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Publishing Manager

 

Introduction

vPlanner provides workflow options for Premium and Team Manager to Publish activities or designate them as Work In Progress (WIP).  Using the Publishing Manager, complex plans can be organized so that the most certain parts of the plan are released to the full team, while other WIP parts of the plan (even if connected to published parts) will not be included in weekly workplans and LRM calculations.  This allows teams working in vPlanner to focus on their immediate most certain future, while they plan their work for the long term at the required level of detail.  When planning is complete, those unpublished parts can be published.  Activities will either be Work In Progress (WIP) or Published and the Publishing Manager can be used to switch between the two modes.
 

Definitions

Published Activities: are activities that are available and visible by default to all users.  Published activities will load by default at start-up time, can be included in weekly workplans, and by default are included in calculations.  Default user permissions settings apply to all published activities. 
 
Work in Progress (WIP) Activities: are activities that the Site Administrator or a Team Manager identifies as such using the Publishing Manager.  WIP activities by default will not be included when the plan is opened, will not by default participate in LRM calculations, and cannot be included in weekly workplans.  Users can choose to view unpublished activities via an option in the Open Plan dialog.
 

Workflow Considerations

You will need to pay attention to the fact that when certain parts of the plan are identified as WIP, you do not create islands of Published activities with no downstream milestones.  The purpose of this tool is to allow you to set short term priorities for the team while the planning team continues to create stable long-term plans.  As a general rule, you should never leave any Published activities open ended.
 
Interface: When activities are WIP, they will be displayed with a dimmed color based on the original color.  You can use the Publishing Manager to control how this dimmed color is calculated at run time.
 

Calculating WIP Activities 

WIP activities by default will only be included in Forecast Calculations.  The Publishing Manager dialog includes options to allow WIP activities to be included temporarily in the LRM calculations.  When doing so, the Commitment Management options of vPlanner will be disabled.
 

Impact on Commitment Management

 
Commitment management tools are only available when the option to include unpublished activities from the plan is disabled.  This is important so that the final calculated dates are only based on Published activities.
 
Publishing Manager
1

Published Tasks  Summary

1. Published Tasks Summary
This section will provide a summary of all the published tasks.
2

Manage Published  Tasks

2. Manage Published Tasks
Click the Select button select published tasks. Click Publish to set the status of the selected tasks as Published.
3

Work In Progress  WIP Summary

3. Work In Progress WIP Summary
This section will provide a summary of WIP tasks.  Note that you will need to open the plan with the WIP option checked in the Open Plan Dialog
4

Manage WIP Tasks

4. Manage WIP Tasks
Click Show to isolate the WIP tasks.  Click Select to select the WIP tasks you wish to Publish. Click Set as WIP to unpublish the selection.  Note that vPlanner will not allow you to publish tasks in the middle of a workstream.  It will select all possible successors of your selection and set those to WIP.
5

WIP Color Intensity

5. WIP Color Intensity
Use the slider to control the intensity color of the WIP tasks.
6

Calculations

6. Calculations
If this is checked, you can temporarily include the WIP tasks in LRM calculations (i.e. backwards pass).  You will not be able to manage work plan tasks while this option is checked.