Experiments

The experiments page lists the experiment projects created from a root project. An experiment enables a project lead to do "what if" analysis on an In Work project without altering the root project. Once you get satisfactory results, you can merge the results of an experiment back to the root project.

On the Projects page, click the name of a project. See Projects Page. In the navigation pane, click Experiments > Experiments tab.

When you select an experiment from the list, you can manage the experiment's details in these tabs:

The Structured View tab displays the task structure of the experiment. See Experiment Structure.

The Flattened View tab displays the flat view of all tasks in the experiment. See Working the Flattened View.

The Gantt Chart tab displays the Gantt view of the experiment. See Working the Gantt Chart.

This topic describes:

This page discusses:

Fields

Field Name Description
Name Lists the root project and all experiments under it. Experiment projects are initially assigned an "Exp" prefix. Click the name to view the schedule structure in the Structure tab.
Diff.The difference between the root project and experiment project in duration. A positive number for an experiment project indicates time savings.
Type The type of project, for example, Project Space or Experiment.
StateThe lifecycle state of the project.
Estimated DurationThe estimated duration of the project.
Estimated Start DateThe estimated start date of the project.
Estimated End DateThe estimated end date of the project.
DescriptionThe description of the project.
CreatorThe person who created the project.

Action/Toolbar Commands

Toolbar Commands Description
Create Creates an experiment project under the root project, which is a copy of the root project. Only the Project Lead or Project Owner can create an experiment project. Float values and the overall critical path for the experiment is calculated during creation of the experiment.

The user who creates an experiment is the creator or originator. The owner is the project owner of all the newly created duplicate objects in the experiment. Sub projects are also cloned and converted into the experiment.

If the root project is scheduled from the finish date and a task in this project has an external dependency, the external dependency does not carry forward when creating the experiment of the project. Since the external dependency is not carried forward, the difference is shown in the dependency column of the compare view and this dependency is not synced in either direction between the root project and the experiment.

Following are the objects copied in the experiment from the root project: project members, task schedule (estimated), task constraints, task states, and task calendar.

Note: You cannot create experiments using projects in the Complete state or beyond.

Delete Deletes one or more selected experiments. Only the Project Lead can delete experiments.

Even though an experiment has the policy of Project Space it does not have constraints of conditional deletion based on its state. This means you cannot delete active projects; however, you can delete active experiment projects. Any sub experiment projects are disconnected when the root experiment is deleted.
Compare Schedule Displays a comparison between project schedules in the Structure pane. The comparison can be either between two experiments or between an experiment and its root project.

To compare one experiment with another experiment, select both experiments and click "Compare Schedule."

A confirmation message displays asking if you want to compare and sync assignees. Clicking "OK" displays an Assignee column in the comparison and syncing. Clicking "Cancel" does not display the Assignee column.

To compare an experiment with its root project, select the single experiment to be compared against that root. (You do not need to select the root project for the comparison to work.)

To view the comparison, see Experiment Structure.
Enable Edit Enables updates to the Name and Description fields, if you have "modify" access on the project. When finished editing click Save and then Disable Edit.
Mass UpdateIn Edit mode, you can mass update the Name or Description fields for an experiment project.