Phase Approval
The implementation project of the Hybrid Development company is proceeding as planned. The tasks of the first phase have already been completed. John (acting as the project planner) is happy with the progress and wants to start with the second phase. However he has to make sure that all requirements of the stakeholders have been met to avoid expensive corrections later on in the project. Therefore, he starts the phase approval process to get the confirmation from the relevant stakeholders such as the manager Thomas. Thomas does not have to access the project itself, he can instead work with a PDF file, that gives him a project overview. He can then sign this approval document.
Overview of the Approval Process
| Project Lead | Decision Maker | Status of the Phase |
|---|---|---|
| Creates approval | ||
| Assigns decision maker | ||
| Grants individual approvals | For approval | |
| Approval granted | Approval granted | |
| Completes phase | Approval granted, completed |
Approvals document the phases of a project. The purpose of approvals documentation is to ensure that all goals of a phase are complete. These goals are the prerequisites for the phase that follows, or for the completion of a project. Project participants that the project manager chooses decide on the approval of a phase. The decision makers grant or refuse individual approvals based on an approval document. They document their opinion on the processing state of the phase. The final approval of the phase takes place when all individual approvals have been given. After the approval has been completed, the processing of the next phase can commence. An approval cannot be revoked.
After the approval, the editing of the phase data is limited. For example, you can only confirm tasks that are not approval-relevant. However, the phase is officially complete only when the Completed status is set. The project manager or the responsible resource must decide when to complete the phase. From here on, you can no longer change the phase data. The project can be closed as soon as the last phase has been approved.
Hint
You do not need to use the entire approval process. The phase type controls the approval process. For example: it controls system behavior if one of the decision makers refuses the individual approval, but others grant the individual approval.
You need to assign decision makers to the approval. The project manager specifies the decision makers for the approval. The decision makers are the people that grant or reject individual approvals. The figure Assigning Decision Makers to the Approval shows the assignment of decision makers to an approval. The project manager selects a project role and then assigns the people staffed to this project role as the decision maker. A prerequisite for acceptance is therefore resource planning plus the staffing of the project roles.
When the approval begins, the system generates an approval document with the relevant data of the phase. For the decision makers, the approval document appears under Approvals on the initial Project Management screen. After the approval begins, the statuses of the phase are Released and For Approval.
The project manager finally approves the complete phase. Ideally, all individual approvals must be given first.
Note
Look at the following demonstration to learn how to execute the phase approval process:Approving the phase can release the successor phase for execution. The actual phase is completed by setting the status of the phase to Completed. This step can also be automated by making corresponding settings for the phase type. After you have set the status of a phase to Completed, you can no longer change it.