PTC Integrity Process Director

Transcription

1 Introduction PTC Integrity Process Director Product Guide 3.4 PTC Integrity Process Director is a process definition and deployment solution aimed at providing an efficient approach to the challenge of defining organisational processes and aiding project managers to be more productive. Process quality improvement is supported through easy online maintenance can be delivered to new and existing projects. PTC Integrity Process Director provides accessible process information across an organisation using a web browser interface meaning relevant knowledge can be delivered to the right users anytime, anywhere. Productivity increases result from Just-In- Time training to project members and process feedback leading to streamlining process and shorter delivery times. Pressure on shorter delivery timelines often leads to an increase in procedural faults, PTC Integrity Process Director provides an easy user interface to help guide project managers and project members through organisational procedures helping them to adhere to well defined organisational standards. MAXIMIZE YOUR USER EXPERIENCE

2 Table of contents PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4 Purpose of guide...3 Getting Started...4 Signing In for the First Time...4 Libraries homepage...5 Library homepage...5 Browse: Library summary...6 Browse: Recently viewed, New processes and Updated processes...6 Library Structure...7 Browse by tags...8 Search...8 Process Navigation...9 BPMN Diagrams...10 Authoring Process...11 Creating a New Process...11 Editing Content...11 Properties...15 Alternative groups...15 Steps...16 Metadata...17 Version history...18 Discussions...18 Process Library Types...19 Templates...19 Common metadata...19 Process Library User Management...20 Authoring Process with 3rd Party Tools...21 Microsoft Live Writer...21 Microsoft Word Notes on using 3rd Party Editors...24 Section headings...24 Helpers...24 Reports and reviews...25 Project Libraries...26 Project Library User Management...27 Creating a Project...28 Consumer homepage...30 Assigning task by role...30 Navigating the project...31 Creating a MS Project plan...32 Manual task assignments...32 Filtered restricted user view...33 Task Progress...33 Estimated dates...34 Task customization...34 Editing tasks...35 Metadata entry...36 Entering Metadata in Projects...38 Task data...38 Linked data...38 Metadata history...39 Discussions...39 Version managements with process freezing...39 Upgrading a project process...40 Reporting...41 Process reports...41 Project reports...41 Tutorial...43 Create a process library...43 Process types...43 Defining a simple process...44 Adding metadata...48 Creating a project...49 Add some team members...50 Assigning roles to users...51 Entering task estimates...52 Assigning tasks to users when a role is not available...53 Updating progress...54 Adding metadata...54 Downloading the project plan...55 Reporting...56 Summary...57 Page 2 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

3 Purpose of guide PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4 This guide is intended for PTC Integrity Process Director administrators or process authors. If you do not have access to a defined process library or the sample best practice process library you may want to first complete the tutorial at the end of this guide after setting your initial sign in details. [ Buttons ] Throughout this document some shorthand has been used to depict actions or activities the reader needs to take to complete a particular objective. Rather than display screenshots every time you are required to click on a button or hyperlink, the guide stylises them in text. Opposite is a screenshot with some typical buttons and hyperlinks used by the tool: Buttons are represented like this [ Button ]. Tags, Menu and Page Links are represented like this < Hyperlink >. < Tags and Links > Page 3 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

4 Getting Started PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4 Signing in for the first time If your PTC Integrity Process Director installation has been configured to use an LDAP server you can sign in using your usual username and password. If you do not have an LDAP server then an administrator should create your account by entering your address. You will then receive an with a randomly generated password. After signing in you should change your [ Account settings ], which can be found in the menu bar on the right hand side of the screen. From the account settings screen you should change your password from the one that was randomly generated and sent to you. You may also want to update your name to something more recognizable. Navigate to the address of your PTC Integrity Process Director installation (we shall use ProcessDefinition.com in this document; the address you use will depend on your installation). Select < Sign in > from the bottom of the screen near the page footer. Enter your address and the generated password that was sent to you or if you are using LDAP enter your usual username and password. If using the randomly generated sign in will probably want to change your password after signing in, you should leave Remember me blank this time. After changing these settings you should return to the libraries screen, using the [ Back to library ] option in the menu bar on the right hand side. It is recommended that you sign out (by selecting [ Sign out ] in the menu bar), and check your new password works (perhaps select Remember me this time). Page 4 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

5 Libraries homepage Library homepage When you sign in you will initially be presented with the process libraries homepage. According to your library access rights and on the activity of other PTC Integrity Process Director users you may see both some blue and red boxes in the page body. Blue boxes represent process libraries. Process libraries are accessed by process authors and administrators. They are used for process definition. Red boxes represent project libraries. Project libraries are used by project teams that are responsible for following a process and providing feedback on the effectiveness of the process. Clicking the box header (the http address bar as shown above) will take you into the process or project library. The library homepage has a number of options in the menu bar on the right. This document will examine some of the Browse options. Project libraries will often be accessed by selecting one of the projects listed below the header. Page 5 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

6 Browse: Library summary The library summary provides some analytics on how the library is being used. Browse: Recently viewed, New processes and updated processes You may want to see snippets of processes that you ve recently accessed as well as changes to the library in the form of new and updated processes. Selecting these Recently viewed, New processes and Updated processes will show these in the main part of the screen. The lines on the left hand side of the screen are graphs. When you start using the library these will have a hockey stick shape, and won t look much like graphs at all. Over time these will give you an indication of how your repository is growing and how people are using it. Other summary information includes an MRU list and any posted comments from the discussions on the process library content. Page 6 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

7 Library Structure The Library structure option shows the processes that are used as steps in other processes. The use of processes as steps within other processes is how process structure through hierarchy is defined. Information on defining your process structure can be found in the Authoring Process, Steps section of this document. Selecting the pin icon next to a process will filter the list down to just the process and its dependencies. This is especially useful when the number of processes gets large and it is necessary to use the scrollbar on the right hand side, as moving your mouse cursor to the scrollbar would cause the selection to be lost if the process were not pinned. Larger processes (e.g. process lifecycles) will tend to be shown on the left of the structure. Process details (steps) will tend to be on the right of the structure. As you hover over the processes, they will become highlighted in orange, the processes that the orange process depends on will be highlighted in dark blue. This is a useful way of exploring the dependencies in the library. Page 7 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

8 Browse by tags You can also browse the library using tags associated to processes. Each process can have zero or more tags. The list of tags is arranged alphabetically (with the exception of untagged which is always at the start of the list). The size of the tag in the menu bar is an indication of how many processes are associated with that tag. The results of the search are shown in alphabetical order, with the exception that any processes with titles exactly matching the search criteria are shown at the top of the list. Selecting the tag shows the associated processes in alphabetical order with a short snippet from the process. Search Searching is another common way of finding processes in the library. Typing in the search box suggests processes that have the text in their title. Search uses a full text searching algorithm so the full body of the process will be searched and you do not need to match any of the suggestions offered. Page 8 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

9 Process Navigation Once a process has been selected you will be shown the process information. The navigation bar can be used to navigate around the process library by selecting nodes from the tree. Navigating around the process using the tree will cause the active process to be highlighted in the navigation tree. In the menu bar you will see tags associated with the process. You can select these tags to see other processes which also have these tags. If there is a specific, high level process that you re interested in then the [ Show navigation ] option in the menu bar can be used to pin this process structure into a navigation bar on the left hand side. Once opened the navigation bar will keep this process s structure in the navigation bar. Section headings (level 2 headings) will be shown as folders with links to processes contained within them. The definition of process within PTC Integrity Process Director is flexible as we do not force any specific field format when describing a process. We do provide templates for process types which are also editable and should be defined for your organisational standards. The only part of the process description we do define is the use of Heading 2. Heading 2 identifies the beginning of a section within PTC Integrity Process Director. Any links to other process library under a section (Heading 2) will be shown in the navigation bar and later used for entering defining metadata in projects. An example use would be the addition of a Heading 2 called Resources in the process description which links to the Project board, Visionary and Project Manager resources. This definition would lead to the structure as shown above for the project initiation page. Page 9 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

10 BPMN Diagrams PTC Integrity Process Director will automatically produce business process diagrams as you create process content. You can use these diagrams to navigate you process content by clicking on a process name. These diagrams can be displayed vertically or horizontally as top level or detailed diagrams. Page 10 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

11 Authoring Process PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4 Creating a New Process To create a new process select the New Process button from the library summary menu bar: Then click the Create process button located on the menu bar to the right of the page. You will then be navigated to the edit process page for the newly created process. Editing Content The edit process page provides you with an online rich HTML editor control to help define the process content. New processes will be automatically populated with the contents of the process types template (which can be edited for each process library see Process Library Types ). The HTML content editor contains features to perform spell checking, text formatting, undo/redo, insertion of other processes and insertion of files and images. Enter a process name and click on the process type you want to create from the selection of types available. When selected your process type choice will be highlighted: Page 11 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

12 When editing the page content it is recommended to try and complete each section as appropriate for your organisational process template settings. A section is marked by H2 (Heading 2) text. The content you can create for a page is free formatted in the sense that you can add any content you require as you would in a word processed document. The only restriction is the use of H2 (Heading 2) elements. These are parsed internally by the PTC Integrity Process Director site and used during many of the features such as navigation and reports/reviews. You can search for a process to insert by using the category headings (which will be discussed in the next section Properties ) or by entering a search term and pressing the enter key. This will filter the available processes to ones that contain a matching term. You can select as many processes as you want to insert by checking the box next to the process name and then clicking the Insert Selected Processes button. A link to the selected process(es) will then be inserted into the page content: Linking to other processes You will often want to include links to other processes within the process library when defining content. An example might be the inputs to a process being listed as links to product/deliverable process types. To include links to other existing process pages click the Processes toolbar button [ ]. The insert processes dialog will then appear: These links not only help provide an easy way to navigate to the required/ related processes within the library but they are also parsed by the tool to build the navigation tree that can be shown on the left of the process page. Page 12 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

13 PTC Integrity Process Director uses what are commonly referred to as Pretty URLs see This allows easy linkage to existing processes from external sites/tools but also allows easy navigation during content creation within PTC Integrity Process Director. If you know the name of a process component you want to link to you can also use the hyperlink manager button on the toolbar to enter a url. After saving your content (using the Save button on the menu bar positioned to the right of the screen) you can follow this link to create a new process. This linkage through Pretty URLs can make process library definition easier when building a process library and you want to create many new process pages. To make the task of building new content easier the tool will automatically navigate you to the new process page for any link followed that appears to require a new process page within the library. So if we wanted to create a new product called Design Specification all we need to do is add a hyperlink (using the hyperlink manager) to the URL /Design Specification and the link text Design Specification. The leading / on the URL is important and you should ensure it is not omitted. Page 13 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

14 Once the new page has been created it will be used as the linked process content. Adding Images and Documents You can add other files and images to the content by using either the insert image or insert file toolbar buttons. To insert an image click the image toolbar [ image dialog will be shown. ] button and then the insert This dialog shows all images previously uploaded for selection or you can browse to a new file and then click upload to add it to the process library. To add a link to a file click the files button [ ] to display the insert files dialog. You can select multiple files to add links to these files within your process content or to add a new file browse to the file and then select upload. Page 14 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

15 Properties The properties tab allows you to define the process type (these are based on the types defined in your process library see Process Library Types ) and the process tags. The process type is a single selection choice whereas multiple tags can be selected. New tags will become available for future selection when adding a new. When a tag is selected it will become highlighted: If a process has any metadata defined for its type then you can enter the values for this process on this page also. For a description of metadata and its use see Process Library Types, Metadata. Alternative groups The tags you select are used in various places to group the process types for easier selection such as when browsing using tags (from the library summary tag cloud) and also when selecting to insert processes into the process content (see Linking to other processes ). The alternative group field allows a process author to define a group that processes which can be interchanged during a project all belong to. You define an alternative group by entering a name such as Testing in the alternative group field. Any other process you edit in the process library and also define the alternative group as Testing will be presented as alternative processes whenever a project is created based on the process that uses this process as a step. The use of alternative groups is also described in the section Creating a Project and also is shown in the tutorial at the end of this guide. You can add a new tag by clicking the Add new tag... option at the bottom of the already used tags. Page 15 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

16 Steps Process steps form the basis of the library structure and are shown as part of the processes navigation when the navigation tree is shown for a process. They define what other processes are used in order to complete the process being edited. The ordering and concurrency of the steps are important considerations when defining process steps. Dropping a process or placeholder onto a blue arrow means that it will be inserted at that point as a sequential step. If you drop alongside an existing process then the new step will become concurrent with the existing one. This will be shown by a highlighted grouping box showing all concurrent steps within. Creating multiple steps as placeholders and them promoting them to process can be another way to quickly add content when defining a new process library. To define a process step you can either use an existing process or create a placeholder. Placeholders can be steps in their own right that do not need a full process definition; they are sometimes referred to as text steps. You can also promote a placeholder step to a full process by clicking on the Promote to process button next to the step name. This will then open a new window on the create process page to define the promoted placeholder step to a new process. When adding a new step based on an existing process, drag and drop the existing step from the tag grouped existing processes onto either a blue down arrow on the step definition surface or alongside an existing step: Once a step has been added it can be repositioned by dragging and dropping the move image [ ] on the left of the step to the new position. To add a placeholder, enter the placeholder test and then drag and drop the move image onto the step definition surface. To delete a step click the cross in the right of the step. This will not delete any underlying processes, just the link to that process as a step from the process being edited. Page 16 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

17 Steps can also be optional or iterative. These flags are used when defining projects based on these processes. Optional steps are shown with a small question mark icon. Iterative steps are shown with the red iterative icon and also have the appearance of multiple instances as part of the step box border. To edit the step click on the small pen icon on the right of the step name, this will then display the step properties dialog. Metadata Metadata is used to gather information on the process from process users (on projects). They can be used to define a set of fields that you want to collect from users of a process and later report on or download collected values. Examples of metadata might be signoff values based on digital signatures or collateral locations for products linked to process definitions. A process can have both common metadata based on the process type and process specific metadata. The metadata tab and the values entered as shown below are process specific metadata. For information on defining common metadata for process types see the section Process Library Types, Metadata for more information. The tailoring instructions will be presented to users of this process when tailoring a project based on this process. You should enter any useful information that will allow a project manager to make a decision to remove an optional step or create multiple iterations of an iterative step. For more information on defining steps and process structure please see the tutorial at the end of this guide. Each metric can have a name and a type. Any sets of metrics entered by process users will be displayed on the metrics tab when the process is in view mode. The details of the user who entered them and the date/time entered (along with the values) will be shown. The entry of metrics and the types offered are still undergoing change before the PTC Integrity Process Director 3.0 release and are subject to change. Page 17 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

18 Version history Each time you make a change to a process a new version number is assigned. The previous version of processes can be viewed by selecting [ Version history ] from the menu bar when viewing the process. The history page shows the most recent version first, you can view a previous version by selecting the process name link above each description. Discussions Discussions allow users to leave comments on the processes they are using or viewing. It is a mechanism to provide feedback to process authors when a process user (on a project) has a query on the content. Discussions also help improve process quality by allowing project managers to raise queries about a process or suggest alternative process information that can be integrated by a process author and deployed across the organisation. Whilst this communication could take place via using the discussion facility within PTC Integrity Process Director provides a historical discussion linked to each process to help guide future process authors on the drivers for previous process improvement decisions. The discussions are presented in a typical web discussion format which most users will be familiar with. The icon associated next to the user comment can be altered by registering on the site. Further information on the version alterations and details of who made the changes will become available in the PTC Integrity Process Director 3.3 release. Page 18 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

19 Process Library Types PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4 When creating a new process library you may want to define your own process types and templates before starting to define process. New process libraries will be created with the default set of templates when created. It may be advisable to ask your system administrator to modify the default process type templates to suit your organisational standards. Once you have selected an existing type to edit or created a new one you should edit the template using the built in HTML editor. Every process in the system is identified as a process type. These types will be organisation/library specific as will the templates and metadata associated with them. When you create a process the base process type is selected from the types defined. To edit the process type definitions click on the [ Process types ] option from the admin menu bar on the process summary page for the library you want to edit the types for. Templates Each defined type will be listed on the process types page. The template usually defined the sections with H2 (Heading 2) elements and a small description of what the section should contain (usually with the blockquote style set). This small description is for the benefit of the process authors and should probably be removed from the content when editing a process. Common metadata To create a new type click the New type button and enter the type s name. To edit the template of an existing type click the name of the type you want to edit. The process type metadata is information that you want to capture during the definition (not the use) for all processes within this library that are based on this type. This is information which should be entered for every process based on this type. Page 19 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

20 Process Library User Management PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4 To manage user access to a process library, select [ Manage users ] from the admin menu on the library homepage. You will be shown a list of users who already have access to the library. Add the address/addresses of the people you want to give library access to. Adding a comma (or semi-colon) will recognize that you re adding multiple s and expand the text box. You can also paste a comma separated list of users into the add new users textbox if you are able to generate one from your corporate contact book. To add new users, select the appropriate rights from the bottom (normally process library readers will be added via Project Library Management project library users are automatically given rights to read the process library upon which the project library is based). Selecting Add users will send s to the users entered, generating and sending new passwords when required. If you are using LDAP to authenticate your users, you should enter the users primary address and ensure the system administrator has edited the new user template sent by PTC Integrity Process Director to give appropriate instructions on accessing the system (and removing the information on passwords as it will be inappropriate). To remove a user s access, select the trashcan [ ] next to their name. To change the level of access, select the pencil [ ] next to the user s name, change the access level and select Ok. The user will then be moved to the appropriate section. Page 20 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

21 Authoring Process with Third Party Tools PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4 PTC Integrity Process Director 3.0 supports online editing of process, but many people prefer rich editing environments. These rich environments allow you to paste screenshots directly into the content, have integrated spell checking and allow sophisticated rich authoring. PTC Integrity Process Director 3.0 supports the MetaWeblog API to allow rich client applications to create and update process via web services. Although PTC Integrity Process Director is not a blog, the ubiquitous nature of blog editing tools makes the MetaWeblog API an idea choice for content editing. There are many applications which support the MetaWeblog API. Below are listed instructions for setting up and using a couple of the more common ones. Microsoft Live Writer Microsoft Live Writer is available as a free download from: live.com/writer It has a number of benefits as an editing environment: The address will depend on your library name. This will be a sub-domain at the start of your address. Use the same username and password that you use for the main site. It supports WYSIWYG previews It generates clean HTML Free download from Microsoft There are a number of extensions available (e.g. for source code formatting) Setting up Microsoft Live Writer From the < Blogs > menu, choose < Add Blog Account... > and select Other blog service. Page 21 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

22 Windows Live Writer will then configure your account. You can then create new processes, open and update existing processes using Windows Live Writer. Any graphics or other media you add to the process will be automatically uploaded during publishing. After this library has been configured you can change the name that will be shown in Windows Live Writer (although the default is usually fine). Read the Windows Live Writer documentation for further information. When publishing a process it is important that you open the categories setting at the bottom of the page and select one and only one of the process types (prefixed with a : ). Other categories can be selected/added and these will become tags. Page 22 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

23 Microsoft Word 2007 Under the Blog dropdown, select Other. Microsoft Word supports the MetaWeblog API. Microsoft Word has the advantage that it is readily available on many laptops and supports SmartArt for descriptive diagrams. It doesn t support RSD (really simply discovery) so configuration is slightly more difficult than Windows Live Writer and Microsoft Word is prone to generating verbose HTML. Setting up Microsoft Word 2007 From the Publish menu, select Blog. From the API dropdown, select MetaWeblog. If you are not automatically prompted to setup an account, choose Manage Accounts from the ribbon. The URL will take the following format: root url}/publish.ashx Page 23 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

24 Notes on Using Third Party Editors PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4 Choose the same username and password that you use for the main site. Section headings Level 2 headings will become section headings in any published processes. These will be shown in reports, reviews and the navigation tree. Helpers Building lists of links to other processes using third party tools can be time consuming. Selecting [ Process building helpers ] from the library homepage gives a tool to help with creating lists of links. Select the Picture Options button and check the Picture provider option is set to My blog providers as this will mean that images are automatically uploaded. Browse the list of processes. Filter the list using the text box at the top of the page. Choose the Create links >>> button to add them to the right hand side. When publishing a process it is important that you select the Insert Category option from the top of the page and select one and only one of the process types (prefixed with a : ). Choose the copy button from the right hand side to put these on the clipboard (note, some browsers may prompt you to select Ctrl+C to put the links on the clipboard). Other categories can be selected/added and these will become tags. Page 24 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

25 Reports and Reviews PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4 A process that isn t being used is worse than useless because it cost time and money to document. Reports and reviews are essential for tracking process supply and usage. From the library home page, authors and admins can select the [ Reports ] option. You will then be presented with a list of reports and reviews (note that the screenshot shows only a subset of the items that will be in the 3.0 release of PTC Integrity Process Director). Reports are designed to give information about the library and usage. Reviews are special reports to check the consistency and completeness of the library. Select Download to download a CSV (e.g. opens in Microsoft Excel) copy of the filtered data for further analysis. Selecting a report will present a short description. If this is the correct report select [ Run Report ]. From the bottom of the screen, click Select columns to hide any columns that you re not interested in. Columns can be filtered using the text and dropdown at the top of columns. Columns can be sorted by clicking the headings. Page 25 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

26 Project Libraries PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4 Project libraries are based on defined process libraries. They can contain multiple projects which are instances of tailored processes created using the new project wizard. The tailoring takes place during project creation where choices over optional steps and iterative steps can be made. This tailoring wizard is used whenever a new project based process requires tailoring for the project. Before a project can be created a new project library based on the process library must first be created. To create a project library click the [ New project library ] option from the admin menu bar shown on the process library summary page. Once a project library has been created project managers who can create projects within the library can be created (who in turn can create project members or readers see Project Library User Management for more information). Page 26 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

27 Project Library User Management PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4 When a project has been created process authors for the process library the project library is based on will be able to define project managers. Project manages and process authors can then define project members and project readers. To define the project team select the [ Project members ] option from the admin menu bar on the project library summary page. On this page you can add users (using their address) to the project. full set of project features is available in PTC Integrity Process Director 3.0 these members will also be able to define the step progress for project steps they are involved with. Project readers Project readers have read only access to the project library. They cannot edit or enter and metrics. NOTE: In the planned PTC Integrity Process Director 3.0 release this page will also contain the role allocation for project members. This role definition allows the user based filtered view of the project and will also contain an option for forced filtering of views. This forced option will removed all content that a project member is not directly involved with and can help with specifications such as ITAR requirements. Project managers These users can create new projects within the project library and edit existing projects. They have full access to the projects contains within the library. If you have project sensitive data you do not want to share with other project managers then you can create multiple project libraries based on the single process library to enforce the project division. Project members These users can browse the project and enter project metrics. Once the Page 27 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

28 Creating a Project PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4 Once you have navigated within a project library the name of the library will be shown in the header bar. You can search and browse for a process on which to create a project in the normal ways (using the search bar, tag cloud or library structure page). When you have chosen the base process on which to create your project open the process to view the content and click the [ Create project ] button on the menu bar. The project tailoring wizard will then begin by first asking for a project name. Iterative steps give you the opportunity to add the iterations (if you know them) for iterative step instance creation. You add project instance iterations by clicking the Add iterations button. Once you have entered the name click the Choose steps button. This will then start to walk through the process asking you to make decisions on optional and iterative steps within the process step structure. Optional steps give you the choice to keep or remove the step. Page 28 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

29 A progress of project tailoring for the processes is shown along with an indication of your current position in the tailoring process. You can navigate through the process using the Next and Previous buttons. These can be helpful to change any previously entered options. Once you have answered all the tailoring questions (or all the ones you are currently able to answer) you can click the [ Save project ] option in the menu bar. You might have to scroll back to the top of the page to find this option. Once the project is saved you will see the following message: Clicking on the project link will take you to the project homepage. Clicking the assign roles link will open the role assignment page. Where alternative processes are available you will be shown the tailoring notes and given the option of choosing to replace a process with the alternative. Page 29 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

30 Consumer homepage When the project is opened the project homepage is displayed. This page shows the user useful information in respect to the project task they are working on or that has been assigned to them. All linked content from tasks a user is working is shown along with file and document links. This page should be used as the dashboard for project users to quickly navigate to their current activities. Once tasks have been assigned to users and estimates for tasks added the information on this page will be tailored to each project member. Assigning tasks by role As a project manager roles can be assigned to project members by clicking on the [ Assign roles ] option on the right of the page. Process library roles are identified for tasks where a link to a process type selected as the role/team member process type in the process library settings page. Page 30 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

31 Each role type used in the project by a task will be displayed along with the option to assign users to the role. The role assignment works in the same way as the task assignment on the task page. You can remove a user from a role for a single task by clicking the small blue cross after the project members name for the task in the chosen role area. When viewing a task, the assignments now also have a popup to show the roles the user is fulfilling on that task. Navigating the project To open and start navigating the project select the [ Navigate project ] option from the project homepage. The project will then be opened with the navigation tree on the left hand side and the task detail on the right. Page 31 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

32 Creating a MS Project plan The navigation tree on the left hand side contains a link to download the current MS Project plan. The project plan is based on the project information entered including estimates, status, progress and assignments. Multiple team members can be added and optionally a comment attached. Manual task assignments Assigned team members are shown on the right. Tasks can be assigned to project members using the [ Assign task ] option on the right hand side. This method can be useful should assignment via a project member role not be possible. As you start typing the names of team members a filtered list of names is shown. Page 32 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

33 Filtered restricted user view Sometimes it is necessary to restrict the processes that project members can see. This is done by setting Restricted access option in the Project members area of the project library. If this is set then project members can only see the process to which they are assigned and non-task processes that are linked to it (e.g. techniques needed to perform the process). Once the task has been started it will be shown in yellow. There is then the option to update the estimated finish date and task progress. Task Progress Tasks have start and finish dates (both estimated and actual). To update a task s progress select the [ Task process ] button on the right. Alternatively, if you want to update the progress of a step in a process then you can select it from the Tasks section of the page. Once the task is finished select the Finished task button. You will then be asked if the task was completed successfully. If the task was not completed successfully you will be asked to supply a reason (which can be useful for process improvement). Selecting either of these will cause a progress dialog to be shown. If the task has not been started it will be shown in gray. On clicking this you will be prompted to enter estimated start and finish dates. There is also the option of starting the task. Page 33 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

34 Task customization Tailoring the tasks on a process for your individual project s needs is essential. You will often want to: Change the order of processes Remove steps Once a task is finished it will be shown in green (completed successfully) or red (not completed successfully). Add a new process from the process library To customize the tasks choose the [ Edit tasks ] button. This will display the task editing screen. Estimated dates As the estimated start dates of tasks approach, any project members assigned to the task will be ed with links to their assigned tasks. Adding steps To add a process from the process library as a step find the process under the Add process task section (use the filter option to quickly find the process). Drag the process from the right to the list of tasks on the left. Page 34 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

35 To add a simple text task (i.e. one that isn t based on a process), type the name of the step into the Add text task box and drag the handle from the right into the tasks on the left. [ ] Remove a task. If you choose to delete a task (unless it s one you ve only just added) you will be asked to give a reason for removing the task. This helps track process fidelity, how closely you are following the process. Editing tasks As you hover over the tasks options become visible. To change whether a task occurs at the same time as the preceding process change its concurrency. [ ] This makes a task occur at the same time (concurrently) with the previous task. [ ] This makes a task occur after the previous task. [ ] Edit the name and description of a task. The name appears on the project plan as the task name. Notes appear on the project plan as notes. [ ] Add iterations. If you have a process that needs to be performed many times then it will be marked as an iterative process. Clicking this icon will bring up a dialog allowing you to define the iterations. For each line you enter in this dialog the process will be duplicated and the task renamed to match the line entered. This provides a fast way of creating multiple instances of process based project tasks. Page 35 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

36 [ ] Process alternatives. Sometimes a process in the project has alternative ways that the same objective can be achieved. These will be part of an alternative group. Project users will see the process alternative icon. Selecting this icon will show alternative process that can be used. Common metadata To define common metadata select Process types from the process library page. Selecting an alternative will then remove the process and add the alternative to the tasks. Select the [common metadata] link next to the process type you want to define metadata for. Metadata entry Metadata is information that is collected about a process as it s used in a project. The type of data you want to collect will depend on your processes, and is defined as part of your process library. There are two sorts of metadata. Common metadata, data that is collected for every process of a certain type (for example, collected for every technique), and process specific metadata. Page 36 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

37 You can then add multiple metadata fields, and there are many types of metadata to choose from. Process specific metadata Navigate to the process you want to define metadata for and select [ Edit process ]. You will see a tab for defining metadata specific to that process type. Some metadata types may require you to specify additional information (e.g. allowable values). Page 37 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

38 Entering Metadata in Projects PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4 Task data If there is metadata to be collected for the task then a data tab will appear on the process. On the tab there will be an Edit data button to put the metadata form into data entry mode. Enter the data and select Save data. Linked data When a process is linked to other processes in the description, and these processes have metadata then a tab appears for that section. Page 38 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

39 Metadata history If data is changed then a history of the changes are shown below the current data. Version management with process freezing When working with a live process repository there will come a time when you want to continue to work on processes without the changes automatically being rolled out to project users. To stop process automatically being rolled out select [ Freeze process ] from the right hand side of a process. Discussions The Discuss tab allows you to discuss the process with other users. This can be used for clarification or improvement suggestions. Discussions about a process are shared across projects so be careful not to include any project sensitive information. This will mean that any project users will then use the frozen version of this process. Once you are happy with the changes, choose the same option (which will now be listed as [ Frozen ] to reflect the current state) again to set the current version as the version for project users to use. Page 39 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

40 Upgrading a project process If you are working on a process and a new version becomes available then you will see the following options on the right hand side. You will probably want to [ View upgrade ] to see what is available in the new process before upgrading it. Whether you choose to upgrade a process will usually depend on your position in the project lifecycle. Choosing Upgrade process will: Update the description of the process Merge any metadata with new metadata options that may be available. It will not: Reset the assignments Change the tasks (as these will have already been planned and assigned). You will often want to edit the task steps to align them with the upgraded process. Page 40 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

41 Reporting PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4 Process reports Process reports are available from the process library homepage, under the Author section. Most reports will list their data as a table. The data can then be filtered, columns selected and then the data can be download to a spreadsheet for more detailed analysis. There are two sections, Reports and Reviews. Reviews are special reports that tell you about the state of your repository, checking it for consistency and completeness. Project reports Project reports are similar to process reports but report on the projects rather than the process repository. Selecting a report will provide summary information about it. Select [ Run Report ] to retrieve the data. Page 41 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

42 Commonly used project reports are also directly available from the consumer project homepage reports section. Page 42 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

43 Tutorial PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4 This tutorial will take you through the process of defining and rolling out a process. Real process definition would obviously require more thought and planning. This is intended to show the functionality of Process Director, not actually define a process. This is a very light, high-level tutorial and does not include many of the more advanced features of Process Director. It is intended to give a flavour of the application. Process types You would normally plan the different types of item that you would put in your repository. Click [ Process types ] in the Admin section. Here is a list of types created by default, we ll just accept these defaults. Create a process library From the home page select the [ New library ] option. Give the library a name. We will also need to define the process and resource type for this process library by setting the Process library settings. Click Save and then we can start to define our simple process. Page 43 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

44 Defining a simple process We ll start by creating a new process. The purpose of a process is usually to create something. We ll start by creating a product. Select [ New process ] from the right hand side. Type the name Software in the Process name box and select the Product process type. Now we ll create a process to develop the software....and select [ Create process ]. From the homepage navigate to [ New process ] again. This time we ll choose Process type. Usually we would document relevant information about the process in the editor (or use Microsoft Word or Live Writer), for now we ll just save the Software product by selecting Save on the right hand side. Page 44 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

45 Select [ Create process ], on the editing page and put the caret under the products section. Use the drag handle to drag the text over the arrow, this will turn into a yellow drop box. Drop it here. We ll add the product to this area. Select the Process toolbar button [ ]. From the dialog select the Software product (this will be in the untagged section because we haven t added tags to process items). Repeat this with other steps. We can make processes happen concurrently by dropping them in the same yellow box. A link to < Software > will appear in the Products section. If we had any existing processes we could re-use these by dragging them from the Add process section to steps area. Now we ll define some simple steps. Enter Gather requirements in the Placeholder textbox. Page 45 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

46 But a process made simply of text isn t much of a process. Let s define Gather requirements in more detail. Select the Promote to process icon on Gather requirements. The icon will disappear and the step will become a link. We could follow the link to define this further (although we won t do this now). To make some of the project based features easier to understand we will now add a resource to the Gather requirements process and a link to a requirements document. Navigate to the Gather requirements process by selecting it in the navigation tree or clicking it on the BPMN diagram. Then select [ Edit process ]. Select [ Save ] Select [ Show navigation ] to see our simple process as a tree. We can see our very simple process on the left. The product has been read from the description (including the section it was under). The process step is also shown. A well defined process would have more content. First remove all content as we will only be adding a short definition for the purposes of this tutorial. Then add a Heading 2 called Resources (or you might like to use the term Roles ). This section will contain links to the project member roles we expect to perform the Gather requirements process. Next we will add a link to the Business Analyst resource (or role) that will define the business analyst. Don t worry that we haven t created this resource yet, we will see shortly how you can define new process/resource pages from existing links. This technique can be useful when defining content that does not yet exist. With the caret positioned under the section heading we have added (the Heading 2 Resources ) click on the hyperlink manager toolbar button. We can also view the BPMN diagram for this very simple process by selecting the BPMN View tab. Page 46 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

47 Enter the following information and click OK (the space in the URL field is intended). Your edited content for the Gather requirements process should now look like this: Next, add another section heading (Heading 2) called References. With the caret positioned under the new references section heading, click the Files toolbar button. Click [ Save ] to return to the View tab and then click on the Business Analyst link. We want to upload an example requirements document template. If you don t have one then create one first before selecting browse to upload the document. For this tutorial a sample document call requirements.dot has been created. Select the browse button to navigate to the file to be uploaded then click the Upload button. Once the file has been uploaded click the checkbox next to the file and then click the [ Select ] button. Page 47 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

48 The new process page will be displayed as PTC Integrity Process Director known the definition for Business Analyst has not yet been created. Select the Resource process type and click Create process. Under the Relationships tab you should see that the Gather requirements process is using this resource under the Requirements section. Click the Gather requirements link to navigate back to the Gather requirements process. Then from the Relationships or the Structure tab navigate back to the Develop software process. Click on the Show navigation option and expand the nodes of the navigation tree. You should see the new Business Analyst resource under the Gather requirements process. Adding metadata The new resource called Business Analyst will be created, click Save to exit the edit page. Process Director is about more than just defining process. At the core of its philosophy is that processes should be used and improved. Metadata helps us to collect information about how process are used in projects. We ll define some metadata before we see how processes are used. Page 48 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

49 Process metadata Firstly, we ll decide to allow people to rate our processes and log improvement suggestions. We want project users to be able to do this for all processes. From the homepage select [ Process types ]. Next to Process select [ Common metadata ]. Process specific metadata Now we ll add some metadata for the Software product. Navigate to Software (search, or browse from the homepage), select Edit process and switch to the metadata tab. Add the following metadata for the Software product. Add Process improvement suggestions in the field label and select the field type Multi-line text. Select [ Add ]. Select [ Add ]. Select [ Save ]. The metadata field will be added. Now enter the Rating type, Rate this process. We ll stick with 5 as the maximum value. Select [ Add ]. Creating a project We re now ready to roll out our (very simple) process to projects. We start by creating a [ New project library ]. We ll name our project library TutorialProject. Select [ Save Common Metadata ]. Page 49 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

50 We are taken to the project library page. We don t have any projects yet, so let s create one by selecting [ New project ] found on the right. The project homepage is displayed. We are taken to the project tailoring wizard. This simple process won t require any tailoring, but for complex processes this will walk project managers through decisions to modify the process to their own specific project needs. The details on this page will be populated once we have started adding more project information. Add some team members From the right hand side select [ Project members ]. Select the Structure tab and choose [ Develop software ]. There is nothing to tailor here, just select [ Project name ] on the right, and give your project a name before hitting [ Save project ]. Select Member and type in addresses of colleagues. As soon as you press comma (to separate the addresses) the textbox will become multi-line. Visit the Projects page. As we have not yet created our project members we do not want to assign roles yet so click on the < project > link. After selecting [ Add users ] these team members will be sent passwords to access the library. Page 50 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

51 Assigning roles to users From the project homepage select the < Assign roles > option. We only have one role in our simple process which was the Business Analyst. We should see the Business Analyst role with the Gather requirements task listed inside (as the Business Analyst is responsible for performing the Gather requirements task). All users assigned will receive an notification saying they have been assigned the role for the project. The task is shown in red as we do not have any users assigned to it yet. Click the < Assign role > link in the upper right of the Business Analyst role box. Click the < Back to project > link to return to the project homepage and you should see that the details in the various boxes are starting to be populated with your filtered view of the project. After clicking [ Assign ] the assignments will be shown next to the task name. Page 51 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

52 We can see that we have a task waiting to start, a link to our requirements. dot template, a link to the definition of a Business Analyst and the Business Analyst is also shown as one of our project roles. The items that are linked to also show section and task information for each link. Entering task estimates Click on the [ Navigate project ] link from the right hand side to open the project and start entering some estimates. Click on the task information boxes (currently gray as the processes haven t been started) and enter estimates for the tasks. Here we can see the requirements.dot template we created is linked to under the References section of the Gather requirements task. Clicking the template link will open the word document we uploaded into the process definition. Page 52 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

53 Assigning tasks to users when a role is not available Start typing in the names of your colleagues. Auto-suggest will filter the list. If you want to manually assign a task to a user when a role assignment isn t possible, navigate to the task and on the right hand side, select Assign task. Add users by starting to type their name in the assign to area. Any matching users will be displayed with an auto-suggest filter. Also make sure you add yourself to the assign to list. You may also want to add some assignment comments. These are comments the user might find useful or just a brief note saying why they have been assigned. As well as choosing team members you can also add a comment. Assign the task to some selected users and also to yourself. Page 53 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

54 Updating progress Team members will be ed as the start date of a task approaches. When starting a task, team members choose [ Start task ] from the task information card on the right hand side. Adding metadata On the Develop Software page, select the Products tab, and choose [ Edit data ]. Enter some information and choose [ Save data ]. When a task is in progress it is shown in yellow. Also choose the data tab (this is the data for the process we re looking at) and choose [ Edit data ]. Enter some information and choose [ Save data ]. Once a task has been started, progress can be updated. Page 54 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

55 The data is saved against the process. Downloading the project plan On the navigation tree displayed to the left of the screen click on the < Project Plan > link. An xml file will be generated, save the file and then open Microsoft Project, select Open, change the file type dropdown to XML format and select the generated file. We ve used very simple metadata here. Your metadata will reflect the things that are important about your processes and projects. Select [ Finish ]. Page 55 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4

56 Our very simple process project plan will be shown along with any estimates, progress and assignments. Reporting A set of useful project reports are available from the project homepage reports section. Or, the full list (including any custom reports created) can be accessed by selecting [ Reports ]. Choose [ Back to library ]. Depending on the estimates and any progress or assignment values entered the project home page will be updated to show the current information on the task you have been assigned to. Select Project metrics/data then [ Run Report ]. We can see how project data is now being collected and collated. Page 56 of 57 PTC Integrity Process Director - Product Guide 3.4