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P2ware Suite Project, programme and portfolio management software
HOW TO START WORKING WITH P2WARE PROJECT

MANAGER 7?

This document contains introduction to P2ware Project Manager 7 views (P2ware Project Manager 7
walkthrough) and shows how to create high quality plans and execute them (Creating Project Plan
and Controlling its Execution).

P2ware Project Manager 7 walkthrough ________________________________________ 2
Creating Project Plan and Controlling its Execution _______________________________ 9
Product-Based Planning Technique __________________________________________ 9
A Short Description of the Planning Process __________________________________ 14
Developing High Quality Plans with P2ware Project Manager 7 ___________________ 16
Controlling the Execution of the Plan _______________________________________ 17


P2WARE PROJECT MANAGER 7 WALKTHROUGH
INTRODUCTION
P2ware PM 7 program exploits the product-based technique which is one of the most effective
planning techniques in modern project management. Since this technique diverges from popular
activity- based planning, for users who dont know yet or havent used so far this technique we are
recommending to read this text while at the same time watching views of the example plan "Project
management training (simple). It is a plan of a project which goal was to organize training on project
management and conduct a relevant exam.
To start the walk:
open P2ware PM7
in the Open Plan window click Project management training (simple)
place this window with this walk description in a way enabling you to see screens of the
PM 7 and to read this guidance (the best would be to use two monitors).
If you would like to read a scenario for the project, click Yes to answer the question Do you want to
open this document? visible on screen. You can click No and read it later having learned more on the
PM 7.
In the top-left corner of screen there is a Views gallery with icons allowing for a quick access to a
relevant view available in the opened plan, just by clicking its icon.

You can walk through the application reading this guidance section by section or jumping to a
required view.

AVAILABLE VIEWS TABLE
Sample project was created using simple project template with limited set of views:
Icon View Icon View

Product Breakdown Structure

Resources

Product Flow Diagram

Resource Assignments

Products

Resource Load Chart

Activities

Risk Register

Gantt Chart

Cost Chart

Network Diagram

Reports

Having opened PM 7 you will see by default the Product Breakdown Structure view. Other views you
can open and read their description in an order as they are described below.
To learn more on these and other functionalities available in different versions of P2ware PM 7, see
the Help file, which can be opened by pressing F1 key or by clicking buttons.

PRODUCT BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
In the middle working are of this view you can see products needed to complete the project
presented as a hierarchical diagram called the Product Breakdown Structure (PBS). In the opened
plan the final product is: Project Management Training the product located at the top of the PBS
diagram shown in blue colour.
Below the final product are shown products which will be included in the final product or needed for
producing or delivering other products. To make easier to check, whether all needed products were
included in the plan, the products are grouped into groups shown as rhomboids in green colour.
While making your plan you can group products as you wish.
A product group can be broken down also into smaller product sub-groups. While creating the PBS
you dont have to pay attention to a sequence or time the products would be produced or
delivered. Such dependencies are shown in other view called the Product Flow Diagram (PFD).
In the left side window the product breakdown structure is presented in a form of dented list.
If you select a product on the PBS, by clicking the left mouse button, in the right working area you
will see a number of data fields with information on the selected product. If needed, you can modify
the data or enter more information.
To describe products you can use also the Product description editor, which can be opened by
clicking the Edit button located at the tools ribbon.

You will use the PBS view to identify and describe products to be included into your plans.
When you select a product by clicking it with the left mouse button, you will see some icons
surrounding the product, e.g. Edit, Add parent product, Add child product.
Return to the Available views table

PRODUCT FLOW DIAGRAM
In the Views gallery, click the icon to open the Product Flow Diagram (PFD) view.
This diagram shows an order in which the products should be produced or delivered. Please notice
that the product groups shown in the Product Breakdown Structure have not been transferred to the
PFD. A reason for this is that to the same group can be included products to be delivered early as well
as those to be delivered nearly the project end. So, product groups are not planned. They are only
used to help to identify needed products.
You will use the PFD view to define an order of producing products included in your plans, by
indicated a products necessary predecessors and/or successors. It means that from the point of view
of the plans logic, the PFD is the most important view. While preparing your own plans, you will see
that by using the PFD created plans will be consistent and a lot of time can be saved.
Please notice that below the main diagram, in the lower working area is located a window called
Store. In this window will be located products added to the PBS diagram, but not yet placed in the
PFD. With a mouse you can move and drop products from the Store to the main working area (and
back) and connect them with their predecessors and successors.
Also in this view you can describe products in the Properties window in the right working area or
using the Product description editor, which can be opened by clicking the Edit button located at the
tools ribbon.
When you select a product by clicking it with the left mouse button, you will see icons surrounding
the product. Icons facilitate creation of the diagram.
You can also add new products here and thy will be automatically added to the PBS, however not
connected to any group. To allocate them to a group you need to open the Product Breakdown
Structure view and do it yourself.

PRODUCTS
All products and product groups can be reviewed in a tabular form in the Products view. A table
content can be adjusted to your needs by adding your own perspectives. They can be created by
modifying the existing perspectives, e.g. by adding or removing columns, filtering data or adding
some calculations.

As in the Product Breakdown Structure and Product Flow Diagram views, you can also add and
describe new products in the Products view and they will be automatically visible in the to the
Product Breakdown Structure view, however not connected to any group or product, and in the Store
in the Product Flow Diagram view. To allocate them to a group or to connect to other products you
need to open the Product Breakdown Structure or Product Flow Diagram view and do it yourself.

ACTIVITIES
In this view is shown information on activities, needed to produce or deliver products shown in the
Product Breakdown Structure, and on additional activities unrelated directly to any products, as well
as sub-activities of main activities or other sub-activities.
This view is particularly useful while defining activity durations.
Similarly as in other views, also in this view the information shown can be rearranged to be more
convenient for reviewing and analysing, and new layouts stored as perspectives.
Note: P2ware PM 7 has a very useful feature not available in other applications. When a new
product is added to the plan, PM 7 automatically generates a relevant activity with a name created
by adding a suffix creation or delivery to the products name, assuming a default duration of the
activity. What's more, based on the Product Flow Diagram an Activity Network and a logic of the
Gantt Chart are generated automatically. The activity names and durations can be changed later
pursuant to needs.
This feature allows for significant shortening of the planning time, created plan is
coherent and in a schedule are all activities needed to produce or deliver all products
included into the plan.


GANTT CHART
In this view activities schedule is shown as a Gantt Chart, illustrating in a graphical form when each
activity is to start and finish. In the Properties window in the right working area you can see and add
or change other information on the activity selected in the main table.
Here you can see how useful available perspectives are, and a feature allowing you to create your
own perspectives as needed. It is sufficient to select the Progress Tracking perspective and check the
actual progress of each activity and sub-activity.
Names of available perspectives are shown on tabs on the right side above the Properties window.

To see how changing perspective works, select other perspective than the backlighted one. You can
do this also in other views.
While planning a project is too early to speak about its progress. This is why at initial planning more
useful is the Simple perspective.
Here you can also add new activities and sub-activities, describe them and define their optimistic,
pessimistic, or calculated with the PERT durations, and present as a relevant schedule.
Advanced users can also add feeding buffers and the plan buffer.
It is possible to change the time grids by clicking the Zoom In or Zoom Out buttons on the ribbon or
by clicking the right mouse button on the time scale visible at the charts top.

ACTIVITY NETWORK
The Activity Network shows activities in a different form, illustrating dependencies between
activities, when can be their earliest and latest start and earliest and latest finish, ensuring that the
project will finish on time. You can also see a slack, indicating that some activities can start on
different day without delaying the project. This information is of particular use when you find out
that the same resource should be used at the same time at more than one location, so one or more
activities have to be shifted.
On this diagram the critical path is indicated by activities in red. Activities placed on the critical path
determine the shortest possible time to complete the plan or project. By using P2ware PM 7 Pro or
For PSO it is possible to define also other ways of marking activities, e.g. activities not on the critical
path, but with a small slack or indicated as risky can be marked in a colour selected.
As in the Activities and Gantt Chart views, also in this view you can add activities and/or sub-
activities and connect them with other activities.
When you select an activity by clicking it with the left mouse button, you will see some icons
surrounding the activity.

RESOURCES
Resources are needed to execute any plan. They can be human resources as well as materials or
other assets, e.eg. machines, installations, premises etc.

In this view it is possible to add and describe required resources, by entering their relevant data, e.g.
personal data, competencies, roles in projects, but also a cost of using them or their activation cost.
It is also possible to indicate for each resource an individual calendar showing its availability.
By using P2ware PM 7 Pro or For PSO it is possible to define more properties characterising required
resources.

RESOURCE ASSIGNMENTS
This view is very useful to assign resources needed to carry out activities, and to control how the
resources are used to carry out their tasks. It is possible to enter information on a planned time the
resource should start and end a work related to selected activity and its actual work . The actual data
can be entered directly or come from the resource timesheet.
Objects (e.g. products) related to an assignment selected in the main area can be seen in the lower
working area.

RESOURCE LOAD CHART
This chart shows a work load of the resource selected in the left side list.
It is possible to change the time grids by clicking the Zoom In or Zoom Out buttons on the ribbon or
by clicking the right mouse button on the time scale visible at the charts top.

RISK REGISTER
This view shows the Risk register, one of a few registers and logs available in PM 7.
It is used to record risks (threats and opportunities), which can influence the plans goals.
Each recorded risk can be related with other objects of the plan, e.g. a flu epidemic may result with
delaying some activities and later delivery of products. This is why it is very important to describe not
only the risk, its probability and impact, but also to record with which other objects it is related
and how it may influence these objects. P2ware PM 7 allows to record such relations.
To define and describe a relation of risk to other plan object you should select a type of the object by
clicking a tab with its name, located at the lower edge of the lower working area.
Apart from the Risk register in P2ware PM 7 are also available: Issue register, Quality register, Daily
log, Lessons log and Own tasks log. To see them, please open the Project management training

plan or read relevant information in the Help file, which can be opened by clicking button
located at the right-top of screen.

COST CHART
Costs are a significant part of many plans and are used to control the plans progress. In this view the
planned and actual costs are shown in a chart and tabular forms.
Time intervals and types on visible cost can be changed by clicking relevant buttons on the tools
ribbon. To learn more on the chart, click button located at the right-top of screen.

REPORTS
Each plan is composed of a lot of different data, which reviewing is usually laborious and time-
consuming. To help this, there is a number of predefined report templates available. To get a
required statement or report it is sufficient to open the Reports view and select a required template
in the Navigator window. Generated reports can be exported to different format files, e.g. Excel,
Word etc.
To see how it works, in the Navigator window select a report template by clicking > as required.
Some of the reports may be not compatible with the sample plan, since they were prepared for other
plans, with different sets of plan objects properties.
It is worth to know, that if you dont like available template or you need a new one you can modify
existing template or create a new one. To do it, click respectively the Design or Create Report
Template button on the ribbon. We recommend, dont do this now and wait until you learn PM 7 and
its wide scope of functionalities better.


CREATING PROJECT PLAN AND CONTROLLING ITS EXECUTION
This introduction to the product-based planning technique is for users who are not familiar with it or
would like to learn more, for better using of its good points.
Users familiar with this technique can pass straight to the short description of the planning process.
PRODUCT-BASED PLANNING TECHNIQUE
In the traditional approach to planning described in many textbooks, the main focus is given to the
activities necessary for completion of a project, and a schedule is treated as a plan showing who and
when should carry out these activities.
In the Product-Based Planning Technique, a plan should first define a final result (a final product of
the plan), to be delivered by the plans execution, and:
what, i.e. partial products
in what a sequence
by what activities
using what resources
when
should be created or delivered, to get the final result.
The technique is based upon an observation that the same product may be obtained as a result of
different activities. For example, if skilled operators will be necessary to operate new equipment, it is
possible to train people already employed or to get respectively skilled people from outside. In the
first case, an activity to be carried out would be training, and in the second recruitment. Similar,
some products may be done inside an organization, outsourced from other company, or just bought
ready. All these activities differ in duration, costs, resources required, but they should give the same
product.
A process leading to the final result and a sequence of creating partial products and respective
activities often result from an assumed approach and technology, however they should fulfil imposed
constraints.
So planning should start with a precise definition of the final result - what we will call the plans final
product.
Examples of a final product: Information system operational, Factory ready to operate, Completed
marketing campaign, Renovated building, Upgraded system etc.
To complete each of the final products mentioned, it is necessary to create an/or deliver many partial
products, which we have to know not only by name, but they should be described in such detail that
it would be possible to allocate them to producers or suppliers, and check their quality when
receiving them ready.
While identifying and describing products, it is useful to group them in such a way that none is
missed. They can be grouped by physical similarity, similar production technology e.g.

documentation, trained people, software, hardware etc. It is worth remembering that during the first
phase of planning, it is important to know what products we need, but it is not important what the
sequence of their production and/or delivery is.
A product Breakdown Structure is a very useful tool to identify and group products in such a way that
none of the main products is neglected while planning.

Product Breakdown Structure (PBS)
To get access to the Product Breakdown Structure in the P2ware Project Manager, click on the icon
shown below.

If you would like to learn more on a particular subject, use the contextual help, as shown.

In the initial planning phase, the planner may not know the activities which will be necessary to
deliver the required products. Activities may be defined later depending on (amongst other factors)
the time, money and resource constraints imposed on the project. A particular product may be, say,
bought from a supplier, built from scratch by the project, or replaced by a different product following
Final
Product
Product 7
Product
Grouping
GA
Product
Grouping
GA.1
Product 6
Product
Grouping
GA.2
Product 1
Integration
Product 10
Product 3
Product 2
Product 4
Product 8
Product 9
External
Product 5

a risk analysis. It logically follows from this that, during the planning phase, it is the products or
deliverables, not the activities that are the most important.
While using the Product-Based Planning technique, instead of trying to define activities and their
sequence, first products/deliverables are sequenced into a Product Flow Diagram (PFD) shown in the
figure below.

Product Flow Diagram (PFD).
To work with the Product Flow Diagram, click on the icon shown below.

Please notice that all products identified in the Product Breakdown Structure have been
automatically transferred onto the Product Flow Diagram, however integration products and their
children products are located in the main working area and other products are placed in the store
below the main working area.
To get more information on the Product Flow Diagram, click the icon located in the interested
area.
As the PFD allows the planner to see clearly all products and their dependencies, he/she can then
begin to define the activities and sub-activities required to obtain each product. The activities may be
easily shown on the PFD. The diagram shown below was created based on the PFD by adding
activities selected for creating or delivering particular products.
Final
Product
Product 7
Product 6
Product 1
Integration
Product 10
Product 3
Product 2
Product 4
Product 8
Product 9
External
Product 5

Product Flow Diagram with activities and sub-activities necessary to create or deliver products.
One may notice that by using a PFD to define activities, the planner can see a product and its
predecessors and so can more easily imagine what action is necessary to use or to transform the
predecessors into the product. Activities and sub-activities can be divided into lower level sub-
activities and/or work packages. What is really useful is that an Activity Network is created
automatically by removing products from this figure. The Activity Network is shown in the next
figure.
A significant advantage of planning in this way is that it ensures that in a product-based plan there
are no activities that dont lead to a product or deliverable.

Activity Network with activities and sub-activities necessary to deliver products.
You are advised to create a simple plan composed of a few products and create a product Breakdown
Structure and a Product Flow Diagram, e.g. as shown in the figures above.
If you do this and select the Activity Network or Gantt Chart view, you will see that P2ware
Project Manager has generated itself a logic activity network and a Gantt chart a draft schedule.
You can then add some sub-activities, estimate activities durations, resources involved, costs, etc.
In all P2ware Project Manager views, you can use the contextual help to learn more what and how
you can do in a selected view and its working areas.
To give you a picture of planning process, a logical flow of planning using the Product Based Planning
Technique is shown in the following figure.
Final
Product
Product 7
Product 6
Product 1
Integration
Product 10
Product 3
Product 2
Product 4
Product 8
Product 9
External
Product 5
A
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Activity 1
Activity 2
Activity 5
Activity 3
Activity 4
Activity 6
SA 8.1
SA 8.2 Activity 7 SA 10.1
SA 10.2
Start
End
Activity 9

Logical flow of planning using the Product-Based Planning Technique

Products
Activity Network
Product Descriptions
Technology
Prerequisites
Activities
Assumptions
Product Flow
Diagram
Product Breakdown
Structure
Quality
Requirements
Schedule
Revised activities
and resources
Resources
Resource Availability
Control Points
Tolerance Risks
Product Checklist
Plan Description
Costs Budget
Project
Requirements

A SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE PLANNING PROCESS
1. Open a Product Breakdown Structure view and:
a. Define and describe a required final product or an end result, and all products the
final product must consist of, to get successful completion of the plan.
b. Identify and describe all other products which must be created and/or delivered to
create the final product.
c. Create a Product Breakdown Structure a hierarchical structure showing and
grouping products in a way that none of them can be neglected.
Note: If this is your first plan, limit your activity to identification of products without
describing them.
2. Open a Product Flow Diagram view and arrange the products in the sequence they should be
created and delivered, connecting with properly directed arrows.
3. Open a Gantt Chart view:
a. If justified, change names of activities automatically generated by P2ware Project
Manager into names you like.
b. Eventually add sub-activities.
c. Estimate durations of activities and sub-activities by making longer or shorter
relevant bars on the chart.
4. Open a view in which activities are visible (Activities, Gantt Chart, Activity Network) and using
the function Edit describe activities.
5. Open a Resources view and fill in information on all resources that may be involved in the
plan execution.
6. Open an Activities view:
a. Allocate to activities resources needed for their execution.
b. Check and adjust durations of each activity.
c. Estimate activity costs.
7. Open a Gantt Chart view and apply all constraints put on activities timescales and add
additional connections between activities, if justified.
8. Open an Activity Network and check the end day of the plan, and if it is not acceptable, check
the critical path and analyze what can be done to accelerate the end day.
9. Check if all estimated activity durations and costs are within constraints put on the project. If
not, make respective corrections.
10. Improve the plan by removing conflicts resulted from overloading resources and removing
risks relevant to scarcely available or costly resources and other risks.
11. Change or add additional activities necessary to manage risks and ensure required products
quality.
12. Once more check workload for all resources and check if the plan is realizable, and if
necessary go back to very early steps of planning and make necessary changes.
13. Add management products (reports, decision points, quality reviews, etc.) and quality
checking activities.
14. Create and print out a Product Checklist with all products and relevant dates of their creation
and delivery.

15. Print out all required diagrams and tables, to be included into a plan.
16. Describe the plan, its assumptions, an approach to its execution, prerequisites and risks.
17. Assemble all into a complete plan.
18. Present the plan for approval.


DEVELOPING HIGH QUALITY PLANS WITH P2WARE PROJECT MANAGER
1. Describe everything you know about the plan to be prepared (Plan Description).
2. Define and describe the Final Product or end result to be obtained after successful
completion of the plan, including a list of the main Products to be produced or delivered.
3. Define and describe all other products which must be developed or delivered in a frame of
the plan (Product Descriptions for simple and integration products). P2ware Project Manager
offers you an editor and a number of predefined data fields, allowing you to create easily
uniformly structured product descriptions.
4. Arrange all identified products into a hierarchical structure, grouping them in a way that no
necessary product would be missed (Product Breakdown Structure - PBS).
5. Arrange the Final Product, Simple Products and Integration Products in the order they should
be created or delivered (Product Flow Diagram - PFD).
6. Identify Activities necessary to create or deliver all products in the order they are placed on
the PFD and their dependencies (Network Diagram). P2ware Project Manager will do this for
you, automatically generating a Network Diagram and Gantt Chart, and all activities will be
given names by adding endings: creation for simple and integration products, and
delivery for external products.
7. If justified, activities can be broken down into sub-activities and additional dependencies
added.
8. Describe all the identified Activities, allocate the Resources needed for them, and estimate
the Cost and Time necessary to carry out each identified Activity (Activity Description,
Planned Costs, Levelling Resource Load). P2ware Project Manager offers you an editor and a
number of predefined data fields, allowing you to create easily uniformly structured activity
descriptions.
9. Take into consideration all known limitations and constraints to be imposed on the Activities
and dependencies between them (Limitations).
10. Based on the estimated durations of Activities, and taking into consideration the imposed
limitations and constraints, P2ware Project Manager will find out the shortest possible time
for the plan execution and identify the Activities on which the time is dependent (Total time
and Critical Path).
11. If you are familiar with the Critical Chain approach, add a Plan (Project) Buffer and required
Feeding Buffers and Cost Buffers.
12. Level the workload of each of the resources involved (Resource Load).
13. Check if the estimated durations, Costs of Activities, and individual resource workloads are
consistent with the limitations and constraints imposed on the resources and the plan
completion. If not, you may have to change limitations or adjust Activities, Resources, time
scales or costs.
14. Establish a new deadline for the plan, a new Critical Path, and once more check their
consistency.
15. Prepare the plan schedule in the form of a Gantt Chart.
16. Improve the plan by removing any conflicts of overloaded Resources and eliminate or limit
Risks relevant to e.g. limited or costly Resources
17. Change, modify or add any additional Activities which are necessary to manage identified
Risks and/or for assurance of the required quality of the Products.

18. Check once more the workload of each Resource and make any necessary adjustments.
19. Check if the plan is realizable and, if not, go back and make any necessary corrections.
20. Divide Activities into Sub-activities, if appropriate.
21. Add Management Products (reports, decisions, quality checks) and Activities relevant to their
production or delivery.
22. Prepare a Product Checklist with all the Products included in the plan. indicating the start and
end dates of Activity.
23. Print out all diagrams and sheets to be included in the plan.
24. Complete the plan description, its assumptions, prerequisites and Risks.
25. Assemble all the plans elements into one set.
26. Present the plan for approval and Resource allocation.
CONTROLLING THE EXECUTION OF THE PLAN
1. Before starting to execute a plan save it, and if you have access to P2ware Portfolio Server,
publish the plan on the server.
2. In the Gantt Chart view, identify and select the Activities which should be started today.
3. Create a Work Package and name it in a clear way.
4. Describe the Work Package. From the list of Resources involved in the Activities included in
the Work Package select a reporting Resource, i.e. the Resource responsible for completing
all the Activities as well as for reporting to you on the works progress. Add any related
documentation necessary for proper completion of the Work Package, e.g. Product
descriptions, Activity Descriptions or Processes descriptions.
5. Determine Checkpoints at which the progress of work will be checked and at which you
should receive a Checkpoint Report.
6. Authorize the Work Package and send it to the reporting Resource to get their confirmation
of acceptance of the Work Package. This functionality requires co-operation with P2ware
Portfolio Server.
7. Having received confirmation of acceptance, change the status of the Work Package to
Accepted.
8. Repeat steps 2 to 6 for all Work Packages you want to authorize at this point.
9. Regularly check the flow of Checkpoint Reports to be submitted by reporting Resources, and
check that they have been approved.
10. Approval of a Checkpoint Report and data on the progress of work, and information relating
to changed real start and end dates, will be reflected in the Gantt Chart.
11. In the case of any deviation from the plan, you should undertake appropriate action, which
will depend on the significance of the deviation for the overall success of the project.
12. After all the Products and work included in Work Packages have been completed, you should
close the Work Package by changing its status to completed.
13. Completion of all the Products mentioned in the plan closes its realization.

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