Associating Project Plans with Portfolio Versions or Sellable Items

You can associate or remove project plans with the portfolio version or sellable items. You can open a project plan associated with a portfolio version or sellable item. You can specify a governing project for the portfolio version or sellable item. An associated project plan specifies the tasks, milestones, and gates used by the portfolio manager and contributors to complete the day-to-day activities required to create and manage a portfolio version or sellable item.

This task shows you how to:

Before you begin: Open the portfolio version or sellable item whose project plan associations you want to manage.

Add a Project Plan

You can add a project plan to associate the project with the portfolio version or sellable item.

Tip: You can also drag project plans from Project Planning or 3DSearch results into the Project tab to associate them with the portfolio version or sellable item.

  1. To add a project plan, do one of the following, depending on your context:

    Context Action
    Item's identity card Click the entry in the Projects field or Information.
    Item's context menu Click Information.

  2. Select the Project tab.
  3. From the toolbar, click Add Projects.
  4. From the 3DSearch results, select one or more project plans to associate with the portfolio version or sellable item.
  5. Click OK.
    The selected project plans are now listed in the Project tab.

The project plan is now associated with the portfolio version or sellable item. If it is the only project plan associated with the portfolio version or sellable item, it is listed by name in the Projects field. If other project plans are already associated with the portfolio version or sellable item, a link in the Projects field indicates the total number of associated project plans.

Open a Project Plan

You can open the project plan associated with a portfolio version or sellable item from within the Project tab.

  1. To open a project plan, do one of the following, depending on your context:

    Context Action
    Item's identity card Click the entry in the Projects field or Information.
    Item's context menu Click Information.

  2. Select the Project tab.
  3. From the context menu of the project plan, select Open With > Project Planning.

    Tip: You can also drag a project plan from the Project tab into Project Planning to open it.

The project plan opens in Project Planning.

Specify a Governing Project

You can track all the deliverables, timelines, gates, and milestones for the portfolio version or sellable item by specifying a governing project.

  1. To specify a governing project, do one of the following, depending on your context:

    Context Action
    Item's identity card Click the entry in the Projects field or Information.
    Item's context menu Click Information.

  2. Select the Project tab.
  3. Select an existing project plan.
  4. From the context menu of the project plan, select Set as governing.

The governing project badge,, appears before the project name to indicate that the project is the governing project for the portfolio version or sellable item. If another project was previously specified as the governing project, this designation is removed from that project when it is added to the one you selected.

Remove a Governing Project

You can remove a governing project from a portfolio version or sellable item.

  1. To remove a governing project, do one of the following, depending on your context:

    Context Action
    Item's identity card Click the entry in the Projects field or Information.
    Item's context menu Click Information.

  2. Select the Project tab.
  3. From the context menu of the project plan, select Unset as governing.

The governing project badge,, is removed from the project's tile so that it is no longer specified as the governing project for the portfolio version or sellable item.

Remove a Project Plan

You can remove a project plan from the portfolio version or sellable item so that it is no longer associated with it.

  1. To remove a project plan, do one of the following, depending on your context:

    Context Action
    Item's identity card Click the entry in the Projects field or Information.
    Item's context menu Click Information.

  2. Select the Project tab.
  3. Select one or more project plans that you want to remove from the portfolio version or sellable item.
  4. On the toolbar, click Remove Projects.

    Tip: You can also remove an individual project plan by clicking Remove in its context menu.

The removed project plans are no longer associated with the portfolio version or sellable item.

View the Consolidated Project Schedule

You can view a consolidated schedule of all projects associated with the items in a portfolio version or sellable item.

  1. Click the Schedule tab.
  2. Click to expand the portfolio version or sellable item structure to show all items in the structure.

The project timelines for all associated projects are displayed, one per line.

The milestones and gates for governing and related projects plans have different colored nodes on the timeline so that you can differentiate between them.

Tip: You can navigate through the timeline, and right-click to open the relevant project plans if you have a responsibility that includes this permission.