Frequently Asked Questions
1 Getting Started Questions
2 About ProjExec Online Features
2.1 About scheduling
2.2 About security
2.3 About workflow
2.4 About collaboration
2.5 About issue and change request
2.6 About dashboards
2.7 About tracking
2.8 About template
3 About ProjExec Online Configuration
4 About ProjExec Online Account Management
1 Getting Started Questions
A. The project creation wizard will guide you through these steps:
1. Once you name your new project, you will be asked to pick the project participants (new users will receive an invitation to register) and assign them to a team (which you will also define) and to a role(the predefined roles should fit your needs at first).
2. Define document types, discussion forums, issue types to meet your project requirements. At this stage, the project participants will be able to submit documents, discussions or issues.
3. Next you define the project schedule (by creating a new WBS structure and all associated tasks) and assign tasks to the project participants.
4. Explore how you can customize the project settings further to fit your needs from the “Project” menu.
A.
The project manager (or any user with permission to invite users) can “Add Users” from the Quick Links portlet on the Work Summary page. You may choose to invite a new user by entering an email address and the new user will receive an invitation that contains a link to register. Alternately, you can choose to invite a user who is already registered. In this case, the user will receive an email notification, but will not have to register a second time.
A.
From the “Schedule” menu, you should create a new WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) that will be the root of your project plan. Then you define as many as WBS entries you wish. The WBS entries are organized in a hierarchical structure (from general to specific) and each WBS node usually equates with a project deliverable. Next define the tasks associated with each WBS. The tasks represent the work that needs to be performed to complete the project. Tasks are assigned to resources.
A.
ProjExec Online provides a full document management module that allows you to store all documents relative to a project. You can store any type of file. The document versioning capability allows you to save multiple versions. Integrated feedback and workflow history automatically save all information and activity for a complete audit history of each stored document. A document approval process is available but optional. You may define different security and notification options specific to each document type.
A.
One type of collaboration involves automated workflow and enables collaboration both real-time and anytime. Certain project modules and data follow predefined processes, like an approval process for a document or an impact estimation process for a change request. Team members who are expected to take action in the approval process (review, approve, etc.) are notified and are prompted to participate the process through the workflow enabled forms.
For real-time collaboration, presence awareness displays which other project participants are on line to initiate a Sametime® to chat or place a SkypeTM call. If someone is not online, you may easily send an email via Sametime® or initiate a discussion, raise an issue, etc. ProjExec Online includes a discussion forum for contextual collaboration around specific topics. Every project form, such as documents, issues, or any project piece of information, contains an embedded feedback and threaded discussion capability directly in the form with a complete audit history.
A.
ProjExec offers many ways to track your project:
- Take advantage of the Work Summary page that displays the project progress and links to the pending actions.
- Use the portfolio dashboards for a global view of the progress of several projects that have been grouped into a portfolio.
- Customize alerts via email notification for any situation you consider important (task is late, task did not start on time...)
- Track hours worked and create reports periodically from the Tracking menu
A.
Yes, all participants can report any issue or unforeseen event that occurs during the course of a project. As soon as a new issue is posted, the appropriate users are notified according to the defined workflow process. These users can suggest a solution for the new issue or delegate the issue resolution to someone else. If the issue requires a change to the original plan or requirements, you can create a Change Request automatically from the issue. A workflow process prompts the appropriate user to estimate the impact of the change and approve any change before the project schedule is updated. Note that issue types are fully customizable. You can define the fields and associated information that characterize issues specific to your business. (See Quick links/ New issue type)
2 About ProjExec Online Features
2.1 About scheduling
A.
Yes, you can import an MS Project schedule. You must save your MS Project file in XML format and then it can be imported to ProjExec Online You can choose to import your MS Project file at the time you first create a project in ProjExec or after you have created your ProjExec Online project. You can also synchronize (import/export) your MS Project file with the ProjExec Online project any time.
A.
By default, working hours for all project resources are based on the project calendar which you can customize. However, you can also define a calendar specific for each resource which allows you to indicate the working time, vacation, days unavailable, etc. Go to Project menu, and choose Calendars.
A.
From the Schedule menu, you can open a Gantt chart which displays all tasks and WBS on a time axis. A color code helps you to identify the tasks that are late if any exist. You can zoom or move the display period. You can save this image or print it.
A.
A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a fundamental project management technique for defining and organizing the total scope of a project, using a hierarchical tree structure. Each WBS entry describes the planned outcome and contains the list of tasks that are necessary to produce the outcome. This technique is recommended by the Project Management Institute (PMI®), the leading membership association for the project management profession.
2.2 About security
A.
ProjExec Online combines application security and document-level security. Application security is based on users’ access rights, while document-level security is accomplished by specifying readers and editors for each document. The application security is sufficient in this case. You simply create a specific role for your customer (called “Customer” for example) and unselect all the modules (documents, discussions, issues) you do not want them to access. Note that if you want to allow your customer to read certain documents, but not all documents, you can use the document-level security to accomplish this more granular level of access.
2.3 About workflow
A.
From the workflow tab, you can indicate whether the review and/or approval cycles are automatic or not. By selecting automatic, a newly submitted document will by-pass any workflow cycle and be immediately visible for all authorized users. The status of such documents will display as “approved”.
The approval workflow options are customizable at three levels:
- For a particular document (from the Workflow tab of the document form itself)
- For a specific type of documents (from Project/Document Types)
- For all documents (from Project/Default Workflow menu)
A.
From the workflow tab, you can indicate the list of people you want to be notified.
These workflow options are customizable at three levels:
- For a particular document (from the Workflow tab of the document form)
- For a specific type of documents (from Project/Document Types)
- For all documents (from Project/Default Workflow menu)
2.4 About collaboration
A.
On a document form in ProjExec Online, use the button “Post a reply” to supply comments and initiate a discussion regarding the document content. All messages posted in this manner are displayed directly on the document form. The discussions that are more general and not specific to a particular document should be posted on a discussion forum instead. (From the “Discussion” Menu)
2.5 About issue and change request
A.
You can define your own issue types (From Project/Issue Types). When defining a customized Issue type, you can define the fields that typically describe and characterize the issue. Choose the label, the data type (text, date...), appropriate to your new issue. Indicate if each field is required or not when a new issue of this type is created. For each new issue type you can also configure the security and workflow options. Create as many issue types as needed for your project. When a project participant wants to raise an issue, they will select the appropriate Issue type to create. As soon as a new issue is submitted, the appropriate people are notified automatically.
2.6 About Dashboards
A.
You should create a new portfolio (from Dashboard menu), than add the projects you are tracking to the portfolio. From the menu “Dashboard / Progress ” you will see a chart that shows you the actual percent of completion versus the planned percent of completion as of the current date.
2.7 About tracking
A.
From the menu “Project/ Alerts”, you can enable or disable email notification for each alert. Simply select the specific alert and click the “Email Notification” button. For each alert you can modify the notification list, the notification message, and you can even customize the rule that triggers the alert.
A.
Project participants should report their hours worked using time sheets (from Home/My Work). By default, time sheets are weekly and must be approved by a manager. A user can submit a single time sheet that covers multiple projects to save time filling out time sheets. The manager can see all submitted time sheets from the menu “Tracking/All Time sheets” , or all submitted time entries from “Tracking/ All Time Entries” with a filter on the project, the resource and the dates.
2.8 About template
A.
You should save your project as a template (from the “Project” page). Once you have a template, you’ll be able to create new projects from this template and reuse the following settings as specified for the initial project:
- Document types
- Issue types
- Forums
- Teams and roles
- Project settings about default security, workflow, alerts
3 About ProjExec Online Configuration
A.
To make your Skype status available within ProjExec Online, open your Skype window, and select the menu “Option/ Privacy”. From there, select the option that allows your status to be visible on the Web. Once this is set in Skype, click on the Skype icon next to your name in ProjExec Online to configure your Skype details. You should enter your Skype ID and your phone number (if you wish) in the ProjExec Online Skype configuration. Once enabled, your colleagues will be able to contact you via Skype directly form ProjExec Online.
A.
Your browser requires certain settings to work with Sametime. Check the following in your browser settings:
- Your browser is enabled to accept cookies
- The options JavaTM and JavaScriptTM are enabled in your browser’s preferences
- You should have Java Sun® or IBM® version 1.5 installed. (This plug-in establishes a connection between popular browsers and the Java platform and enables Java applets to be run). To determine if Java is installed, and what version you have when using Microsoft® Internet Explorer, click Tools - Internet Options, and then click Advanced. For other Windows-based browsers, check the Java Control panel. You may download the necessary version of Java SE Runtime Environment (JRE), from Sun Microsystems at http://www.java.sun.com.
4 About ProjExec Online Account Management
A.
Yes, it is possible to subscribe for a certain number of users under an annual subscription and also add additional users on a month-to-month pay as you go basis. All subscription plans require a minimum of five paid users, even if you do not register a total of five individuals in your account.
A.
Only ProjExec Online Account Administrators can deactivate users. It is important to deactivate users if they will no longer need to access ProjExec Online. Your ProjExec Online license counts ACTIVE users, not users by name. For example, an annual subscription for 50 users does not need to be limited to the first 50 named users. If a project ends and 10 people no longer need to access ProjExec Online, you may deactivate those users and add 10 others, up to the total of 50 subscribed users. This unique licensing method allows you to better manage user capacity and to invite other users up to the total number allowed under your subscription. Project Managers can deactivate users, but only on the Project level. Note that users deactivated on the Project level will still be counted as active users on your account and potentially could be added to other projects by other Project Managers. Make sure you ask your Account Administrator to deactivate a user permanently once the user is deactivated on a project and has no other need to access ProjExec Online for other projects.
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