Project activities are fundamental components of the project plan, serving as the primary items against which the project work is planned and executed, resources are assigned and various objects like work orders, shop orders etc. are connected.
Once the project structure is established, activities related to the sub projects can be added to facilitate detailed planning and execution of the project. Additionally, a variety of options can be defined for each activity prior to its execution. As the project progresses, key performance indicators such as cost, revenue, reported hours, earned value and progress are continually reported back to the respective activity.
If the project is connected to a project planned netting group (PNG), the activity will be included in the connected PNG.
You can create new activities under the sub projects in your project plan. This is done using the Activity, Activities page or the Sub Project Scope and Schedule/Activities page. Tasks can be created for the activities to further define the work to be done.
When you enter a new activity, the Early Start date is automatically set to today’s date, but you can adjust it. You then have the option to specify either the Early Finish date or the number of workdays required for its completion. If you enter a value in the Total Workdays field, the system will apply the predefined hours per workday to convert this duration from days into minutes. This conversion is essential for both scheduling calculations and for manual entry of Early Start, Early Finish, and Total Workdays. The definition of hours per workday is set in the Project Definition page.
When work starts on the activity, such as when progress is reported, the Actual Start date is updated to match the Early Start date, unless the Actual Start date has already been set manually. If the activity has both Actual Start and Actual Finish dates, you cannot manually update the total work days.
Activity milestones can be added to the project plan to mark significant events in the project. When an activity starts and ends on the same date and time, it is automatically made into an activity milestone. Alternatively, the Activity Milestone indicator can be enabled on the activity. This will result in the activity automatically receiving the same early start and early finish date and time.
Various details can be specified for each project activity, here are some important considerations that could be made.
Each activity can have an assigned Activity Responsible person and a Financially Responsible person. These roles are crucial for accountability and financial management within the project.
You can use the Activity Classes tab to group/categorize activities. Activity classes are registered in Project Basic Data/Activity Classes page. For example, if the project has 50 activities that you wish to categorize according to the department that would be handling them, you can define an activity class called "Departments", and then enter the names of the departments (Finance, Procurement, Sales, etc.) as the values.
Selecting the appropriate Planned Cost Driver for the activity determines the source of the planned cost values for the activity. This ensures that the financial aspects of the project are accurately tracked and managed. The default method is Connected Objects, but there are several methods to select from;
Progress can be calculated in various ways and the progress method should be selected depending on the type of work to be done on the activity. Different activities within the same project can utilize different progress methods. The default method is Connected Objects, where all objects connected are used to estimate the progress.
The progress methods include:
Refer to the document "About Earned Value and Progress" for more information.
If IFS/Project Reporting is installed, the activity will contain extra information about the activity hours and valid report codes.
Project report codes are setup on the Project Setup Parameters page using the Add Valid Report Codes command.
Activity estimates can be entered to reflect the anticipated costs and revenues for each activity. These estimates can serve as the source for the activity’s planned cost, depending on the selected Planned Cost Driver. Alternatively, they can provide a preliminary rough estimation before obtaining a more detailed view from planned connected objects.
The project schedule outlines the sequence in which the activities of the project plan should be executed. This project schedule can be created manually or automatically using Project Scheduler.
Establishing a project schedule involves:
In manual scheduling: ES, EF, and total work days are manually defined for each activity. These can be adjusted in the Project Gantt page.
With automated scheduling calculation using the Project Scheduler, the project is scheduled based on activity information, constraints, and dependencies. This process involves updating the activity dates, identifying critical activities, and determining the planned finish date of the project.
Different types of objects can be connected to an activity. For example, Activity Tasks, Work Orders, Purchase Requisition Lines, Purchase Order Lines, Shop Orders, DOP Headers, Document Packages, and Time Report Sheets. Resources can be planned and employees can be allocated to activities. By using the Attachment section you can connect documents to the activity.
There are two types of connections: System connections and Manual connections. For further information on activity connections and a complete list of all objects that can be connected to an activity, refer to the document "About Activity Connections".
The objects connected will report cost, revenue, hours and progress information to the activity. The type of information reported depends on the connected object. For details refer the document "About Cost, Hours and Revenue Reported to Activity" and "About Earned Value and Progress".
Throughout its development, a project activity can have the following statuses:
Planned
When an activity is created, it is automatically set to Planned status. From here, the activity can be released or canceled via the corresponding menu option.
Released
When the activity is in the Planned status and the project is in the Approved status, the activity can be changed to Released via the Status command group. Releasing the activity is significant because it is only when the activity is in the Released status that it can be executed, and costs, revenues, hours, and progress can be reported.
From the Released status, the activity can be set to Planned, Completed, Closed or Canceled via the corresponding action commands. The activity cannot be canceled or re-planned if it has any connections registered. When the activity is released then it is possible to report hours on the activity. Some objects can only be connected if the activity is in Released status.
Completed
When the activity is in the Released status, it can be changed to Completed via the Complete action command in Status command group. When the activity is in Completed status it can be promoted to Closed or demoted to Released state by selecting the action commands Close or Reopen respectively. When the activity is completed it is not possible to add any new costs, revenues e.g. by reporting hours on the activity. Costs already confirmed can be completed, i.e. transactions related to hours reported can be transferred to Finance.
Closed
When the activity is in Released or Completed status, it can be changed to Closed via the Close action command in Status command group. When the activity is in Closed status it can be demoted to the Completed state by selecting the action command ReOpen. When the activity is closed it is not possible to create any financial transactions on the activity.
Note: It is possible to close activities without reaching 100 % progress.
Canceled
When the activity is in Planned or Released status, it can be changed to Canceled via the Cancel action command in Status command group.. The activity is then canceled. When in Released status, the activity can be canceled only if it has no registered connections. When the activity is in Canceled status, no further status changes can be done.
This tab presents all the activities for the selected sub project. It is intended to simplify access to data by presenting the data in a list from which you select the preferred activity.
This page contains a presentation of associated cost, revenue, hours related to the selected activity. You can also enter cost/revenue elements and their estimated values in the Estimates tab. Actual figures are updated by the objects connected to the activity.
Creating: You can create activities in the Sub Project Scope and Schedule/Activities tab and in the Activities page.
Modifying: Activities can be modified in the Sub Project Scope and Schedule/Activities tab, Activity Scope and Schedule page and in the Activities page.
Removing: You can remove an activity by using the delete option in the application or by using the Delete Activity action command. If you use the remove button, you must first remove all objects connected to it. For information on deleting connected objects, refer About Activity Connections.