Setting Up Project Templates

The Project Templates feature offers numerous advantages for organisations aiming to enhance their project management processes. Project templates consist of: 

• A default project schedule tailored for this specific type of project. 
• A predefined list of actions to correctly set up or run the project. 
• A list of impacts (risks, issues, etc.) associated with running this type of project. 
• A default resource allocation highlighting the roles and skillsets required for project success. 

Project templates eliminate the need to create projects from scratch, providing a predefined structure with schedules, risk logs, actions, and default resource allocations. This ensures consistency, saves time, and facilitates the adoption of methodologies like Agile. They not only improve project execution and risk management but also offer a solid starting point for new projects.

Benefits of Using Project Templates:

• Efficiency: Quickly start projects with a ready-made framework, saving valuable time for project managers.
• Consistency: Ensure all projects using the same methodology follow the same structure and standards, facilitating a uniform approach to project planning.
• Compliance: Maintain adherence to organisational processes and quality checks, integrating quality assurance checkpoints.
• Improved Execution: Enhance project execution through standardisation, ensuring all necessary steps and considerations are accounted for.
• Risk Management: Better manage risks and issues with a predefined list of impacts associated with each project type.
• Resource Allocation: Optimise resource allocation by clearly defining the roles and skillsets required for each project, contributing to the success of the project.

Fluid comes with a set of predefined templates but project administrators have the ability to either customise the existing templates or create new ones to fit their organisation's processes and governance.

This article will cover:

• How to access the project template page
• How administrators can create new templates 
• How to apply a template when creating a new project

NOTE: Only Project Administrators or Application Administrators can set up project templates from this page.

Accessing the Project Template page

• The Project Template definition page can be accessed from the Administration Console page. First select the Administration Console link from the Avatar menu.
  
  

• Then, navigate to the Project Settings section of the page and click on Project Templates to access the Project Templates page.
  
  

Creating and editing project templates

A project templates is linked to a project methodology. You can read more about setting project methodologies here. 

You can create as many templates as you need, whether they are for domain specific projects, change management projects, regulatory projects, etc. 

• To create a new template, start by selecting the Create button. 

• Once the dialog opens, fill in the template details.

• Title - the name of the template.
• Template Key - the reference key/name that identifies the template. 
• Description - a brief description of what the template is for. 
• Category - the name of the category that the template falls into. 
• Methodology - the project methodology the template is associated to. Note that the methodology will automatically be set to projects that use this template. 

Once the template is saved, you can customise the template and add a schedule, a list of impacts or actions, or a list of resources.

• To do so, select the edit option (edit pencil icon). 

You will then be presented with a dialog to set the default data. This data is set up using the project bulk edit functionality so that you can easily bulk edit the data from an existing project and save it as a new template.

You can find more about project bulk edit and the file formats here. Example of Bulk Edit files are also attached to this article. 

• Schedule - set up the default project plan tasks (phases, milestones, deliverables).
• Impacts - set up the default project impacts, risks and issues log.
• Actions - set up the default actions and decisions that kick off project activities.
• Resource Allocations - set up the default resource plan and define resource allocations. 

To ensure accurate scheduling, please use the provided template and make sure to have the StartDate column in the format '=(TODAY())+'  and the EndDate column in the format '=(StartDate())+' in your file before uploading.

Don't forget to click Save when you have finished uploading the data. Please note that you do not have to upload content for each category, you can set a template with only a default schedule for instance. 

Once saved, the template is ready to be used when creating a new project. 

Creating a project from a template

Project templates can be used at the time a project is created.

The New Project dialog gives you the option to select a project template. 

• Select Choose a Template to select a template from the list of predefined templates that have been set up on the instance.  

• Once selected, you'll be redirected to the project creation dialog. The project methodology will automatically be set based on the selected template.

Set the Start Date, End Date and Project Manager fields and click on Save. The project will be created with the template content pre-populated.