Creating Rules to Approve Task Updates in Project Web App

As a trainer for PPM Works am I often asked about creating rules so Project Managers do not have to approve task updates. As a Project Manager that manages fixed work tasks in projects, the thought of auto accepting and publishing task updates is a bit frightening. As a consultant I cannot go over the hours in the project unless a have an approved change request. Auto accepting and publishing task updates removes the control I have over my project schedule, or does it?

From the Approvals page, select Manage Rules (you must have this permission enabled)

manage rules

Select New

rules

After naming the rule and giving it a description, scroll down the page.

Many users of PWA overlook 2 radio buttons on the Manage Rules page that can help you further define which task approvals to accept and publish.

  • Where updated field matches a field in the published project
  • Where updated field matches a specified value

 

In the screenshot below I have set a rule to auto approve task updates where the Task Actual Work <= Task Work.

 

task updates

 

If one of my Team Members submits an update where the Actual Work exceeds the planned work in the project, the task is not automatically approved. Instead I only see those tasks on my Approvals Page that exceed the planned work. I still have control over my schedule and I do not need to worry about task updates that exceed my Baseline Work being  auto accepted and published to the project schedule.

Hope that helps! Please contact us with questions.