1C:Enterprise 8. Management of Project Office

2017: 1C: Management of edition 3.1 of project office

Product "1C: Management of project office", to edition 3.1 it is intended for quality improvement and efficiency of acceptance of management decisions by heads of offices of project management, the development departments and other organizations using the concepts "project" and "project portfolio" of the work.

Main functionality of the program:

Control automation by information flows, knowledge and processes, a configuration provides management:

• projects, programs and project portfolios;
• key indicators and events;
• finance of projects (including budgeting);
• terms;
• project tasks, works and transactions;
• labor and material resources;
• knowledge;
• contract commitments with customers and contractors;
• documents (through integration into workflow systems);
• working time;
• risks (in the field of terms).

The Management of Project Office configuration is not independent, it is necessary to have the set 1C:Enterprise 8.3 platform of the version not lower than 8.3.3 for its work.

The software product is protected and contains the code fragments which are not subject to change by the user, has hardware protection against unauthorized use. At the same time the principle of the maximum openness of the code for a possibility of adaptation of a product under needs of end users is implemented.

2015: Functionality of a configuration

Management of project portfolios

A system allows to integrate projects in programs and portfolios, in one portfolio and/or one program of projects there can be projects at different stages of lifecycle. The project portfolio and the program of projects represent additional analytical cuts for all reports and analytical tools of a system in which in this or that quality projects appear.

At the level of a project portfolio a system allows to carry out:

• The analysis of basic feasibility of projects within the set resource restrictions of the enterprise. Identification of the resource conflicts between the executed projects approved to accomplishment and planned by projects. Analysis results are used for decision making in the course of long-term planning of activity of the enterprise.
• Analysis of control events of a project portfolio. Data of information on control events of different projects in one representation. Formation of the graphic card of project milestones. In case of the actual or potentially possible failure to meet time constraints calculation of the predicted financial sanctions is made. Analysis results are used for decision making in the course of operating and financial control of activity of the enterprise.
• The analysis of a current status and dynamics of change of key indicators of the projects entering a portfolio or the program. Values of key indicators can be entered manually by project managers, and can and automatically be calculated a system if initial data for calculation can be obtained in information base.

The mechanism of the configured representations implemented in a system which allows the head to obtain the necessary information with the minimum costs of time, "in three clicks".

Resource management of the enterprise

A system supports three options of managerial structure of the enterprise:

• Project management structure. Plans of projects, labor resources and execution of works project managers and project tasks manage.
• Functional structure of management. Heads of divisions and departments manage plans of projects, labor resources and execution of works.
• Array structure of management. Project managers manage plans of projects, heads of divisions manage labor resources and execution of works.

In a system the role structure of labor resources and two-level planning of project works are used: at a stage of preliminary work planning are planned on roles (specialties), then at a stage of operational planning job sharing between labor resources is made.

A system allows to normalize the cost of attraction of labor resources to execution of works, for one human resource and/or a role any quantity of discount rates can be kept in a system.

At the level of a pool of labor resources a system allows to make:

• Modeling of resource restrictions of the enterprise by input in the system of planned power for each of roles (specialties). Comparison of planned and practical capacity of roles of labor resources, identification of "bottlenecks".
• The analysis of the planned and actual loading of resources, identification of the "overloaded" and "underloaded" labor resources.

The concepts of "manager" and "the owner of resources" implemented in a system allow to personalize interaction with the system of those contractors who have no physical access to a system (work on objects, outsourcing, etc.).

Project management

The project plan – set of work breakdown structure, calendar terms, control events and data on the attracted labor, material and financial resources – can be entered into a system in several ways.

• Manual entry of the relevant documents through a control panel the project.
• Data loading of the project from the MS Project file.
• Data loading of the project from the template which is stored in a system.

Also the project plan can be entered into a system by a combined method: a part of data comes from a template, a part is loaded from the MS Project file, a part of data is entered and/or adjusted manually.

A system supports two methods of operational planning of project works:

• Using role structure of labor resources and array structure of management. In this case the "project" head manages the project plan, and the "functional" head manages execution of works. Purpose of labor resources to specific works is made taking into account the executed roles.
• Without use of role structure of labor resources and array structure of management. In this case the "project" head manages both the project plan, and execution of works. Purpose of labor resources to specific works is made without the executed roles.

Project lifecycle within a system consists of five stages:

• Initiation of the project. At this stage intention to execute the project is fixed and the project manager is appointed. The project appears in a system in the form of an object.
• Project planning. At this stage development of the preliminary plan of the project is made, the structure and terms of project works, required labor, material and financial resources are defined.
• Approval of the project. At this stage the analysis of basic feasibility of the project is made, the resource conflicts with other projects come to light, amendments are introduced and the baseline plan of the project affirms.
• Project implementation. At this stage job sharing between labor resources is made, monitoring and control of the performed works is made. On the basis of the actual data obtained from contractors regular updating of the project plan is made. Operational replanning is in case of need made. Also at this stage collection of data on actual costs of material and financial resources is made.
• Project Completion. At this stage the fact of cessation of work on the project is registered, the analysis of the achieved results, identification and variance analysis is made (on terms, cost, quality, etc.).

The key mechanism of a guidance loop projects is the mechanism of updating of the project: on the basis of data on the actual accomplishment (or accomplishment failure) project works of the bottom level of decomposition a system makes complete recalculation of calendar terms of all elements of the project. The updating of the project executed regularly allows the head to obtain reliable information about a status of works and to react quickly to the arising problems.

At the level of the project a system allows to make:

• Plan-fact analysis of project tasks of terms, duration, cost, costs of resources.
• The analysis of control events of the project, calculation of the predicted and actual financial sanctions.

Visual tools of a system allow the head to obtain project information in different representations: tabular representations, tree of data, Gantt charts, map of project milestones, network diagram.

Management of finance

A system allows to create, store and update plans of three project budgets: the expenditure budget on the project, the income budget on the project, the budget of cash flow (receipts and payments) for the project. Elements of budgets are stored by project tasks, budget items, partners and contracts (agreements with partners).

For the expenditure budget on the project function of automatic formation of elements of the budget is provided in a system. The expenditure budget forms on cost information, the labor, material and financial resources planned for attraction to accomplishment of a project task. Automatic formation is made on the basis of the scheme of distribution of the amount planned for attraction of this or that resource according to cost items. The scheme of distribution is configured by the user, and the situation when according to budget items of expenses not all planned amount but only some part is distributed is admissible.

Key feature of a guidance loop finance of the project is the implicit binding of elements of the budget to the calendar periods. When planning budgets the period is set in the form of a rule set, describing a budget element binding to time frames of a project task. At change of terms of a project task (including at accomplishment of updating of the project) a system makes automatic recalculation of financial plans.

In a system the mechanism of a versioning of financial plans of the project is implemented. At any moment the user can issue the current plan of any of budgets as the version of the plan of the budget. The number of the stored versions is not limited. The mechanism of a versioning allows to monitor changes in project budgets, to reveal deviations, to analyze their reasons and to timely adjust financial policy of the enterprise.

Data entry about actual receipts and payments and also about charge of the actual income and expenses can be made at any stage of project lifecycle, and even after project completion.

At the level of project budgets a system allows to make:

• The plan-fact analysis of the income budget, expenses and cash flows on the project by project tasks, budget items, partners, agreements and the calendar periods.
• Variance analysis between data of the current financial plan, any of versions of the financial plan and actual situation, identification of deviations.

Visual tools of a system allow the user to obtain data of project budgets, both in tabular representation, and in graphic (charts and diagrams). Within one screen form it is possible to receive the detailed and consolidating plan of any of budgets, comparison of income to expenses and receipts with payments, comparison of planned and actual data, etc.

Management of works

The methodology put in a system defines a number of the features increasing process performance of planning and control for project works. Namely:

• The specific work performed within the project by a human resource ("elementary transaction" in terms of a system), should be located at the most bottom level of structure of work breakdown.
• Elementary transaction can have one and only one contractor. If it is required to involve several contractors to performance of work, it is necessary or to break into work on a number of elementary transactions, or to integrate contractors in one human resource. The principle "one work – one contractor" is corner for a guidance loop works.

Lifecycle of project work consists of the following stages:

• Preliminary planning. At this stage in the project plan there is an elementary transaction, the contractor, duration, labor input and working costs is specified. The role of a human resource appears as the contractor at this stage.
• Operational planning. At this stage the contractor of work is defined, exact terms are defined. The human resource appears as the contractor at this stage.
• Acceptance to execution. At this stage the contractor obtains information on the task charged to him and confirms the participation in its accomplishment.
• Accomplishment. At this stage periodic input in the system of data on the working time spent for a task is made.
• Performance report. At this stage the contractor reports in performance of work, specifies the actual terms and the actual labor costs.
• End. At this stage the head confirms completion of work, in case of need adjusts the actual terms and labor costs.

Nonlinear passing of project work on stages is allowed: the task can be returned to the contractor on completion, the task can be complete with sign "not successfully" (in this case the new copy of a task is created and it is transferred to other contractor), etc.

The mechanism of eskalation of project works implemented in a system allows the contractor to inform to these manuals on expected delays of execution of works. These data are used by the updating mechanism – "bad news" have an impact on calendar terms of the project upon their registration in a system.

At the level of project works a system allows to make:

• Collecting and the subsequent data analysis about distribution of working time of contractors between project and off-project tasks and also data on unproductive costs (losses) of working time.
• The analysis of the accumulated statistical information on execution of works, the plan-fact analysis of duration, labor input and cost of execution of works, identification and the analysis of the arisen deviations.
• The analysis of the accumulated statistical information on escalation of project works, identification and the analysis of the reasons of failure of the delivered terms, the analysis of effects of such failures.

Visual tools of a system allow the user in a convenient form to obtain information on works in which he is either a contractor, or the head. In submission of the task list color and graphic keying is actively used, the task list output in the form of the Gantt chart is possible.

Knowledge management

A system allows to create and store templates of projects in information base. The template can represent as the finished project plan, and any of project plan fragments. The data structure of a template is almost completely identical to structure of the project: work breakdown structure, information on labor, material and financial resources, budgets. The main difference of a template from the project plan consists that in a template there are no calendar terms. In fact, the template of the project describes the technology used by the enterprise for accomplishment of standard projects.

In a system the possibility of data exchange between guidance loops projects and knowledge managements is implemented. Any project plan can be saved in the form of a template. Any of templates can be loaded into the project plan, at the same time the project plan can be replaced, and can be supplemented with data of a template – the project plan can be built from several templates. At accomplishment of any transactions of data exchange between guidance loops knowledge and project managements in information base communication between an element of a template and the project element corresponding to it remains.

At the level of a project template a system allows to make:

• The analysis of statistical information on use of the technologies accepted at the enterprise in real projects.
• Variance analysis (on duration, labor input, cost of project works), arising in standard projects. Analysis results are used for identification of "bottlenecks" and "best practices" and also used for decision making on improvement of technologies of project implementation.

Visual tools of a system allow the user to make modeling of any of templates without creation of any additional objects of information base and to receive the answer to a question, "what resources will be demanded by the project and in what terms it can be executed if to begin it during the specified period and messages on the technology described in a template".

Service functions

Configuration "1C: Management of project office" 1C is integrated with a management system for document flow ": Archive". For objects of some types (projects, project tasks, etc.) a system allows to create, store and modify links to the documents located in storage "1C: Archive". The main actions with documents "1C: Archive" (opening, capture on editing, record of the new version) are available directly from a system.

Also the configuration contains a number of the objects and service mechanisms borrowed from standard solutions and/or methodical materials of 1C Company. Namely:

• Mechanism of external printed forms. Practically for any object of information base it is possible to define external user printed forms, without affecting structure of metadata and a program code of a configuration.
• Universal console of reports. Allows to design and create any reports to information base without programming, by means of the visual designer.
• Mechanism of the universal report. It is used as the basic mechanism when forming all reports of a configuration, provides to the user the flexible system of settings (structure of groupings, fields and selections, conditional formatting, etc.). Provides uniformity of appearance, functionality and behavior of all reports of a system.
• Management of users of a system. Allows to manage the list of users without work in the Configurator mode.

Configuration "1C: Management of project office" can be integrated within uniform information base with any standard solution of 1C Company. Delivery of a distribution kit includes the technical instruction on integration of configurations created on the example of consolidation "1C: Management of project office" with the standard configuration "1C: Manufacturing Enterprise Management".

Hardware protection

The configuration is protected by hardware protection on technology of the Spiny dogfish company. If the key of hardware protection is absent or is for some reason disabled, some functions of a system will incorrectly work.

Some functional units of a configuration are closed for modification by the user. Namely:

• Module of calculation of calendar terms. The module contains algorithms of calculation of calendar terms for complex structure (taking into account hierarchy, communications, exceptions). Function is used in calculation of terms and updating of projects, in operational planning of works, etc.
• MS Project data reading module. The module contains functions of reading, analysis and verification of the MS Project files and also carryover functions of data from the MS Project files in information base.
• Module of formation of network diagrams. The module contains algorithms of formation of network diagrams on a hierarchical structure of elements (taking into account communications between them). Function is used for an output of the network diagram to a project panel.

All other functional units and objects of a configuration are available to modification and completions by partners of 1C Company and end users of a system.