Best way to organize multiple projects/agile-plans

Hi,

We are trying to best organize our projects here in RTC.

We have a suit of add-on products (Say Industry Solutions) in our
product family. There are approximately 15 products. Currently all
these projects are organized as streams under a single project area
named "Industry solutions".

Each of these products have got their own project plans
/timelines/release cycles etc..( literally-- but not implemented in
RTC). They also have literally their own teams working on any given
project. The whole project-area has only one team ( Industry
solutions team ) that can access all streams in this area.

The development teams now want to start using RTC for
"agile" project planning for each of these projects --with
their own teams/ workitems/ sprints etc..What is the best way to
organize this ? Is it still possible to create plans/iterations etc
for each project without interfering with any of the 15 other
projects( streams) in the same project area ? If yes, what are the
best practices/steps.?

OR

Would it make more sense to move each of the streams ( projects) into
its own project-area? This way we have to create new project area for
each product - 15 in total...what would be the cost of this? Would
this be an extra load on the server? besides the administrative
overhead of having to maintain 15 new project areas and their teams?

Any suggestions are most appreciated.

You'll want to give each of these products their own team area, but I
didn't see anything in your post that would have required creating
additional project areas. In general, I recommend creating as few
project areas as you can get away with. So try everything in one project
area until you encounter a good reason to create another project area.

Note: Some reasons for creating a new project area:
- A team requires a different process configuration that cannot be
overridden in a team area (e.g a different set of work item types).
- The team wishes their information to be read-protected from access by
members of other teams.

Giving each project its own team area should give you the isolation you
need. You would set up your "categories" to map to the appropriate team
area. You would create as many timelines as you need, and assign each
team area to the appropriate timeline. Plans appear under the
appropriate team area, so separate team areas will keep your plans
appropriately separated. Note that you'll want to change the ownership
of each stream to the appropriate team area.

Cheers,
Geoff

You'll want to give each of these products their own team area, but I
didn't see anything in your post that would have required creating
additional project areas. In general, I recommend creating as few
project areas as you can get away with. So try everything in one project
area until you encounter a good reason to create another project area.

Note: Some reasons for creating a new project area:
- A team requires a different process configuration that cannot be
overridden in a team area (e.g a different set of work item types).
- The team wishes their information to be read-protected from access by
members of other teams.

Giving each project its own team area should give you the isolation you
need. You would set up your "categories" to map to the appropriate team
area. You would create as many timelines as you need, and assign each
team area to the appropriate timeline. Plans appear under the
appropriate team area, so separate team areas will keep your plans
appropriately separated. Note that you'll want to change the ownership
of each stream to the appropriate team area.

Cheers,
Geoff


viveknair wrote:

Hi,

We are trying to best organize our projects here in RTC.

We have a suit of add-on products (Say Industry Solutions) in our
product family. There are approximately 15 products. Currently all
these projects are organized as streams under a single project area
named "Industry solutions".

Each of these products have got their own project plans
/timelines/release cycles etc..( literally-- but not implemented in
RTC). They also have literally their own teams working on any given
project. The whole project-area has only one team ( Industry
solutions team ) that can access all streams in this area.

The development teams now want to start using RTC for
"agile" project planning for each of these projects --with
their own teams/ workitems/ sprints etc..What is the best way to
organize this ? Is it still possible to create plans/iterations etc
for each project without interfering with any of the 15 other
projects( streams) in the same project area ? If yes, what are the
best practices/steps.?

OR

Would it make more sense to move each of the streams ( projects) into
its own project-area? This way we have to create new project area for
each product - 15 in total...what would be the cost of this? Would
this be an extra load on the server? besides the administrative
overhead of having to maintain 15 new project areas and their teams?

Any suggestions are most appreciated.

Nice info Geoff. I am in a similar situation and I would like to
understand what is the recommendation about the Project Timeline.

I understand none of those Timelines should be selected as the project
one. Right? So, question is: which is the possible side effects of not
having a Project Timeline?

Thanks,

Chemi.

On 2/11/2010 3:19 AM, Geoffrey Clemm wrote:
You'll want to give each of these products their own team area, but I
didn't see anything in your post that would have required creating
additional project areas. In general, I recommend creating as few
project areas as you can get away with. So try everything in one project
area until you encounter a good reason to create another project area.

Note: Some reasons for creating a new project area:
- A team requires a different process configuration that cannot be
overridden in a team area (e.g a different set of work item types).
- The team wishes their information to be read-protected from access by
members of other teams.

Giving each project its own team area should give you the isolation you
need. You would set up your "categories" to map to the appropriate team
area. You would create as many timelines as you need, and assign each
team area to the appropriate timeline. Plans appear under the
appropriate team area, so separate team areas will keep your plans
appropriately separated. Note that you'll want to change the ownership
of each stream to the appropriate team area.

Cheers,
Geoff

The Project Timeline is just the timeline that is used when you use the
project area itself as a team area. This is primarily for the case where
you just have one team using the project area, in which case that team
can just use the project area itself as its team area. If you have
multiple teams using the project area, then I recommend not having any
team use the project area itself as its team area (in which case there
is no need to have a Project Timeline). The reason I recommend this is
that roles are inherited down the team area hierarchy, which means
everyone with a given role in the project area will also have that role
in every team area (unless explicitly overridden in that team area), and
that is usually not what you want.

And then if you have every team have its own team area, then there is no
reason to have a timeline selected as the project timeline. (Or at
least, I'm not aware of any reason).

Cheers,
Geoff

Hi Geoff, I have been playing around with this configuration and I have
found a problem (or what I think it is a problem). I would like if you
can confirm this...

If I don't have a Project Area Time Line, then under Work Item
Categories I can't assign Categories to Team Areas. Does it make sense?

Thanks in advance,

Chemi.

On 2/12/2010 1:29 AM, Geoffrey Clemm wrote:

The Project Timeline is just the timeline that is used when you use the
project area itself as a team area. This is primarily for the case where
you just have one team using the project area, in which case that team
can just use the project area itself as its team area. If you have
multiple teams using the project area, then I recommend not having any
team use the project area itself as its team area (in which case there
is no need to have a Project Timeline). The reason I recommend this is
that roles are inherited down the team area hierarchy, which means
everyone with a given role in the project area will also have that role
in every team area (unless explicitly overridden in that team area), and
that is usually not what you want.

And then if you have every team have its own team area, then there is no
reason to have a timeline selected as the project timeline. (Or at
least, I'm not aware of any reason).

Cheers,
Geoff

So I have 2 team areas in my project area. I don't define any project
timelines at the proj-area level. How do I set timelines at the Team
Area level ?

On 2/17/2010 9:38 PM, viveknair wrote:

So I have 2 team areas in my project area. I don't define any project
timelines at the proj-area level. How do I set timelines at the Team
Area level ?

Hi,

I am a little lost here ..please help.
So I have 2 team areas in my project area. I don't define any project
timelines at the proj-area level. How do I set timelines at the Team
Area level ? How do I setup sprints (iterations) at the team-area
level?

If I want to set 2 sprints as current , ( sprint-1 for team-A and
sprint-1 for Team-B)..how can that be done?

When reports are generated, which sprint would it treat as current? I
would like to see the reports for the current sprints for both teams.

Thanks
Vivek




Chemiwrote:
On 2/12/2010 1:29 AM, Geoffrey Clemm wrote:
The Project Timeline is just the timeline that is used when you use
the
project area itself as a team area. This is primarily for the case
where
you just have one team using the project area, in which case that
team
can just use the project area itself as its team area. If you have
multiple teams using the project area, then I recommend not having
any
team use the project area itself as its team area (in which case
there
is no need to have a Project Timeline). The reason I recommend this
is
that roles are inherited down the team area hierarchy, which means
everyone with a given role in the project area will also have that
role
in every team area (unless explicitly overridden in that team area),
and
that is usually not what you want.

And then if you have every team have its own team area, then there
is no
reason to have a timeline selected as the project timeline. (Or at
least, I'm not aware of any reason).

Cheers,
Geoff

Hi Geoff, I have been playing around with this configuration and I
have
found a problem (or what I think it is a problem). I would like if you

can confirm this...

If I don't have a Project Area Time Line, then under Work Item
Categories I can't assign Categories to Team Areas. Does it make
sense?

Thanks in advance,

Chemi.