The optional Projects feature is a mechanism through which you can group related issues together that share common goals. You can define Project Members who have access to view the project and its progress, as well as a Project Manager who has responsibility for maintaining the project.
Project elements may include:
- Project Status and Substatus
- Percent Complete
- Target Date
- Required By Date
- Estimated Hours
- Actual Hours
- Estimated Budget
- Actual Budget
- Percent Complete
Additionally, the Projects feature will calculate values for Variance in Hours and Variance in Budget.
User Roles, Notifications, and Permissions
Projects have user roles and notifications that can be defined. Additionally, specific project-related permissions must be provided to users who need to work on projects.
User Roles
User roles within a project include:
- Project Manager - The user with responsibility for a project. This user must have be an admin or have "Can access and maintain all Projects" permission in order to be set as a Project Manager.
- Project Members - Users with permission to see project information.
- Project Subscribers - Users with visibility on issues relating to a project.
User Notifications
A Project may also be marked as Exclusive, allowing only Project Members to see the Project and its related issues. In this case, the Project Subscribers, the issue submitter, enterer, any task assignees, and administrative users will also be able to see the issues related to a project, but not the Project record itself.
User Permissions
In order for users to access the Projects administrative area, users must have at least one of the following permissions:
- Can access and maintain Administration functions - Determines which users will have administrative rights to the Projects menu from the Home Menu, as well as can select and maintain project values in an issue (if the user also has Menu Options / Pages Allowed > Projects).
- Can access and maintain all Projects - Determines which users will be granted administrative rights to the Projects menu. This also allows users to access all issues related to the projects they can see.
- Menu Options / Pages Allowed > Projects - Determines which users will see the Projects menu, but have read-only access to its content, as well as the ability to select and maintain project values in an issue.
Activating Projects
We'll divide this into two sections, since merely enabling the feature doesn't unlock its full potential. You have to be able to incorporate issues into projects as well!
- Activating the feature itself
AND
- Making the feature visible on issues
Activating the Projects Feature
Steps:
- Navigate to the left menu > Projects.
- Select Use Projects.
- If you intend to group projects into categories, select Activate Categories.
- If you want Actual Hours on Projects automatically calculated based on Labor Hours added to Project-related issues, select Issue Labor Hours roll up to Project Actual Hours.
- If you want to use your own terminology for the menu option and fields related to Projects, enter it in the Project Label fields.
- If you activated Project Categories and want to use your own terminology for the menu option and fields related to these categories, enter it in the Category Label fields.
- Click Update from the top or bottom of the screen.
A confirmation message will appear when this process is complete.
Adding Projects to Issue Forms
The "Projects" section must be present on any issue forms that you intend to use with a project in the future. However, since editing issue forms is outside the scope of this article, please see About Issue Forms for information on how to do this.
Managing Projects
Adding a Project
Steps:
- In the left menu, click Projects, and then click List beneath the Project section in the right quick menu.
- Enter your new project’s details.
- Click Save.
A confirmation message will appear when this process is complete.
Editing a Project
Steps:
- In the left menu, click Projects, and then click List beneath the Project section in the right quick menu.
- Click edit next to the appropriate project.
- Edit the appropriate field value(s).
- Click Update.
A confirmation message will appear when this process is complete.
Deleting a Project
Steps:
- In the left menu, click Projects, and then click List beneath the Project section in the right quick menu.
- Click del next to the appropriate project from the Open Projects list that is displayed.
- Click OK when prompted.
A confirmation message will appear when this process is complete.
Managing Project Categories
Adding a Project Category
Steps:
- In the left menu, click Projects, then click Add beneath the Project Category section in the right quick menu.
- Enter a name for the new Category.
- Enter a Display Order to define its rank in the Category drop-down in a project record.
- Click Save.
A confirmation message will appear when this process is complete.
Editing a Project Category
Steps:
- In the left menu, click Projects, and then click List beneath the Project Category section in the right quick menu.
- Click edit next to the appropriate category.
- Edit the appropriate field value(s).
- Click Update.
A confirmation message will appear when this process is complete.
Deleting a Project Category
Steps:
- In the left menu, click Projects, and then click List beneath the Project Category section in the right quick menu.
- Click del next to the appropriate category.
- Click OK when prompted.
A confirmation message will appear when this process is complete.
Managing Project Substatus
Adding a Project Substatus
Steps:
- In the left menu, click Projects, and then click Add beneath the Project Substatus section in the right quick menu.
- Enter a name for the new Project Substatus.
- If you want a color flag to appear in the Projects Summary, List, and View screens for projects that are in this Substatus, select it from the Color Indicator drop-down.
-
Click Save.
A confirmation message will appear when this process is complete.
Editing a Project Substatus
Steps:
- In the left menu, click Projects, and then click List beneath the Project Substatus section in the right quick menu.
- If you simply want to toggle a project substatus's "Inactive" status, you may do so now. This will be effective immediately and without confirmation. The steps below are not necessary to save this specific change.
- Click edit next to the appropriate substatus.
- Edit the appropriate field value(s).
- Click Update.
A confirmation message will appear when this process is complete.
Deleting a Project Substatus
Steps:
- In the left menu, click Projects and then click List beneath the Project Substatus section in the right quick menu.
- Click del next to the appropriate substatus.
- Click OK when prompted.
A confirmation message will appear when this process is complete.
Searching Projects
Searching Projects Using the Projects List
Steps:- In the left menu, click Projects and then click List beneath the Project section in the right quick menu.
- Enter your criteria in the Search On fields at the top of the screen.
- Click Search.
Your searches will return only the projects you are allowed to view.
The Projects List will then reload with only projects that meet your criteria.
Searching Projects
Steps:
- In the left menu, click Projects ,and then click Search beneath the Project section in the right quick menu.
- Enter your search criteria.
- Click Search.
Your searches will return only the projects you are allowed to view.
A list of projects that meet your criteria will be returned when the search is complete.
Deactivating Projects
Steps:
- Click the gear icon in the upper right > click Features beneath System.
- Deselect Use Projects.
- Click Update from the top or bottom of the screen.
A confirmation message will appear when this process is complete.
