Project Portfolio Suite

Note: This article applies to Fuji and earlier releases. For more current information, see Project Portfolio Suite at http://docs.servicenow.com The ServiceNow Wiki is no longer being updated. Visit http://docs.servicenow.com for the latest product documentation.

Overview

Project Portfolio Suite (PPS) provides a simplified, team-oriented approach to Project Portfolio Management and IT development by combining several individual applications. Project Portfolio Suite is available starting with the Fuji release.

Project Portfolio Suite (PPS) includes the following applications:

• Demand Management: an application used for gathering and assessing ideas and promoting accepted ideas to strategic and operational demands.
• Project Management: a suite of tools used to manage projects, task, and resources.
• Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC): an application used for managing the software development and release process.
• Test Management: an application that provides tools for manual software testing.
• Resource Management: an application that enables resource requesters to create resource plans and request resources.

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Process Overview

Applications and Features

Project Portfolio Suite provides seamless integration among the applications that make up the suite and introduces several new features that enable these applications to work together.

Applications	Major Features
Demand Management	Ideation: Users can create and submit ideas. Demand managers can evaluate ideas, make any necessary modifications, and promote ideas to demands. Demand Workbench: Demand managers can use this interactive page for assessing and adjusting demands from the Demands list or a bubble chart that indicates combinations of demand risk, value, and size. Demand Roadmap: Displays demands by state and groups them by portfolio on an interactive timeline.
Project Management	Project Workbench: Project managers and project team members can use the project workbench to manage all aspects of a project from a single page. This collaborative work area allows teams to manage projects using an interactive project timeline that displays top-level phases and milestones as well as a detail area that displays project task information either in list view or on a visual task board. Project templates: Project managers can use project templates to create, save, and reuse project structure, including project tasks with sub-tasks, attachments, and other project information. Project task relationships and dependencies: Create child tasks that are nested under a parent task and successor tasks that are dependent on the completion of a predecessor task. Gantt charts: Use this visual representation of a project timeline to view task start and end dates and task dependencies, add and delete tasks, change task dates and dependencies, and assess the progress of the overall project. CIO Roadmap: Displays projects and groups them by portfolio on an interactive timeline.
Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)	Integration with PPS: Integrates components of project portfolio management (PPM) with SDLC (Scrum Process) to enable a project management approach that combines the Waterfall and Agile methodologies. This integration allows project managers to manage the project backlog; add phases, stories, and tasks to the project workbench; and assign teams to projects. Stories: Provide a description of a requirement that is easy to understand by developers and other team members and acceptance criteria that is measurable and testable. Sprints: Create sprints with release information, story points, and dates; add and rank stories; add team members and assign scrum roles. Sprint planning: Use the planning board to create the sprint backlog; create, edit, and delete stories; add scrum tasks; and manage team capacity. Progress boards: Use story and task progress boards to update and track the progress of stories and tasks in a sprint cycle. Scrum charts: Velocity charts can help determine how many points worth of work can be completed per sprint for a given team. Burn down charts compare expected progress against actual progress for releases or sprints.
Test Management	Integration with PPS: The project manager can create a test phase in the project workbench, assign a test plan, and create or update test cases and tests. As testing progresses, test data is recorded in the project phase. Test manager tasks: The test manager can create test plans and test cases, set up guided test execution using Assessments, monitor the testing process and evaluate test results, and complete test plan sign-off. Tester tasks: Testers can perform tests and record results, report defects and blocking issues, and update test and test case status.
Resource Management	Resource plans: Use resource plans to request resources, assign resources to tasks, track effort, and track costs. Allocating resources: View resource availability and select the resources that can be assigned to specific tasks. Resource console: Gives resource managers a comprehensive view of resources, resource availability, and all resource plans. Resource schedules: Use these schedules to set the days and hours of the typical workweek.

Create and Manage Waterfall Projects

The following tables, arranged by task group, list the tasks involved in creating a Waterfall project.

Create a New Project

Task	How Do I Do This?
Create a new project	Navigate to Project > Projects > Create New. Navigate to Project > Projects > Workbench and click New Project.

Open an Existing Project

Task	How Do I Do This?
Open a project in the project workbench	Click the Project Workbench related link on the Project form. Navigate to Project > Projects > Workbench and select the project from the Select Projects choice list in the workbench header.

Add Phases to a Project from the Project Workbench

Task	How Do I Do This?
Create a Waterfall phase for a project	Click the Add phase () icon and select Waterfall from the Phase Type choice list.
Create a Test phase for a project	Click the Add phase () icon and select Test from the Phase Type choice list.

Add Details to a Project Phase from the Project Workbench

Task	How Do I Do This?
View phase details in list view or VTB	Click the List or VTB button in the project workbench header.
Create a task for a Waterfall phase	Click the phase in the timeline and then click New in the detail view header.

Add Milestones to a Project from the Project Workbench

Task	How Do I Do This?
Add milestones to a project	Click the Add phase () icon and then click Milestone at the top of the Add Phase pop-up window.

Set up Manual Testing

Task	How Do I Do This?
Creating a Test Plan	Navigate to Test Management > Test Execution > Test Plans > New.
Add test cases to a test plan	Click the Add Test Cases from Test Suite related link on the Test Plan form.
Create a test phase	Click the Add Phase button on the project workbench.
Add a test plan to a test phase	Click the Edit Phase icon for the test phase and enter the name of the Test Plan.
Assign test cases to testers	Select a user in the Assigned to field on the Test Case form.
Notify testers to start testing	Click the Notify testers to start testing related link on the Test Plan form.
Tester performs tests and submits results	Navigate to Self-Service > My Tests or Self-Service > My Assessments.
Monitor the testing progress	The Test Plans list, Test Plan form, and Test Case form all display results for test cases and individual tests.
Testing sign-off	Click the Sign-off Test Plan related link on Test Plan form.

Create and Manage Agile Projects

The following tables, arranged by task group, list the tasks involved in creating an Agile project.

Set up a Development Team

Task	How do I do this?
Create the development team	Navigate to Project > Agile > Teams and click New.
Add team members	Navigate to the Team members related list on the Team form and click New.
Assign the team capacity	Navigate to Project > Agile > Teams, select the desired team, and enter a number in the Points field.

Create Sprints

Task	How do I do this?
Create sprints	Use the Create Sprints related link on the Team form to create multiple sprints or use the Sprints related list to create individual sprints.
View the newly created sprints	Use the Sprints related list on the Team form.

Create a New Project

Task	How Do I Do This?
Create a new project	Navigate to Project > Projects > Create New. Navigate to Project > Projects > Workbench and click New Project.

Open an Existing Project

Task	How Do I Do This?
Open a project in the project workbench	Click the Project Workbench related link on the Project form. Navigate to Project > Projects > Workbench and select the project from the Select Projects choice list in the workbench header.

Add Phases to a Project from the Project Workbench

Task	How Do I Do This?
Create a Waterfall phase for a project	Click the Add phase () icon and select Waterfall from the Phase Type choice list.
Create an Agile phase for a project	Click the Add phase () icon and select Agile from the Phase Type choice list.
Create a Test phase for a project	Click the Add phase () icon and select Test from the Phase Type choice list.

Add Details to a Project Phase from the Project Workbench

Task	How Do I Do This?
View phase details in list view or VTB	Click the List or VTB button in the project workbench header.
Create a task for a Waterfall phase	Click the phase in the timeline and then click New in the detail view header.
Assign a team to an Agile phase	Edit the Agile phase and select a team in the Team field.
Select sprints for an Agile phase	Edit the Agile phase, ensure a team has been assigned, and select a Start Sprint and End Sprint.
Create new stories for an Agile phase	Click the Agile phase in the project workbench and click New in the detail view header.
Groom stories for one project	Click the Manage Stories button to open the Manage Stories dialog box.
Groom stories across multiple projects	Click the Manage Stories related link on Team form.
Assign a team to an Agile phase	Click the Agile phase edit icon and select the team from the Team choice list.

Add Milestones to a Project from the Project Workbench

Task	How Do I Do This?
Add milestones to a project	Click the Add phase () icon and then click Milestone at the top of the Add Phase pop-up window.

Plan Sprints

Task	How Do I Do This?
Start sprint planning	Select the Plan Sprints related link on the Team form.
Add stories to the sprint	Select the Plan Sprints related link on the Team form and click New in the Sprints related list.

Set up Manual Testing

Task	How Do I Do This?
Creating a Test Plan	Navigate to Test Management > Test Execution > Test Plans > New.
Add test cases to a test plan	Click the Add Test Cases from Test Suite related link on the Test Plan form.
Create a test phase	Click the Add Phase button on the project workbench.
Add a test plan to a test phase	Click the Edit Phase icon for the test phase and enter the name of the Test Plan.
Assign test cases to testers	Select a user in the Assigned to field on the Test Case form.
Notify testers to start testing	Click the Notify testers to start testing related link on the Test Plan form.
Tester performs tests and submits results	Navigate to Self-Service > My Tests or Self-Service > My Assessments.
Monitor the testing progress	The Test Plans list, Test Plan form, and Test Case form all display results for test cases and individual tests.
Testing sign-off	Click the Sign-off Test Plan related link on Test Plan form.

User Roles

The project manager (project_manager) role for Project Portfolio Suite includes all of the manager roles for the applications included in the suite:

• Demand manager (demand_manager)
• Scrum admin (scrum_admin)
• Release admin (rm_product_admin)
• Test admin (rm_test_admin)
• Sprint admin (rm_sprint_admin)
• Story admin (rm_story_admin)
• Test manager (tm_test_manager)
• Resource manager (resource_manager)
• Timeline manager (timeline_manager)

The project manager role does not automatically include these roles if the applications in the suite are activated individually.

Activating the Plugin

Administrators can activate the Project Portfolio Suite plugin. This plugin activates the plugins for the following applications and provides seamless integration between the different application features and functionality:

• Demand Management
• Project Management
• Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)
• Test Management
• Resource Management

Each of these applications can be activated and used independently. Click on the application links for more information about activating the independent application plugins.

Click the plus to expand instructions for activating a plugin.

If you have the admin role, use the following steps to activate the plugin. Navigate to System Definition > Plugins. Right-click the plugin name on the list and select Activate/Upgrade. If the plugin depends on other plugins, these plugins are listed along with their activation status. {{#if: | {{{1}}} }} [Optional] If available, select the Load demo data check box. Some plugins include demo data—sample records that are designed to illustrate plugin features for common use cases. Loading demo data is a good policy when you first activate the plugin on a development or test instance. You can load demo data after the plugin is activated by repeating this process and selecting the check box. Click Activate.

Note: If you have a large number of tasks, activating the plugin can take a significant amount of time.