency amount planning and define the list of transaction currencies used by your workplan.
Enable reporting of workplan cost amounts against a selected resource breakdown structure with either resource classes enabled or disabled.
Determine whether resources assigned to the workplan use actual rates or planning rates for costing of planned quantities. If you use planning rates you can define the planning rate schedules.
Enable resource assignment option.
Select a project for which you want to set up a workplan and navigate to its Workplan Structure Information page. To do this you must first enable your workplan structure. See Workplan Structures.
Note: You can configure the workplan structure for a template or for a project.
Structure Name: Enter a name for the workplan structure.
Lifecycle: Select a lifecycle for the workplan. A lifecycle is a collection of sequential project phases. Each phase represents a set of logically related project activities. You can use a lifecycle to track the progression of a project and the top tasks within that project through the lifecycle phases.
The system applies the lifecycle you choose to the workplan. You can also assign lifecycle phases to the top tasks in the workplan until you have selected a lifecycle for the workplan.
For a general explanation of how you can use lifecycles in Oracle Projects, see Project Lifecycles.
Current Phase: Select a default current lifecycle phase for the workplan. The current phase is the starting phase for workplans associated with projects.
The Workplan Information page and the Tasks page both enable you to update the current phase of your workplan.
Note: If you update the lifecycle for a workplan after you have assigned phases to top tasks within the workplan, the system removes those task phase assignments.
To update the current phase of your workplan you must be the project manager or have function security equivalent to that role.
Enable Workplan Versioning: You can enable workplan versioning to create multiple versions of the workplan for your project. You must also enable workplan versioning to take advantage of workplan approval, publication, and baselining functionality.
For general information about workplan versioning, see Versioning a Workplan.
Automatically Publish Workplan upon Project Creation from Project Template: If you enable workplan versioning and your workplan is associated with a project template, you can use this option to have the system automatically publish the workplan when a project is created from the template.
Note: This option only appears for workplans that are enabled for a project template.
Enable Work Quantity: Select this box to enable work quantity planning and progress collection for the workplan. For more information, see: Managing Progress.
Schedule using Third Party Software: Select this box if you want to use a third-party software application to perform workplan scheduling operations. You can indicate whether you want the system to schedule forward from the project start or backward from the project finish. For more information, see Managing the Task Schedule.
Allow Dependencies Only for Lowest Tasks: Select this box to enable dependencies only for the lowest tasks in the workplan structure. For more information about dependencies, see Defining Task Dependencies.
Enable Task Execution Workflow: Select this box to enable the Task Execution workflow process for the workplan structure. You must also enable the Task Execution workflow at the task level for the tasks that you want to include in the process. For more information see Using Task Execution Workflow Processes.
Automatically Update Task Transaction Dates and Date Adjustment Buffer: Task transaction dates control the financial aspects of tasks, such as when expenditures can be charged and when budget defaults can be processed. If the workplan structure is shared with a financial structure, Oracle Projects updates the transaction dates of all tasks with their actual start and finish dates (or their scheduled start and finish dates, if actual dates are unavailable). If the Automatically Update check box is not enabled, you can also use the Tools menu for enabling Oracle Projects to update the transaction dates. For a shared workplan structure, if versioning is not enabled, the system adjusts transaction dates whenever you update task actual and scheduled dates.
Use the Date Adjustment Buffer to adjust the transaction dates automatically generated by the system. The system subtracts the buffer value from newly derived transaction start dates and adds it to newly derived transaction finish dates.
For example, say that the adjusted transaction start and finish dates before the buffer is applied are 15 January 2003 and 20 January 2003. If the buffer value is 5, then the system subtracts 5 from the start date and adds 5 to the finish dates. The system saves the resulting transaction dates as 10 January 2003 and 25 January 2003.
Approval Required: You can require that the workplan be approved before it can be published. If you require workplan approval, you must designate an approver. You can also arrange for the system to automatically publish the workplan when it is approved.
For more information on workplan approval functionality, see: Approving and Publishing Workplans.
Enabling Resource Assignment Options: The Assignment Duration Same as Task Duration option enable you to automate the alignment of resource and task duration in Oracle Projects for all new and changed tasks and task assignments.
If you choose not to enable this option at the project template or project level, you must manually define or update each new and each existing task assignment as applicable.