Capture project data
Projects are typically created in Alfabet in order to document a transformation project for the IT assets in the repository. Typical IT projects might be to upgrade applications, consolidate technologies for a segment of the business, or introduce new business processes to the organization.
In Alfabet, a project is an activity that is focused on achieving a specified goal in the IT landscape an typically has specific project deliverables. For each project, you can plan and assess the project costs and monitor milestones to ensure that the target dates of the project are met. You can document the IT architecture that will be impacted by the project in order to understand the assets in the as-is architecture that may be affected by the project as well as plan a target architecture that the project aims to deliver.
You can logically structure and bundle the projects into project groups in order to evaluate various aspects of the project portfolio.
In the navigation panel, click Project Architecture > Projects. Per default, the data workbench displays only a set of basic attributes. You can add more columns to capture other attributes directly in the data workbench or you can navigate to a project's content area and define it in more detail there. Click to learn about how to use data workbenches.
You can add a new project from anywhere in the product via the orange New button in the header. Or go to Investment Architecture > Projects.
Create a new project from scratch. Click New > Project. Specify the project's attributes as well as the relationships that the project has to other assets in the repository.
A guided data entry view is available to help you provide relevant data and ensure data quality for the projects in your repository. When you create a new project in the editor, click the Close and Continue as Guided Editing button to open the data entry view. Or go to the project's content area toolbar and click Analysis View > Data Entry View.
You will see a content area page with an additional panel listing content items like Basic Data, Lifecycle Data, Evaluation. Click the content item caption to navigate to the content item in the data entry view.
Symbols indicate where data quality issues exist. Click the data quality issue symbol to navigate your focus directly to the spot where you can fix the issue.
Edit the attributes and relationships for a project. Click the Navigate 
button next to a project to open its content area. Specify the project's attributes as well as the relationships that the project has to other assets in the repository.
Try to capture as much information as possible about the project because complete data considerably improves the results of business questions and other analytics.
Once a project is in the repository, you can define more details about it in the Projects data workbench . Or specify and analyze the project in detail in its content area. All mandatory fields must be defined to create the project and save it.
Per default, the data workbench displays a limited set of basic attributes. You can add more columns via the Structure column to capture other attributes directly in the data workbench.
- Name: (Mandatory) Enter a unique name for the project. The name should help others easily understand the purpose of the project.
-
Status: This indicates the current status of the project from initiation to execution. The status determines whether a project can or cannot be deleted. Possible values are:
- New: The project has only mandatory data defined. A project with this status can be deleted.
- In Design: The project is being scoped and defined. A project with this status cannot be deleted.
- Under Assessment: The project is being evaluated for implementation. A project with this status cannot be deleted.
- In Realization: The project is being worked on. A project with this status cannot be deleted.
- Completed: The project has finished. A project with this status can be deleted.
- Rejected: The project is no longer valid and can be deleted.
- Planned Start Date and Planned End Date: (Mandatory) The planned start and end dates capture the period when the project is actively being executed in the company. This is the period from when the project is first initiated to when it shall be completed. Click the calendar icon to select the date or enter the date in the date format Month/Day/Year. For example: 4/30/2023
- Description: Enter a meaningful description that will clarify the purpose of the project.
- Project Number: The project number that the project is associated with. This project number is usually the ID number used in the company's external multi-project management solution.
Assigning users and organizations to roles is critical to understanding responsibility for assets in the IT and is required to answer the business question Who is responsible for our assets?.
Responsibilities are based on preconfigured role types. Your company may also configure custom role types via the Portfolio Admin user profile. Depending on the role type, a specified user and/or a specified organization may fulfill the responsibility for the project. A user assigned responsibility via a role has read-only permissions to the project. To change data about the project, they must also be specified as an authorized user or member of a n authorized user group.
Roles can be assigned to a project in the Projects data workbench or the project content area via Overview > Responsibilities.
Each role column represents the responsibility that a user or organization has for the project. A person can have one of the following roles or a custom role added by your company:
- Architect: A person who is responsible for the governance of the assets targeted by the project.
- Project Manager: A person who is responsible for planning, organizing, managing, and executing projects from beginning to end including the project's budget, resources, and scheduling.
- Staffing Manager: A person who is responsible to allocate and balance the human resources required for the project.
- Stakeholder: A person who has an interest in the project and therefore requires read-only access permissions.
An organization can have one of the following roles or a custom role added by your company:
- Business Owner: An organization that owns the assets targeted by the project and is responsible for managing the functional requirements.
- Stakeholder: An organization that has an interest in the project and therefore requires read-only access permissions.
- Click a column cell to open a selector to define the role for the project. Depending on the role column, the selector may have a section for both Person and Organization.
- Expand the relevant section and select the person or organization to assign their role to the project.
The license package Strategic Portfolio Management is required to work with work packages and tasks.
A project can have multiple work packages made up of tasks that describe the work that needs to be done to realize a project. The work packages and tasks are added to the Work Breakdown Structure view in the project's content area, where you can track the skills and resources that are needed for the project.
- Go to the project's content area Overview > Work Packages.
- Click the
plus sign button > Create Work Package. Specify the basic attributes including the start and end date of the work package in the editor and click OK. - Click the navigate button to open the content area of the work package. Go to the Overview > Tasks to break the work package down in manageable tasks that can be distributed to responsible users.
- Click the navigate button to open the content area of the task. Specify the dependencies and document the project's milestones to capture relevant details about the tasks.
The license package Strategic Portfolio Management is required to work with skills and resources.
The Work Breakdown Structure view allows you to carry out high-level planning of skills and resources required to realize a project. You can assess the alignment of the overall project schedule with the scheduling of the work packages and tasks and make necessary modifications to the project plan. Refine and project plan and define additional work packages. Capture skill requests and resource requests necessary to realize the project.
Go to the project's content area Overview > Work Breakdown Structure. Here's how to interpret the information in the view:
- The timeline covers the project's planned start date to the planned end date. The vertical blue line shows the current date.
- The view shows the time schedule of the selected project
, its work packages 
, and their defined tasks 
. The colored bars show the start and end dates of the project, work packages, and tasks. - Skill requests
and resource requests 
are displayed below the respective projects, work packages, and tasks. The colored bars show that start and end dates of the skill and resource requests.
Request a skill for the project. Request a skill required to work on a project, work package, or task in the view . Click the project , work package , or task that you want to request a skill for and click > Create Skill Request. Specify the skill and time period when the skill is needed in the editor and click OK. The skill request is added as below the project, work package, or task requesting the skill.
Copy skill requests from a project to its work package. Click the work package that you want to add the skill requests to and click > Inherit Skill Requests. Select the skill request and click OK. The skill request defined for the parent project are added to the work package.
Move skill requests from a parent project to a work package. Click the work package that you want to move skill requests to and click > Move Relevant Skill Requests from Parent Project. Select the skill request and click OK. The skill request defined for the parent project is removed from the parent project and moved to the work package.
Request an organization as a resource for the project. Request an organization as a resource that is required to work on a project, work package, or task in the view . Click the project , work package , or task that you want to request a resource for and click > Request Resources. Specify the organization to provide the resource and time period when the resource is needed in the editor and click OK. is added below the project, work package, or task requesting the resource. You can also inherit the resource requests from a project to its work package ( > Inherit Resource Requests ) or move the resource request from the parent project to a work package ( > Move Relevant Resource Requests from Parent Project).
Create a work package or task. To create a work package, click the parent project and click Create Subordinate or click a work package and click Create Subordinate to create a task.
Change the start and end dates of a project, work package or task. Click the project , work package , or task whose dates you want to change and click Shift Start/End Dates. In the Method to Shift Dates field, specify whether dates should be shifted by a specific amount of time (for example, 3 months) or changed to a specific date. Define the fields relevant for the selected method. Set the Shift Milestone Dates checkbox if the defined project milestones should automatically shift based on the defined change. Click OK.
The assets that are impacted by a project make up the architectural scope of the project. You can specify any application, business capability, business process, component, information flow, or organization that is impacted by the project.
Users responsible for the assets in the project's architecture scope will see the projects that have an impact on their asset. To view all of the projects that an asset is impacted by, go to the asset's content area > Investment Context > Investment Overview.
To view all projects and understand their impact on all affected architecture elements, go to the Projects data workbench > Visualize > Project Analysis > Affected Architecture.
To understand all projects that impact a specific application, business capability, business process, component, information flow, or organization, go to the asset's content area > Investment Context > Investment Overview.
- Go to the project's content area > Architecture Scope > Affected Architecture.
- Select the cell below a class header to add an asset to the architectural scope of the project and click New > Add Existing Architecture Element.
Information flows specified for applications that have been added to the project's architecture scope will not be automatically added to the project. You must explicitly add the relevant information flows to the project in the Affected Architecture Scope view.
- Select one or more assets and click OK.
- To document the planned changes to one or more architecture elements assigned to the project's scope, click the
3-dots button > 
Edit. Provide a comment about the change and set the Change Category to describe the how the asset will be changed by the project: - New: The asset will be introduced in the scope of the project.
- Updating: The asset will be significantly updated in the scope of the project.
- Changing: The asset will be changed to some degree in the scope of the project.
- Retiring: The asset will be retired in the scope of the project.
The recommendation for an application should be considered when you plan the application architecture of the project. Consider whether the value set for the Change Category attribute of the application in the Affected Architecture Scope view aligns with the Recommendation attribute defined for the application.