Project Team Member Workflow (Tutorial) DB 39.5.13

Please note

• The following workflow applies to the 39.5.13 database version.
• The following table contains links to the other versions:

DB 39.5.14	go to the tutorial
DB 39.5.13	go to the tutorial
DB 39.5.7 - DB 39.5.12	go to the tutorial
DB 39.5.0 - DB 39.5.6	go to the tutorial
< DB 39.5.0	go to the tutorial
	go to further tutorials

Objective

• This tutorial is intended to show first-time users how to use the program and its functions on the basis of typical use cases.

Please note

• All exercises are based on the PLANTA demo data. This data must be installed beforehand.
• The screenshots used are merely examples of functions. The screenshot layout may deviate from the program.

Working with PLANTA project

Log in

Procedure

• Double-click on the PLANTA icon.
  • The PLANTA logo is now displayed and the network connection to the server is established.
• In the foreground, a form with two input fields for the user ID (user code) and the password appears.
• In the upper input field, enter R1 for the user with the Project Team Member role (PLANTA demo user).
  • Demo users do not have passwords so that there is no input necessary in the second field.
• Confirm with OK.

PLANTA project Surface

Information

• Title bar: Forms the first line of the screen. The current panel name and the system name are displayed here.
• Menu bar: Forms the second line of the screen. Consists of individual pull down menus with menu items.
• Toolbar: Forms the third line of the screen. Consists of buttons for the most commonly used menu items. If the symbol is colored, the corresponding menu item is activated. If the symbol is gray, the menu item is deactivated. What menu items are activated or not is determined by the customizing.
• Panel: Consists of a user menu, a main module and submodules. The main module and submodules can be arranged (docked) differently within a window. They can be laid over each other like index cards or positioned next to or above/below each other.
• Status bar: The status bar is used to output messages about the program which do not require confirmation from the user in a message box. The message in the status bar always refers to the focused module, not to the whole panel.

See also: Getting Started

Module

Information

• A module enables data from the database to be displayed and edited, e.g.:
  • project data
  • task data
  • assignment data (task-resource assignment)
• Data is displayed in the form of records.
  • A record summarizes attributes/parameters of an object (project, task, resource, etc.) with their corresponding values.
  • Values are displayed in separate data fields.
    • Which data fields may belong to a record (record structure) is determined by the customizing of the corresponding data area.

• Here, five records are displayed: one project record and five task records.
  • The project record consists of three data fields (Project, Project name and Remaining effort) and their corresponding values.
  • The task records consist of four fields each (Task, Name, Remaining duration and Remaining effort) and their corresponding values.
  • All Remaining duration fields (of all task records) form a column. The data logical Remaining duration column equates to the layout column.

Module Variants

Information

• In PLANTA project, almost every module can easily be modified in the user's mode according to the user's individual requirements and saved as a variant of the modified module.
  • For instance, it is possible to display the fields that are most frequently used in a module while hiding all other fields.
• For some modules, PLANTA already provides default module variants.
  • Every standard module has a Module variant button in its header.
    • If module variants are available for the active module, clicking on the Module variant button will open a listbox.
    • From this listbox, the module variants as well as the module's Base variant can be selected.
    • The selected variant is loaded.

See also: Module Variants

Edit Data/Insert New Entries/Delete Entries

Activate/Mark/Unmark

Procedure

• Activate: via mouse click or input
  • Only a single data field can be activated (not the entire record). The record in which the activated field is located is focused. It is highlighted in light green.

• Mark: via CTRL + mouse click
  • The entire record is marked.
  • The marked record is highlighted in dark blue.

• Demark: via CTRL + click on the marked record

Edit

Edit existing values

• Which data fields can be edited and how they can be edited in existing records depends, among other things, on the data field type.
  • Input data fields: Here, you can make inputs and edit them at any time. These fields are blue upon activation.
  • Output data fields: Here, no data can be edited. These fields are gray upon activation.
  • Link data fields: These are data fields whose values are displayed as hyperlinks. If you click on a link, you will be led to another module, for instance.
  • Listboxes: These are input fields to which listboxes belong that contain values, so that you can either select a value from the default list or make a manual input.
  • Mandatory data fields: These are fields that implicitly have to be filled with values. You cannot save if these fields are not filled. These fields are marked with an asterisk.
  • Checkboxes: These are fields which only accept Yes/No entries by setting or removing a checkmark.
  • Traffic lights: These are fields with a traffic light function (color).
  • Continuous text fields: These are fields in which you can enter longer texts.

Enter new values

• You can enter new values either manually or copy them from other fields. For this purpose, you can use PLANTA's own Drag+Drop Copy function replacing the conventional CTRL + C and CTRL + V.
  • Field to field (default setting)
    • By pressing CTRL and holding the left mouse button, drag the content of the source field to the target field.
    • As soon as the cursor is over the target field, release the left mouse button.
    • The source field value is copied to the target field.
  • Field to column
    • Define the operation in the menu bar via Edit Drag+Drop Copy Field to column.
    • Mark all the target records (CTRL + click on the start record and SHIFT + click on the end record).
    • By pressing CTRL and holding the left mouse button, drag the content of the source field to the target field (target column).
    • As soon as the cursor is over the target field, release the left mouse button.
    • The value of the source data field is entered in all records of the target column for the marked records.
  • Column to column
    • Define the operation in the menu bar via Edit Drag+Drop Copy Column to column.
    • Mark all the target records (CTRL + click on the start record and SHIFT + click on the end record).
    • By pressing CTRL and holding the left mouse button, drag the content of the source column to the target column.
    • As soon as the cursor is over the target field, release the left mouse button.
    • The values of the fields from the source column are entered in the corresponding data fields of the target column for all marked records.

Save

Procedure

• You can save data
  • by clicking the Save button in the toolbar,
  • by using the shortcut CTRL + S or
  • by using the Edit Save menu items.
• If some of the data records are still invalid (blank lines) when you save, the following message appears: Mark invalid data records?
  • If this message is confirmed with Yes, the records with empty IDs are marked. These records can be edited or deleted.
  • If the message is confirmed with No, the invalid records are not marked.

Delete

Procedure

• Mark the required record and press the Delete button in the toolbar.
• The following message appears: Delete marked data?
• Confirm with Yes.
• If the record to be deleted contains dependent data (subordinate records), they are (depending on their settings) either instantly deleted or the following query is displayed: Delete dependent data? This query can either be confirmed or not.

See also: Programm Operation

Documentation/Online Help

Information

• For the PLANTA project documentation, PLANTA uses an online documentation tool based on TWiki software.
• The webs (websites), which are divided into separate topics, constitute the documentation frame work.
  • Webs
    • Starting from version C 39.5.0, various releases are documented in one single web (called Current). It is versionized by tabs that are displayed next to each other.
  • Topics
    • The topics are constructed differently according to their topic and content. The following types of topics are distinguished:
      • Module topics: They contain descriptions of individual modules (a topic contains the description of a module).
      • Data field topics: They contain descriptions of individual data fields (a topic contains the description of all data fields used in a data table).
      • FAQ topics: They contain the answers to frequently asked questions.
      • Function topics: They contain descriptions of individual important functions e.g. WorkBreakdownStructure.
      • Workflow topics (tutorials): They contain workflow- and process-related descriptions that involve working processes, concrete examples and exercises, e.g. the Project Workflow. They can be used as basis for trainings or self-studies.

Read and write authorizations

• Each PLANTA project user has read-only access to the complete documentation.
• Currently, only PLANTA employees have modification rights.

Open documentation

• There are several ways to open the PLANTA documentation:
• If PLANTA project is already opened, you can do so by
  • opening the required module and pressing F2 or selecting the ? Module Description menu item. You are directly led to the description of the current module.
  • activating the required data field and pressing F1 or selecting the ? Data Field Description menu item. You are directly led to the description of the current data field.
  • Or you can open the documentation independently from modules and data fields by pressing CTRL + M or selecting the ? Open Wiki menu item. The start page of the documentation opens from which you can navigate to the required themes via the search function of the table of contents.
• You can also access the PLANTA documentation without being logged on to PLANTA project via http://wiki.planta.de.

Note

• If you press F1 or F2 on a field or in a module that is not contained in the standard program but was individually customized in your system, a PLANTA Wiki page is opened, informing you that you currently are on a customized object.

Navigate and search

• Navigate:
  • You can navigate through the structure of the web by using the table of contents.
  • In the other direction, you can navigate via the topic path at the top of each topic.
  • If you want to navigate between two topics on the same level, first switch to the parent topic. From there you can switch to the required topic.
• Search:
  • Jump input field:
    • The string specified here is only searched for in topic names. The Schedule input, for instance, finds exactly 3 topics: ScheduleMOD0099AN, CopyScheduleMOD0099J9 and ScheduleMOD009C9E.
  • Search input field:
    • The string specified here is searched for in the topic content. The input Schedule, for instance, finds approx. 143 topics. If the entered string is supposed to be a compound (word combination), please put them in quotation marks, e.g. "copy project".
  • Search via table of contents.

See also: Working with PLANTA Wiki

Employee Board

Information

• Each PLANTA project user has the Employee Board menu item in the user menu.
• Via this menu item, the Employee Board panel is opened which summarizes modules that are relevant to all PLANTA users regardless of their particular role, e.g. the Time recording module or the My Activities module.
• The following examples are given using the PLANTA demo user R1, whose only role is that of a Project Team Member and who has no modification rights for the project.

My Activities

Initial situation

• Employee Daniela Mueller starts PLANTA project with her user code R1 and wants to inform herself about the activities planned for her today and to complete them.

Procedure

• Log on to PLANTA project with the R1 user code (no password).
• The Employee Board of employee R1, Daniela Mueller, is opened and the Time recording module is automatically focused.
• Click on the My Activities tab to switch to the module of the same name.
• In this module, all the tasks to be completed (todo) by Daniela Mueller (Tasks, Todo items, Risk measures, Opportunity measures and Process steps ) are grouped by date status (Late, Today, Future, Without date).
• In the Todo items column in the Today status group, Daniela Mueller sees the entry 1. This means that she has to complete one todo item.

• Daniela Mueller completes 80% of this todo item and then wants to enter the degree of its completion in PLANTA project. However, she cannot do this directly in the My Activities module. She has to open the editing module for this particular todo item.
• Therefore, she clicks on the link on the todo item ID in the Todo item field.

• The Todo Item module opens in which all important data that refer to the todo item are displayed.
• In the % completed field, Daniela Mueller enters the degree of completion in %. In this case, it is 80%.

Recording of Hours Worked

Initial situation

• Daniela Mueller wants to record the hours she already spent on the completion of the todo item.

Note

• PLANTA project standard does not provide the option of reporting hours worked to todo items. Each todo item refers to a certain task or is part of it. This means, hours worked are reported to the corresponding task.
• The procedure as it is described in the following section only applies to the standard variant of the Time recording module. In the standard variant, load records for all days of the selected week are displayed when expanding the record of a task and comments can be added in the Comment field (see picture below).
  • Instructions for working with other variants of the Time recording module can be accessed here.

Procedure

• In her employee board, Daniela Mueller clicks on the Time recording tab.
  • In the left window, all projects and - if you expand them - all tasks are displayed for which the employee is scheduled.
• She expands the record of project 7000-E and sees the record of task 3.1 to which she wants to report hours worked.
• In the right window, in the record of task 3.1, she clicks on the field below today's date and enters the number of hours she worked for task 3.1, e.g. 6h.
• She saves.
  • When expanding the task 3.1, she can add a comment to her recorded hours in the Comment field.

Details

• If the project manager refreshes the schedule of project 7000-E afterwards, he or she will see the working hours recorded by resource R1.

Initial situation

• While working on the todo item, Daniela Mueller has encountered several problems. Now, she is afraid that for the completion of the corresponding task a higher effort will be needed. She wants to inform the project manager about this additional effort.

Procedure

• In the Time recording module, in the record of task 3.1 in the Forecast field, Daniela Mueller enters the presumed remaining effort in hours.
• She clicks on the Send Forecast button.

• The Send Info module including an automatically created message is opened.
  • The message contains the following data: task name, resource (sender), actual, remaining and forecast values for effort.
  • The project manager of the project is automatically entered as recipient.

• Click on the Send button.
• The project manager Ronja Koch will receive this message via email.

Other time recording options

• The Time recording module can also be opened from the My Activities module by right-clicking on the required activity and selecting the corresponding context menu command.
• If an employee has worked on a task to which he or she was not initially assigned, the employee has to select the respective task manually in order to report working hours to it. For this, click on the Add Other Projects/Tasks button in the Time recording module.

Information Exchange

Initial situation

• Daniela Mueller knows that her colleague Julia Neumann is also working on this task, so she wants to inform her about the delay as well.

Procedure

• In the My Planning Objects module, Daniela Mueller clicks on the link on the project ID (here: project 7000-E) to open the Project panel.

• In the Project panel, she activates the Project Core Data tab.
  • In the Stakeholder area, she right-clicks on the record of Julia Neumann and selects the Send info command in the context menu.

• The Send Info module opens.
  • Daniela Mueller enters a subject and adds the text in the field below.

• She presses the Send button.
  • The employee Julia Neumann receives the message via email.

Week Calendar

Task

• Daniela Mueller wants to get information about her schedule for the entire week.

Procedure

• She clicks on the Week Calendar tab.
• In this module, she can view all of her open activities per weekday for the current week.
• If she wants to view the schedule for another week, she can switch to the required week via the button above the weekday names.
• Every activity is displayed in its own box below the corresponding day.
• On the activity ID numbers, there are links which lead to the corresponding editing modules (e.g. the Task module for tasks), where you can enter the completion status or edit other data, if necessary.
• Furthermore, in the field directly below the weekday name, Daniela Mueller can see by the color of the field whether she is on vacation or is absent for another reason (orange = vacation, green = absence).

Plan Vacation and Absence

Initial situation

• Daniela Mueller wants to go on vacation for four days between August 12th and 15th. However, she does not want to go on vacation before the afternoon of August 12th, since she has an important phone conference in the morning. Furthermore, she has a training on August 16th. Before she asks for approval of the vacation by her project manager, she wants to know whether other colleagues have already planned their vacation in the same period.

Procedure

• For this purpose, she activates the Department: Absence tab.
• Here, all employees of her department are listed. In the corresponding employee record below the scale, the already planned absence or vacation times are displayed in the form of orange or green boxes.
• Daniela Mueller sees that there are no entries in the period planned for her vacation. Therefore, she asks the project manager to approve her vacation.

Initial situation

• Subsequently, Daniela Mueller wants to enter her vacation in PLANTA project so that other colleagues can consider it in their own planning.

Procedure

• For this purpose, she activates the Absence tab.
• Here, the entire year calendar is displayed.
• In each day field, there is a listbox that contains absence types and absence reasons.
• For August 12th, Daniela Mueller selects the 1/2 day vacation entry, for the three following days she selects the Vacation entry, and for August 16th the Training entry from the listbox.
• As a result, each one of these fields is colored accordingly.
• In the record above the calendar, the entire number of entered vacation and absence days is output.

Details

• As soon as Daniela Mueller has saved the entries, her vacation or absence days are displayed in the Department: Absence and Week Calendar modules.