Checking Projects with the Project Planning Board

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to create projects with the Project Planning Board

Aspects of Planning

Aspects of planning include project structures, dates, payments, resources, materials, and costs and revenues.

Project planning includes the following business aspects:

  • Dates
  • Costs
  • Revenues
  • Material
  • Resource
  • Payments

You prioritize certain aspects depending on the type of the project. For example, in a customer project, the planned finish date is of major relevance. In contrast, in investment projects, the budgeted costs might be more important than other aspects. The aspects of planning are mutually dependent. For example, to keep a deadline, you need to allocate more resources. By doing so, you are likely to increase costs.

Project Planning Board

James and Linda Discuss Planning Options in the Project System

James is a project planner at Hybrid Machinery. Linda works there as a controller. They are discussing the planning options in SAP S/4HANA EPPM Project System.

Note

This is their conversation:

Objects in the Project Planning Board

Objects in the Project Planning Board include WBS elements, activities, relationships, materials, milestones, basic dates, PS texts, and documents.

The Project Planning Board is a tool in the SAP Project System (PS) that enables you to process the entire project structure in an integrated environment. It is based on an interactive SAP Gantt chart. The Gantt chart comprises a table and a diagram area, which show the hierarchical structure of your project and the situation with regard to dates.

You can use the Project Planning Board in the following ways:

  • You can call detail screens for objects or change the field selection and time settings by choosing different elements on the Project Planning Board.
  • You can create and edit WBS elements, activities, relationships, milestones, material components, documents, PS texts, and the project definition. By right-clicking, you can display all the functions available at the cursor position.
  • You can display or hide specific objects (activities, relationships, or milestones) when using the Project Planning Board.
  • You can configure the Project Planning Board so that it only displays what you need.
  • You can use various filtering, sorting, or grouping functions.
  • You can plan dates and resources (work, external processing), and use activities to determine planning costs.

Graphical Displays in the Project Planning Board

Graphical displays in the Project Planning Board include the capacity overview, dates, the hierarchy graphic, the network graphic, maintenance orders, the materials overview, and the cost/revenue overview.

In addition to the scheduling overview, you can display the following overviews in the Project Planning Board:

  • Capacity overview

    Display a work center's capacity utilization for selected activities. Green bars indicate that some capacity is still available, while red bars indicate that the available capacity has been exceeded.

  • Materials overview

    Displays components (and the corresponding requirements dates) assigned to selected activities

  • Cost and revenue overview

    Display the distribution of the costs and revenues for selected WBS elements or activities

  • Maintenance orders

    Display maintenance orders that have been assigned to an activity.

From the Project Planning Board and the Project Builder, you can call the hierarchy graphic for WBS elements or the network graphic for activities, and work interactively in the graphics.

How to Create Projects with the Project Planning Board

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