How do I set up and plan a new project?

 

Learning the basics

If you are new to TeamHeadquarters, you should first familiarize yourself with TeamHeadquarters projects, how to identify them, and how to create them.

 

Where to create your new project?

Determine the proper location of the project within your TeamHeadquarters database.  There is typically a standardized location/approach specified in your Usage Policy.

 

Inviting people to work on the project

As soon as your project has been created, you are prompted to invite yourself and others to the project roster.  There are some key things to know about membership in a project roster:

 

Financial Information

Your project contains folders for Budgets, Costs, and Benefits.  These entries are used in project and portfolio reporting, making it possible to contrast multiple projects using consistent metrics for both planned and actual results.  Consider these points:

 

Task Structures and Resource Planning

Assuming that your organization's project management methodology and standards are documented, the mechanics and concepts of task entry are straight forward.  You can enter and assign the tasks one at a time, or use the import feature for multiple tasks.  Consider these points:

There are many different task structuring approaches supported by TeamHeadquarters.  If you are unsure about the proper approach for your situation, consider the discussion starting with "How do different organizations use TeamHeadquarters".

 

The Project Queue

All projects contain a specialized ticket queue, which shares the project roster to control costing and access to the queue.  The queue can be used in a number of different ways as a project tool, such as:  

From the opposite perspective, a traditional support function can be enhanced by operating the ticket queue within a project.  This provides benefits over the traditional 'stand-alone' queue:

When planning a project, the method of work assignment and tracking will dictate how the queue is used.  The queue edit function is used to configure settings for the various categorization options by identifying available selections from the master table.

 

Document Libraries

Projects contain document libraries, which provide version management and sharing capabilities for project-related documents.  When setting up the project, consider the need for pre-defined library folders.  If there will be a large number of published documents, then it makes sense to have sub-folders for such things as Planning, Designs, Testing, etc.