Project Template use

[kellykaufmann]

Our process for creating new PRJ projects in SN is to start from a Demand, then have a PRJ created from the DMND and fields carried over from the DMND and the PRJ and DMND reference eachother. I was asked to look into the Project Template functionality. We are currently using the 'Copy Partial Project' functionality if we have a project schedule we want to use as a template. But to do this, we have to create a dummy PRJ just to have the schedule to copy to real projects, and this is messy having dummy PRJ's out there.

Should we just create a template for each template project schedules we want, then use the 'copy partial project' functionality from that template, so we don't have these dummy PRJ's?

Is it technically feasible to apply a template to an existing PRJ just to have the project tasks copy into that project?

Thank you

- Kelly

[Uncle Rob]

I'm about to jump into a PPM implementation myself and I'd love to know the answer to this before hand.

[anna_scheib]

Hi Kelly, with the new Template functionality you shouldn't have to use partial or full project copy.   To begin with, you need to create the template itself. This is basically done by saving any existing new or imported project as a Template (from the Related Links). Once a template is created, it can be edited to include specific data fields such as PM, Portfolio, Description, etc. By default only project tasks and attachments are 'replicated' when a template is applied. You could however edit the template configuration to include additional record types - requirements, risks, issues.

A template can be applied to any project that doesn't have any child tasks just yet. If you don't have a Schedule specifically stated in the template definition, then we'll create a project using the default Project Management Schedule.

It might be a   bit laborious to have a template defined for each schedule, so I'm thinking that it might be easier to apply the template, and then set the Schedule which will take care of recalculating the project dates.

[kellykaufmann]

I'll give this a try! Just need to make sure it doesn't override any values that we have carrying over from DMND.

When you say "it might be easier to apply the template, and then set the Schedule which will take care of recalculating the project dates." > can you be specific what you are referring to with "set the Schedule"? meaning create project tasks from scratch, or somehow copy a schedule over? The schedule would be the main reason for templates for us.

[anna_scheib]

I'm referring to the Schedule in the sense of the Calendar attribute of a Project, not the schedule of tasks. By default, if you do not specify one, new projects have their Schedule attribute set to Project Management Schedule, which means 8am-5pm work days with 1 hr break for lunch, M-F.   The way the template works is this -   you would specify the Project start date, and it will copy all tasks and relationships from the template adjusted to start on/after the specified start date. If after that you'd like to apply a different Calendar (because of company holidays, different work day duration, etc.), then you need to adjust the Schedule attribute to whatever custom schedule/calendar you are working with.

As far as overriding value set by DMND, as long as that process does not create a project with child tasks, you should be able to apply a template and create a hierarchy of tasks. The usual roll-up fields for effort, cost, duration may get re-calculated when that happens.