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How does the cross-project planning feature work?


Davit Grigoryan (271710) | asked Jun 23 '12, 5:15 p.m.
edited Jul 03 '12, 4:47 p.m. by Geoffrey Clemm (30.1k33035)
I wanted to know how does cross-project plan works if you want to track work item that is also associated with another timeline all together. Looks like I can't find the functionality info docs that gives you in debt detail and some examples.

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Aaron Burns (1161) | answered Jul 02 '12, 2:48 p.m.
JAZZ DEVELOPER
Hi Davit, the step of selecting an iteration for the cross project plan itself is a bit confusing, as it does not really take on the same meaning as selecting the iteration for a typical plan - this iteration can currently be anything, and does not need to mesh with the iterations/timelines of linked items. 

The cross project plan is basically used as a tracker, so following the steps in the link that Seth posted, you can set up links to items in properly associated containers. This includes the scenario you mentioned - basically you would be adding the contributes to/tracks link to stories within one project area from different timelines, and that will work fine - the iteration you selected for the cross project plan will not block you from selecting these items.  The schedule information for these items is displayed based on the Planned Snapshot from their respective plans - if they don't have this snapshot then the start/end dates from their respective iterations are used which will not show accurate roll-up information.  Let me know if you have further questions about this.  Thanks
Davit Grigoryan selected this answer as the correct answer

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Davit Grigoryan commented Jul 02 '12, 2:53 p.m.

Thanks for the reply. I will try this feature once I get a hold of the 4.0 version, but for now this sounds like an approach I have read so far. Thank you!

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Seth Packham (1.4k42213) | answered Jun 30 '12, 1:45 a.m.
FORUM ADMINISTRATOR / JAZZ DEVELOPER
Hi Davit, I don't have any experience with the feature, but there is at least one Help topic about it here:

http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/clmhelp/v4r0/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.ibm.team.apt.doc%2Ftopics%2Ft_creating_cross_project_plan_web.html

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Davit Grigoryan commented Jul 02 '12, 7:11 a.m.

Hi Seth, thank you for the link. I have seen this article before, but was not that helpful. I don't have access to 4.0 version and was hopping to see some snapshots on how it works. Like when you have story that spans over multiple Projects within the same Project Area (Container) how is that tracked in cross project plan, etc..


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Ralph Schoon (63.5k33646) | answered Jul 02 '12, 10:14 a.m.
FORUM ADMINISTRATOR / FORUM MODERATOR / JAZZ DEVELOPER
OK, it seems fairly simple. The Master Plan shows the elements on its timeline directly. Think of them as the top level management items that track all the fiddly bits. E.g a story or an epic.

You can configure a relationship to follow e.g. parent->child or some other that is based on the link types. When loading the master plan will show the work items that qualify underneath the work item on its iteration.

Assume Story1->Task1 (parent child or another relationship) if you configure the plan view display for a relationship (In the new&noteworthy contribute->tracks), the plan will show all those related elements (Task1) underneath the root element (Story1), regardless in which project or which timeline it is assigned to.

This is what you want. In your case the master plan would be for the team/timeline that is used to manage the stories and you pull in child tasks.

PS: You need to play with the parent->child or child->parent directions a bit.



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Ralph Schoon commented Jul 02 '12, 10:14 a.m.
FORUM ADMINISTRATOR / FORUM MODERATOR / JAZZ DEVELOPER

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Guido Schneider (3.4k1491115) | answered Jul 02 '12, 3:22 p.m.

The new CrossProjectPlan is just a new plan template based on the new plan view tree options capability, which allowing to do a workbreakdown not only on Parent/Child but also on other link types and you can also choose the direction of the workbreakdown.

In the CrossProjectPlan the predefined tree is based on link types Tracks/Contributes to.

This new link type is specially usefull, if you want to track work done on different project areas or specially (and unique for this link type) from different Jazz instances. But this new link type has many limitations which makes the usecases today very limited. Specially in the area of Scrum Projects contributing to a System Project. See also work items:

Tracked Work Items in a Cross Project Plan are showing incomplete or missleading informations
https://jazz.net/jazz/web/projects/Rational%20Team%20Concert#action=com.ibm.team.workitem.viewWorkItem&id=216482

Cross project plan does not consolidate progress/load from tracked workitems in the plan details
https://jazz.net/jazz/web/projects/Rational%20Team%20Concert#action=com.ibm.team.workitem.viewWorkItem&id=211799

One great enhancement in 4.0 in this area, is the fact, that one level of outplaced items (e.g. children) are displayed in the plans, and also progress is reported up this links. In 3.0.1 only outplaced parents where displayed and you "lost" the childrens and the progress of them if they were on other timelines or iterations.

This means  you can do plans over different timelines just by using Parent/Child or Resolves/Resolved by. WIth this link types you get all informations you need to track e.g. a system project. This works at least within the same Project Area.


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Ralph Schoon (63.5k33646) | answered Jul 02 '12, 8:48 a.m.
FORUM ADMINISTRATOR / FORUM MODERATOR / JAZZ DEVELOPER
David,

have you looked here: https://jazz.net/downloads/rational-team-concert/releases/4.0?p=news in the browser find "Cross Project plan". It is very few information, if you want to have a closer look, I would suggest to setup a small test system. You can run a test instance e.g. with 10 free developers if you like. I use test systems all the time.


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Davit Grigoryan commented Jul 02 '12, 9:03 a.m.

Hi Ralph,

Thanks for the link. I have created 4.0 Sandbox in jazz.net profile, but per instructions I needed to create multiple project Areas to use the cross project sample, but due to the limitation what you can and can't do from the sample sandbox I was not able to create multiple project areas to test this out.

Even than our organization will configure one Project Area for RTC and have plans for mutliple projects within the same project area. Do you know if cross project works with only multiple project areas or could be within the same area?


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Ralph Schoon (63.5k33646) | answered Jul 02 '12, 9:19 a.m.
FORUM ADMINISTRATOR / FORUM MODERATOR / JAZZ DEVELOPER
Hi, as far as I can tell from just creating it the cross project plan works also within a single project. I assume the added benefit in this scenario could be tracking work items that are in different timelines. I haven't relly had time to play around with it. What do you need that exceeds the other plan types?

With test system I was trying to suggest to setup a local test server with tomcat/derby for playing around.



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Davit Grigoryan commented Jul 02 '12, 9:28 a.m.

Thanks again for the quick respond. What I need is to track Stories that spans multiple timelines and with the current Plans in 3.01 this is impossible. With the Cross-Project as part of the selection of Iteration is selecting single timeline and I don't see how is this tracking multiple timelines if the required field is to select single timeline as part of the cross project setup?

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