This article contains detailed explanations of the Actions entity available in PPO:
- What is an Action;
- Accessing the Actions entity;
- Standard Configuration;
- Calculated Fields;
- Customising the Actions entity;
- Action Reporting.
What is an Action
An action is an ad-hoc activity that is not part of a scheduled plan / task list because often the work item is too small or it was an activity identified after the schedule was baselined.
It is assigned to an individual and there is generally a deadline by which it should be resolved although no “start date” like a task.
Accessing the Actions entity
The Actions entity can be accessed when you hover over the Projects Menu or from the Project View page. If you do not see the Actions entity, make sure that the entity has been enabled on your instance and that your user group has been granted access to the entity.
For more information about setting up user group access rights, read the following knowledge base article.
Standard Configuration
The screenshot below shows the standard configuration of the Actions entity.
The Actions entity allows users to add a title and description for the action, placing the action in context. The contact person is the person who raised the action.
To classify the action, users can specify an issue Type, issue Status and issue Priority.
The Action Owner is the person responsible for resolving the action.
The Actions entity also incorporates three calculated fields: Age, Create Date, Days Overdue and Overdue?. For more information, see the next section in this article.
Calculated Fields
The Actions entity offers the following calculated fields in order to assist in action management:
- Age: The age field shows the number of days since the action was logged / created.
- Create Date: The create date shows the date the action was logged / created.
- Days Overdue: The days overdue field shows how many days have passed since the Follow Up date.
- Overdue?: The overdue field indicates whether the issue is overdue, due soon (next seven days), not overdue or closed. The colour coding makes it easy to identify which items require attention.
Customising the Actions entity
Should you wish to configure the Actions entity to align to your own methodology, access the following knowledge base article which will guide you through the process of adding or updating existing data fields. If you also need assistance in the process, feel free to log a support call and the PPO Support team will gladly assist you.
Actions Reporting
The Actions reports available in PPO will assist the executives and project managers to track occurrences that are being dealt with outside of the project schedule. They are:
- Actions Reports - this report shows all the current action information (no history records are shown on this report).
- Actions Detail Report – The report includes all the fields on the Actions entity for all action records and projects. If the “Include Project Information” checkbox is selected, the report will also include all the fields on the project entity.
- Actions History Report - this shows when the action was updated, by whom and what the recent action action/response was. This provides a complete view of how the action has changed over the lifespan of the project.
For more information on the report explanations access the following knowledge base article.