How Document Management affects performance

This section addresses how Document Management affects PPM performance.

The document management system in PPM affects the following functional areas:

• Attaching a document to a PPM entity (such as a request or package), either through user data fields, any document field on a request, the PPM Workbench, or through the References section available for some entities in the standard interface

• Viewing a document that is attached to a PPM entity

With PPM Center File System as the DMS, documents attached to PPM entities are uploaded and stored on the PPM Server file system; With PPM Center Database DMS, attached documents are uploaded to the PPM Center database; With PPM Center External Database DMS, attached documents are uploaded to the specified Oracle database on your network.

In the default configuration (with PPM Center Database DMS), the PPM Server and Oracle database are located on the same local network. This ensures that any communication between the PPM Server and PPM Center database receives fast, uninterrupted network access.

The overhead of storing and retrieving attached documents to and from the PPM Center database adds minimal overhead to client response time. The key factor that determines response time is the quality of the wide-area network (WAN) between the client machine and the PPM Server.