Set up work plan templates
A work plan template consists of an ordered hierarchy of tasks. Work plan templates are used to create repeatable processes to be used as a model and basis for numerous projects. They speed up the process of drafting a work plan for project managers.
This section describes how to create and manage a work plan template.
Create a work plan template
You can create a work plan template from scratch or from an existing one.
To create a work plan template from scratch:
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Click the Administration button in the masthead.
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From the Administration menu, click Project Types & Templates > Manage Work Plan Templates
- On the Manage Work Plan Templates page, click Create Work Plan Template.
- Give the template a name, select its owners and whether or not to enable the template.
- Click Create.
To create a work plan template from an existing one:
- Prerequisite: you must have the Edit Work Plan Templates access grant and be able to edit the target work plan.
- Open the project work plan in the Schedule view.
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In the toolbar, click Actions > Convert Work Plan to Template.
Note: In order to successfully convert a work plan to a template, you must be the only user editing the work plan. If other users are editing the work plan, a message will appear stating that the "Project is being edited by another user" and the conversion stops.
- Give the template a name, select its owners and whether the work plan notifications are included in the template.
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Click Convert.
What information is dropped and copied in the work plan to template conversion?-
Data that work plan templates do not carry is dropped. This includes:
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External predecessors
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Schedule dates
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Constraints
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Effort and cost actuals
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Task status
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Resource assignments and summary task owners
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References
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Notes
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User data
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Scheduled effort is copied as follows:
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For automatically-calculated tasks, scheduled effort is recalculated.
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For manually-input tasks, total task effort is retained in the Unassigned Effort field.
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Everything else is copied into the work plan template.
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Configure access to a work plan template
You can control who has the ability to use or edit a work plan template.
To configure access to a work plan template:
- Open the work plan template from Manage Work Plan Templates page.
- Click Configure Access.
- Select who can edit the template or use the template to create work plans.
Edit work plan template
You can do the following to edit a work plan template:
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Add tasks.
Same as adding tasks for a work plan. For details, see Add tasks
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Edit task information.
Same as editing task information for a work plan. For details, see Edit task details
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Mark a task in a work plan template as required.
A required task cannot be renamed or removed from a work plan created using the template.
To mark a task as required, select the Require this task on work plans created from this template checkbox on the Task Details page.
Note: Some fields in work plan template tasks do not exist or cannot be updated.