APM Concepts & Terms

A glossary and description of key aspects of the system and terminology used.

In this document

Projects & Programs

Projects are the primary organizing vehicle in APM and provide a flexible stage-gate approach for managing key program management processes.

Projects are created from Templates for efficiency and consistency and comprise Phases, with entry/exit gates. Phases comprise Tasks and/or Milestones which are the “unit of work” in a project. and which create Outputs (the result of the Task). Multiple Projects can be associated to a Program and may have the same or different workflows (if created from different Templates).

Projects have Teams of Users - the same User may be a member of several Teams with different permissions on a per-Project basis. Users can be managed individually or via Roles.

Several Dashboards provide program and/or project visibility and status tracking, with flexible view management, personalization and user-context views.

A wide variety of documents, including part/CAD data can be associated - securely - to a Project or Program. Parts or assemblies, are version-managed by the APM Catalog which can also include translated CAD files. Non-CAD program files are version-managed and collated within APM Folders. APM is version-aware to maintain data integrity and to identify or propagate the impact of a change of a CAD or file object to “downstream” activities or users.

Within APM, users have immediate visualization capability for any related part/assembly (CAD items) using built-in web-based 3D visualization. A more powerful desktop visualization tool is also included. CAD files for parts or assemblies are managed by the APM Catalog, which provides features for CAD conversions and ensuring that related visualization files are up to date.

Users can download/check-out Folder or Catalog items for desktop interaction and check-in/upload updated versions.

Permissions control user visibility and the actions they can perform on Tasks or Projects and their visibility and access to Folders & Catalog items.

Dashboards

Several management Dashboards are provided, each of which provide interactive tailoring or personalization options

• All Programs Dashboard (Home)

  • Provides searchable, hi-level visibility to Projects in the system by the Programs (Program Number) they are associated to, their overall Status (Active, Archived etc), level of Completion and a selectable array of related properties, such as associated vehicle, customer etc.

  • Note: By default, this view shows project grouped by Program. Users can remove the Program grouping or use the Quick Nav feature to directly access a specific Project.

• Program Dashboard

  • An RYG color-coded progress and status dashboard for a program and its associated projects which highlights level of completion, upcoming milestones and milestones achievement status

  • Flexible viewing options allow for different groupings to provide a flexible level of detail

• Project Dashboard/Project Home

  • Provides alternate detail views of a project via selectable tabs. An Assignee-selector applies across the relevant tabs to highlight Tasks assigned to that user

    • Overview tab: A progress color-coded Task status view of the Phases and Tasks/Milestones for immediate visibility to overdue items or those needing attention, or Tasks applying to specific users (“My Tasks”)

    • Workflow tab: A Phase-separated table view of the Tasks in each Phase with Status, Assignee and key Dates. Task details can be inspected/edited from here.

    • Timing tab: A flexible Gantt-like view of the project with Phase expansion and timeline “zoom” options. Project dates an be adjusted here, for example to apply delays or accelerations to downstream Project dates

    • Spinfire Web tab: Provides web-based 3D visualization of the part or assembly associated to this Project

Navigation & Breadcrumbs

Users typically use the Dashboards as their primary view and then navigate from them (drill-down) into their Project or Task details, as they do the context is shown in a clickable breadcrumb, so users can go “back” to higher level views. (This is preferred over use of the browser “Back” button, which can have inconsistent behavior across platforms. A Quick Nav feature allows direct access to a specific Program by name.

Folders

Program or Project data, other than APM Catalog items, are collated in Folders. Folders are where Task Outputs are placed along with any related supporting materials and work product. Folders can also be used to provide a “library” for standard documents or worksheets, such as should be used to create specific Outputs from, e.g. a cost estimating worksheet.

Folder Templates

New: Admins can define a preferred folder-structure (as a Folder Template) which defines the hierarchy and folder names so that a consistent structure/naming can be used across Projects and/or Programs. Team Members cannot change this structure (but they can extend it, by adding, renaming or removing sub-folders).

Workflow

Projects are configured from Template(s) which define the Workflow or Phase/Gate and Task structure of a Project. A summary view of the Workflow is included in the (clickable) left-side Navigation panel, with link-lines to highlight Dependencies. A detailed view of the Workflow is provided in the Project Home page (Workflow tab)

Workflow Templates

Admins can define (Project) Templates so that a consistent structure is followed for a set of projects, such as those in a specific program or related to a specific customer. Templates can include the Phases, Tasks, Task Outputs and their types, any Approvals required and the Dependencies for a project workflow. Tasks in a Template can have a Duration to define the (default) length of time that Task is expected to take to complete. In addition, the Roles, such as Project Manager, can be defined in the Template and used to define which Role(s) should Approve a Task Output..

Projects are created initially from a Template. Using Project Setup, Dates can then be applied to them. and the specific Team Members (users) assigned to the Roles, to specifically configure and launch the project, or to make further changes to it during its lifecycle.

Phases

Projects have a phase/gate structure. Phases are (auto-numbered) and nameable. A Project workflow can comprise multiple phases, which may overlap in time. Each Phase has an Entry and Exit Gate. Phase names cannot be changed one a Project is Active.

Entry/Exit Gates are automatically created and always exist in a Phase. Entry/Exit Gates provide link points for Task Dependencies, for example, so that certain Tasks in a Phase depend on the Entry Gate being Started, or so that the Phase Exit gate can only be completed when the outputs of various earlier Tasks are completed (Finished). See Dependencies

Tasks & Milestones

Tasks are the unit of work in a Project and define the activities for a Phase. A Task can be flagged as a Milestone, or checkpoint.

Task Name

Task names must be unique within a Phase in project Templates. Task names can be changed once a Project is Active.

Task Status & Legend

Dates

Tasks carry Target and Actual values for both Start and Finish dates. Tasks inherit a (default) Duration from the Template (if set in the Template), which can be overridden in the Project, via Project Setup.

Note

• The Actual Start for a Task can be back-dated (from today) to allow for in-process projects to be taken up in APM

• Actual Finish dates are set by APM when the last-remaining (latest) Output has been Finished, which would typically be the (last) Approval date). This means the Actual Finish Date of a Task can change (i.e. be updated) if for example, the Task was re-visited and its Outputs updated.

Late & Overdue

Task Target dates are used to determine if a Task is "behind" using the below terms:

Assignee

Each Task has an Assignee that is responsible for completing the Task. Tasks can be assigned to a specific named User. Re-assignment of a Task can be re-assigned by the Assignee or Users with applicable write access.

Outputs

Tasks can have “No Output” (Users can optionally provide a text note comment to them) or are required to have at least one specific Output. The type for an Output is defined in the Project Template.

Approvals

An Output may require Approval, which can be defined by the Template. By Default, no Approval is required (i.e. the system auto-Approves the Output on behalf of the Assignee). The Assignee (or write-access Users) can add or change Approvals.

Approvals can require one or many Approvers, which can be combinations of named Users and/or Team Roles. Unless otherwise specified, Approvers are other Team Members with write access. As individual users may change from time to time, it is preferable from Templates to define Approvals in terms of Team Roles vs specific users. See Templates.

Users can see which Tasks are pending Approval on the Project Home page or when viewing a specific Output. Users are notified (via email) when a Task Output is ready for them to Approve.

Note:

• A Task is Finished when all its Outputs have been populated and (each) Approved.

• When any Output requires an Approval, the Task will be shown as Pending Approval .

Dependencies and Requires Review

A Task may depend on the (outputs) of one or more earlier Tasks. For example, Task 3 in Phase 2 depends on the output of Task 2. Task Dependencies can exist across Phases, so Phase 5-Task 2 can depend on an Output of Phase 2-Task 6.

When a Task has a Dependency and its output(s) have been populated and the (depended on) item changes, this Task will be marked as Requiring Review (with an exclamation mark):

                                                               (Task Requires Review)

    (Milestone Requires Review) 

• For example: Task 15 has an output of the cost estimate for a fixture which obviously depends on the fixture design itself, which is an output of Task 7. If that fixture design Output (Task 7) is changed (versioned), then Task 15 which depends on it, will be marked as Requiring Review.

See: Task Workflow Example 

The worked example illustrates the workflow lifecycle of a Task (assigned to one person) and a subsequent Milestone (assigned to someone else) that depends on it.

APM Platform (Centro)

The APM solution is enabled by the APM Platform, which is built on Actify Centro. Key Platform functions, such as the Catalog, Admin and User management are accessed via the Centro sub-menu:

Catalog

The APM Catalog is a repository, version manager and coordinator of parts-defining CAD files and their “Derived Resources” for Parts and/or Assemblies, provided by the APM Platform (or Centro)

A Part in the Catalog (usually) has a defining CAD file and version. Derived Resources created by the system from this, such as Visualization files (ex ACT3D, SFW) or other (converted) CAD or interchange formats, as well as extracted physical properties and CAD attributes, are collated and versioned with it. Assemblies can exist in the Catalog by referencing other Catalog Parts so that common parts can be shared across Assemblies. Users can also associate/upload other files or documents to Catalog items.

Derived Resources can be re-generated/updated if or when the base file is versioned - the powerful Cascading Update feature will propagate such changes through Assemblies. Additional features for check-in/check-out or downloading, visualizing Catalog items and defining Assembly change comments provide a comprehensive Catalog capability for managing program Parts and Assemblies.

See Catalog documentation.