Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Process
Management
Guide
Release 9r1 SP9
Document Version 1
February 2010
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9r1SP9.0018.en_us
Table of Contents
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
This guide describes how to use the process management functionality of Ariba Sourcing.
Sourcing project team members are those users responsible for creating, reviewing, observing, or executing
tasks during the sourcing event in the sourcing project. The sourcing project also contains tasks for team
members to perform, such as choosing suppliers to invite to the sourcing event, creating the sourcing event,
reviewing the sourcing event, and approving the sourcing event for publishing.
• Choose the appropriate sourcing project template that meets your requirements
• Consider the supplemental documents you will include with the sourcing project.
Note: If you want to copy an existing sourcing project, use Copy from Project, to copy data from a previous
sourcing project into a new sourcing project. Note that any events associated with the original project are not
copied into the new project.
Enter as much header information as you can, as you can create detailed reports based on this information.
Access the reports from the Common Actions panel, under Manage, by choosing Prepackaged Reports. See
the Ariba Sourcing Reporting and Analysis Guide for details.
• Enter a name and description. The name can contain up to 254 characters and cannot be the name of
another sourcing project in the same folder. Newly created projects exist in a folder depending on the
month and year in which they were created. Projects located in different folders can have the same name.
The name cannot contain special characters such as #*^@)}].
• Choose the project state. States are Active, On Hold, Planned, Cancelled, or Completed. If you choose the
state Planned, the Planned Start Date, Planned End Date, and Planned Event Type fields are available.
Using the Planned project state allows you to keep track of upcoming projects for the quarter or year, and
enables you to allocate resources for future projects. When your project is ready to work on, you can later
change the project state of a planned project to Active. The Planned state allows you to track upcoming
projects in reports.
• Specify whether to copy from an existing sourcing project.
• Choose whether the sourcing project is a test project. Use test projects for internal testing and training.
They can easily be excluded from reporting so that your reports only contain data from actual events. Test
projects generate email, just as regular projects do. You can delete test projects.
• Choose a base language. If a user tries to view your sourcing project, and their preferred language is set to
a language for which your sourcing project does not have a translation, the application displays the
content in the language defined in the Base Language field.
Note: In view mode, the application displays templates and sourcing projects in the language that the user
chooses as their preference. In edit mode, the presented language is that of the preference setting of the
template or sourcing project. Uploaded document titles are created in the language preference defined in
the template or sourcing project.
• Use Commodity to indicate which goods or services the sourcing project deals with. Your company might
refer to commodities as categories, UNSPSC codes, or by other terms. An example of a commodity is
office supplies.
Note: Be sure to populate the Commodity, Regions, and Department fields. You can set templates to
conditionally appear based on the values in these fields. These fields are also used for Knowledge
Management keyword designations. Ariba Sourcing uses Regions, Department, and Commodity fields for
reporting. For example, if you run events for different departments, you can report your results by
department. Observers cannot view these results.
Some organizations use commodity codes extensively. For this reason can optionally make Commodity a
required field.
• Choose the sourcing mechanism, project reason, and execution strategy.
• Baseline Spend is the amount you believe you will spend for all the goods or services listed.
• Target Savings% is the percentage you want to save as a result of the event. This is not shown to
participants.
• Predecessor Project is a related project or event, that came before.
To edit a sourcing project’s header information, for example, its title or description, after you have created
the project, click Actions > Edit Overview on the project’s Overview tab. If the sourcing project is in a Planned
or Active state, you can change any editable attribute. For example, when you are ready to work on a project
(it is no longer planned) you can change the project state from Planned to Active.
W To choose a template:
At the bottom of the Create Sourcing Project screen, choose a template to use to create your sourcing
project. Answer any questions associated with the template. Your sourcing administrator adds these
questions when they create the template for you to use to create the sourcing project. For example, you might
have to answer whether the sourcing project is important enough to require the approval of a vice president.
3 To add a member to an existing group, click the select link associated with that group, and then choose a
name from the checklist or click Other and search for a team member to add.
3 Specify a title for the group, and choose any roles that this group should inherit. See the Ariba User
Management Guide for Sourcing, Contract Management, and Spend Visibility for details on groups.
4 Click OK.
In order to tell whether an object on the Documents tab is an event, click its name and choose View Details.
If the object is an event, the field Type reads Event.
2 If an event is not already present on the Documents tab, create a new event by clicking Actions > Create >
Event.
3 Set up the event according to the steps described in the chapter “Your First Event” in the Ariba Event
Management Guide.
Note a few differences:
• When creating an event within a project, most of the header information associated with the event is
automatically taken from the project. For example, you cannot specify the Region value of an event
contained within a sourcing project, because the Region of the event is the same as the project.
• The Event Type selector on the Create Sourcing Project page shows the types allowed by the project
template.
• Also, there is no Team step in an event associated with a sourcing project. The team information is
drawn from the Team tab of the sourcing project.
• Sourcing has limits on certain event elements as described in the “Creating Content” chapter of the
Ariba Sourcing Event Management Guide.
Drag and drop the phases and tasks on the tab in the order in which you intend the tasks to be performed.
You cannot modify or delete tasks that were provided by the template. Note that the use of predecessor tasks
can change the order in which you perform tasks.
The Completion column lists the completion dates of the phases and tasks. You can set the completion date
to a specific date, or base it on the start date for the task’s parent phase. See Chapter 5, “Working with Tasks
and Phases” for details.
W To create a task:
1 On the Tasks tab, click Actions > Create To–Do Task.
2 Enter the title, the description, and the owner of the task. Set the due date.
3 Click OK.
4 On the Tasks tab, make sure that the task is in the correct phase and place in the flow of your sourcing
project’s tasks.
5 To associate the task with a document, on the Tasks tab, click the task’s name and choose Associate
Document.
2 Change the Due Date field. Choose a specific number of Days after parent phase starts or a Fixed Date.
The Owner column lists the group or specific team members responsible for each phase or task. You can see
the members of each group on the Team tab.
Note: For To Do tasks, the owner is also the person expected to perform the task.
For example, perhaps your sourcing project contains a project charter that your team must complete. You
can create a task to assign the job of creating the draft version of the document to a member of your team.
See Chapter 3, “Working with Documents.”
1 Enable Desktop File Sync (DFS). See “Enabling Desktop File Sync (DFS)” on page 21.
2 On the Documents tab, click the document name and choose Create New Task > To Do.
3 Give the task an appropriate name, for example, “Create draft of project charter.”
4 In the Owner field, search for the team member to be assigned the task.
5 Click OK.
3 Click Create.
Note: To print a page, click the Print icon at the top of the page. It formats the screen for
printing, presents a preview, and shows the normal print dialog box for your operating system.
Use this Print icon instead of the browser print function, which does not reformat the page by removing the
tabs and header information at the top.
You can also create an ad hoc survey from your personal workspace. If you are doing that skip to “To create
an ad hoc survey from your personal workspace,” below.
7 Click Create.
Due Date
This specifies when the period for submitting responses ends. If you choose duration you can select an
interval that starts when you click Publish. If you select Fixed time, you can choose a calendar date and a
time of day for the response period to end.
Allow scoring
If you allow scoring you can assign weights to the possible answers to your survey questions, on the content
page. This is useful for scoring the survey participants on their responses.
Choose to search by organization or participant information to find participants, such as external suppliers or
internal people by their user name or other characteristics. Choose Participant Group to select groups. You
can import participants from an Excel spreadsheet. For more information on importing participants from
Excel, see “Editing Spreadsheets for Import” in the Ariba Sourcing Event Management Guide.
When you select a type of content to add, fill in the fields to define the item, The fields for the various types
of content are defined in Chapter 6, “Creating Content,” in the Ariba Sourcing Event Management Guide.
To publish the survey, click Publish. Participants can see the survey after it is published and until it closes.
While it is open, internal participants can see the survey in their To Do list on the Dashboard. After it closes,
it appears on the Event Status Table on the dashboard
Additional information on the Summary page is covered in Chapter 15, “Reviewing and Publishing an
Event,” in the Ariba Sourcing Event Management Guide.
To do this... Choose...
Edit overview Actions > Edit Overview to edit the overview information.
information
This information displays on two tabs, Overview and Template Questions.
On the Overview tab, you can edit information such as the project name, state, status,
description, owner, commodity, regions, departments, and access control. See “Controlling
Sourcing Project Access” on page 22 for details on access control.
On the Templates Questions tab, you can view template questions and change the answers
to these questions. These questions are part of the template and affect the content of the
project, with your answers to the questions causing the project to change dynamically. For
example, if you change the answer to the question “Does this template apply to APAC?” to
“No”, Ariba Sourcing removes conditionalized items that have to do with APAC from the
project.
To do this... Choose...
View details for the Actions > View Details. This information displays on three tabs: Overview, Documents, and
sourcing project Version History.
On the Overview tab, you can view status, version, test project status, base language, owner,
and access control. You can change this information by choosing Actions > Document > Edit
Attributes and editing the attributes as needed. You can move the project to a folder, lock
and unlock documents, and save a new version. You can also view and initiate tasks from
this tab.
On the Documents tab, you can view a list of documents associated with the project.
On the Version History tab, you can view the version history for the project.
Move Actions > Move to move your sourcing project to another folder in the Vault. An example of
folder hierarchy is shown below:
Copy a project Actions > Create > Copy Project to copy your sourcing project to a new project with a
different name. You can also copy documents and groups from the original project.
When you copy a project, you must provide a new sourcing project name. You are asked
these questions:
• Do you want to copy documents that were modified in the project being copied?
• Do you want to copy project groups that were not in the template from the project being
copied?
Create a follow-on Actions > Create > Follow-On Project to create a follow-on project to conduct after you are
project done working on the original project. See “Creating Follow-On Projects” on page 20.
Delete a project Actions > Delete Project to delete a project. The project owner can delete any project for
which they are a project owner. Deleting a project does not remove it completely. However,
to search for a deleted projects and documents, you must have the
“acm.SearchDeletedDocument” permission, as set by your administrator.
To turn this capability off, ask the Administrator to set the parameter
“Application.ACM.AllowProjectOwnerToDeleteAnyDocument” to False. If you turn this
feature off, then to delete a project, the project must be in a state that allows deletion:
• You are the project owner
• The project is not in a running state
• It is a test project (in any state)
To do this... Choose...
Display the project in Actions > Full View or Actions > Compact View. Full View displays the Documents, Tasks,
compact or full view and Team tabs for the sourcing project. Compact View displays the project without tabs.
This is useful if you have a simple sourcing project with few tasks and documents.
• Process Area: This area lists task phases, follow-on or predecessor projects, and milestones to provide
visibility for these items. Click All Tasks to access the Tasks tab.
• Quick Links: This area lists documents that you want to access quickly. On the Documents tab, create a
Quick Link by clicking a document name and choosing Open > Add to Quick Links.
• Announcements: This area displays the announcements pertaining to the sourcing project. These are
intended for the entire sourcing project team. Click New to add a new announcement, or Details to view,
edit, or delete announcement details.
You can also view announcements from the dashboard. Only announcements from sourcing projects you
have specified as Watched Projects appear in the Announcements area of the dashboard. To specify a
particular sourcing project as a Watched Project, navigate to the project and on the Overview tab, click
Actions > Add to Watched Projects.
2 On the Search Projects page, enter the title of your sourcing project (shown in the notification email).
Another way to search for your sourcing project is to enter the name of the project owner in the Keywords
field.
3 Click Search.
When you log in to Ariba Sourcing each day, check the To Do This Week area on the Dashboard, which lists
your tasks that are due in the current week. Click the name of the task to see task details. To ensure that the
To Do This Week area is up to date, click the Force refresh of all content on this page link at the bottom of the
screen.
3 Click the name of the document and choose Download Draft. The document downloads and opens in
Microsoft Word.
4 Edit the document. When you have finished, save the document, and close Microsoft Word.
5 Return to Ariba Sourcing. You should see the Document Update dialog box. If you do not, press F5 to
refresh the page.
6 Click Update Now.
7 Enter any notes about the changes you have made in this version.
8 Click Save.
W To add an announcement:
1 View the sourcing project in Full View.
4 Click OK.
3 You can edit or delete any announcements you created. You cannot modify announcements created by
other members.
If you are a team member for this sourcing project, you can add announcements by clicking New.
You can sort announcements for a sourcing project by clicking the column headings at the top of the
announcements table.
4 Click OK.
Note: If you edit the text of a previously created announcement Ariba Sourcing does not change the creation
date for that announcement.
For details on how watched projects affect Announcements, see “Adding Announcements to a Sourcing
Project” on page 19.
Creating Subprojects
A subproject inherits team membership and other characteristics from the original sourcing project. You
create the subproject in the parent sourcing project's folder hierarchy.
For example, you might create a subproject if you had a large project that required sourcing several types of
goods or services (such as occupying a new office). You could set up subprojects to source various types of
office furniture, and services.
W To create a subproject:
1 On the Documents tab, choose Actions > Create > Subproject
Note: The parent project appears on the subproject’s Overview tab. Sourcing lists the subproject as a
document on the Documents tab of the parent project.
If the parent sourcing project has the restriction private to team members, individually added subproject
members cannot access the parent. If needed, add these subproject members to the parent sourcing team to
grant them full access. For more information on setting access controls, see “Controlling Document Access”
on page 26.
By default subprojects do not appear in the Recent Projects area of the Navigation Panel. However, you can
list them in the Navigation Panel if you add them to the Watched Projects list.
When you close a parent sourcing project, any subprojects remain open. You must close subprojects
separately.
You cannot make a sourcing project a subproject after you create it. You can, however, make an existing
sourcing project a follow–on project.
For more information on controlling inheritance of team members in subprojects, see “Understanding Team
Access in Subprojects” on page 65.
Note: DFS does not have to be enabled for you to export to Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel.
When you log into Ariba Sourcing, the Desktop File Sync reminder warns you if you do not have DFS
enabled. The DFS reminder gives you the option of enabling DFS, ignoring the reminder for your current
session, or disabling it permanently. You will only see the reminder if you do not have DFS enabled and have
not disabled the reminder.
W To enable DFS:
1 Click Preferences at the top of the dashboard.
Using Notifications
Ariba Sourcing provides email notifications to team members and others to inform them or remind them of
project-related events. These events include the:
• Start of tasks and phases (including predecessors)
• Creation of projects
• Creation of subprojects
• Addition of comments to the project
4 Click OK.
Individual notification preferences take precedence over any template–level notification profile settings.
Note: If you are a project owner, you can see all documents in your project regardless of their access control.
3 Choose the checkboxes for the access controls you want to implement.
4 Click OK.
Private to Internal Users Only internal users can view the object.
Private to Team Members Only team members can view the object.
Private to Contract Management Basic Only Ariba Contract Management Basic users can view the object.
Users
Private to Contract Management Pro Only Ariba Contract Management Pro users can view the object.
Users
Private to Sourcing Professional Users Only Ariba Sourcing Professional users can view the object.
Private to Sourcing Users Only Ariba Sourcing users can view the object.
Private to Spend Visibility Only Ariba Spend Visibility Basic users can view the object.
Note: If you assign an access control at the project level, all documents in the project inherit that access
control as well.
Types of Documents
Ariba Spend Management provides a central storage system that enables you to store and manage multiple
versions of project documents and to manage file access for multiple users. Ariba Spend Management
supports the following types of documents:
• Non-assembled documents
Non-assembled documents can be any format, including:
• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• ASCII
• Graphic files, such as PNG, BMP, JPEG, or GIF
• PDF
Document Tasks
The Documents tab displays the documents in your project. Project templates typically provide a default set
of documents.
The following table lists that tasks you can perform from the Documents tab. The available tasks can vary
depending on the document type.
To do this... Choose...
Open a document to The document name and choose Open. The document opens in its associated editor.
edit
View document details The document name and choose View Details. You can view the description, status,
version, owner, editors, base language, date last modified, creation date, keywords,
access control, conditions, and Version History tab. See “Managing Document Versions”
on page 27 for details on document versions.
Click Actions to work with the document, or Actions under Tasks to initiate tasks to
associate with the document.
Edit the document attributes The document name and choose Edit Attributes. You can edit the document title,
description, owner, editors, add keywords, and change the access controls. See
“Controlling Document Access” on page 26 for details on access control.
Copy the document to reuse The document name and choose Copy to copy the document to a new version of the
it in multiple projects document with a new name, or to copy it to another project.
Move a document to The document name and choose Move to move the document.
another folder in the project
Make a document you use The document name and choose Add to Quick Links, to list the document name at the top
often easy to access of the Documents tab, and in the Quick Links area on the Overview tab. You can later
choose Remove From Quick Links.
Lock a document so others The document name and choose Lock. Later, you can choose Unlock to open the
cannot modify it document so other team members can modify it.
If you create a task and lock the document (by setting the Lock Document field to Yes
when submitting), the document locks normally. When you complete the task (by
clicking Mark Complete button), the document unlocks. If you lock a document that does
not have an associated task manually, the document stays locked until either you or a
user with owner access unlocks it.
You can also lock content at the folder level, and all documents underneath that folder or
contained in that project are locked as well. Locking an entire project only locks its
associated documents, not the project itself.
Delete a document The document name and choose Actions > Delete. The project owner can delete any
document for which they are an owner, except documents that were added from the
template. To turn this capability off, ask the Administrator to set the parameter
“Application.ACM.AlwaysAllowProjectDelete” to False.
Be careful when deleting documents. The system cannot tell if a document is attached to
a project. If you delete a document that is attached to a project, the link is deactivated.
To do this... Choose...
Save a new version of the The document name and choose Save as New Version. You cannot save new versions of
document documents originating from the template. See “Managing Document Versions” on
page 27 for details.
Access a document outside The document name and choose Create Shortcut. This allows you to specify a shortcut
the project for the document in the current project or in another project. You can associate tasks with
shortcut documents. You can specify shortcuts for folders as well.
Create tasks to associate The document name and choose Create New Task > To Do, Review, Approval, or
with the document Negotiation. To Do tasks are simple tasks; you do them and they are finished. Review,
Approval, and Negotiation tasks have work flows associated with them, and are routed to
reviewers, approvers, or participants in a negotiation. See Chapter 5, “Working with
Tasks and Phases” for details on tasks.
Search for documents Actions > Search to search among documents associated with the project.
Browse for a document to Actions > Upload > Document to browse for and upload a document. Teams edit these
upload documents, and the application creates a new version of the document after each edit,
automatically storing previous versions. For details on documents versions, see
“Managing Document Versions” on page 27. Documents you upload must have a
filename (including full path and the filename itself) of 241 characters or less. If the
filename exceeds 241 characters, your document cannot upload. Also, the document
name must not contain any special characters. You can format the document description
text with bold, italic, underlining, lists, or colors.
When you upload a document, you can specify whether the document must be published
in order for the project to be published using the Is Publish Required flag. You can also
specify whether there should be an announcement of the creation of the new document.
Create a folder Actions > Create > Folder to create a folder to organize your documents.
If you have an empty document folder in a project that you want to copy using Copy
Project, the empty folder is not copied over into the new project. Only document folders
containing documents are copied.
Create an analytical report Actions > Create > Analytical Report. Create the report in Ariba Reporting and Analysis.
After you create the report, you can save it to your project on the Document tab.
Export data to an Microsoft Actions > Create > Reporting Excel Template to browse for an Excel template to use for
Excel template data export. See Chapter 8, “Integrating with Microsoft Project and Outlook” for details
on exporting data using Excel.
Create a compound report Actions > Create > Compound Report. Create the report in Ariba Reporting and Analysis.
After you create the report, you can save it to your project on the Document tab
Load a document into the Actions > Create > Document to browse for a document to add, or search for a document.
project
Create a form Actions > Create >eForm. An eForm is an electronic representation of a business form.
An eForm can be approved, reviewed, and stored on the Documents tab like any other
document. Reporting can be done on eForm content.
eForm types must be created by your administrator through customization. If you need
an eForm for a specific task, contact your administrator.
Note: The eForm that you use might not seem like a conventional document (and can
even be a performing a specific function, such as savings tracking), but all eForms must
reside in the Documents tab of a project.
To do this... Choose...
Add a URL as a document Actions > Create > URL to add a URL as a document. Click the URL icon in the
document list to navigate to the web page for the URL. Use this to communicate
knowledge located on the web to your team, and to store those references in the project.
Add a contract to associate Actions > Create > Contract. You access Ariba Contract Management, and can create a
with your project contract workspace. The contract workspace resides on the Document tab of your
project. See the Ariba Contract Process Management Guide for detail on working with
contract workspaces.
Add an event to your Actions > Create Event. This allows you to access the event creation wizard. See the
project Ariba Event Management Guide for details on working with events.
Create a savings form to use Actions > Create > Savings Form. Create a form to track savings and spend, including
with your project negotiated, implemented, and actual savings. See“Performing Savings Tracking” on
page 29 for details.
Create a content document Actions > Create > Content Document. The content you can add includes KPIs, sections,
lots, line items, questions, requirements, attachments, cost terms, formulas, and library
content. You can add weights to the content and use scoring. See the Ariba Event
Management Guide for detail on using scoring.
Create a folder shortcut Actions > Create > Shortcut. Allows you to create a shortcut to your current project or
any other project you have access to.
Create access to a document Actions > Create > Shortcut here. Allows you to create a shortcut to a document or
or folder in another project folder in your current project or in an outside project.
Create a subproject for the Actions > Create > Subproject to create a subproject.
project
You set access control on a per-document basis by editing the details of the document. You can, for example,
set access controls on a particular document in a template so that all projects created from that template
contain that document with those access controls.
Documents can be modified by an individual or a group who is the owner of the document. A document
cannot be owned by members of a non-owner group. To allow members of a non-owner group to edit a
document, create a group and add all the members who you need to give access to make changes to the
document and then make this new group the owner of the document.
Note: The access control Draft Access Restricted applies to documents only. If you have that permission, you
can see documents with the status of Draft that have this access control. All team members will be able to
view the document when its status changes to Published.
When you delete old versions of a draft document, all comments and announcements relating to those
versions are deleted, and any associated tasks (no matter what state they are in) of the deleted versions are
updated to associate with the most recent version of the document.
4 Under the area for the new version, select View Changes > Compare with Previous Version (version n).
You can modify the title of the shortcut document or folder. This change has no affect on the original object.
Shortcuts can have the same title as the original object as long as they are not in the same folder.
Note: Custom fields can be added to the savings tracking form document. See your local administrator if you
find that you need custom fields added to the form.
You can enter values into the savings tracking form, and some values are populated from your sourcing
project. Values that come from the header of the project are:
• Base language
• Commodity
• Regions
• Departments
• Baseline spend
• Target savings percentage
• Contract months
• Sourcing mechanism
• Execution strategy
• Contract effective date (which is used as the start date on the savings form)
The goal of entering and accumulating savings data is to use it in savings reports that allow you to monitor
the various aspects of your savings and spend. You can use the data from the savings tracking form to create
these savings reports to allow you analyze your savings and spend:
• Savings Summary Report: This report displays the amount of savings your company has achieved for a
given time period. It provides an executive overview of savings achieved by various departments.
• Savings Detail Report: This report displays spend and savings data for all projects executed in a given
time period.
• Actual Savings Report: This report displays the amount of actual savings realized when you begin to
purchase items per project.
These reports are comprised of project header data, event data as the event progresses, and savings data that
you enter. See the Ariba Sourcing Reporting and Analysis Guide for details on reporting. You can create
multiple savings forms. In that case, the multiple forms are shown in the reports in multiple rows in Ariba
Reporting and Analysis.
The values that are calculated in the savings form are based on baseline spend, which represents the amount
of spend off of which you want to base your savings. There are different types of baseline spend:
• Historic: The amount paid previously for the good or service.
• Market: The amount established by the market.
• Estimated: An estimated price established by the buyer.
• Industry Published: A price published in an industry journal or derived from other another third party
publication.
• Vendor Published: A price published by a supplier or vendor.
• Average of Opening Offers: The average price resulting from running an initial quote such as an RFP.
• Vendor Opening Offer: A single supplier’s quote (such as an incumbent), usually arrived at after
running an RFI or RFP.
Note: If you do not have a value for Contract Months, you cannot specify monthly allocations.
If you have entered values for Contract Months and Start Date, but have not specified monthly allocations,
Sourcing will ask you if you want to have monthly allocations when you publish the savings tracking
form.
To allocate detailed savings for a span of time you specify, or an element other than time, such as a region,
department, or supplier, choose Add > Single Allocation.
You can have multiple savings forms, so you could have different forms to use to analyze single
allocations for different regions, department, or suppliers.
Click Save to save the changes. Click Publish to publish your savings form. When you publish the savings
form, the data made available to Ariba Reporting and Analysis for reports creation.
Since your savings form is a document, it is versioned like a document, and you can track the various
versions over time. To do so, click the form name and choose View Details to access the Version History
tab.
You can print the savings form by clicking Print in the upper right corner of the page, and then clicking
Print again in the Print panel.
A template is a blank project with certain predefined characteristics. Ariba Sourcing supplies default
templates for you to copy and modify, or you can create your own templates. This section is intended for
users with the Template Creator Permission, such as those in the Template Creator group. This section
covers the following topics:
• “To Consider Before Creating a Template” on page 33
• “Creating Templates - Practicing With a Copy” on page 33
• “Providing Document Choice” on page 36
• “Using Conditions” on page 37
• “Adding Subprojects to Template” on page 43
• “Importing and Exporting Templates” on page 43
• “Controlling Template Access” on page 44
• “Using Notification Profiles” on page 45
Note: While practicing, it is important to leave the default template that was provided with the application
intact. Be sure to make a copy of this default template, and edit the copy.
W To copy a template:
1 Log in to Ariba Sourcing as a user with the permissions to edit templates (a user who is a member of the
global group Template Creator) See “Controlling Template Access” on page 44 for details on template
access.
2 Choose Common Actions > Manage Templates in the Navigation Panel.
3 Choose a template to copy. Click the template name and choose Copy.
Template copies do not reference the original templates.
4 Enter a title for the template copy, and click OK. Keep template names relatively short, as a long template
name will prevent your template from being published.
Template copies have Draft status by default, and are placed in the same folder as the original.
You can see the status of the version of a template in the upper right-hand corner of the template editor.
Active After you publish a template, its status is Active. You can use templates with this status to create
sourcing projects. You cannot edit Active templates. To make changes to an Active template, you
must create a new version by choosing Actions > New Version. The new version has Draft status.
Inactive You cannot use an Inactive template to create sourcing projects, or edit the template. To use an
inactive template, change the status back to Active by choosing Reactivate. Or, you can choose
Create a New Version, which creates a new version of the inactive template with Draft status.
2 Add project groups on the Teams tab. Examples of groups are Project Owner, Surrogate Bidders,
Administrators, and Team Graders. Team graders participate in consensus grading of supplier responses.
See the Ariba Event Management Guide for details on team grading. You can specify whether the project
owner can edit a project group, as shown in the following:
You can specify this editing ability for each project group.
Note: Add phases and milestones on the Tasks tab. Phases help your users organize groups of tasks.
Milestones help them track important tasks on the Overview tab. You can specify predecessor phases and
tasks. Using predecessor tasks and phases allows you to guide Ariba Sourcing users to complete tasks in
the proper order. For approval tasks, you can specify automatic approval of the task by choosing Yes for
Allow auto approval. Use this function for tasks that do not need approvers added to them in order to
complete the workflow.
3 Add and organize documents in the Documents tab. You can organize the documents in folders. There is
no constraint on the type or number of documents you can store in a template, and you can nest document
folders.
You can also add Document Choice documents. These enable you to control document choices for users.
See “Providing Document Choice” on page 36 for details. You can add shortcut documents in a template.
This allows you to specify the location of a document or folder that is outside the current project, but that
you want to make accessible.You can associate tasks with shortcut documents. When users create a
project using the template, the shortcuts are replaced with copies of the actual documents. When users
edit the document in the project, there is no effect on the template copy.
4 Add document tasks (such as reviews, negotiations, or approvals) as you add documents.
6 Specify conditions for documents and tasks. See “Using Conditions” on page 37for details. For example,
if a project is in the Planned state, you can make certain documents available that apply only to that state.
7 Click Exit to save your changes and exit the template editor.
Choose Actions > Publish on the Overview tab. This makes the new template available to users when they
create a new sourcing project.When you publish, any previous active version of that template is archived.
You can create a new version from an archived version to recover an older version as the current draft.
Note: If you update a document in a subsequent version of a template, it does not update the document in the
previous version of the template.
After you have completed work on a template, you can export it to a ZIP file and import it for later use. See
“Importing and Exporting Templates” on page 43 for details.
W To delete templates:
You can delete a template that has never been used by clicking the template title and choosing Delete. If users
have created sourcing projects with a template, you cannot delete it.
You can make templates inaccessible by modifying the project owner to an inactive user and removing the
rest of the project team.
You can create a new version of a template from an older version, which becomes the most recent version.
This reverts the template to a previous version without losing its history.
1 Add version comments.
4 Click Done.
Before creating a document choice, create a template that contains the documents you want to provide as
choices, and publish this template.
1 While editing the template in which you will provide the choices, navigate to the Documents tab. Click
Actions > Create Document Choice.
2 Enter a title for the document choice. This title appears within all sourcing projects created from the
template, so use an appropriately generic title. When users create a document from the document choice,
they have the opportunity to choose a more specific name.
3 Choose the type of the document choice document to create. This field allows you to constrain the choices
of objects that the document choice can be used to create.
For example, if you choose Event, as is shown in the graphic above, then the Document Choice object can
only be used to create a sourcing event.
4 If you choose Event, then back on the Create New Document Choice page, click Add Choice. The Add
Event Choice page allows you to choose specific Event Templates that the Document Choice can be used
to create. For example, you may want to allow RFI Events to be created in Projects created from this
template, but not Reverse Auction Events.Choose the available documents you want to add as choices.
Note: Do not put the document choices in a folder, or they will not be available as choices. Leave them at
the first level on the Documents tab.
5 Click OK.
6 Click Save.
7 Click Done.
Using Conditions
Conditions in templates allow you to specify whether certain template functionality will be available to the
user under specific conditions. Thus, a single template can result in different content based on the
information supplied when the user employs the template to create a project. You set the conditions using
expressions in the Conditions tab in the template editor, which also displays all conditions and questions
defined for a particular template.
The list of fields for possible field matches can be different for each type of project and is defined by which
fields are included in the TemplateMatch group. If you add a new template type, make sure you add suitable
field match fields to the TemplateMatch group for the newly created template type.
Examples of fields on which you can use field match to create a condition”
• Event Type
• Commodity
• Regions
• Departments
• Project State
Field match conditions can be defined on numeric, money, and date fields. You can also nest expressions to
create more complicated outcomes.
For more information on applying a condition to an entire template see “Setting Conditions on Entire
Templates” on page 40.
a Log in as a user with permissions to edit the template where you want to create the condition.
c Navigate to the Conditions tab of the template and click Add Condition in the Conditions area.
e Click OK.
a Navigate to the Documents tab in the template and find the document you want to link to the newly
created condition.
b Click the document title and choose Edit.
c Set the Conditions field to the newly created condition. Multiple conditions can be associated with any
given item and you can choose Any of, All of, or None of for that item.
d Click Save.
3 Test to make sure the document appears when the region is selected.
You can use the Test Conditions area in the Navigation Panel to help show which documents are
applicable for different field choices. For example, if you check and deselect the box next to Region =
USA, you see the document you set the field for both displayed normally and greyed out as follows:
If the document appears greyed out, it is not included in any project built from this template with the fields
set as shown in the Test Conditions area of the navigation panel.
The condition in the previous graphic would not be true if any of the fields did not match during project
creation.
If you want to create an expression that makes a condition true only if you have a client in both APAC and
EMEA, set your expression as follows:
Note: Expressions can be stacked and nested in many possible combinations. Take care while designing
conditions that the logic you define makes does not unintentionally contradict itself.
2 In the Properties area of the Overview tab of the template, click Actions > Edit Properties.
3 In the Conditions field, choose the condition you defined earlier.
4 Click Save.
5 Make sure the condition appears in the Overview tab of the template. In the example below, this template
only appears as a choice during project creation if the region is set to EMEA.
Because answers can define conditions and the visibility of questions can be controlled with conditions, you
can have cascading conditional questions that are only asked if previous questions are given particular
answers.
Questions are presented to users during project creation using a particular template. Questions, when linked
to conditions, determine whether objects such as documents and tasks are included in the project.
To view or create questions for a particular template, navigate to the Conditions tab where the questions are
visible at the bottom of the screen and click Add Question.
The order of the questions in the table on the Conditions tab is the order in which the questions appear
during project creation. You can rearrange the questions by dragging and dropping them.
Questions define conditions for each defined answer and, exactly like conditions explicitly defined, you
must associate the condition to the object in the template you want to be conditionally included.
You can also change the visibility of a question by associating one or more conditions with it using Visibility
Conditions. Visibility conditions control whether the user creating the project from the template can see a
particular item. For example, if you set the visibility condition of a particular question’s answer to a
condition that is true only if the Region is APAC, that answer is only offered to users creating a project from
that template if the Region is APAC.
Note: Questions cannot be used to specify whether a template is available during project creation because
questions are defined within a given template, and cannot be defined independently of a template.
By default, only two answers are shown: Yes or No. You can change the text of any answer by editing it
directly in the table. Add as many answers as you like by clicking Add Another Answer. Answer text cannot be
blank. At least one answer must define a condition that is to be true if that answer is given, and any of the
answers can define a corresponding condition. Enter the condition name in the Defined Condition column.
The condition you define here is functionally identical to a condition defined explicitly, such as a Region
match. For a condition to have any effect on projects created from a template, you must associate the
conditions for each answer to an object, such as a task, document or user, in the system. The conditions that
a question's answers define do not appear in the Conditions table on the Conditions tab, but appear in italics
in a detail row below each question in the Questions table.
You can control which answer is the default and, therefore, shown initially during project creation by using
the radio button under Default Answer. If you check the Default must be Changed checkbox, the user is
required to actively choose an answer, and cannot create the project without making a choice. In many cases,
--- is shown for the text of a default answer that the user must supply, and you define no condition for that
answer.
If you set Is answer visibility conditional? to Yes, an additional column appears in the table of Answers, so
you can define a Visibility Condition for one or more answers. Setting Is answer visibility conditional? to
Yes allows you to have answers that the user sees only if one or more conditions are true.
If you set the Can answers set project fields? to Yes, a detail row appears under each answer, and you can
choose a field that should be set to a specified value when that answer is chosen. Initially, when you change
the field name for one answer, the field name changes for all of the fields. After you set a value for an
answer, you can change the field name for each answer independently. The assumption is that initially you
set the same field for every answer, but you can either override that and set different fields or set a field only
for a subset of the answers.
You can then define conditions based on particular values being set on the field, which can be used to gate
the appearance of additional content.
Testing Questions
You can test newly created questions using the Create My Test Project command under Advanced Options in
the navigation panel. Create My Test Project shows you what users will see when they create a project of the
same type as the template. In this test page, the template you are testing is the only choice. You can see the
questions and answer them. Create My Test Project allows you to return to the template editor only if you
answer required questions and enter data in all required fields. However, if you click Return to Template Editor
you can return to the template editor at any time.
When you return, the list of Test Conditions in the navigation panel is checked according to the results of the
choices you made during Create My Test Project. Items in the Documents, Tasks, and Team tabs are
inaccessible if their conditions are not checked. Although you can manually change the condition values in
the Navigation Panel, it is often more useful to change them through repeated cycles of creating a test
project.
Note: Using Advanced Options > Default Conditions resets the conditions back to their default state.
Access the Edit Overview screen by clicking Actions > Edit Overview in the Overview area. On this screen,
you can change:
• The field choices made during project creation.
• Answers to questions on the Template Questions tab.
When you makes changes to field choices or question answers, the application evaluates template
conditions. Content not previously applicable can become applicable, and unmodified and non–applicable
content (added to the project from the template because of a condition that is no longer true) that you have
not modified and is no longer applicable can be removed from the project. Modified content is never
removed regardless of its applicability.
Note: The application treats any action with a document as a modification. Viewing a document, for
example, is considered modifying it.
Note: Do not export templates from a prior release of Ariba Sourcing, and then attempt to import them into
the current release. This will result in errors.
W To export a template:
1 Navigate to the Templates area of Ariba Sourcing. You must be able to view a template to export it, but
you do not necessarily have to be the owner.
2 Open the template you want to export. The template can have any status.
3 In the Properties area of the Overview tab of the template, click Actions > Export Template.
4 Choose the location to save the archive ZIP file. Note that DFS is not required for template export or
import, and exported ZIP archives are not placed an any particular location by default.
5 Choose a name for the archive ZIP file and save it. By default, the ZIP file is named for the Workspace ID
of the template. You can rename it.
W To Import a Template:
1 Click Templates in the Navigation Panel. You must be able to view the Templates project to import a
template.
2 Go to the templates workspace Documents tab, click the Actions > Import Template.
3 Browse for a valid ZIP template archive file and click Import.
4 Verify that the template has imported properly. You are the owner of any templates you import, so you
automatically have the ability to view it.
If there are shortcuts to Knowledge Library documents, only the shortcuts copy, but not the referenced
Knowledge Library documents themselves. If the referenced Knowledge Library documents are in the target
system, then the shortcuts will point to those. If the referenced documents are not available, the shortcuts are
still imported but a warning message will result when you attempt to view the referenced documents.
2 Click Common Actions > Manage Templates. Click the Team tab of the Templates project.
Add the user to one of the project groups, but not the Project Owner group. Be careful not to add
inappropriate users to the Project Owner group, since that group enables special privileges.
After a template exists, anyone in the Project Owner group for the template can view and edit it, regardless
of whether they are on the templates team. Thus, the user who initially creates the template can then add
other users cannot create templates, but can can edit and improve the a template.
Note: When a project is first created from a template, all tasks are generally owned by the Project Owner
group, or another project group it is the owner shown in the template.
Initially the tasks are open to any of the users in the owner group to take them on, but individuals take
ownership of tasks when they mark them as started. The previous owner project group is set as a Participant,
so group members can continue to edit the task.
You can use project group ownership to restrict viewing of folders within templates. This practice makes
templates team members unable to explore in a folder restricted to owners and has a particular project group
as its owner. This practice does not, however, prevent the template team user from searching to find
templates within such folders. Project access permissions do not check nested folder permissions containing
the project or template.
Only members of the templates team can move templates with drag and drop in the templates area. If a user
isn't in the Team for the Templates Project, that user could still be a team member of an individual template.
However, because that user is not a member of the Templates Project, the user would have to search for the
template by name to view it.
Note: Users who are not members of the Templates workspace cannot view templates because the Access
Control for the workspace is set to Team Members Only. Furthermore, if the Access Control for the
Templates workspace is set to Private to Team Members, only members of the team can see the Templates
link in the upper right of the Search Projects screen or the Manage Templates link in the Navigation Panel. If
you want all users to be able to view templates, you can remove the access control.
Notification profile specifications are overridden by any notification preferences that users specify. See
“Using Notifications” on page 21 for details on these preferences.
6 Click OK.
This profile is now available to associate with tasks in the template.
4 Click the task name and choose Edit Task to edit the task.
5 Expand the Notifications section of the screen, and choose a notification profile.
6 Click OK.
The Tasks tab displays the tasks that apply to the project. Generally, project templates provide a default set
of tasks. The following graphic shows a list of example tasks.
The following table lists the actions you can perform from the Tasks tab.
To do this... Choose...
Control task display the table icon and choose View By to change the task listing (by owner, or status, for
example), or choose Show/Hide Columns to show or hide columns.
Expand collapsed phases, or the table icon and choose Outline Expansion > Expand All or Collapse All.
collapse them
Export a list of tasks to the table icon and choose Export to Excel > Export all Rows.
Microsoft Excel
View task details the task name and choose View Task Details. You can view the task status, owner,
whether it is a milestone, due date, start date, the observers, whether it is required,
and the predecessor tasks.
Edit the task the task name and choose Edit Task. You can edit the task title, the owner, whether it
is a milestone, the completion date, the start date, the observers, whether it is
required, and the predecessor tasks.
Mark the task as complete the task name and choose Mark Complete. The task status changes to Complete.
To do this... Choose...
Mark the task as started the task name and choose Mark Started. The task status changes to In Progress.
Reactivate a complete task the task name and choose Reactivate. This changes the status of the task from
Complete to Not Started.
Associate documents with a the task name and choose Associate Document. This allows you to either change the
task, or change the document document associated with the task or change the task type. For example, if you
associated with a task associate a document to a To Do task, you can then change the task type to Review
Task. For more information, see “page 48Changing a Task Type or Associating a
Document” on page 53.
Create a new phase Action > Create > Phase to create a phase for dividing your tasks. You can format
the phase description text with bold, italic, underlining, lists, or colors.
Create a To Do task Action > Create > To Do Task to create a To Do task, which is a simple task to help
you keep track of actions you or other team members should perform. You can
format documents descriptions.
Cancel optional tasks Action > Cancel > Optional Tasks to cancel non-required tasks. This can help clarify
what is important for the project if your group has accumulated too many optional
tasks.
Add due dates for tasks Action > Commit > Due Dates to add dates in the Due Date field for each task into
the Committed column of the Tasks screen. You can use this date to keep track of
project progress and track externally committed due dates. Only the project owner
can commit due dates. Committed due dates do not have an approval process.
Note: Task due dates are expressed in calendar dates and do not take time zones into
account. This means that, from a task owner’s point of view, that a task might be
completed a day earlier or a day later depending on the time zone of the individual
assigned to complete the task.
Import or export the task list to Action > Microsoft Project > Import/Export to import or export your task list. See
Microsoft Project “Integrating with Microsoft Project and Outlook” on page 69 for details.
W To access My Tasks:
1 On the dashboard, click View More in the To Do content area.
2 Choose My Tasks:
The following table lists the tasks you can perform from the My Tasks screen.
To do this... Choose...
View a project the project title. This takes you to the project itself.
Control task display the table icon and choose View By to change the task listing (by owner, or status, for
example), or choose Show/Hide Columns to show or hide columns.
Expand collapsed phases, or the table icon and choose Outline Expansion > Expand All or Export Current Page.
collapse them
Export a list of tasks to the table icon and choose Export to Excel > Export all Rows Expansion > Expand All
Microsoft Excel or Collapse All. This expands or collapses your view of the phases.
View task details the task name and choose View Task Details. You can view the task status, owner,
whether it is a milestone, due date, start date, the observers, whether it is required,
and the predecessor tasks.
Edit the task the task name and choose Edit Task. You can edit the task title, owner, whether it is a
milestone, due date, start date, the observers, whether it is required, and the
predecessor tasks.
Mark the task as complete the task name and choose Mark Complete. The task status changes to Complete.
Mark the task as started the task name and choose Mark Started. The task status changes to In Progress.
Reactivate a complete task the task name and choose Reactivate. This changes the status of the task from
Complete to Not Started.
Associate documents with a the task name and choose Associate Document. This allows you to either change the
task, or change the document document associated with the task or change the task type. For example, if you
associated with a task associate a document with a To Do task, you can then change the task type to
Review Task. For more information, see “page 48Changing a Task Type or
Associating a Document” on page 53.
Approve a task the task name and choose Approve Task. This allows you to approve an approval task
assigned to you without viewing task details.
Deny a task the task name and choose Deny Task. This allows you to deny an approval task
without viewing task details.
Open a document the task name and choose Open Document to open the document associated with the
task.
Complete the review of a task the task name and choose Complete Review to finish the review of a document
associated with a task. This action is available only if you are a reviewer for the
document. This action only completes your portion of the review, and might not
complete the task
Dismiss a task Action > Dismiss Tasks where Dismiss is the only possible action to dismiss tasks
you did not own but were completed by the owner before you could mark them
complete.
Creating To Do Tasks
A To Do Task is a simple task that tracks an action. Unlike negotiation, review, or approval tasks, a To Do
task does not have to be associated with a document.
W To create a To Do task:
1 On the Tasks tab, choose Actions > Create To Do Task.
3 Choose the owner (the team member who performs the task).
4 Choose any observers. Observers can view the task and add documents.
8 For tasks you create in templates, enter a rank, which is a number that controls the chronological ordering
of tasks. For example, a task with rank 10 appears above and before a task with rank 20. You can also
change the ordering of task by dragging and dropping them on the Tasks tab.
9 Specify predecessors. These are the tasks which must be completed before the current phase can start. See
“Using Predecessor Tasks” on page 54 for details.
10 Click OK.
Note: You can also create Document To Do tasks. To do so, go to the Documents tab, click a document name
and choose Create New Task > To Do.
Note: Use an Approval for Launch task rather than an Approval task to manage approvals for an event.
3 Choose the reviewer. To specify multiple reviewers, you can use either of the following methods:
• Select multiple names from the chooser next to the Reviewers or Approvers field. This adds the users as
parallel nodes in the approval flow. Only one user in a set of parallel nodes is needed to review or
approve the document.
• Click the Review Flow or Approval Flow tab and then add users or groups. This enables you to add
reviewers in parallel nodes or serial nodes (users must review or approve the document in the specified
order).
If you are viewing the details of a task that is inherited from a template or viewing the task details for
subsequent review rounds, you must click the Review Flow or Approval Flow tab to add reviewers.
The behavior for groups in approval flows is controlled by system parameters and the task type. The
default behavior is as follows:
• For review tasks, the system expands the group (and any subgroups) and inserts each user as a parallel
approver in the approval flow. Each user receives notification about the task. Multiple members of the
group can review the document; the task remains in each user’s My Tasks list until the user reviews the
task or the task owner marks the review complete.
• For approval (and negotiation) tasks, the system inserts the group as a single unit in the approval or
negotiation flow. All users in the group receive notification about the task. Any one user in the group is
sufficient to approve (or review) the task (or move to the next approver in a serial flow).
4 Choose any observers. Observers can view the task and add documents.
6 Specify predecessors. These are the tasks which must be completed before the current phase can start. See
“Using Predecessor Tasks” on page 54 for details.
7 Enter a message to the reviewers.
8 Expand the Advanced Task Details. You can choose to lock the document (prevent changes while it is
locked), receive notification on comment, enable the reviewer to edit the document, and specify the order
of the task in relation to other tasks and phases. Expand Notifications to specify the time duration for
notification.
9 Click OK.
You can also create a Review or Approval task by first creating a To Do task, and then associating a
document with that task. For more information on this, see “page 48Changing a Task Type or Associating a
Document” on page 53
2 In the Tasks area, choose Actions > Create New Task > Create New Task > Review or Create New Task >
Approval.
3 Follow the instructions from step 2 for “To create review or approval tasks on documents:” to complete
the task.
Negotiation tasks are associated with a single document. You cannot associate multiple documents with a
single negotiation task. You can associate multiple tasks with a single document. You can associate a
negotiation task to a folder containing more than one document, but in that case the negotiation only
operates on the folder itself, not on the documents in the folder. You cannot create Negotiation tasks for PDF
documents.
If you have a Negotiation task on an eForm, the party with which you are negotiating often does not have
write access to the eForm. They either accept the eForm as it is or suggest changes in a counter proposal
where the changes are described in comments or in attached documents. The eForm owner can make the
changes and submit the new version as the proposal for the next round. The ability to make the counter
proposal using the eForm user interface itself is not supported.
Note: If you have a Negotiation task with a person who cannot access the application (a supplier or customer,
for example), you can negotiate with that person by assigning them as an Email Reviewer.
3 Choose the reviewer. For more information about choosing reviewers, see “Creating Review and
Approval Tasks” on page 50.
4 Choose any observers. Observers can view the task and add documents.
6 Specify predecessor tasks. These are the tasks which must be completed before the current phase can
start. See “Using Predecessor Tasks” on page 54 for details.
7 Enter a message to the reviewers.
8 Expand the Advanced Task Details. You can choose to lock the document (prevent changes while it is
locked), receive notification on comment, enable the reviewer to edit the document, and specify the order
of the task in relation to other tasks and phases. Expand Notifications to specify the time duration for
notification.
9 Click OK.
Negotiation tasks consist of rounds of negotiation. You can create a new round by clicking New Round. The
current round appears in the upper right of the task View Details screen.
• The negotiation task is required and the previous round was not denied or withdrawn
• The document version in the current round is the same as the previous round.
2 In the Tasks area, choose Actions > Create New Task > Create New Task > Negotiation.
3 Follow the instructions from step 2 for “To create negotiation tasks for a document:” to complete the task.
You can use Associate Document only for ad hoc tasks (tasks not specified by the template used to create the
project). Associate document allows you to change task types as well as associate a document or folder with
a task.
Using document association, you can create a To Do task, and then associate a document with it. This is also
useful when building templates, as often the tasks must be created before their associated document.
You can use Associate Document in both projects and templates, but it is only allowed for Inactive tasks.
This prevents a task from being changed while another team member is working on it.
3 Depending on what type of task you started with, you can change the type using Task Type. If you started
with a To Do task (which does not have an association with a document), you must choose a document
from the chooser before seeing a Task Type other than To Do.
4 Click OK.
You can specify more than one predecessor. The predecessors are listed as shown in the following:
You can specify predecessors in templates and projects. If you create predecessors from a template, team
members cannot change predecessor relationships in the project, but can add new predecessors to it. Also,
you cannot start a task until all of its predecessors are complete.
If you delete a task, or if a condition deletes it, the application removes it as a predecessor. When you cancel
an optional task that is the predecessor for another task, you can start that next task if there are no other
dependencies.
You cannot set a task as its own predecessor, or create a cyclic dependency. For example, if you set Task A as
a predecessor for Task B, you cannot then set Task B as a predecessor for Task A. Also, you cannot set
predecessor tasks in combination with recurring tasks.
Note: Predecessor tasks do not automatically start and complete. You must manually start or complete a
predecessor task.
Phases can either come from a template, or you can create them in a project. Like any object, you can edit
the properties of a phase by clicking View Details and Edit.
When you have multiple phases in a template, and then use it to create a project, the first phase starts
automatically and shows the status of In Progress in the resulting project.
• “Creating Phases” on page 55
• “Editing Phases” on page 55
• “Using Predecessor Phases” on page 56
• “Using Recurring Phases” on page 56
Creating Phases
W To create a phase:
1 On the Tasks tab of the project, click Actions > Create > Phase.
3 Provide a description for this new phase. You can view this description by clicking the phase in the Tasks
tab of a project and choosing View Details.
4 Use Subscribe For to choose associated keywords.
5 Use Display After to choose the position of this phase in the list of phases and tasks. For phases you
create in templates, enter a rank, which is a number that controls the chronological ordering of tasks. For
example, a phase with rank 10 appears above and before a phase with rank 20. You can also change the
ordering of phases and tasks by dragging and dropping them on the Tasks tab.
6 If this phase (and the tasks in it) are going to occur in the project more than once, set Recurring Schedule to
Yes and set the Recurrence Schedule. See “Using Recurring Phases” on page 56 for details.
7 Specify predecessors. These are the phases or tasks which must be completed before the current phase can
start. See “Using Predecessor Phases” on page 56 for details.
8 Click OK.
Editing Phases
After you create a phase, you can edit it to further suit your needs. To edit a phase, click its title and choose
Edit Phase. The following table lists the options available for phases:
Description The description of the phase. The description can be helpful in explaining when recurring
phases should be started, or when a particular phase is necessary.
Display After Where, visually, the phases are displayed. This setting does not control the due date of the
phase, only the vertical order in which the phase appears.
Planned Start Date When the phase should begin. You can choose a specific date for a phase to begin or set a
date offset, so that if previous tasks or phases run longer than scheduled, you do not need
to change the date manually.
Recurring Schedule Whether or not this phase is recurring. If this is set to Yes, additional recurrence controls
appear to allow you to specify recurrence. For more information on recurring phases, see
“Using Recurring Phases” on page 56.
Alert The alert color for the phase. By default, outside actions do not trigger this value and you
must set it manually. The alert is a visual cue for overdue phases.
If set, the alert appears as a colored box on the far right of the Tasks tab for the phase.
You can specify predecessor phases in templates and projects. If you specify the predecessor phase in a
project, team members cannot change the predecessor relationship, but can add new predecessors to it. Also,
you cannot start a succeeding phase or task until all of its predecessors are complete.
Predecessor phases can auto-start upon creation and can auto-complete when all tasks in the phase are
complete if the application settings allow automatic phase start and completion. See your application
administrator about phase autostart and complete settings.
Note: Only parent phases can be designated as predecessor phases. You cannot specify nested phases as
predecessors to other phases or tasks.
The application marks the recurring phase with the month in which it was created.
2 Click the master recurrence name and choose Action > View Phase Details.
5 Click OK.
You can only create a new occurrence in a recurring phase that has been started.
1 Display the master recurrence.
2 Click the master recurrence name and choose Action > View Phase Details.
3 Click Action and choose Create New Occurrence.
When you start the recurrence, the master recurrence disappears and is replaced by an actual phase. This
phase contains all of the tasks the master recurrence contained. The application marks the phase with the
month in which it was created. The next scheduled phase in the recurrence will begin automatically unless
you stop the recurrence. Stopping the recurrence halts the automatic generation of new recurring phases
from the master recurrence.
Because the application copies all tasks for each occurrence of the phase from the master recurrence, be sure
to publish all documents associated with the master recurrence before starting the recurrence so that they can
be used in the occurrences.
2 Click the master recurrence name and choose Action > Start Recurrence, or Action > Stop Recurrence, or Action
> Restart Recurrence.
Click the name of any occurrence of the master recurrence and choose Action > Show Recurrence or Action >
Hide Recurrence.
On the Tasks tab, the Document column displays the documents associated with tasks in a recurring phase.
3 In the Recurrence area at the bottom of the document screen, choose whether to create a new version of
the document or a copy of the document for each occurrence.
4 Click Save.
The Team tab area shows the project groups for that project. The following graphic shows an example of a
team, with the various project groups that comprise the team. Note that project groups can have one or many
members.
Group members can be individual team members or global groups. In this example, Event Administrator is a
global group. Global groups differ from project groups. Project groups are specific groups that are working
on a project. Global groups function for all of Ariba applications, not just in the project. Users can be
members of both types of group, but membership in a project group does not automatically assign a user to a
global group or assign any permanent access to the user.
In addition to team membership, there are access controls that can be set at the document or project level.
These access controls enable a project or document owner to refine the control of project team member
access to a project or document. Each project or document has associated access control settings. Users who
satisfy the access control settings are able to view the project or document and potentially modify it. Users
who do not satisfy the access control settings cannot view the project and are unaware that it exists, even if
they are team members.
Membership in a project group allows users to perform certain tasks at a project level, not a global level. If
you want to give a large group of people access to an event, set the access control rather than adding them as
team members. Add people as team members if you have a small group of people who need to receive
notifications and participate in the project.
Unique Characteristics
The Project Owner group has the following unique characteristics:
• The system creates a Project Owner group for every project.
• You cannot delete the Project Owner group.
• The Project Owner group always contains the Owner for the project. By default, the user who creates a
project is the Owner for the project, so the Project Owner group initially contains the user who created the
project.
You cannot remove the Owner of the project from the Project Owner group. If a user is the Owner of the
Project, the only way to remove that user from the Project Owner group is by using the Replace User
operation to change the Owner of the project to another user, then removing the original owner from the
Project Owner group.
• To prepopulate the Project Owner group from a template, you must use a Team Member Rules file. (If
you add users to the Project Owner group in a template from the Team tab, those users will be members of
the Project Owner group for that template project only; they are not inherited by any projects created
using that template.)
• The Project Owner group always has certain permissions and access rights regardless of any roles
assigned to it. For descriptions of these permissions and rights, see “Project Owner Group Capabilities”
on page 61.
• External users, such as suppliers, cannot be members of the Project Owner group.
• Create new project groups and add new users to project groups.
• View the project history (the History tab).
• Compose or read messages in events.
Tip: The most commonly used roles are Active Team Member and Observer Team Member.
The Team Member with Limited Access role does not satisfy any access control setting requirements. A
member of a group with this role would be able to view a project document that had no access control
settings.
A user in a group with the Document Signer role can be added as a signer to a signature task.
By default, all projects contain the Project Owner group. This group has special capabilities, as described in
“Project Owner Group” on page 60.
5 Define any roles for the group. see “Assigning Roles to Project Groups” on page 64.
6 Click OK.
2 Click Edit.
3 To add a member to an existing group, click the select link associated with that group, and choose a name
from the checklist, or click Other and search for a team member.
3 To remove a member from a group, click the select link associated with that group, and click the
member’s name.
Note: To globally replace a team member with a different team member, contact your administrator. The
procedure is documented in the Ariba Upstream Platform Customization Guide.
The active team member can modify the project and its contents. Active Team members can create tasks in
projects, can create documents, and receive email notifications about events in the project’s life cycle.
The observer team member can view the project, but does not participate in its creation. The following
example illustrates how to add an observer group to a project.
2 Click Edit.
4 Name the project group observers and choose the observer team member.
By default, the Observer Team Member role grants only the ability to edit announcements. Users in this
group do not receive email notifications about the project, and can only create basic objects in the project,
like To Do tasks and documents.
5 Click OK.
Note: If you specify the project owner at the template level, the project owner can edit the project group. This
capability is granted by group, and is not global for all project groups.
A team member who belongs only to a subproject cannot view the parent project if the parent is marked as
private. If subproject team member needs to access the parent project, you must add that member as a team
member for the parent project.
If you have groups in the parent project and in the subproject with the same names, then members of the
subproject groups have the same access they had in the parent project. Groups that have different names
between subprojects and parent projects do not inherit access.
Note: The same project groups must exist in the master project and the subproject in order for permission
inheritance to work.
You can control the inheritance of the team from the parent project to the subproject in a template by setting
the Doesn't Inherit Team field in the template. Setting this field only affects team inheritance attributes.
5 Set the attributes of the subproject placeholder, including Doesn't Inherit Team.
7 The subproject placeholder appears on the Documents tab as a folder icon with a phase icon on it. You can
assign conditions to this object exactly as you would any other document, task, or user in the template.
Ariba can display a maximum of four projects and six published documents in the Related Knowledge area,
although there is no limit to the number of documents or projects you can set up as Related Knowledge. You
can access additional documents through the Search Knowledge link. The More link displays a menu
containing additional related knowledge projects and documents.
The most relevant information appears at the top of the Related Knowledge area. For example, if your
project pertains to China, knowledge specific to China appears at the top, followed by knowledge for APAC,
and then generic knowledge.
Knowledge Projects
You access the information used in Knowledge Management by creating knowledge projects. These are
projects designed to contain general knowledge about your company and your company's processes that you
want to access or reuse.
Users do not need to be able to view or create knowledge projects to take advantage of the knowledge itself.
Related knowledge appears in the Knowledge Area independently of a user's access.
3 Enter the information pertaining to the type of knowledge you are archiving.
4 Click Create.
Note: Initially, you create knowledge projects in the same location as other projects. After you create it, you
must move your knowledge project into the Knowledge Area of the Vault, which is a content repository.
W To move a newly created knowledge project to the Knowledge Areas area of the vault:
1 Select the type of object to search for and click Search.
2 On the Search Projects screen, click Vault in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
3 Locate the knowledge project you just created. It should be in the New Projects folder in the vault.
4 Move the knowledge project into the Knowledge Areas folder by dragging and dropping it.
5 Open the Knowledge Areas folder and move the knowledge project to the appropriate folder.
For example, if you create a project in APAC (with no other attributes specified) only knowledge projects
with no value, All, APAC, or a child of APAC regions are can display knowledge documents in the Related
Knowledge area of a project.
When you create a project and specify nothing in the fields concerned with knowledge matching, only
knowledge projects marked as no value or All for those fields match. For example, if you specified your
knowledge project as only pertaining to North America, a project created without a region selected does not
display knowledge from that knowledge project. The following shows an example of a category knowledge
project being created with All selected for Region, Commodity, and Department:
The following table lists several examples of when a project and a knowledge project match:
If the commodity And the region of the And you create a new project Is the knowledge in the
of the knowledge knowledge project with... knowledge project
project is... is... available for use in project?
IT APAC Commodity = IT no
Region = APAC
If the commodity And the region of the And you create a new project Is the knowledge in the
of the knowledge knowledge project with... knowledge project
project is... is... available for use in project?
none APAC Region = China (hierarchical child yes
of APAC)
These document matching strategies do not function properly unless they are coupled with project level
matching, discussed in “Using Knowledge Projects” on page 69. The following section discusses both
techniques.
If the knowledge project containing the knowledge document does not match the project containing the
phase, the knowledge document does not appear in the Related Knowledge area. Documents with the
keyword All appear in the Related Knowledge area regardless of whether or not the phase subscribes to
anything.
Documents publishing no keywords never appear in the Related Knowledge area. You can locate them using
the Document Search.
2 Click Knowledge Areas in the upper right hand area of the screen.
4 Navigate to the document in the knowledge project you want to match to the project phase.
6 In the Publish Keywords field, click choose the keyword you want to associate with this document. The
administrator defines which keywords are available.
7 Click Publish.
8 Navigate to the template used to create the project containing the phase you want to associate with the
knowledge document.
9 Make sure the template is in Draft mode, so you can perform edits.
11 On the Edit Phase screen, click select in the Subscribe For field and select the keyword you chose for the
knowledge document above. For example, if the Keyword is Supplier, the selection would appear as
follows.
12 Click Publish.
When a user creates a new project with the template, the knowledge document appears in the Related
Knowledge area in the Dashboard whenever you view the phase.
The following are factors to keep in mind when creating a direct knowledge match between a task and a
knowledge document:
• A direct link is established in the project template before project creation.
• If the knowledge project containing the knowledge document does not match the project containing the
phase, the knowledge document does not appear in the task.
• Task-specific knowledge links directly to the task, not the task keyword.
2 Click Knowledge Areas in the upper right hand area of the screen.
6 Click select to select all relevant tasks in the Describes Task field.
7 Click Save.
Note: If you delete a keyword, all references to the keyword are deleted. This can cause unintended results
with knowledge matching. You cannot delete the keywords “All” or “Quick Link.”
The MPX file is an exchange format, and is only useful after you convert it to an MPP file. To convert an
MPX file to an MPP file, open the MPX file from the desktop and save it as an MPP. The conversion fails if
you manually modify the file extension from MPX to MPP.
For projects, if you do not use Date Offset, you must use Fixed Date. For templates, you must use Date
Offset.
Note: Microsoft Project integration does not support comma, (), or [] in the data you export. When exporting
tasks to a project where the user name contains a comma, (), or [], an error is generated and the name appears
blank in the project file.
3 Choose the location to save MPX file. The file name matches the project title (with + signs instead of
spaces) for the tasks tab you are exporting from.
4 View the file by opening it in Microsoft Project.
5 On the Import Microsoft Project File screen, browse for the mpp file (not a mpx file) to upload, and
choose whether or not to overwrite existing tasks.
If you choose to overwrite matching tasks, you effectively delete all template tasks and replace them with
the tasks from the Microsoft Project file. If you choose to not overwrite matching tasks, the tasks you
specify in the Microsoft Project file are added to the template. The overwrite adds tasks to the template
that already exist in the Microsoft Project.
6 Click Import to Project.
Note: During task export to Microsoft Project, users might be prompted to open or save twice. This behavior
is not due to Ariba Sourcing, but is caused by Microsoft Windows settings.
4 Scroll to the MPX - Microsoft Project Exchange File in the Registered File Types window and highlight
it.
5 In the Details for MPX Extension section that appears in the lower portion of the window, click Advanced.
6 In the Edit File Type window that appears, make sure the Confirm open after download box is not
checked.
7 Click OK.
8 Click Close.
3 Click the table options icon to the right of the screen and choose either Export to Outlook > Export all Rows or
Export to Outlook > Export Current Page.
Exporting all rows exports all tasks on the My Tasks screen to Microsoft Outlook, regardless of their
visibility on the screen. Exporting the current screen exports only the tasks shown by the current filter
settings.
A message displays across the top of the My Tasks screen indicating the number of tasks exported to
Microsoft Outlook.
4 All exported tasks appear in the Tasks folder of Microsoft Outlook:
After you have exported to Microsoft Outlook once, every subsequent export has the option of keeping all
previously exported tasks or deleting previously exported tasks. Deleting all previously exported tasks
before exporting the current tasks keeps tasks folder current. It can also be useful if you cancel or put on hold
a project, and prevents you from having to manually delete numerous tasks.
Keeping previously exported tasks is useful if you are still working on one or more tasks, and do not want to
remove them, but need to export new tasks.
K
Knowledge Management Q
adding keywords 72 questions and dynamic template application 43
function of 67 Quick Links 17
keyword matching 69
Related Knowledge area 67
Knowledge Projects 68 R
reactivating tasks 48
recurring phases 55
L removing team members 64
locking documents 24 replace a team member 64
review tasks 50
rounds in negotiation tasks 52
M
marking tasks
as complete 47 S
as started 48 saving a new version of a document 25
moving documents 24 searching for documents 25
moving sourcing projects 16 searching for sourcing projects 17