A project is a container that helps in reporting and managing information. A project can contain only one template but can support multiple products. SAP Cloud ALM allows creation and management of multiple parallel projects. 

In order to start working in SAP Cloud ALM you need to create a project. You can create it from Projects Tile in Fiori launchpad or create it from Overview page.

There are Seven easy steps to create a Project in SAP Cloud ALM

1. Enter a Project Title - Enter a Project Name

2. Select SAP Activate Template - SAP Cloud ALM comes with preloaded content from SAP activate methodology. And when you select one of these templates, this methodology is converted to a task list. Selected Template can also be changed later

3.Set the Access Level – Access level in a Project is a newly introduced option that is offered during Project creation with three values

Below three access levels can be determined in a project . A Project lead can decide from one of the three options 

• Public — Allows Read and Edit access to Project Lead, Project members and even to  non-Project members provided they have sufficient authorization 
• Restricted —  Allows Read access to non-Project Members provided they have sufficient authorization, and Edit access only to Project Lead and Project members  
• Private —  Both Read and Edit access only to Project Lead and Project members for the specific Project 

Note: This setting is influenced by authorizations roles. As an example someone with Project administrator authorization role can access information Private projects. For details refer official help or this Blog Post

4. Setup Integration Scenario (Optional) – Integration with Central Business Configuration (Completely Optional). A Project in SAP Cloud ALM can be connected to multiple Projects in SAP Central Business Configuration

5. Setup Timeboxes – SAP Cloud ALM provides 3 different types of Timeboxes 

• Phases – Other than the Prepare Phase, any Phase can be deactivated. Also, Custom Phase can be added 
• Sprint (Optional) – Created Sprints should be aligned to a Phase  
• Milestones – Should be aligned to a Phase 

6. Setup Teams – A project can have one or more Teams. The Team “PMO” is created automatically and can not be deleted. You can create custom roles to be used in a Team. Tasks can be assigned to Persons, Roles, or Teams

7. Setup Scopes- Scope is a Group of Processes that are managed for a common purpose

Once the setup is complete, you can select an Integration scenario during Project Setup and link. You can check the onboarding in Expert portal for more information.

A Project in SAP Cloud ALM can be linked to multiple Projects in SAP Central Business Configuration (CBC). 

When a CBC Project is linked to a SAP Cloud ALM Project, Project activities from CBC are replicated as Template tasks in SAP Cloud ALM. The content follows the hierarchy given by SAP Activate. Project activities from CBC are shown as children of Activate Template Tasks under the Activate deliverables. CBC Project activities show as Template tasks with a source “SAP Central Business Configuration”.

Why multiple teams in a Project:

As Projects can be bigger in size , the Project lead may want to track different areas of work differently. As an example the Project lead my want to divide the Project user base by

• Countries
• Lines of Business
• Org structure
• Special focus eg Auditing and compliance
• Workstreams

or any other business reason. That's why its important that the Project has more than one team.

How to create multiple teams:

You can navigate to the teams tab in a Project and click on create

The next screen allows you to create a  short Team Title , a longer Team description and add persons to the designated Project roles

please note you can delete the user created teams later.

What is the system defined default team called "PMO Team"

When you create a new Project , system creates one team by default called “PMO team”. This team can not be deleted

PMO stands for Project management Office. Each team consists of set of Project roles but one Project role called “Project lead” has special privilege . A Project lead can as an example

• Perform project setup
• Maintain Project timelines
• Maintain Project team information

This role “Project Lead” appears only in  “PMO team” which is created by the system. Please note if you use different terminology , you can change this name but please understand that the role “Project Lead” can not be added to a user created team.

How to work with teams:

You can use the defined teams for Task assignments and then use them for filtering. You can also create views in your task list for teams.

The purpose of this task is to assign team members to the delivered roles. These roles are used to filter the view of the tasks to what is relevant to each team member. Once assigned, the roles can be individually maintained in the 'Tasks' view in order to fine tune the responsibilities.

See the in-app help in the Teams view for more details

The Open Application button will navigate to the Team view.

Procedure:

1. Project Lead can assign the users to the roles by entering the email addresses.
2. The SAP Cloud Admin needs to approve the added users using User Administration
3. Additional people can be added later in the project by returning to this view.

Roles in a Project:

A project comes with a pre-delivered set of roles provided by Activate methodology. 

How to add a custom Project role:

SAP Cloud ALM comes preloaded with list of roles from SAP Activate methodology, we decided to give you the flexibility to extend it.

Go to Manage Projects and click the tab called Roles.

You can navigate to this and click to create a New Project role, you can also give a Description and save.

In this example, it is “My Custom role“. The role appears in role list with a special icon after saving.

How to use the newly created Project role:

You can navigate to the desired Project, go to team setup and you will find the newly created role.

You can assign persons to it and use it as other Project roles in the system.

What access is given to the person assigned to custom Project role?

At this stage all custom Project roles are mapped to the Project member authorization role.

You can select Show Project History to have the project history displayed in a side panel. You can see the changes made to the project attributes and the team assignments.

You can see the status of the project beside it's name as well as in the details. It can show the status on track, needs attention or critical.

You can archive a Project or  restore an archived project.

A hidden project can still be accessed and edited if you have saved a bookmark. If you plan to use an archived Project later actively, you can restore it.