PMI PMBOK Processes Support in Allegra Tutorial – Part 2

In this second installment of the series the focus is of practical nature, providing a step-by-step approach to setting up a PMBOK^® process [1] for change management tracking purpose in Allegra. The third part illustrates a real-life scenario dealing with PMBOK^® input artifacts changes and their associated change management process. If you need to put things in perspective, and see why PMBOK^® processes are still important for today’s project management practice, and learn about some of the challenges a PM faces when implementing PMI PMBOK processes, then you may want to read the first part of the series.

Setting PMI PMBOK documents and processes in Allegra

This part of the tutorial provides a hands-on approach to setting a PMBOK® process in Allegra and as such,  the reader is encouraged to actively try the steps illustrated below. There are four main logical steps.

Step 1: Create new types for PMBOK^®-based project management

Any time we need to create new types and other system level values we need to log in in Allegra project management software as a System Administrator.

1. Create a new workspace/project type specific for PMBOK^®-based project management. This step is not mandatory unless we want to keep everything nicely organized. Select Administration, then Customize/Workspace types/Add Workspace type and create a new workspace/project type called “PMBOK Type” having the Standard workspace type flag.

   

2. Create a new type of item called “PMBOK Process Type – Create Project Charter” by following the steps: Administration/Customize/Lists and then Global lists/Item type/Add Item type.

   

   and then

   

3. Then add the newly defined item type to the PMBOK (project) type.

   

Step 2: Create a new PMI PMBOK project, and add new users for the project

Now, still logged as a System Administrator, create the project that we want to manage called “Money Tree – Gen Life Project” of type “PMBOK Type”. Do not forget to set the email server settings, because the Allegra email notification mechanism is fundamental for the change management processes.

Then, add two users for the project with Full user role: one for yourself, as a project manager, and one for Big Joe, as the project initiator, to help you in further testing of the change management functionality described in Part 3 of this tutorial. Make sure both users are actually added to the project, and them into the Informed and Consulted user roles. Check then Edit automail trigger/Full Trigger settings and you are done with step 2.

Step 3: Create the new Develop Project Charter PMBOK^® – Process

Now you can log with your own account and create the first PMBOK Process type – Create Project Charter item: the Develop Project Charter – PMBOK process setup.

and

After creating the process item we will add the “Money Tree – Statement-of-Work.docx” word document file, containing all project management-related information as specified in [1]. Of course, here we can add not only all the input artifacts described in the input-output diagram illustrated above, but also the output artifact, the “Money Tree – Project Charter.docx”, or even other documents that would describe procedures, scripts or tools that can be used in the process for generating the output artifacts.

After we have added the “Money Tree – Statement-of-Work.docx” document we make sure that we add Big Joe in the Watcher list of this document so he can view and eventually update this document.

Step 4: Setup the mail notification template for the Develop Project Charter PMI PMBOK – Process

What we would like as PM is that anytime the “Money Tree – Statement-of-Work.docx” document (or any other input document for that matter) changes, to be notified by email, so we can inspect the changes and act accordingly. We should here apply the expert judgment or any other tool provided for this process and if the situation imposes we should update the output artifact for this process, the Project charter document.

This can be done by setting an appropriate email template template that is specific for the PMBOK Process Type – Create Project Charter, and the steps are illustrated below.

1. First we should log again as the Allegra System Administrator.
2. Select Administration/Customize/E-mail templates. Then in the Event tree select “by item type” and then select the “PMBOK Process Type – Create Project Charter” item type. Then check the Item change action and hit the Configure button.

   

3. Now, a new screen will be presented to help select the language for the email template to be changed. Check the English template and hit the Edit button.

   

4. The email template is then loaded for editing in a new pop-up window.

   

5. Add a new h2/p paragraph containing the line describing the PMBOK^® process name, which has been affected by the input document change, and the output documents that need to be reviewed and eventually changed for this process. In this case we should add:

Input file for Develop Project Charter process has changed. Apply expert judgment to see if Project Charter document needs to be changed.

Save the email template and you are done.

Note: This particular project management document type, the Statement of work (SOW) is encountered only in this Develop project Charter process. However, if a certain artifact is encountered as input artifact for many processes, all those processes (and their associated outputs), should be listed in the message. For each process the message should also mention the tools and techniques list associated with the process.

Conclusion

The takeaway from this article is purely practical. The article presents a four-step process that, when followed, allows one to set up a PMI PMBOK process for artifacts change management tracking purpose in Allegra.

In Allegra PMBOK^® processes are modeled as items, and here you can observe the power and flexibility of Allegra. Nothing is forcing you, you can chose to implement whatever PMBOK^® processes make sense for you and your organization, and even mix them with processes borrowed from other methodologies, like PRINCE2 or ITIL.

Resources

[1] Project Management Institute, PMBOK Guide – Sixth Edition (2017).