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PMBOK Guide Accelerator

This section contains the following topics:

PMBOK Guide Accelerator Overview

Access Groups

Project Templates

Project Tasks

Phases

Document Review and Approval Processes

PMBOK Guide Document Components

PMBOK Guide Accelerator Overview

The CA Clarity PPM Accelerator for the PMBOK Guide (PMBOK Guide Accelerator) is an add-in that consists of a set of dashboards, portlets, project templates, document templates, processes, and access rights. Use your organization project management knowledge and practices to help you structure your project and define the information needed throughout your project lifecycle.

This add-in provides a starting point from which you can configure CA Clarity PPM to support your PMBOK Guide best practice project management activities. Use this accelerator as is, or let your CA Clarity PPM administrator set up your system to reflect the interpretation and implementation of the PMBOK Guide project management best practices.

The PMBOK Guide is highly descriptive not prescriptive. No requirements stipulate to use certain project management practices. The PMBOK Guide provides you with guidelines that are based on industry best practices. Thus, what is valid for your organization cannot be valid for another. Use the PMBOK Guide best practices that best meet your organization needs. They are generally accepted best practices by project managers in certain global regions.

Visit the PMI website, PMI.org, for more information about A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide).

Access Groups

The PMBOK Guide Accelerator includes access groups. Each access group includes access rights that allow group members access to secured CA Clarity PPM pages, dashboards, portlets, and documents. The content included with this add-in is designed for these access groups.

The following describes the access groups:

More information:

Access Rights

Project Templates

The PMBOK Guide Accelerator includes project templates exclusive to this add-in. Creating new PMBOK Guide projects also requires creating them from one of the PMBOK Guide project templates, or from a project template created from a PMBOK Guide project template. This ensures that your new projects can use the PMBOK Guide Accelerator features.

The project templates are ready to use; no further set up is necessary. However, configure and duplicate them to create new project templates for each of your organization project types.

For more information, see the Project Management User Guide.

The following project templates are included:

PMBOK® Guide Project Template

When you create a project from this template, the project includes:

PMBOK® Guide Project Planning Checklist Template

This project template includes the same features as the PMBOK® Guide Project Template. Also includes a high level list of project key tasks. The project manager can use these tasks to manage project execution or to do project planning.

More information:

How to Set up PMBOK Guide Accelerator

How to Start PMBOK Guide Projects

Project Checklist Portlet

Include Project Tasks in the Project Checklist

Project Tasks

PMBOK Guide project key tasks are included with the project you create new from the PMBOK® Guide Project Planning Checklist Template project template, or from project templates based on the template. These tasks display in the project task list and in the project checklist portlet on the dashboard. These tasks match the project planning checklist in The PMI® Compendium of Project Management Practices.

Use the project tasks as is, or edit them to match the types used by project managers. For example, project managers can edit the project template with tasks that have time and resources associated with them. Project managers can add, remove, and reorder tasks.

For more information, see the Project Management User Guide.

The following key tasks are included:

More information:

Contact CA Technologies

Project Checklist Portlet

Phases

Project managers use the project phase to reflect the current phase of the project. Select the project phase using the Phase field that displays on the project properties page. Your CA Clarity PPM administrator can define different sets of phases for different project types.

For more information, see the Studio Developer’s Guide.

The following phases are included with the Standard phase type:

See A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) for more information.

Document Review and Approval Processes

Actions such as submitting a document for review from PMBOK Guide documents, trigger processes that move the document through a review or approval cycle.

Use the processes as is, or let your CA Clarity PPM administrator configure them to match the review and approval cycle. Also, view a diagram of the process flow on the process flow diagram page of process definition.

For more information, see the Administration Guide.

The following review-type processes are included:

The following approval-type processes are included:

More information:

How to Work with the Document Review Process

How to Work with the Document Approval Process

How to Work with the Change Request Review Process

How to Work with PMBOK Guide Documents

How to Work with the Document Review Process

Create a topic for each of the exercise and work within the topic.The document review process pertains to the lessons learned, project scope statement, project report, and project closure documents, all of which go through a similar workflow.

The following tasks are involved in the review of the documents in the management of a typical PMBOK Guide project:

  1. The project manager defines the resources who review and approve the documents that require a review.
  2. The project manager creates and saves the document.
  3. The project manager submits the document for review. The review process is initiated.
  4. The reviewer receives an action item to review the document and completes their review. Once all reviewers assigned to the project complete their review of the document, the status of the document changes to "Reviewed". The review process ends.

How to Work with the Document Approval Process

The document approval process pertains to the product description and project charter documents, both of which go through a similar workflow.

The following are the approval tasks for the documents related to the management of a typical PMBOK Guide project:

  1. The project manager defines the resources who review and approve the documents that require a review and approval.
  2. The project manager creates and saves the document.
  3. The project manager submits the document for approval. The document is locked from further updates and the approval process is initiated.
  4. The reviewer does one of the following:

    Note: If reviewers reject the document, the status of the action item changes to "Rejected" even if other reviewers approve the document, or leave the document status as "Open".

    Once all reviewers assigned to the project complete their review of the document and approve the document, the process changes the status of the document to "Approved". The review process ends.

How to Work with the Change Request Review Process

The Change Request Review process pertains to the project plan updates included in change requests. The following tasks are involved in the review of project plan updates, which are part of the management of a typical PMBOK Guide project:

  1. The project manager defines the resources who review the project plan updates included in change requests.
  2. The project manager creates and submits the project plan update. The process is initiated.
  3. The change control board member receives an email notification from the project manager to review the document. The review process ends.

PMBOK Guide Document Components

PMBOK Guide documents consist of the following components. The CA Clarity PPM administrator controls the access to the components to grant the CA Clarity PPM access rights.

Reports

You can export report data to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet so that you can perform statistical operations, such as SUM and AVERAGE. To export your results to Excel, open the report, and select Export to Excel.

For more information, see the Basics User Guide.

Actions Menu and Edit Mode

You can edit some of the document data directly from the list page for that document type. For example, for project scope statement documents not yet submitted for review, edit the scope statement name, and review completed date directly from the list page.

To edit the fields on list pages, click Edit.

For more information, see the Personalizing CA Clarity PPM User Guide.

Processes

You can view initiated processes, or create new ones using the Processes page. For example, create a process that notifies the managers when the status of a document changes to "Approved." You can also define a process to take an action, such as changing the project progress to "Completed."

For more information, see the Administration Guide.

Audit Trail

Audit Trail keeps a historical record of all changes, additions, and deletions that occurs to specified document fields. Use the page to view a log of change, addition, or deletion records for any of the fields for auditing.

Audit Trail appears if your CA Clarity PPM administrator has set it up and if you have the appropriate access rights. The CA Clarity PPM administrator also determines the fields to audit and the information stored in the audit trail.

For more information, see the Administration Guide.

For more information, see the Personalizing CA Clarity PPM User Guide.