Creating a Project by Importing from a File

You can create a project by importing information from an existing project, and then change the project information as required.

Required access roles and license:

  • Baseline: Leader with DPM license
  • App-specific: Project Leader with DPM license

For information about acceptable formats for an imported project, see Project Import File Format.

  1. From the Projects list page, select Create Project > Import From.
  2. Enter the basic details for the project:

    Note: The Collaborative Space is shown in which the project is created.

    Import From File. Click Choose File and select the file to be imported.

    Type. Shows as Project Space. If alternate types or subtypes are defined for your system, click to select a subtype. You can select only one subtype. The type selected determines the policies made available in the Select Policy field and the corresponding attributes on the page. The type chooser is available only when there is more than one type. If there is only one project type, this field becomes a read-only field showing the project type.

    Name. Enter the name of the new project. Click Autoname to have the system assign the project name.

    Project Date. The date on which the project is estimated to start or finish, based on the value of the Schedule From field. To change the date, click . When using a start date, the default is today's date. Depending on how tasks are added to the project, the tasks may take on this date by default. For example, if you add tasks from scratch, they automatically have the same estimated start date as the project. For more information about estimated start dates, see About Tasks.

    Policy. Select the policy to govern the project from the list. The policies in the list are for the Project Type selected. If the type only has one policy, this field is read-only.
    Note: If you select a custom policy, the custom policy must be added to the DomainAccess.xml file to successfully create the project.

    Project Visibility.

    • Company. If a company visible project is created when you are logged in with a particular Organization/Collaborative Space, the project gets that Organization/Collaborative Space. All users who belong to that Organization are given access to the project, regardless of the Collaborative Space.
    • Members. If a member visible project is created when you are logged in with a particular Organization/Collaborative Space, the project gets that Organization/Collaborative Space. All users who belong to that Organization/Collaborative Space are given access to the project.
    Note: Once a project is created, you cannot change its visibility.
    Note: This field is not available when creating projects in a 3DBaseline environment.

    Base Currency. The currency in which financial data is stored. The base currency applies to budgets, benefits, resource requests, and forecasts. The base currency is set at project creation time and you cannot change it after creation.

    On premises only: The base currency is set in the emxCommon.Currency.Triangulation property in the emxSystem.properties file.
    Note: If you want to see the project's functionality in another currency, then set the user's Currency Preference to that currency as described in Web App Preferences.

    Description. Enter a brief description of the project.

    Import Option. Click Use Start and End Dates as Entered to keep the start and end dates from the import file. Duration is calculated based on these dates. Duration is computed as whole days (without a decimal for hours). If you do not select this option, task start and end dates are calculated based on duration, the constraint date (if present), and the project date. Click Execute in Background to perform the project import as a background job. You receive an email notification when the import completes.

    Schedule From. Select an option from the list menu:

    • Project Start Date. Schedule the project based on when you start.
    • Project Finish Date. Schedules the project based on the finish date.

    Default Constraint. The default constraint type for project tasks. If this is set to "As Soon As Possible" the constraint type for tasks defaults to "As Soon As Possible." Otherwise, the default constraint for tasks is "As Late As Possible."

    Calendar. Click to select one or more calendars for the project. If only one calendar is selected, it becomes the default calendar. If more than one calendar is selected, none of the calendars become the default, in which case you must set the default calendar from the Project Properties page. The default calendar is used in project scheduling. If a project does not have a default calendar connected, the system calendar is used for scheduling. The system calendar has 5 workings days and 8 working hours per day with Saturday and Sunday as non-working days.

    Business Unit. The business unit. Click to select a business unit.

    Program. Select one or more programs to be associated with the project. Click and then search for the programs. The search results list programs from collaborative spaces associated with the logged-in user.

    Business Goal. The business goal that this project fulfills. Since only the host company can work with business goals, the field is shown only for host company employees. To associate a business goal with the project, click . The search results list business goals from collaborative spaces associated with the logged-in user.

  3. Click OK.
    A message displays if there are circular dependencies in the import file. Click Preview to check the tasks having circular dependencies. Remove these circular dependencies from the file and import the project again.