Setting Project Properties

To get great reporting out of Fluid - there needs to be quality project meta-data! 

Setting the project's core attributes is a crucial step that shapes the project's structure, informs its management strategy, and aligns it with your operational objectives. The Project Settings area is designed to capture the various project attributes. Once set, these properties usually remain consistent throughout the project's lifecycle.

To edit the project's settings, click on the Edit Details button on the project workspace.

Only Project Managers, Project Editors and Project Administrators are able to edit the projects settings.

Use the navigation links in the left hand panel to easily navigate to the different sections of the settings page.

Below is a description of the different fields per section.

KEY DETAILS

• Title: The name of the project. This will be included in ALL the reporting so make sure it is accurate and descriptive.
• Code: All your risks, issues and schedule items are given unique identifiers in Fluid. This field allows you to specify the prefix you want applied to the unique identifiers for the project.
• Portfolio: The portfolio the project belongs to. Portfolios are a collection of projects and programs that are managed as a group to achieve strategic business objectives. 
• SubPortfolio: The specific SubPortfolio to which the project belongs. SubPortfolios allow further grouping of projects within the portfolio's for more granular reporting. 
• Business Driver: The primary business driver influencing this project's objectives.
• Tier: Tiering allows you to set business rules around the importance and complexity of projects. Typically Tier 1 is the most complex/most important/most expensive (whatever has been defined for your organisation) down to Tier 5 which is the least.
• Discretionary Vs Non-discretionary: There will always be projects you have to do (non-discretionary) and projects you want to do (discretionary). When looking to trim a portfolio or look for cost savings - generally only discretionary projects would be assessed.
• Show Promoted Items on Parent Dashboards: If the project is linked to a 'parent' project you can specify here whether the promoted items you create on the project should be reported up to the parent.
• Cost Centre: Identifies the department or unit responsible for the project's costs, used for budget tracking and financial management.

PROJECT ADMINISTRATION

• Project Type: Defines the general nature or classification of the project, providing a high-level understanding of its scope and focus.
• Project Category: Categorises the project based on its alignment with specific business functions, operational areas, or strategic goals.
• Funding Source: Identifies the origin of the project's financial resources, crucial for financial planning and tracking.
• Methodology: Specifies the project management approach or framework being used, which shapes the project's execution phases and deliverables.
• External Reference: A field for integrating unique identifiers from external systems, aiding in cross-system data consistency and tracking.
• Alternate Reference: Allows for an additional, project-specific unique identifier, distinct from the external reference, for enhanced internal tracking and referencing.
• Status: Indicates the current operational stage of the project within its lifecycle, essential for monitoring progress and guiding resource allocation and management strategies..

This section of the settings can be locked so that only Fluid Project Administrators can edit them.

COMMUNITY

• Primary PM: The main PM on the project. There can be more than one defined. PMs' have WRITE access to update and maintain all content on the project.
• Owner: The person who is accountable for the project’s success and overall outcomes. Owners have READ access to the project information.
• Business Owner: The individual accountable for the project's alignment with business goals and strategic success. Business Owners have READ access to the project information.
• Executive: The executive-level stakeholder or sponsor overseeing the project . Executives have READ access to the project information.
• Editors: People (besides the PM) who need to have full WRITE access to update and maintain all content on the project.

Note: We recommend designating only one Primary Project Manager to ensure clarity of responsibility. If additional team members need to manage and edit the project, we suggest assigning them as editors.

PROJECT DATES

All the key milestone dates for the project. The 3 main dates are:

• Start Date: The date the project is starting.
• Implementation Date: The scheduled date for implementing the project's outcomes or changes.
• End Date: The planned completion or closure date of the project.

If you have set up a project methodology, the phases for this methodology will be listed too. Depending on your instance configuration, the phase dates can be specified as specific dates or as month and year values. Phase dates are particularly important if you are tracking project capitalisation. You can learn more about capitalisation here.

PROGRAMS

Projects can be part of an overall program (Primary Program) and/or can be linked to a Reporting Program. You can find out more on the difference between Primary and Reporting Programs here.

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

The Financial Management section is only visible to users who have been set as Financials Administrators.

If the instance has been configured for capitalisation, then the three following fields will be displayed:

• Is Eligible to Capitalise Costs: Set this switch to Yes if the project is capitalisable.
• Capitalisation Profile: Use this field to select which capitalisation profile applies to this project.
• Amortisation Period: The amortisation period value.

You can learn more about capitalisation here.

If the instance has been configured to allow actuals to be generated from forecast, then the following field will be shown:

• Generate Actuals from Forecast: Set the value to yes if you want the project actuals should be automatically created from the forecast values.

PROJECT DETAILS

At the bottom of the settings page are free text fields to capture the detailed description of the project, the requirements and the proposed solution. You can also see who created the project and who last modified it.

PROJECT PROPERTIES

Any 'custom properties' that have been configured by your Fluid Administrator for your instance will be surfaced in separate section of project settings called Project Properties. 

Custom properties are a great way to include additional meta-data fields on projects if they are not catered for under the standard fields.

Additional Functionality

You can find the following functionality under the Tools menu on the left hand side navigation bar:

• Copy Financials & Community to another project: Allows for the copy of financial and community allocation forecast data to another, ensuring consistency and saving time in setup.
• Go to Workspace: Directs you to the project's Workspace, the central hub for project activities and information.
• Archive: Archive the project, removing it from active view while retaining their data for audit purposes. You can learn more about archiving projects here.