Project Intake and Initiation
Initiate Project
Project Initiation Request Overview
A project initiation request in ResourceFirst represents a proposed or requested project, and appears on the Projects>Initiation page. There, they can be approved or rejected.
While users with rights to create projects (P2 rights or above) can create projects directly on the Projects > Data page, users without those rights can request the initiation of a project.
Initiation requests are maintained in a separate area (the Projects > Initiation page) where required planning data can be entered to support an approval decision. Initiation request projects do not appear anywhere else in the system.
Project forms defined in the Administration area are available for entering data on the initiation page. This can be used as a project charter and/or business case for approving the project, which can be carried over to the Project Data page once the project is accepted. Once the originator submits the form for approval (there is also a Save button for saving prior to submission), the project will be added to the Initiation page pending approval.
Who Approves? If the project manager field (the Manager field in ResourceFirst) is populated on the initiation form, he or she will be the approver. Otherwise, anyone with P2 rights or higher to the project node will be able to approve. See Administering Rights and Privileges for more on rights. Rejected requests are removed from the pending initiation list. Approved requests immediately show up on the Project Data page and have been automatically saved to the database.
Approval Notifications: Notifications to users based on approval are based on the Pulse Engine. A Pulse engine item is required for notifying users, and it can be set up to be an in-app notification or an email notification.
Labor and financial assignments cannot be created for projects on this page. You would need to create those via the Assignments function once the project is approved to be an official project.
To submit a project initiation request:
There are two ways to enter an Initiation request.
From the Initiation Page Directly:
1) Go to Projects–>Initiation, where you’ll be presented with the following page:
Click the + sign, and the following dialog will appear.
From the Project Data Page
To initiate a project from the Project Data page, click the + sign on the Project Data page to add a project. You will be presented with a similar dialog, except with an Add, Initiate, and Cancel button.
On the Add Project Dialog
On either dialog, the process is the same:
- Enter the parent level for the project. Entering a parent level can be turned on or off by your administrator in Administration–>Server Settings. This can be useful in large organizations with many OBS levels and will produce a subset below that level in the following OBS dropdown.
- Enter the OBS level (Owner) where the project will be managed or tracked. A dropdown will appear letting you select from the OBS. Then clck Apply. Example below:
3. Enter the project name and click Initiate.
4. You will be presented with the Initiation page, with the new Initiation project added to the top on the left pane, in a Green Status (which means Entered). A project form for data entry will be in the main pane to the right. You can select different forms via the forms dropdown in the upper right: 
In the example below, an Initiation project title “Test Initiation for Documentation” has been added (see upper left).
Enter data that is available at this time into the form and click the Save icon 
in the upper right of the page to save your data. Once you are ready to submit the proposed project for approval, click the Submit icon 
in the upper right.
During subsequent sessions prior to submission, use any of the project forms to enter data required for an approval decision. Once the project is submitted, it cannot be changed.
Once submitted, inform your approver that the request is ready for approval review. As noted above, Pulse Engine notifications can be set up. See your ResourceFirst administrator for more details. If creating a Pulse notification, the fields to look at are:
- PDWProject.State = 1 (1=Submitted)
- PDWProject.RespondTIme (last time the state was changed)
Please note that initiated projects do not appear on the Project Data page until they are approved. Until then, they appear on the Initiation page, where they can be approved or rejected by an authorized user.
To Edit the Attributes of the Proposed Project
The originator, the user identified as the project manager, and any user with P2 or above node rights can edit fields. The user must click the Save icon to save these changes to the database.
To Enter Proposed Assignments and Other Details Prior to Submission
To enter proposed assignments and other details (such as risks) prior to the Initiation being submitted, click the 
button on the Initiation menu bar. You will be taken to a Project Details page for the Initiation project, where you can enter Initiation assignments and other details. There is also a 
button in the upper right to return to the Initiation page.
Note that anything entered here, whether assignments, events, or otherwise, will not appear anywhere else in the system. However, when the Initiation project is approved, this information will be 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).
To Submit an Initiation Request for Approval
Note: Once you submit an Initiation project for approval, you cannot make further changes until the project is approved and live.
To submit an Initiation request for approval, select the Initiation project on the left pane and then click the 
button in the upper right.
You will receive the following message.
Note that the Initiation project color turns from Green to Yellow. Also, at any time, you can click the “Go to Details” button to see any other project details, such as proposed assignments. Then you can click “Back to Initiation” to return here.
To Approve/Reject an Initiation Request
A user with edit rights (P2) to the project OBS of the requested project (or someone designated as the project manager in the Manager dropdown) can approve or reject it.
Note: Only submitted Initiation requests can be approved or rejected.
Review the request by looking at one or more of the project forms available on the Initiation page.
With the Initiation request selected, click the checkmark icon in the menu bar to approve it, or click the red X icon to reject it.
Rejecting the Initiation request results in the Initiation Project color changing to red.
If approved, the project appears immediately in a row on the Project Data page. Until the next browser refresh, it will also appear on the Initiation page in blue.
