Overview
The Enterprise Service Management (ESM) system's project management component allows details associated with project's activities to be traced in either a Waterfall or Card Wall format.
Warning
A Project can have more than one plan associated with it in any combination of Waterfall and Card Wall desired; however, each plan is unique and does not represent a different view of another plan.
Important
A project plan can only be added after a project request has been submitted.
Project Plan Types
| Plan Type |
Desciption |
| Waterfall Plan |
A waterfall plan is a relatively sequential set of projects tasks that are interrelated by predecessors. Waterfall plans are typically shown as Gantt charts.
Waterfall plans can be managed with the web plan manager in TDWorkManagement or Windows based Plan Manager applications, while card wall plans are managed using the card wall user interface in TDWorkManagement. Waterfall plans are designed to manage complex plans like those with interdependent tasks and shared task responsibility.
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| Card Wall Plan |
A card wall plan is a set of project takes that are not related by predecessor or successor tasks, and each task can be accomplished independently of each other. Card wall plans are shown as graphical elements that progress through task stages.
Card wall plans are designed to manage simple plans with independent tasks which are executed by collaborative teams.
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Differences Between Waterfall and Card Wall Plans
Card Wall Plan Features
Card Walls provide a more visual and collaborative means for managing work through lists of cards. The lists can be customized to suit a team’s needs, such as to support a development team’s process for how work travels through various statuses. A custom list set up may be created in a Project Template for re-use. In addition, Cards will show up as tasks in ESM reports and dashboards that currently display task information.
The following features are specific to Card Wall plans:
- Start / End Dates optional
- Real Time Updates
- Drag and Drop Status Updates
- Drag and Drop Percent Complete Updates
- Subtask checklists
- Color coding of tasks
- Work in Progress Limits
- Task Archive
- Inactive (hidden) Lists
Waterfall Plan Features
Waterfall plans provide more support for a complex task structure. Since waterfall plans may be more involved to manage, they use a locking feature for editing the plans. Project managers can create dependencies between tasks and create schedules for when tasks occur. Milestone functionality allows for identification of key delivery points in the project that may be used in reporting to summarize progress or show upcoming deliverables.
The following features are specific to Waterfall plans:
- Check in / check out editing
- Required start and end dates for tasks
- Milestones
- Shifting
- Predecessors/Dependencies
- External Dependencies to other waterfall plans in the same or different projects
- Parent/Child tasks
- Plan Export/Import
- Add Time for Other User (available from TDWorkManagement Task Edit)
- Cut/Copy/Paste Tasks
- Foreground Color
- Baselining tasks / milestones (available via Windows Plan Manager)
- Offline editing of plans (available via Windows Plan Manager)
Plan Examples
| Card Wall Uses |
Waterfall Uses |
- Software development life cycle
- Agile project management
- List brainstorming / collaboration
- Simple project management
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- Infrastructure project management
- Complex management with intricate relationships between tasks
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Is there any additional information I should know about?
Hybrid models for project management have become mainstream and project managers may want to explore how they can use both types of plans to effectively manage a project leveraging their respective benefits. A project manager can use a waterfall plan to create milestones for the main project deliverables. These milestones will have dates that may be used in reporting to summarize the project or look at upcoming deliverables across the portfolio. The work to create and deliver those milestones could be done by teams via card walls. Teams have gravitated more toward collaborating on work via card walls and the project manager can enable their resources to build out and manage their work. The project manager can monitor the progress and reflect updates in the milestone plan accordingly. While there are not direct associations between card wall and milestone plans, this allows the project manager to interpret the progress being made and reflect the status they feel is most accurate.
Need additional help or have issues
For support, requests may be submitted anytime using the appropriate Enterprise Service Management form. Requests generate a Ticket which will be worked in order received and urgency by IT Employees with the knowledge and permissions to assist with the request.
For immediate assistance please review the Contact Us page for the appropriate support group.