Project Intake and Initiation

Posted06/16/2022

Updated10/01/2025

This article explains the project intake process in ResourceFirst, including how to request initiation of a project, how to review initiation requests, and how to approve them.

Overview

Users without rights to create projects can initiate a project for review and possible approval on the Project>Initiation page; users with sufficient rights (P2 or above — See Project Right Levels below) can create projects directly on the Project Data page.

The Project Initiation page is functionally the same as the Project Data Detail mode page except for the additional initiation features Submit, Approve, and Reject.

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, financial, and asset assignments, tasks, risks and events, etc.

Note: By default, initiated projects and their related objects do not appear anywhere else in ResourceFirst and have no effect on resource supply-demand analysis. However, by selecting “Allocate to Initiated Projects” in the User Options dialog, supply-demand analysis will include initiated projects in the calculation. See User Calculation Options for more.

One of many possible initiation workflows is:

Requester initiates a project.
On the Initiation page, requester begins filling out the forms required to submit a project for approval.
Requester clicks the Save icon to save the current state of the initiation request to do more planning
Requester completes all required planning, potentially including Labor, Financial, and Asset assignments, 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.

Workflow using Templates:

Requester initiates a project.
Requester applies a saved project template to the prospective project.
Requester clicks the Save icon to save the current state of the initiation request to do more planning.
Core team members modify the plan as needed, including Labor, Financial, and Asset assignments.
Requester 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.

Who Approves? Any user with P2 rights or higher to the project node can approve initiated projects. See Administering Rights and Privileges for more on rights. Also see Project Right Levels below.

Initiation States

Initiated but not yet submitted projects have an gray list name bar.
Submitted projects have an yellow list name bar.
Rejected projects remain on the initiation list and have an red list name bar.
Approved projects are moved to the Project Data page and are saved automatically to the database; they 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 notification and/or an email notification.

Note: “Approved” on this page means the initiation of the project has been approved; this just means that the project is moved to the Project Data page where it enters the normal planning, approval, and execution process.

Filters for Initiation Projects in Submitted State: In Administration > Settings > Portfolio, the “Filter Project Initiation List by Manager” option can be checked or unchecked.

If unchecked, every user with approval rights can see all submitted projects.

If checked, only the person identified as the project manager can see the project or approve initiation.

Project Right Levels

Project right levels determine who can do what on the Initiation page.

P1 – individual project edit right; see and update initiated projects you have initiated.
P2 and above – edit right to all projects in the project OBS node; see all initiated projects and approve submitted ones.

Who Can Edit the Proposed Project?

The originator and any user with P2 or above node rights can edit the proposed project, as long as it has not been submitted yet for approval.

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 events/risks) can be created prior to submit by using the page menu options on the Initiation menu bar.

For information on how to use these options, see the article Project Detail Overview.

REMINDER: By default, initiated projects and their related objects do not appear anywhere else in ResourceFirst and have no effect on resource supply-demand analysis. However, by selecting “Allocate to Initiated Projects” in User Options on the main Application Toolbar, supply-demand analysis will include initiated projects in the calculation. See User Calculation Options for more.

How To

Initiate a Project

Step 1: Click the + (Add Project) icon on the Initiation page.

Step 2: Enter the project name, select the project OBS, and fill in any other required* fields in the Add Project dialog.

*Required fields on the Add Project dialog are configurable in the Administration module.

Step 4: Click the Add & Close button (or the Add button if you plan to enter more projects).

The project appears at the top of the left pane on the Initiation page in grey. In the example below, the Martinique project was just added.

Step 5: Fill out fields in the available forms as appropriate.

[Skip to Step 7 if the project information is ready for approval review.]

Step 6: Click the Save icon

to preserve edits for subsequent sessions.

[Project planner(s) can continue planning for days, weeks, or months continuing to refine the case for approval.]

Step 7: When project information is ready for approval review, click the Submit icon

at the right of the page toolbar.

Once the project is submitted, it cannot be changed.

Step 8: Inform users who have approval rights.

If notifications haven’t been automated, inform approver(s) that the project is ready for approval review.

Edit Assignments, Risks, Tasks, and more

Step 1: Select the appropriate icon on the page toolbar. For information on using these options, see the article Project Detail Overview.

Step 2: Create Labor, Financial, and Asset assignments; add Documents, Comments, Events, etc. as required.

Step 3: Click the Save icon on every page on which you make changes.

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. (This icon appears only on projects that are not submitted or rejected.)

The following message appears, and the project is saved and submitted.

Note: Once you submit an Initiation project for approval, you cannot make further changes until the project is approved and moved to the Project>Data page.

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 (e.g., one in yellow).

Step 2: Review the project attributes required for approval.

Step 3: Hover over the project on the left panel and click the Checkmark icon to approve it or the X icon to reject it.

Approved projects are moved to 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

If rejected, the Initiation State bar color changes to red.

A rejected initiation project can be resubmitted. Update the rejected project’s plan and click the Submit icon to change the state back to submitted.