Project Intake and Initiation
Overview
Users with sufficient rights (P2 or above — See Project Right Levels below) can create projects directly on the Project Data page; users without those rights can initiate a project for review and possible approval.
Initiation requests appear on the Initiation page, where required planning data can be entered to support an approval decision. Most objects associated with real projects can be created for initiated projects, including labor and financial assignments, tasks, risks and events, etc.
Initiated projects and their related objects do not appear anywhere else in ResourceFirst and have no effect on resource supply-demand analysis.
One of many possible initiation workflows is:
- Requester initiates a project.
- On the Initiation page, requester begins filling out the project charter form.
- Requester clicks the Save icon to save the current state of the initiation request to do more off-line planning
- Requester completes all required planning, enters the results in one or more forms for the project and clicks the Submit (for approval) button.
- A user with approval authority reviews the submitted project and clicks the Approve or Reject icon on the Initiation page.
- Approved projects show up on the Project Data page and are saved automatically to the database.
- Approved and rejected requests are removed from the initiation list.
- Approval Notifications: Approval notifications to users are enabled by Pulse Engine scripts. The communication method can be a ResourceFirst or an email notification.
Project Right Levels
Project right levels determine who can do what on the Initiation page.
P1 – individual project edit right
P2 and above – edit right to all projects in the project OBS node
The Initiation Page
In the left pane, the color bar at the left of each project shows its state: green for initiated and yellow for submitted.
A project form for data entry is in the main pane to the right. You can select different forms with the forms dropdown in the upper right: 
Who Can Edit the Proposed Project?
The originator and any user with P2 or above node rights can edit the proposed project.
The user must click the Save icon to save these changes to the database.
Assignments, Risks, Tasks on Initiated Projects
Assignments and other details (such as risks) can be created prior to submit by using the 
button on the Initiation menu bar.
This activates the Project Workspace for the initiated project.
Note that nothing entered for initiated projects appears anywhere else in the system. When the Initiation project is approved, everything is carried over to the approved project and will then be visible everywhere.
This is a good way to “preload” assignments for review (usually skill assignments at this early point).
How To
Initiate a Project
There is one way to enter an Initiation request – the Initiate button on the Add Project dialog.
The Add Project dialog is available on the Project Data page and the Initiation page.
The Initiation page is automatically activated if the source page is Project Data and the user clicks Initiate.
When activated from the Initiation page, the dialog does NOT have the Add button, only Initiate.
Step 1: Go to the Project Data or Initiation page.
Step 2: Click the + (Add Project) icon.
Step 3: Enter the project name and select the project OBS the project belongs to.
Step 4: Click the Initiate button.
The project appears at the top of the left pane on the Initiation page.
to preserve edits for subsequent sessions.
at the right of the page toolbar.
Once the project is submitted, it cannot be changed.
Step 8: Inform your approver.
If notifications haven’t been automated, inform approver(s) that the project is ready for approval review.
Edit Assignments, Risks, Tasks
Step 1: Click the button on the page toolbar.
Step 2: Create / Edit all project related objects.
Be sure to click the Save icon on every page on which you make changes.
Step 3: Click the Back to Initiation button to return to the Initiation page.
Submit for Approval
Step 1: Select the Initiation project in the left pane.
Step 2: Click the Submit 
icon at the far right of the page toolbar.
The following message appears.
Note that the initiation state bar color turns from green to yellow.
Note: Once you submit an Initiation project for approval, you cannot make further changes until the project is approved and live.
Approve/Reject an Initiation Request
A user with sufficient rights (P2 or above) can approve or reject initiated projects that have been submitted for approval.
Step 1: Select the submitted project.
Step 2: Review the project attributes required for approval.
Step 3: Click the Checkmark icon in the menu bar to approve it or the red X icon to reject it.
Approving a project removes the project from the Initiation page.
An approved project appears immediately in a row on the Project Data page and is saved to the database automatically.
The location of the approved project on the Project Data page depends on the sort order of the page.
Original order (never sorted by the user) – top of the page
User sort order – wherever the project fits in the user sort order
A rejected project disappears from the Initiation page initially. However, if you refresh the page, it reappears with the Initiation State bar color as red.
To reverse a rejection that was made in error, you can go to the rejected project, update the form if desired, and click the Submit icon to change the state back to submitted. Then you may approve it if desired.
