Activity Definitions - General Information

PROJ_ACT_DESCR

Project Costing, Activity Definitions, General Information, General Information

Create an activity and assign it to a project. This page operates in deferred processing mode.

Note. If you use Program Management, you cannot access this page if no activities exist for the project, a change request is required to add activities to the project, and you are not the project manager.

Activity Definitions - Definition

PROJECT_ACTIVITY

Project Costing, Activity Definitions, General Information, Definition

Define an activity and enter work details.

Activity Definitions - Location

PROJ_ACT_LOCATION

Project Costing, Activity Definitions, General Information, Location

Assign the physical location of an activity.

Activity Definitions - Attachments

PROJ_ACT_DOC

Project Costing, Activity Definitions, General Information, Attachments

Attach, delete, and view activity-related files.

Activity Definitions - Quality

PROJECT_QUALITY

Project Costing, Activity Definitions, General Information, Quality

Rate and record quality of work for specific activities.

Activity Definitions - User Fields

PC_ACT_USER

Project Costing, Activity Definitions, General Information, User Fields

Include additional, user-defined activity information.

Activity Definitions - Rates

ACTIVITY_SERVICES

Project Costing, Activity Definitions, General Information, Rates

Enter and view billing and project costing rates that are associated with an activity.

Activity Definitions - Budget Alerts

PC_BUD_ACT_ALERTS

Project Costing, Activity Definitions, General Information, Budget Alerts

Define budget alert thresholds at the activity level.

Activity Definitions - Asset Integration Rules

PC_AM_RULE_ACT

Project Costing, Activity Definitions, General Information, Asset Integration Rules

Define integration with Asset Management at the activity level.

Start Date

Enter the activity start date. If the activity start date is earlier than the project start date, the project start date is adjusted accordingly.

If you use Program Management, you cannot enter a start date for a summary activity if the Activity Date Cascade Calculations for the project are set to Delay Calculations Until Save or Realtime Calculations.

Calculate

Select the method of calculating the activity schedule. This field appears only when you use Program Management and you select an Activity Date Cascade Calculations option of Delay Calculations Until Save or Realtime Calculations on the Program Management definition page for the project.

For detail activities, select Duration, End Date, or Start Date to specify which one of these three fields is calculated by the system based on the values that you enter for the other two fields. For example, select End Date for the system to calculate the activity end date based on the values that you enter for activity start date and duration. The default value is based on the Activity Calculation Method field on the Program Management definition page for the project.

For summary activities, the Calculate field value is Duration and is not editable.

Note. You can override the default calculation method on a detail activity; however, you should limit this practice to exceptions only. We recommend that detail activities use the same activity calculation method as the project.

Duration in Days

Enter the length of time needed to complete an activity. This field appears only if you use Program Management.

You cannot enter a duration for a summary activity if the Activity Date Cascade Calculations for the project are set to Delay Calculations Until Save or Realtime Calculations.

End Date

Enter the activity completion date. If the activity end date is after the project end date, the project end date is adjusted accordingly.

If you use Program Management, you cannot enter an end date for a summary activity if the Activity Date Cascade Calculations for the project are set to Delay Calculations Until Save or Realtime Calculations.

Deadline Date

Enter the deadline date for the activity. You can enter any date, regardless of the project and activity schedules. If the activity end date falls after the deadline, an alert indicator appears on the Project Activities page.

The date that you enter in this field also populates the Deadline field on the Project Activities page: More Dates tab. This field is for informational purposes only, and appears only if you use Program Management.

Constraint Type

Select a constraint type to indicate when an activity can start or end. This field appears only if you use Program Management.

See Using Schedule Dependencies and Constraints.

Constraint Date

Select a constraint date if required based on the constraint type for this activity.

The Constraint Date field appears only if you selected a constraint type that requires a constraint date, and only if you use Program Management.

Baseline Start Date and Baseline Finish Date

Enter the dates projected for a change in status. These fields do not appear for activities with a processing status of Template.

Early Start Date and Early Finish Date

Enter the earliest possible activity start and completion dates. These fields do not appear for activities with a processing status of Template.

Actual Start Date and Actual Finish Date

Enter the actual activity start and completion dates.

These fields do not appear for activities with a processing status of Template.

Late Start Date and Late Finish Date

Enter the latest possible activity start and completion dates. These fields do not appear for activities with a processing status of Template.

Charging Level

Displays the WBS level at which you want to track project budgets, forecasts, and costs. The system restricts charges to summary and detail activities that are in the specified level. This field appears if you use Program Management.

See Understanding Project Charging Levels.

WBS ID (work breakdown structure ID)

Displays the hierarchical order of the activity within the project’s WBS. This value is system-generated based on the placement of the activity in the WBS.

When you create a new activity from the Project Activity component, the system assigns a WBS ID that represents the last activity at level 1 of the WBS. You can move the activity on the WBS by using the Project Activities page.

Enforce Team

Designates who can charge time and expenses to the activity. This field is available only when the Decide at the Project Level option is selected for the business unit and the Project and Activity Team option is selected for the project. Options are:

No: All members of the project team are eligible to enter time and expenses against this activity for the period that they are on the project team.

Expenses and Exp and TL (Expenses and Time and Labor): Activity team membership is enforced in Expenses. Only activity team members can charge time in Expenses against this activity for the period that they are on the project team. However, Time and Labor 8.9 users can charge time to any activity on the project if they have security access to the project.

Time&Labor: All members of the project team are eligible to enter time and expenses against this activity for the period that they are on the project team.

You can select a value in the Enforce Team field if both of these conditions exist:

• The Enforce Team option is decided at the Project Level on the Project Costing Options page for the business unit.

• The Enforce Team option is Project and Activity Team on the Project Costing Definition page for the project.

Note. Time and Labor 8.9 does not enforce project activity team. If you select the Project and Activity Team option, and select the Exp and TL or Time&Labor product option, the system restricts Time and Labor users for projects to which they can charge time. However, Time and Labor users can charge time to any activity on a particular project if they have security access to the project.

New Milestone

Select to indicate that this activity as a milestone activity. You can view all project milestones on the Project Milestones page by navigating to Project Costing, Project Definitions, Project Milestones.

Allow Interest Calculation

Select to indicate that interest will be calculated for this activity when the PC Interest Application Engine process (PC_INTEREST) runs.

Enable Change Control

Select to enable change control for this activity. The system automatically generates the user name, change made, and date for the changes if you use Program Management.

See Controlling Project Changes.

Calculate

Displays the calculation method that determines when the system rolls up start and end dates on summary activities for the activity.

Hours per Day

Displays the number of hours that define a work day for this activity. The system uses this value to calculate the amount of time that a resource is available for the schedule.

Schedule Method

Select the method for calculating schedules. The scheduling method determines what element of a project schedule remains constant when one of the three scheduling variables (work, duration, or units) changes.

Project Calendar

Displays the calendar that is used for calculating schedules for the activity. The system uses this calendar to determine business holidays and nonwork days and factor them into the calculation of start dates, end dates, and durations.

Inherit from Program

Displays the ID of the program that determines the asset integration rules for the project and all of its activities. This value appears if you enter a program in the Inherit from Program field on the Project Definitions - Asset Integration Rules page. You cannot edit this value at the activity level.

See Setting Up and Using Express Capitalization.

Location Code

Select a location code that has already been defined in the system. The address for this code appears in the bottom half of the page and cannot be edited.

Add Location

Click to access the Location Definition page, where you can add or modify a location in the Location table (LOCATION_TBL). The location codes and addresses that you enter on the Activity Definitions - Location page are stored in the Project Activity Location table (PROJ_ACT_LOC).

See Setting Up Locations.

Contract Number

Click the link to access the contract General Information - General page (CA_HDR_PNL).

Billing

Click to access the Review Billing - Plans page (CA_BI_MGMT_INQ_PNL) to search for and view billing plans.

Revenue

Click to access the Review Revenue - Plans page (CA_AP_MANAGE1) to search for and view revenue plans.

Rate Selection

Displays one of these values if a contract is associated with the activity:

Contract Rate Set

Contract Rate Plan

Rate Plan

Rate Set

Click the link to access the Related Projects page (CA_DETAIL_PROJ) in Contracts.

Description

Click the link to access the rate set or rate plan.

Effective Date

Enter the effective date of the association of the rate set or rate plan to the activity. This field can be based on one of these options:

• The start date of the activity when you save a new activity that automatically inherits the project’s default rate selection.

• The date that you update the activity rate selection by using the Update Activities button on the Project Definitions - Rates page.

  See Defining Rate Sets and Plans.

• A date that you enter.

  The date that you enter must be later than the effective date of the active rate selection.

Status

Select Active or Inactive as the status that corresponds to the effective date of the association of the rate set or rate plan to the activity.

Rate Selection

Select a Rate Plan or Rate Set to attach to the activity. The default value is based on the project's rate selection.

Rate

Enter a rate set or rate plan for project costing. This field can be based on these options:

• A rate selection that you enter.

  Available values are based on rate sets and rate plans that are valid for the business unit and are active on the date that you enter in the Effective Date field.

• The project’s default rate selection at the time that you create a new activity.

  You can override the default rate selection at the activity level.

• The project’s default rate selection at the time that you update the activity by using the Update Activities button on the Project Definitions - Rates page.

You can link a rate set to an activity if there is no rate set or rate plan attached at the contract line.

You can link a rate plan to an activity in either of these conditions:

• No rate set or rate plan is attached at the contract line.

• A contract-specific rate set is attached at the contract line.

See Understanding the Relationship Between Contracts and Project Costing.

Activities do not inherit the project level default rate template if any of these situations occur:

• The rate selection is not active on the start date of the activity.

• The activity is created in Contracts.

• You create a summary activity by using the Project Activities page or the Load Projects and Activities Application Engine process (PC_INTF_GEN).

View/Add Rates

Click to access the Rate Sets component (PC_RATE) to view, add, or modify rate sets.

Project Activities

PC_PROJ_ACTIVITY

Project Costing, Activity Definitions, Project Activities, Project Activities

Add activities to a project and view all activities assigned to a project. This page operates in deferred processing mode.

Note. If you use Program Management, you cannot access this page if no activities exist for the project, a change request is required to add activities to the project, and you are not the project manager.

Activity Alerts

PGM_PRJ_ACTALT_SEC

Click the warning icon on the Project Activities page.

If you use Program Management, view alert messages for an activity in the Project Activities grid.

Project Activities - Gantt Chart

PC_GANTT_CHART

Project Costing, Activity Definitions, Project Activities, Gantt Chart

View project activity schedules in a WBS grid and Gantt chart format.

Click to indent the selected row by one WBS level.

This is a list of characteristics and restrictions for indenting rows:

• If you indent a summary activity, the system also indents all of the detail activities that belong to the summary activity.

• If you indent a row that is at the same level as the previous row, the previous row becomes a summary activity.

• Activity team members can be associated only with detail activities, not summary activities. Therefore you cannot change a detail activity to a summary activity if team members exist on the detail activity.

• You cannot indent the first row in the Project Activities grid.

• You cannot indent beyond WBS level 9.

• You cannot indent a row more than one level from its parent activity.

Click to outdent the selected row by one WBS level.

This is a list of restrictions and characteristics for outdenting rows:

• If you outdent a summary activity, the system also outdents all of the detail activities that belong to the summary activity.

• Outdenting a row moves the selected row up one level.

• You cannot outdent a row that is at WBS level 1.

• Outdenting a row with siblings causes the selected row to become the parent of its siblings.

  This cannot occur if the outdented row contained team members, because a summary row cannot contain team members.

Click to move the selected row one row higher in the grid. If you move a summary activity up in the grid, the system also moves the detail activities that belong to the summary activity.

The moved row inherits the lower (more indented) WBS level of the row above and below the moved row. For example, in the page illustrated above, if you move activity Install (WBS level 2) up one row, it is placed between activity Expenses (WBS level 2) and Phase II Implementation (WBS level 1). Therefore, the Install activity inherits WBS level 2.

Click to move the selected row one row lower in the grid. If you move a summary activity down in the grid, the system also moves the detail activities that belong to the summary activity.

The moved row inherits the lower WBS level of the row above and below the moved row. For example, in the page illustrated above, if you move activity Milestone 1 (WBS level 3) down one row, it is placed between activity Expenses (WBS level 2) and Phase III Implementation (WBS level 1). Therefore, the Milestone 1 activity inherits WBS level 2.

Click to cut the selected row from the grid. If you cut a summary activity, the system also cuts all of the detail activities that belong to the summary activity. After you cut a row, the next action in the grid should be to paste the row, or click the Undo Cut icon for the cut row to reappear in the location from which it was cut.

If your next action is anything other than to paste the row or undo the cut, a message appears stating that cut rows are still in the clipboard. Select an action to perform next:

• For pending projects, you can permanently delete the rows, paste them to another location in the WBS, or undo the cut action and reinsert the rows in the same location from which they were cut.

• For active projects, you can paste them to another location in the WBS, or undo the cut action and reinsert the rows in the same location from which they were cut.

If you use Program Management, you cannot permanently delete cut rows on this page if a change request is required to delete activities on the project, and you are not the project manager.

Click for the cut row to reappear in the location from which it was cut. This icon appears when you cut a row and disappears when you paste the row.

Click to copy the selected rows. If you copy a summary activity, the system also copies all of the detail activities that belong to the summary activity.

If you use Program Management, the Copy icon does not appear if a change request is required to add or delete activities on the project, and you are not the project manager.

Select a row and click the Paste icon to paste the most recent cut or copied rows below the selected row. This icon appears on the page when you cut or copy a row.

You can paste a copied row as many times as needed until you copy or cut another row. You can paste a cut row only once, after which the Paste icon disappears until you copy or cut another row.

The pasted row inherits the lower WBS level of the row above and below the pasted row in its new location.

On pasted rows that you copied, the default value of the activity ID is NEXTn, where n is the number of rows that you are inserting since the last save. At save time, the system assigns the next sequential activity ID number to all rows with an activity ID of NEXTn.

On pasted rows that you cut, the row retains the activity ID of the cut row.

Select a row and click the Delete icon to delete the selected row. This icon appears only for pending projects.

If you use Program Management, you cannot delete an activity that is a predecessor to another activity.

Note. To remove a predecessor-successor relationship, use the Gantt chart to identify the successor activity, navigate to the successor activity row on the Project Activities page, and access the Activity Predecessors page to remove the predecessor activity.

and Number Rows

Select a row, enter the number of rows that you want to add, and click the Add icon to add the blank rows below the selected row.

New rows that you add to the grid are inserted below the selected row. Rows following the new inserted rows are renumbered sequentially.

If you select a detail activity, the new rows are inserted at the same level as the selected detail row.

If you select a summary activity with detail rows that are expanded in the grid, the new rows are inserted as detail rows to the selected summary activity.

If you select a summary activity with detail rows that are collapsed in the grid, the system ignores the hidden subtasks and inserts the new rows at the same level as the selected summary row.

The default value of the activity ID on inserted rows is NEXTn, where n is the number of rows that you are inserting since the last save. At save time, all rows with an activity ID of NEXTn are assigned the next sequential activity ID number.

Click the Expand All icon to expose all summary and detail rows. You do not need to select rows when you use the Expand All icon.

Expand

Select the WBS level that you want to view in the Project Activities grid. Available options are:

All Subtasks: Select to display all levels of the WBS. This is the default value.

Level 1 through Level 9: Select to collapse all summary activities at the selected level and lower (more indented). For example, if you select Level 3, only rows in Levels 1, 2, and 3 are visible in the grid. If you select Level 1, all rows are collapsed and only the first level is visible. You can then individually expand summary activities by clicking on the plus sign next to the activity name in the grid.

You do not need to select individual rows when you use the Expand drop-down list box.

Select check box

Select to perform an action on a row, such as to indent, outdent, cut, copy, or move the row. Each time you select a new row, the previously selected row is cleared.

Indicates one of these conditions for the activity if you use Program Management:

• The activity is assigned one of these inflexible constraints:

  • Must End On

  • Must Start On

  • End No Later Than

  • Start No Later Than

• The activity is assigned one of these flexible constraints:

  • End No Earlier Than

  • Start No Earlier Than

  • As Soon as Possible

  • As Late as Possible

Move the mouse pointer across the icon to view alternate text about the nature of the condition.

This icon appears only if you use Program Management.

Indicates one of these conditions for the activity if you use Program Management:

• The activity is scheduled to complete later than its deadline date.

• The activity is not scheduled within its constraints.

  This condition occurs if you clear the project-level option to Always Honor Constraint Dates, and schedule activity dates that fall outside the constraint date.

Move the mouse pointer across the icon to view alternate text about the nature of the condition. If more than one condition exists, click the icon to access the Activity Alerts page to view the alert messages.

This icon appears only if you use Program Management.

WBS ID (work breakdown structure ID)

Displays the WBS level where the activity resides.

Activity Name

Enter a unique description of the activity.

Click the Create Predecessors icon to access the Activity Predecessors page to add predecessors. This icon appears only if you use Program Management and no predecessor exists for the activity.

Click the Review Predecessors icon to access the Activity Predecessors page to view, modify, or delete predecessors. This icon appears only if you use Program Management and one or more predecessors exist for the activity.

Activity

Displays the activity ID for existing activities. When you add rows to the grid, this field is available for you to enter a new activity ID, or accept the default value for the system to assign the activity ID.

Duration (Days)

Enter or view the activity duration in days. The duration calculation is based on the option that you select in the Calculate field for this row. If you choose a Calculate value of Duration, the system calculates the Duration (Days) value anytime that you change the Start Date or End Date and the scheduling Calculate method on the Activity Definitions - Definition page is not Manual.

This field appears only if you use Program Management.

Start Date and End Date

Enter the start and end dates for the activity. The default value for the Start Date is based on the project start. The end date is determined by the start date plus a default duration of one day. You can override the default dates. If you enter activity dates that are outside of the project date range, the system updates the corresponding project dates.

If you use Project Costing without Program Management, you must manually enter activity start and end dates or accept the default start and end dates. The system does not calculate the scheduling dates, and the detail activity start and end dates do not roll up to the summary activity dates.

If you use Program Management, you can select an Activity Date Cascade Calculations option on the Program Management options page for the project that enables automatic calculation of activity dates. For example, if you select an Activity Date Cascade Calculations option of Realtime Calculations or Delay Calculations Until Save:

• The system updates an activity's Start Date, End Date, and Duration field values immediately when you update one of those fields.

• The Start Date, End Date, and Duration field values cannot be edited on summary activity rows.

• For calculations that are delayed until save time, the system updates and displays summary activity schedules, based on changes to the detail activity schedules, at save time or each time that you click the Recalculate Schedule button.

• For realtime calculations, each time that you change a detail activity schedule, the system calculates and displays the updated summary activity schedule.

  Important! Always use Delay Calculations Until Save as the Activity Date Cascade Calculations option for large projects, such as those with greater than 100 activities. For optimal performance, the Realtime Calculations option is not recommended for large work breakdown structures.

• Schedule changes are committed to the database when you save the page.

If you use Program Management and you select an Activity Date Cascade Calculations option of Manual:

• The Start Date, End Date, and Duration field values are open for editing on all rows.

• Detail activity dates do not roll up to the summary activity dates. Detail activity dates are independent of the summary activity dates.

See Establishing Program Management Business Unit Options.

Calculate

Select the method of calculating the activity schedule. This field appears only when you use Program Management and you select an Activity Date Cascade Calculations option of Delay Calculations Until Save or Realtime Calculations on the Program Management definition page for the project.

Select Duration, End Date, or Start Date, to specify which one of these three fields is calculated by the system based on the values that you enter for the other two fields. For example, select End Date for the system to calculate the activity end date based on the values that you enter for activity start date and duration.

The default value is based on the Activity Calculation Method on the Program Management definition page for the project.

Note. You can override the default calculation method on an activity; however, you should limit this practice to exceptions only. We recommend that the activity use the same Activity Calculation Method as the project.

Percent Complete

Indicates the percent of the activity that is complete based on calculation parameters selected in the Calculation Method field on the Project Costing Definitions page. If the calculation method is Manual, you can edit the Percent Complete field. Other calculation methods—Amount, Duration, and Units—automatically determine the percent complete value, making this field not editable.

Click the Activity Definition icon to access the Activity Definitions - General Information page, where you can view specific information about the activity.

Click the Drill to Resources by Activity icon to access the Activity Definitions - Team page if you use Project Costing without Program Management.

If you use Program Management, click this icon to access the Resources by Activity page.

Click the Project Transaction List icon to view transactions for the corresponding activity on the Transaction List page.

Click to access the Issue page to view, add, or modify issues for the activity. This icon appears only if you use Program Management.

Click to access the Deliverables Summary page to view, add, or modify deliverables for the activity. This icon appears only if you use Program Management.

Deadline

Enter the deadline date for the activity. The date that you enter in this field also populates the Deadline Date field on the Activity Definitions - General Information page.

This field is for informational purposes only and appears only if you use Program Management.

Constraint Type

Displays the value that you entered in the Constraint Type field on the Activity Definitions - General Information page. This field appears only if you use Program Management.

Constraint Date

Displays the value that you entered in the Constraint Date field on the Activity Definitions - General Information page. This field appears only if you use Program Management.

Activity Type

Enter or modify the activity type.

Cascade Owner

Select to populate the Activity Owner field on child activities of this summary activity with the activity owner of the summary.

Activity Owner

Select an activity owner from the list of project team members.

Activity Status

Displays the current activity status. Click the link to transfer to the Activity Definitions - Status page to view or update activity status.

Processing Status

Select an activity status. Select Active to make the activity available for selection from prompt lists within feeder systems to charge transactions.

Milestone

Select to indicate that this activity is a milestone.

Allow Interest Calculation

Select to include this activity in interest calculations.

Activity Definitions - Status

PROJECT_ACT_STATUS

• Project Costing, Activity Definitions, Status, Status

• Project Costing, Activity Definitions, Project Activities

  Click the Activity Status link on the Details tab of the Project Activities page.

View detailed information about the life of the project. This page operates in deferred processing mode.

Sequence

The system increments the sequence number, which tracks incremental changes in status. By using a sequence number in combination with the status effective date, multiple status changes can occur on the same day.

Status

Select the activity status that corresponds to the status effective date. Available options are based on the values that you enter on the Status Types page during implementation.

See Defining Status Types.