User Guide for the Clarizen Basics

From Clarizen

Contents 1 Starting a New Project 2 Planning your Project 2.1 The Roadmap 2.2 The Work Plan 2.2.1 What’s a Milestone? 2.2.2 Sub Projects 2.2.3 Shortcuts 2.3 Building Your Project 2.3.1 Hierarchy 2.3.2 Dependencies 2.3.3 Duration 2.3.4 Resources 2.3.5 Activation 3 Updating Tasks 3.1 In Dashboard 3.2 In Emails 3.3 In Work Items 3.4 In Time Tracking 4 Uploading Documents 5 Notes and Posts 6 Expense Sheets

Starting a New Project

Creating a new project in Clarizen is quick and easy

1. Click on Start and select the "Create new project" option

1. You can now either choose to create a new project from scratch or select a template project that has either been created by your organization or by Clarizen.
2. Once you select the project, new or template, you will be required to fill in the project details
3. Enter the project name
   1. The description field is optional but will be useful when searching for projects through the Clarizen global Search or when selecting project templates
4. Draft or Active? In Clarizen you can easily change your project state from Draft to Active with a simple click. So don't worry if you select the incorrect state initially
   1. Draft mode means that your project is still in planning phases. If you want to plan out the project without alerting your resources to new tasks then choose draft.
   2. Active mode alerts your resources to new work items as soon as they are assigned. Use Active if your project is already running and you'd just like to make a thorough list in Clarizen
5. Select the Project Start Date or Due Date
   1. Working with a start date (ASAP) will allow you to plan your project top-down
   2. Setting your project with a due date (ALAP) will allow you to do bottom-up planning
6. The final step is to select a project manager. The default is set to the creator of the project; however, you can select any individual within your Organization. Once you select the project manager simply click finish and you will be automatically direct to the Current Project tab, where you can plan your new project.

Planning your Project

The Roadmap

The first thing you may notice in the Current Project window is the Roadmap. The Roadmap feature in Clarizen will allow you have a birds-eye view of your project (and any sub projects there within) and allow you to see the health and progress of each of your major goal points or deliverables (aka project milestones) on a timeline. The Roadmap is populated automatically once you add milestones to your project.

The Work Plan

The Work Plan or WBS Panel will allow you to access your current project(s) tree, where you can manage project items, hierarchy, timeline and the progress reporting of your work items. To add a new work item to your project simply click on the “Add Sub Milestone” drop down menu and select the relevant work item.

Just a few things about the work item options in Clarizen:

What’s a Milestone?

A milestone at Clarizen can either be used as a Gate or a Hammock. The difference between the two have to do with what you would like the milestone to represent.

• A Gateway milestone is basically a point of time in which the content of delivery is being moved from one phase to another. At this point the project will move from one phase to the next. Where completion is represented by either an approval or a rejection of the gateway.

• A Hammock milestone represented a major deliverable which is dependent on external dates for both its start and finish points. To create a hammock milestone simply add sub-tasks to your milestone. The milestone start, end and overall duration are then automatically set based on the sub tasks. In addition, the milestone progress is aggregated from the tasks within.

Sub Projects

There are probably loads of different types of project types running with in your organization. Some of them may be simplistic with just a few milestones and tasks while others may encompass several sub projects each of which represents a different point of your project.

Adding sub projects into your current project is simple and you can even choose to add an existing project. Sub project scheduling and financial information is of course aggregated up into your main project automatically. Finally, if you have sub projects within your current project you can easily view them all on the roadmap by clicking the “show all sub projects” button on the roadmap toolbar.

Shortcuts

The shortcut option allows you to select an existing work item from any other draft or active project running within your organization and have them available as a “read-only” view on your WBS. Shortcuts are a great way to reference external work items by allowing you to create inter-project dependencies or to allow for external impacting within your current project. You can add a shortcut to any level of your project and shortcut-ed milestones will even appear in your roadmap.

Another great usage for shortcuts is for the creation of project portfolios. When creating a project portfolio simply select the shortcut option from the dropdown, search for the relevant projects you’d like to link in and select them.

These projects will then be “read-only” views of the original work items that will also be seen in the project roadmap.

Building Your Project

Hierarchy

Setting up your project hierarchy is the first step to creating a project with in Clarizen. Decide on your milestones (major goal points/deliverables), determine what tasks need to be added to hammock milestones and decide on which gateway points you will be using for your workflow. There are many projects which may require subprojects or milestones with managers other than the project manager.

Changing the manager of a work item simply requires you to highlight the “Manager” column of a specific work item, erasing the current manager name and then simply typing in the new manager. Once you select a different manager for a given work item he/she will be able to plan their part of the project.

Dependencies

After setting up your project hierarchy the next step is to establish dependencies. Basically, what work items are predecessors or dependent upon others?

There are four kinds of dependencies with respect to ordering work items: Finish to Start (FS), Finish to Finish (FF), Start to Start (SS) and Start to Finish (SF). All four may be used with in your project to determine what your project work flow will be.

To create a dependency simply select two work items (projects, milestones, tasks, shortcuts) by highlighting the first clicking CTRL on your keyboard and then highlighting the second (or multiple) work item. Once you have the selected work items highlighted you can then click on the dependency icon on the toolbar (or alternatively CTRL+F2), which will then allow you to select your dependency type as well input any lag either positive or negative between the work items.

Duration

The Duration of a work item represents the time span between the start and the end date. At Clarizen you can choose to either work with a manually set start and due date or simply input the overall duration.

Using manually set Start and Due dates for a work item will not allow for automatic date settings based on dependencies, which is why it is recommended to work with overall duration. Placing a duration on a task will automatically set the start and due dates based off of the project start or due date as well as any dependent work items.

There is a difference between the overall “work” and the overall “duration” of a work item, and you can play with either or both of these options. It is recommended that if you switch to your “Scheduling” view in the WBS as to easily access the “work” feature of each individual work item. “Work” notifies us as to how much effort needs to be put into a work item during the established “duration”.

For example: a task may have a duration of 1 month, but during that 1 month, only 4 days of effort need to be completed in order to complete the task.

To input the duration and/or work for a given work item simply type in the number and then h for hours, d for days, w for weeks, m for months and cd, cw, cm for calendar days, weeks and months respectively.

Resources

Now that you have completed your overall plan for the project, it’s time for the most important part: Assigning Resources.

Resource assignment can be done in one of two ways in Clarizen. Your first option is to simply start typing in the resources name under the “item resources” column in the WBS and select the wanted resource from the drop down. Alternatively, you can click on “Resources and Reviewers” button on the right-hand toolbar and then click the “Add” button.

Selecting “Add” will open up the “Add Resources” window which will allow you to filter through resources based on their group, job title and/or skill set (all settings for these can be accessed through the user maintenance tab in the settings).

Once you filter through your resources, highlight the relevant ones and then click on the “resource load” button, which will open up the “resource load screen”. This floating screen will allow you to see which of your selected resources are over (shown in red) or under (in black) capacity and will also allow you to drill down into the specific work items that each resource is currently linked to.

Using the resource load screen you can decide which resources to add to the selected work item. To select a resource simply highlight the name in the “Add Resources” screen and click on the Add button in the middle.

Activation

With Clarizen, you have the ability to work with both Active and Draft work items in the same project.

In fact, there may be a few items within your project that are On Hold or even Cancelled.

To read more on lifecycle states make sure you read the Lifecycle States article.

To switch between a project's lifecycle states highlight the level of the project you’d like to change and click on the “Activate” drop down menu.

Once a project or part of the project is activated you can easily switch back to draft mode, cancel, mark as complete or even put it on hold.

The switch between planning and execution has never been easier and more effective.

Updating Tasks

There are several different ways to update your task progress as well as several methods, which method you choose strictly depends on what information you are trying to gather from your resources regarding work item progress.

Below we will go over how to update work item progress in each of the four methods.

In Dashboard

The Clarizen dashboard is the first screen you see when you login to the tool and it is the first place where you can start updating your task progress. The top pane of the Dashboard shows projects which are ongoing within the organization.

You can filter through the projects pane by selecting projects in a specific state as well as what type of role you have in the projects. The projects pane gives you information of the overall health of your projects and allows you to drill down into the projects by selecting them.

The bottom half of the Dashboard displays ongoing tasks, which again you can filter through by their state (in the works, active, draft, on hold or upcoming) as well as by your role (manager, resource or reviewer). Once you filter through your tasks you can then begin the updating process.

You may notice that both projects and tasks have a green/orange/red color coding next to them. These colors represent the overall health of your work item: “on track”/”at risk”/”off track” respectively.

To update your progress on a task simply select the task and type in your percent completion or your actual or remaining effort.

Once a progress update is made to a task Clarizen will automatically update that work item within the project itself.

In Emails

Clarizen gives you the ability to update your progress on tasks through emails, which means that your email only users can always update their progress even though they do not have access to the Clarizen tool.

Email updates are not limited to email only users; in fact, all users can update their progress when they are on the go.

To update through emails ensure that you have received a “Progress Update Request” email in your inbox. These emails are either sent automatically by the system (you can determine the days of the week these are sent in your system settings) or you can send these emails manually by right clicking on any level of your project in the Current Project tab and selecting the “Send Update Request” option.

Once you open the email you will see a list of tasks that you are assigned to as well as what you have so far reported on each task and what the system expects from you to this point. You will be given a few options of how you would like to update your progress.

Selecting the “My Progress is According to Plan” hyperlink will mean that your reported percent complete will be equal to the expected percent complete.

Selecting the “Quick Update” will open up a window, where you will be able to enter your “Actual % Completed” or alternatively enter your “Actual/Remaining Effort”.

In addition, when updating through emails you can insert a note which will then be linked to the task within the WBS. Once you’ve updated your progress simply click submit and Clarizen will be automatically updated.

In Work Items

The Work Items sub-tab is a place where you can see a flat list of all work items and manage the execution of your operation regardless of project hierarchy. For example, if you manage a team that works in multiple projects in parallel you can filter out all activities for the specific team and make changes or updates to the work items as needed.

Updating progress through the work items tab allows you to filter through specific projects, deadlines, statuses, etc., to quickly and easily find the items you need to work on.

Updating in the Work Items tab works in the same way as on the Dashboard; simply enter your % completion or you’re Actual/Remaining Effort and the work item will be updated within the project automatically.

In addition, the Work Items sub-tab is a great place to build on the fly reports to view the health, financial data, state and progress of work items.

In Time Tracking

The time tracking subsystem is used by organizations that are looking to track actual hours of work on individual work items. To report task progress via the time tracking subsystem simply click on the “Weekly timesheet to report” link on your Dashboard (in the “Today” window) or select the Time Tracking tab on the subsystem navigator.

Once in the time tracking subsystem you will see a list of all reportable work items which you can filter through; either to find a specific work item, project, or other such value. For each reportable work item you will see that you can enter the hours you worked on each individual day.

For overtime hours on a work item that also has regular hours, simply highlight the specified line and click the “duplicate line item” button on the toolbar. The work item will replicate and then you can enter the additional hours and mark them as overtime.

Once you have completed entering your hours for the given timeframe click on the “submit for approval” button on the toolbar, and the entered hours will be sent to your project manager or direct manager for approval.

Approval of time sheets can be done through the Time Tracking subsystem under the “Approvals” tab.

As soon as approval is made the hours will then be reflected in the related project and percentage complete will be shown on individual work items.

Uploading Documents

Clarizen does not limit you in the size or quantity of documents uploaded into any given work item. In fact, there are three ways to attach a document into a project, and two places in which you can do so.

To attach a document to a work item, either access the Work Items subsystem or go into the WBS of the given project.

In the Work Items subsystem select the “Basic View” or any other view you have created which includes the document column, and locate the work item that you’d like to attach a document to. Then simply mouse-over the document box and click on the “Add Document” link.

The same steps can be taken in the Current Project view of your project, or you can simply click on the document icon located on the toolbar.

Once you click to “Add Document” a new window will pop up which will ask you how you would like to add the document to the work item.

You can either select to Upload and store the file in the Clarizen servers (an option that can be eliminated through the system settings), you can keep a shortcut to an existing file if you are using a shared server within your organization or other such document sharing system, or you can keep a link to a web page or web document.

After selecting the document source, be sure to fill in the Name, Description and Document Type as these will help you locate the document using the Global Search.

Notes and Posts

Notes and Posts in Clarizen are just another way to input additional knowledge into your work items and are added in a similar fashion to the documents.

To add a new Note or Post through the Work Items subsystem simply mouse over the note or post column on the selected work item and click on the “Add..” link. In the Current Project screen either click on the link through the mouse over or click on the icon located on the toolbar.

A note is simply a note that you can link to any work item, either to give a brief explanation to the work item processes or to write a comment.

Posts work like an off line chat, which is always fully threaded and of course has a time and date stamp to let us know exactly when these conversations took place. When adding a new post, simply type in your comment, and when the work item resources, managers or reviewers log in to Clarizen, they will notice a “new post” has been added to a work item they are involved in, and they can then respond. Again, each response is time and date stamped and the entire thread of the conversation is saved.

You can view all the documents, notes and posts that were attached to a project in one quick view by clicking the “Collaboration View” in either the Current Project or Work Items tabs.

Expense Sheets

Expense reporting within Clarizen can happen in one of two ways. You can directly create an expense sheet through the Work Items or Current Project WBS by selecting the Project you would like to link the expenses to and then clicking on the finance icon on the right-hand toolbar which will open up the expenses info card. To create a new expense sheet just click on the “Add new Expense Sheet” link on the info card toolbar, this will then open the Expense subsystem.

Alternatively, you can create an expense sheet directly through the Expenses subsystem simply by selecting it in the subsystem toolbar and then clicking on the “Add new Expense Sheet” button on the toolbar.

Once a new expense sheet is opened fill in the required details which are shown with a red asterisks and any other details that are required by your organization. You can then start entering the lines for each expense.

When adding a new line to the expense sheet be sure to enter a description, what the expense category is (i.e. flights, materials, etc.), your date incurred and invoiced and then the local amount and exchange rate. The “amount” field will be calculated automatically based on the exchange rate. You can then select whether the line item is billable to the customer and whether or not you will be reimbursed. You can upload a receipt into the line item in the same way you would upload a document to a work item. Finally, under the work item column select the specific work item, if any, that this expense will be linked to.

Once you have completed filling in your line items, select the “Submit for Approval” button and your expenses will be submitted to the expense approver.

The expense approver will receive an email to alert them of a newly submitted expense sheet and they can approve expenses through the “Approvals” tab in the Expenses subsystem.

As soon as approval is made the expenses will be linked to the finances of the selected work item.