"Phase" customization in project management module

[onkarsurve]

Hello Everyone,

I am currently working with PPM module in Geneva instance.

The requirement here is

1. One project divided into many phases

2. One phase divided into many project tasks

3. Further, each project task will contain more project tasks

There are 2 OOB Servicenow tables:

1. Project [pm_project] table

2. Project task [pm_project_task] table

In order to develop the above solution,

I have created new table Project Phase [u_pm_project_phase] by extending Project task table. So that we can do customization on user created phase related table.

Next, I have added "Project Phase" as related list by right clicking on "Project" form.

On insertion of new record using related list in "Project Phase" table, it is found that the same record will automatically get inserted to "Project task" related list which is OOB from ServiceNow. But, after checking into "Planning Console" related link, the record not available in "Planning Console".

We have task type [sys_class_name] field set to "Project phase" instead of "Project task".

Any idea how to add such link between custom table which extends behavior of "Project task" table so that each project phase will appear below project in "Planning Console".

It will be a great help if could suggest me?

Thanks & Regards,

Onkar

[kellykaufmann]

Let's dig in again if that's OK. I feel like we should start with the Business Need and go from there to determine the requirements.

On #1 "On creation of new phase, it should trigger an approval to the group" > Are you actually looking for phase-gate approvals? If so, instead it's better to build your project schedule out with tasks with durations (if not specific dates) and dependencies as you normally would instead of waiting to plug in the next phase & activities - building in a task at the end of each phase to confirm readiness for next phase and a task with x days to get approval to proceed to the next phase, then that task is a dependency to begin the next phase.

Now you could build a ton of custom dev to tie a phase to an approval task etc etc. But at the end of the day, if your organization is doing reporting, perhaps use the built-in 'Phase' dropdown menu and tie in approval to when a phase is selected by the PM. Perhaps you could add extra phases e.g. "Pending approval for Executing phase".

For #2...You could leverage the 'Assignment group' field on the tasks & perhaps set it up so that would have them placed automatically on the Watch List with notifications, but I'm not sure what would happen if the task assignee is not part of that Assignment Group.

These must be small projects or each person monitoring tasks must not have many projects with many tasks, because if there were many tasks that would drive me nuts getting so many notifications. If there aren't many tasks, perhaps it would be better from a coding effort standpoint to just keep it a manual process where the PM manually adds certain people to the task's Watch List.

[onkarsurve]

Hi Kelly,

Thanks for your response!!!

It is good that whenever new project created, it should send for approval and then only Phase creation and Project Task creation is allowed.

Thanks & Regards,

Onkar

[onkarsurve]

Hi Kelly,

"Add Phase" option allows user to create waterfall phases in Project Workbench. We are actually creating record in Project Task [pm_project_task] table. But, user believes that record created in Phase table.

When we are viewing the Project form, There is default OOTB "Project tasks" related list appearing under each project record. PF below screenshot highlighted in red.

Also, whenever create new record using this "Project Task" related list on top it shows Project Task.

Is it possible that we can rename the related list as "Phase" instead of "Project Task" whenever it appears on Project Form?

Thanks & Regards,

Onkar

[kellykaufmann]

Hi Onkar

Yes going that route to create project tasks will create a Project Task (not a phase). On a side note, the other approaches to creating tasks & phases are much more efficient IMHO so at the organizations I have worked, we have trained using the other approaches to create tasks. .

Others can reply on the technical feasibility & implications of changing the text of 'Project Task'.. But from a functional perspective - nobody in the organization is going to want to create project tasks now or in the future? Because if you make this word change, I assume it is going to be for all projects and will be confusing to anyone who will want to run a normal project. Plus it will be numbered as PRJTASK which I guess you are probably considering changing too. Going this route is going to likely cause you to consider many domino changes for consistency in 'phase' vs 'task', and as users get more savvy and dig into different SN project functionality and documentation they are going to learn about tasks and may get confused. My hunch is that there is probably a more elegant solution than going this route to satisfy this business need of phase approvals.

[onkarsurve]

Hello Everyone,

As posted earlier,

There is a requirement that creating custom table "Phase":

Project [pm_project] e.g. ticket PRJ0001

---Phase [u_phase_custom] e.g. ticket PHASE0001

-----Project Task [pm_project_task] e.g. ticket PRJTASK0001

As per the OOTB, we get Phase ticket numbers starts with PRJTASK0001. To get separate ticket numbers, we came across this requirement to design custom Phase table.

Phase

1. Number:This is auto number field

2. Project Task Number: Reference field to Project Task Table

3. Project Number: Reference field to Project Table

On creation of such table, we can add separate number maintenance for each Phase record like PHASE001.

Again We can add related list under project record to create new entry in phase table.

While creating new entry in the Phase table, first we have to create dummy record dynamically in Project Task table with level as '2' and parent as Project.

Similarly when any new Phase created through "Project Workbench" i.e. at level 2 by user or task inserted at level 2 through "Planning Console" in that case the record should be inserted back in Phase table.

We need to check circular reference conditions here to avoid multiple/duplicate insertions.

I would like to know your opinions and also whether the above solution is technically feasible to implement or not?

It will be a great help if you could post business rules required for such scenario on Project Task and Phase tables.

Thanks & Regards,

Onkar