Applying a Project Template
Now that the project template is ready, you can apply it to the ‘Upgrade HP OpenView NNM to v10 (NNM10)’ project that you registered in exercise 1. Do this by switching in the Records console to ‘Projects’ and selecting this project.
Next, click on the Gantt Chart button in the toolbar. After the Gantt chart has opened, click on the + Apply Project Template… option in the left pane and select the ‘Prince2 – Project Initiation Phase’ template, which you created in the previous exercise.
When you press the Apply button, you will see that the ‘Initiation’ phase, as well as 3 tasks, are added.
You will notice, however, that the subject of the last task is displayed in bold. A small warning sign is also displayed for this task in the Gantt chart. When you hover the mouse cursor over this warning sign, you see the message: “Not enough approvers available to meet the required approvals.”
Click on the task to figure out what is wrong.
Questions:
Why is the warning sign displayed?
The Required approvals field is set to ‘3’. The task, however, only has 2 approvers (Ed Turner and Howard Tanner). This means that the minimum of 3 approvals cannot be obtained, unless another approver is added.
Why were only 2 approvers linked to this task?
Check the project task template ‘Approval from steering committee for project implementation’ (go to the records console and open project task templates in another browser tab). You will see that the following 3 boxes are checked:
- Service owner
- Requester’s manager
- Requester’s business unit manager
The owner of the service that is linked to the project is Howard Tanner, which explains why Howard is selected as an approver. The requester of the request that is linked to the project is also Howard Tanner. His manager is Ed Turner, which explains why Ed Turner is the 2nd approver.
To find out why the 3rd approver (the requester’s business unit manager) was not added, open the organization that is linked to Howard’s person record. This is the department ‘Widget Data Center, External IT’. Its parent organization is the business unit ‘Widget Data Center’. The manager of this business unit is also Howard Tanner. But because Howard was already selected as one of the approvers, he was not added again. That is why the task only has 2 approvers, even though it needs at least 3 approvals.
Until this issue is resolved, you will not be able to start the project. You will take care of this in the next exercise.