Availability
Overview
You can have one workflow (PM Lite and PSA Team license plans) or an unlimited number of workflows (PM Team and Enterprise; PSA Enterprise) which you can apply to your projects as needed. One of the workflows you have created can be marked as default – this one will be used by default for every new project you or your coworkers create. You can also duplicate workflows, as a time saver, especially if you have a workflow you would like to use as a template.
In this article
Warning
To access and manage Workflows, you must have the "Manage workflows" global permission enabled in your access level.
Warning
Portfolio statuses are set on the Portfolios screen (Statuses tab). See Portfolios.
Definition and typical workflow
The workflows feature allows you to manage the all three types of statuses (treat-as-completed, treat-as-hold, treat-as-inactive and treat-as-completed) for your projects and activities (setting task, issue and request statuses separately). The "workflow" means that the statuses mark various stages of your work process (workflow), such as the setting the process off, having it in progress, putting it on hold, and completing it. There may be other stages in between, depending on the actual workflow in your organization.
Typical Birdview workflow is as follows:
- Create a list of statuses of their respective types you are going to use and assign them to various stages used in your company's workflow.
- Set default statuses assigned to newly created items (project, task, issue, or request).
- Set default statuses for completed items (project, task, issue, or request).
- As new work processes emerge, add new statuses to the list.
- Assign your projects, tasks, etc. appropriate status to mark their state and position within your company's workflow.
Adding workflows
To add a new workflow, follow these steps:
Go to Company settings > Workflows.
Click + Add workflow.
As the workflow editor opens, give a new workflow name.
Add or edit statuses for projects, tasks, issues, and requests according to your needs.
Setting default statuses
To set a default status, follow these steps:
Hover over a blank cell for the Project, Task, Issue or Request column until a to-be-made-default-status icon appears
.
Click it.
Select new or completed project/activity default status.
Within a workflow, you can manage all three types of statuses (Treat as open, Treat as hold, Treat as inactive and Treat as completed) for your projects and activities (setting task, issue, and request statuses separately).
Types of statuses
There are three types of statuses available in a workflow. These are summarized in the table:
| Type of status | Description |
|---|---|
| Treat as open | Statuses of this type are used for work items in progress. |
| Treat as hold | Statuses of this type are used for pending items. Activities with this status are not used in resource loading calculations. |
| Treat as inactive | Statuses of this type are excluded from cost totals. They keep history but have no effect on projects. Trouble indicators are not displayed for activities of this type. |
| Treat as completed | Statuses of this type mean that everything in this work item is done. If you cannot ?nd an item with a treat-as-completed status, enable Show Completed Projects or Show Completed Activities in My Options (user's menu). |
Treat-as-inactive special rules
The Treat as inactive type stands out as it uses special rules for parent activity and project dates when date rollup is enabled, dependencies, etc. The rules are presented in the table:
| What is affected | Precondition | Effects |
|---|---|---|
| Parent activity and project dates | Dates rollup is enabled | Dates of projects and parents are calculated based on active children activities only. |
| Dependencies | n/a |
Dependencies remain in place, but inactive activities are excluded from the scheduling logic, as follows:
|
| Totals | n/a |
EXCLUDED from calculated totals on parent, project, portfolio level are:
NOT EXCLUDED:
|
| EAC metrics | n/a |
Only actual metrics are included in EAC metrics, namely:
|
| Trouble indicators | n/a |
Trouble indicators are not displayed for treat-as-inactive activities in Activity center |
Default workflow
At least one of the workflows is the default. Such a workflow is marked with the tag Default. To change the default workflow, you need to mark another one as default.
Hover over the row of the workflow you want to mark as default.
Click Mark as default.
Deleting workflows
You cannot delete a workflow that is either default or used in at least one of the existing projects.
- Hover over the row of the workflow you want to delete.
- Click Delete.
- Confirm deletion (this action cannot be undone).
Applying workflows to projects
To apply a workflow to a project:
Open the project's details.
Click the project workflow field.
Select a workflow on the list of available workflows.
Editing statuses
To edit a workflow and its statuses, follow these steps:
Go to Company settings > Workflows.
Click on a workflow name to open its details.
-
On the workflow editor screen, edit the workflow and the statuses for projects, tasks, issues, and requests:
make a status available for projects and each type of activities,
drag-n-drop statuses to change their order,
rename the workflow name and the names of its statuses,
change "treat as" option for statuses, select from three available values: open, hold or completed,
assign colors to statuses,
set default statuses for new and completed activities of each type, and for projects,
delete statuses.