Prior to starting the project, the planning team creates the Master Deliverable List (MDL) and primary schedule for Master Deliverable List (MDL). MDL contains whole list of deliverables related to this Project. This is carried out using WRENCH. The schedule is finalized after approval by the project team and then the client. When the project schedule is finalised and it is ready to start the work the tasks in the MDL is scheduled. Approve Schedule option is used to schedule the MDL or WBS. 

On clicking the Approve Schedule option, all the unscheduled tasks in the WBS are scheduled and baselined. If there are WIP and scheduled tasks in the WBS they are unaffected by this operation.

The following message is displayed.

1. Click OK to continue.

Task status is changed to Scheduled.

NOTE: You need to have Edit WBS permission to carry out this operation.

After all the tasks in the WBS is completed, the WBS can be completed using this option. Once the WBS is completed, no new tasks can be added to the WBS nor can the task schedules be edited. If there are any incomplete tasks in the WBS, a warming message is displayed.

To complete the WBS

1. In the WBS Operations menu click Complete WBS.

A warning message "Once completed, changes cannot be made to this WBS" is displayed.

2. Click OK to continue.

  The WBS status changes to COMPLETED and a message "The WBS is now completed" is displayed.

NOTE: Only users with Edit WBS and Edit Project rights can carry out this operation.

Completed WBS can be re-opened using this facility. Once a WBS is re-opened, different WBS operations can be carried out on the WBS. 

Baseline-WBS is the process of preserving a “snapshot” of the current plan so that changes can be made to it without losing the current state. Such “Snapshots” can later be viewed and compared to assess the efficiency of project planning.

Once you baseline the WBS:

1. All Work In Progress tasks are returned to Unscheduled status. Schedules can be modified for these tasks. After this operation worflow assigned to tasks are not affected.
2. All scheduled tasks return to Unscheduled status.
3. All completed tasks are unaffected. If changes are to be made to individual completed tasks, revise it separately.
4. The current list of tasks with its properties are retained for future reference.

To baseline a WBS

1. In the WBS operations menu click Create Baseline.

 Remarks  box is displayed. 

2. Here enter remarks for creating baseline and click OK to continue.
3. Once the WBS is baselined, issue number is incremented by 1.

When the WBS is baselined old baseline details are maintained by the system. A list of such old baseline details will be available in the Baseline History. The history of baselines the WBS has undergone is displayed here. In the baseline history window the following fields are displayed.

Figure: WBS Baseline History

The baseline history can be exported to MS Excel. In the Baselione History window click Expot to Excel to export the baseline history.

This option is used to update the percentage of progress of tasks in bulk, when the area weightage has been edited in the project or when the weightage/schedule details have been edited for tasks and the progress according to the changes needs to reflect in the WBS.

Progress of the summary task is updated automatically as the child tasks are updated.

On clicking this option Project Details page is displayed with the details on project of current WBS.

Email notifications are sent after different WBS operations for informing user about the action they have to take. Subject and content of these mails can be pre-defined. Notification mails can be configured for different Task or Rule related actions or events.

You can auto-start or auto-initiate all the tasks in WBS using this option.

To auto-start tasks in the WBS

1. In the WBS Operations menu click Auto Start.

Auto Initiation window is displayed.

Figure: Auto Initiation window

The following options are available in the window.

None: On selecting the radio button next to this option, any existing auto-start settings are cancelled.

On Forecast Date: On selecting the radio button next to this option, all tasks in WBS will be scheduled to start their workflows on the forecast date.

"__" days before Forecast Start Date: Use this option to set number of days before forecasted date on which task workflows has to be started automatically.

After selecting the options to start the tasks automatically, if the workflow fails to start on scheduled dates an alert mails is sent to the user who edited the task last and to the project manager with the details of the task that failed to start. 

When tasks are removed from a WBS, they are preserved for future reference. On clicking this option Deleted Tasks window is displayed. Tasks deleted from the WBS is displayed here.

Figure: Deleted tasks

An option to export the details of deleted tasks to MS Excel is available. All available task properties are exported to excel in a pre-defined format.

1. Click this option to delete entire tasks from the WBS. On clicking this option the following message is displayed.

Figure: Warning Message - Removing WBS

2. Click OK to continue with deleting of tasks.
3. Click Cancel to suspend the operation.

Micro Scheduling

Micro scheduling is the operation in which the schedules for each rule in rules of credits assigned to tasks can be computed automatically, based on formulae defined in the project. 

Legends

Different properties and statuses in the WBS is depicted by different colours. This helps in recognizing different WBS statuses, progress and other properties. On clicking the legends the following window is displayed.

Figure: Legends