It is not uncommon for organisations to have different groups of users following different processes, managing different types of projects and all making use of the same instance of PPO. PPO allows for these varied management methodologies through:
Different Life Cycles for different user groups
The default Life Cycle start up page for an instance is set on the System Configuration module from the Administration menu item. If a different Life Cycle is required for a user group, the Life Cycle start up page can be set per user group from the User Group >> Edit page.
For more information on Life Cycles please consult the following knowledge base articles:
- Creating a life cycle;
- Making the life cycle interactive and;
- Editing existing life cycles; and
- Administration functionality that relates to the life cycle
Using dependencies to allow different types of projects to have different stages
PPO provides the functionality to allow a dependency to be established between any two custom lists which indicate how the items in the two lists are related. This functionality is available under Administration >> Dependencies.
An example of two lists that are related like this for different methodologies would be a project Type list and a Stage list.
For Business Improvement type projects there are a distinct set of stages.
For Innovation type projects there are stages that are different from those of Business Improvement type projects.
For more information on Dependencies, please see the Knowledge Base article:
Using Event Handlers for different types of projects
Event Handlers allow for the implementation of notifications, updates, additions and workflows by automating activities under predetermined conditions and as defined by a set of rules. This is another way of distinguishing between the management of different projects having different management requirements.
Examples of custom events include:
- When a project is added, a specific set of Health Indicators and Comments is populated for the project, which is different depending on project type.
- When a project is added, a specific set of Data Quality Indicators is populated for the project, which is different depending on project type.
For more information, please see the following Knowledge Base articles:
- How can I set up different health indicators and comments for different project types?
- What are custom event handlers and how can I set them up?
- How can I measure and report on data quality?