No 'Project' field for workspaces

[Chad-Smith]

This is more of a noob question, but for all the out of the box workspaces, why is there no 'Project' field? Is there a specific reason for this?

e.g. When I create a 'Task', you can't immediately assign it to a particular Project. So straight from the outset of creating this workspace item it has a definition, but no designation/relevance.

So you then go into the Project Management and pick a project, and then go to the Schedule tab to designate the Task to the Project. The problem here now is that I don't know which task I need to select to assign it to the project.

Consider this; I have 5 tasks all called 'Vault Installation' because I have 5 projects on the go all with a Vault installation component. How do I know with certainty which one of these 5 tasks is the correct to assign to this project? It could be any of them.

The only way I know is to go back into the Tasks and identify the ID#, and then go back to the Project/Schedule so I can attach it. This seems a little long winded.

Am I thinking about this process completely wrong?

[scottmoyse]

Your thought process is sound. I also agree, at this point to cant assign a child item to a parent from within the child. I have got around it by including the project number/name in the item descriptor. Then you can tell the difference. The frustration here is as a user you are essentially adding the child item to the patent twice, once in the childs item details tab then in the pm tab of the parent. Regards Scott Moyse Sent from my iPhone ##################################################################################### This e-mail message has been scanned for Viruses and Content and cleared by MailMarshal #####################################################################################

[Chad-Smith]

Thanks for the confirmation.

So I guess along the same lines, it's probably wise to add a linked 'Project' field to workspaces such as 'Task' in order for the user's benefit who is reading the task, so they know what project it belongs to.

This lack of connected visible information certainly makes understanding the context of a workspace item difficult and a little user unfriendly.

[broepke]

Hi Chad,

Sounds like you have a good thought there.  The good news it's really up to you.  We didn't directly add a project field by default because some people might want to reference more than one project - or maybe some other identifyer is important (like a customer, job number, etc...)

Good news is - like you found - feel free to add that as you wish!

[scottmoyse]

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@broepke wrote:

Hi Chad,

Sounds like you have a good thought there.  The good news it's really up to you.  We didn't directly add a project field by default because some people might want to reference more than one project - or maybe some other identifyer is important (like a customer, job number, etc...)

Good news is - like you found - feel free to add that as you wish!

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I completely disagree with the logic here in the medium to long term. In the beginning it makes sense. But ultimately you are asking the user to add the same information twice. I understand where you are coming from, so a better solution would be to add the ability to select one or multiple projects with a special field type in the Item details tab. You can either have one of them or multiple. The effect of adding data to it there would link it through to either the Project management tab or maybe even a parent item in the BOM. 

Or add the ability to use data from other tabs in the Item Descriptor. The print views can include the Item Descriptor etc.. That way the project or parent Item can be referenced automatically with a single step instead of multiple. 

Each time I get into the nitty gritty of this with people they think its unfortunate that you have to essentially do the same thing twice in two different places.

[Chad-Smith]

I 100% agree with Scott.

Here's another one. I create a new Project and then would like to add Customers to it. As long as I have a Customers field I can do this. But when I go to the Project I can't then have that same data already connecting through. (In fact I can't add a Project field to Customers in the first place, but that's for another discussion). If I was to be able to add a Project field, then I would expect it to already start being populated from data I've set in the Customers workspace.

So while we have this great database of data, none of it really has any relevance to one another until the user goes out of their way to perform a secondary task, usually in a different workspace. No-one likes doing things twice.

As a user new to any PLM system, I find this to be a big issue which I hope gets addressed early on in the early days of PLM360. Don't get me wrong, I find this to be a brilliant system, but it has some gapping holes at the moment.

[Chad-Smith]

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Sounds like you have a good thought there.  The good news it's really up to you.  We didn't directly add a project field by default because some people might want to reference more than one project - or maybe some other identifyer is important (like a customer, job number, etc...)

Good news is - like you found - feel free to add that as you wish!

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Brian, when you say add this field as I wish into a workspace [as a Picklist], I am finding that there is no option to pick a list of Projects. Has this been forgotten as an option?

[scottmoyse]

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@Brausmith wrote:

Brian, when you say add this field as I wish into a workspace [as a Picklist], I am finding that there is no option to pick a list of Projects. Has this been forgotten as an option?

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I assume you have a project workspace with project items in it? if so you need to create a new picklist and link it to that workspace. Then use that picklist in a field within your customer workspace for example. When you set up the field you can choose if you want it to be linking or not and it may as well be a linking picklist if its a picklist referencing a workspace.

Does that make sense?

[Chad-Smith]

Aah, now I understand. I was under the impression that all Workspaces were by default listing in the Picklist. I didn't realise that the Projects weren't in the Picklist setup by default, and therefore had to be created.

Thanks for the help, this should keep me going for a little while now.