Managing Metadata for Workflow and Document Projects

Workflow and document projects enable you to organize and manage items by the projects in your organization; however, these projects do not capture in-depth metadata or metrics. By creating a Project item type then creating a Project item and linking it to a specific project, the power and workflow of projects as items becomes available. Important metadata and metrics can be recorded in the Project item, for example, the assigned project manager, estimated and actual budgets (using computed fields), and important milestone dates. Linking a Project item to a project also reduces possible confusion about the details of projects in your database.

• Projects and Project items can be used independent of one another; you do not have to create a Project type to use the Project field.

• To enable the Back Projects option, you must be an administrator for the selected type. The Back Projects option can be disabled at any time.

• To create the item that backs a project, you must be an administrator for the selected project and belong to a group that has permission to create items of that type.

• For Admin Staging, you cannot stage items. Items that back projects created on a staging server will not be staged; you must recreate the items that back projects on the production server. Rules, queries, or computed fields that explicitly mention the item number that backs a project will not work after they have been transferred from the staging server to the production server.

David, a project manager, manages several projects; however, the current workflow and document projects in Windchill RV&S only allow him to organize and manage related items, such as Features and Defects, by project. David needs a way to capture important information about each project, such as milestone dates, and measure project success, for example, calculating whether his actual budget is higher or lower than his estimated budget.

David creates a Project type and defines relevant fields that will allow him to capture relevant data and metrics. Next, David creates Project items for the projects he is managing and links them to the relevant projects in the Project field.

David can now more effectively manage his assigned projects. The Project items he created allow him to capture project metadata in the available fields and calculate project metrics using computed fields. Using queries, charts, reports, and dashboards, David can communicate project status to his superiors and teams working under him.