System Roles

Process Designer

Creating Microsoft Project Plans as Templates

Insert a process model into a blank Microsoft Project plan to create the initial version of an Microsoft Project template. You can modify the project plan to reflect only a part of the model, such as a single stage, and use multiple project plans across a project.

Attaching the Microsoft Project plan to the process model allows the template to be available in each project that uses this model, allowing the document owner to create an Microsoft Project plan for the project, or portion of a project as reflected in the plan.

A model can contain as many deliverables or activities with Microsoft Project plans as needed.

To create an Microsoft Project plan as a template:

Note:  The following procedure assumes you are familiar with basic Microsoft Project functionality, and that a process model exists, including all its stages, gates, deliverables, and activities.

  1. Open a new file in Microsoft Project.
  2. In the Microsoft Project ribbon, navigate to the Accolade menu and select Insert Model Icon Insert Model.
  3. In the Accolade Server URL field, select or enter the path to the Accolade server and click Go to connect to the server.

A list of active models displays in the Select Model list. To include inactive models in the list, select the Show inactive models option.

To search for a model by model name, enter the name in the Search for Model field and click Search.

  1. Select the model to add to the project plan and click OK.

All the stages, gates, deliverables, activities, and gate documents are added to the project plan.

  1. Modify the project plan, as necessary.

To tailor a template to reflect only part of the model, delete the stage and gate summary tasks and any subtask that you do not want to include. If you delete the summary task for a stage, the subtask deliverables and activities will not be recreated when the plan is refreshed. However, if you delete deliverables and activities, and the stage summary task remains in the plan, the deleted subtasks are recreated when the plan is refreshed.

For information about working on the template in Microsoft Project, refer to the online help in the Accolade menu in Microsoft Project or to Microsoft Project's own online Help.

  1. Save the file and add the project plan to the Template Library as a Project Plan template.
  2. In the model, select the Microsoft Project plan from the Template Library as the template for the appropriate deliverable or activity.

When you select the template, only the Microsoft Project plans uploaded to the Template Library that contain the model you are working in display for selection.

  1. Save the changes to the model.

Notes:   

  • When a model that contains Microsoft Project templates is deleted, the template is also deleted from the library.
  • The Accolade menu in the add-in uses the custom name defined for Accolade. See Replacing Accolade Terminology for more information on customizing terminology displayed in the application.
  • Accolade's integration with Microsoft Project is an optional Accolade component that you may not have access to. To implement this solution, contact Sopheon Customer Support.
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