Converting Project Types
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Once converted, you cannot revert back to the classic plan type.
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The release of Windchill ProjectLink 10.0 introduced Enhanced Project Plan (EPP) projects. Projects created in earlier Windchill releases are now referred to as “classic” projects and classic project types are no longer available by default. However, users upgrading to the latest release can continue to run preexisting classic projects, as well as create new projects from imported classic project templates.
If you are running a classic project, you have the option to convert that project to an EPP project. To verify whether a project is classic or EPP, navigate to the
Projects table and view the
Plan Type column.
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Depending on your individual settings, the Plan Type column might not be immediately visible. Open the column drop-down menu to customize which columns appear or create a new table view. For more information, see Personalizing Tables and Table Views. |
If you convert from classic to EPP, all your project-related attributes remain intact. The conversion only affects the project plan and objects associated with the plan, resulting in the following changes:
• Sub-projects (if included) are converted to activities in the project plan. The link to the sub-project is broken after conversion, but the project itself remains unconverted. For example, you might have two classic projects: Project A and Project B. The plan in Project A includes Sub-Project B, which is associated with Project B. When you convert Project A to EPP, Sub-Project B is converted into an activity. However, Project B is not converted.
• Any non-working days other than Saturday and Sunday are ignored in the converted plan and EPP plans only reflect 8 hour working days.
• Automatic execution includes both activities and task delivery. If you have automatic execution enabled for activities, tasks are automatically delivered to resources as well.
• Saved searches that include classic plan objects must be recreated.
• Existing subscriptions to plan objects remain intact. However, EPP projects do not allow you to differentiate between project managers and owners when subscribing to activities. Therefore, project managers and owners might initially receive notifications for events to which they did not subscribe.
Use the following procedure to convert a classic project plan into an EPP project plan:
1. Initiate the conversion action using one of the following methods:
◦ Navigate to > and select Convert to EPP from the Actions menu.
◦ Navigate to the Projects table and select Convert to EPP from the right-click actions menu of a project.
2. Depending on the features the classic project is using, the Convert to EPP window displays the following information:
◦ Warnings regarding possible changes to non-working days and sub-projects (described above).
◦ Project State—The project stage of operation and activity. Some capabilities and access control rules are dictated by project state. This is unaffected by the conversion.
◦ Plan State—The plan stage of operation and activity. Some capabilities and access control rules are dictated by plan state. The plan state is not affected by the conversion process. However, EPP plans use different terminology to describe plan states.
◦ Status—The status of the project. Green indicates no problems. Yellow indicates caution. Red indicates an alert of high risk. The unavailable icon
indicates that the status is unavailable.
◦ Execution Control—Specifies whether the plan is executed manually or automatically. Projects with the
Automatically execute activities attribute are converted to
Automatically execute activities and deliver tasks.
◦ Done—The percentage of work that is complete. This value is calculated according to values entered for plan activities and is not affected by the conversion.
For information on how project status and plan state is calculated in EPP, see
Project States.
3. Under Attributes, select which task type should be applied to classic activities during the conversion process. Once the conversion is complete, you can assign different task types for new and existing activities.
EPP activity schedules are calculated based on three variables: task duration, how many hours of work is required to complete the task, and resource availability. The relationship between these factors determines how much time is allotted to each activity. Choosing a task type allows you to define a fixed variable while the other two remain changeable. For more information, see
Task Types and Effort Driven.
◦ Fixed Units—Assign a fixed amount of resources in units, such as hours or days. Resource assignments do not change if you change the duration of the task or work required.
◦ Fixed Duration—Set the amount of time required to complete the task. This amount of time does not change no matter how many additional resources are assigned to the task.
◦ Fixed Work—Calculate the length of time needed to complete the task based on the capacity of available resources. For example, if you enter the duration of a fixed work task at 40 hours of work, and you assign two resources to work 20 hours each, the task is calculated to be completed in 20 hours.
Select Effort Driven to recalculate the duration of the activity when resources are added or removed, while the amount of effort necessary to complete a task remains unchanged.
4. Consider whether you still want to proceed, and click OK to convert the project.
| The EPP functionality is extended in Windchill 11.1 M010 to include the Sub Plan type which will allow you to create sub-plans under plans. The Sub Plan type is available in Type and Attribute Management utility, but the functionality will be available for use in a future Windchill release. |
Functional Comparison of Classic and EPP Project Plans
Feature | Classic Projects | EPP Projects |
Enhanced plan activity management, including the following actions: • New Multiple Activities • View in Gantt Explorer • Track Work | | X |
Detailed project plan capabilities: • Duration • Precedence • Lead and lag scheduling • Task types | | X |
A right-click actions menu for creating and managing plan objects | | X |
Critical path calculation and Gantt chart view | | X |
Ability to track work for activities from the Plan table | | X |
Plan object soft types and soft type attribute support | | X |
Microsoft Project 2010 Support | | X |
Project auto-execution | X | X |
Milestones with multiple deliverables | X | X |
Date constraints for plan objects, such as start, end, and due dates | X | X |
Discussion and notebook for plan objects | X | X |
Subscriptions to plan objects | X | X |
Project plan states, including percent completed | X | X |
Project reports | X | X |
Sub-projects | X | |
Detailed resource types, such as material, equipment, and facility | X | |
> and select Convert to EPP from the Actions menu.