Ax2012 Si WBS
Ax2012 Si WBS
Ax2012 Si WBS
Introduction
A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a hierarchical representation of the activities and child activities in a project. It defines the total work scope of the project. Each descending level of the hierarchy represents an increasingly detailed definition of the project work. To simplify complex projects, it is important to structure the work and break it down into smaller activities. The breakdown of work into activities helps track the progress of the project according to the schedule. It also helps monitor the cost and revenue that is generated from the project. This chapter explains how to use the following functionality in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012: Work breakdown structure template (WBS template) Project work breakdown structure Rate cards
The Work breakdown structure template feature in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 gives you with the following capabilities. Identify and estimate project activities and tasks Sequence the activities and tasks Create milestones Assign resources to the activities and tasks
The Project work breakdown structure feature provides the functionality to add activities to a project in a hierarchical order. You can achieve this by copying activities from a WBS template or from existing projects. The activities can also be directly added to a project.
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Scenario
Prakash, a Project Manager at Contoso, is given the responsibility of managing a new project for Colorado Airport. He creates a project plan that will be the road map to reach the final destination. As part of the plan, he is required to finalize the list of activities that are needed for the project to be completed successfully. During the planning process, Prakash creates a detailed road map that defines the following: Project objectives to achieve Work breakdown structure Resource scheduling Financial modeling
Prakash takes full advantage of the WBS functionality in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 to efficiently implement the project plan.
NOTE: An activity is a functional work structure in which one or more persons and pieces of equipment participate, and in which resources are consumed. An activity can be broken down into child activities.
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7. Click New to create a new activity. The Work breakdown structure template form displays the structure of the breakdown graphically in the Navigation Pane. A new folder is created below the main template for the new activity that is created. When activities already exist in the WBS template and when you create a new activity, the activity is added to the selected node. 8. In the Activity number field, view the number displayed for the activity based on the number sequence set up on the Number sequences tab in the Project management and accounting parameters form. 9. In the Activity name field, enter an activity name. 10. In the Priority field, set the priority of the activity from the following options: a. Low b. Normal c. High
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12. In the Duration in days field, enter the number of days required to complete the activity. 13. In the Effort in hours field, enter the number of hours required to complete the activity. 14. Select the Scheduling ignores the calendar of the resource check box. Select this check box to ignore the calendar attached to the resource when scheduling the activity. 15. In the Default category field, select the category applicable for the activity. The category will default to the project transactions created for this activity. 16. Select the Restrict activity category check box to restrict the posting of transactions of the project to the category selected in the Default category field. NOTE: You cannot edit the default category at the transaction-level if the Restrict activity category check box is selected.
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FIGURE 1.3 WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE TEMPLATE FORM ACTIVITY REQUIREMENTS FASTTAB
18. Specify the criteria on the following tabs that are required to perform the activity: o Education Define the preferred academic qualification for performing this activity. o Skills Specify the preferred skills that you need. o Certification Specify if the resource needs any professional certifications for this activity o Project experience Specify if the resource needs to have worked on any previous projects to perform this activity. o Other worker attributes Define any additional attributes preferred for the resource, for example, communication skills, and analytical skills. The importance of each of the of the criteria can be defined on a scale from one to six with one being the least important and six being the most important. NOTE: If the Required check box is selected for the criteria, the specified criteria become mandatory during the scheduling process. For more information about Scheduling, refer to the Resource Scheduling chapter in this training material.
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FIGURE 1.4 WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE TEMPLATE FORM ESTIMATED COSTS AND REVENUE FASTTAB
21. Click Add line to create a new record. 22. In the Transaction type field, enter the transaction type from the following options: o Fee o Hour o Expense o Item The following table displays the details of the fields that are available on the Estimated costs and revenue FastTab based on the transaction type that you select.
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Description
Enter a short description related to the transaction type. Select the category applicable for the transaction type. Identification of the item Identification of the resource Enter the estimated quantity. A proposed sales price A proposed cost price The line amount is an expression of the total quantity multiplied by the Unit sales price. The line amount is an expression of the total quantity multiplied by the Unit cost price.
Project category
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No No
No Yes
No Yes
Yes No
Quantity
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes No Yes
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
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Line property
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3. In the Navigation Pane, select the activity to delete. 4. Click Delete. 5. In the Microsoft Dynamics dialog box, click Yes to confirm the deletion.
3. In the Microsoft Dynamics dialog box, click Yes to confirm the deletion of the summary activity and the child activities associated to the summary activity.
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NOTE: If resources are assigned to an activity and you try to change the start and end date, an error stating Resources are assigned to the selected activity. Dates can be changed only after the resources are released is generated. You can change the start and end date only after releasing the assigned resources.
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Challenge Yourself!
Create the new work breakdown structure template NBT and give it the name New build testing.
Step by Step
1. Click Project management and accounting, Common, Activities, and then click Work breakdown structure template. 2. Click the New work breakdown structure template button on the Action Pane. 3. In the Name field, enter NBT. 4. In the Description field, enter New build testing. 5. Select the Active check box to activate the template. 6. Click OK. 7. Click New to create a new activity. 8. In the Activity name field, enter Testing as the activity name. 9. In the Priority field, select Normal. 10. Click the Schedule FastTab. 11. Enter 2 in the Duration in days field. 12. Enter 20 in the Effort in hours field. 13. Select Design in the Default category field. 14. Close the Work breakdown structure template form.
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9. View the start date and end date of the selected project in the Start date field and End date field for the activity. NOTE: The start date and end date on the General FastTab cannot be modified if the Project III check box is selected in the License configuration form (go to System administration, Setup, Licensing, and then click License configuration.) Modify the dates in the Schedule FastTab. The General tab displays the modified dates. 10. In the Default category field, select the category applicable for the activity. 11. Select the Mandatory check box to make the category selected in the Default category field mandatory as you can post transactions for a project. NOTE: You cannot modify the default category at the transaction-level if the Mandatory check box is selected. In the Priority field, set the priority of the activity from the following options: a. Low b. Normal c. High
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14. In the Start date field, view or modify the scheduled start date. 15. In the End date field, view or modify the scheduled end date. 16. In the Duration in days field, the days are calculated automatically based on the Start date and End date fields. Modify the value in the Duration in days field to update the End date field automatically, if it is required. 17. In the Effort in hours field, enter the number of hours required to complete the activity. 18. Select the Scheduling ignores the calendar of the resource check box to ignore the calendar attached to the resource for scheduling the activity. 19. View the status of the schedule of the activity in the Scheduled field. Based on the percentage of scheduling done for the activity, view one of the following statuses: a. Not Scheduled b. Partially Scheduled c. Fully Scheduled
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FIGURE 1.12 WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE FORM ESTIMATED COSTS AND REVENUE FASTTAB
NOTE: For more information on an activity, see the procedure, Create a Work Breakdown Structure Template in this chapter. 24. In the Work breakdown structure form, click Inquire resource assignments. In the Assign resources form, select and assign available resources for this activity. NOTE: For more information on assigning resources to an activity, refer to the Resource Scheduling chapter in this training material. 25. Click Details on the Action Pane to view the details of the selected activity. 26. Click the Save as template button to open the Save as dialog box. 27. In the Name field, enter the template name. 28. In the Description field, enter a short description of the template.
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30. Click the Project management and accounting, Common, Activities, and then click Work breakdown structure template to view the WBS that is saved as a template
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9. Once the template is copied, an Infolog message is displayed stating that the template is successfully copied to the specified project. 10. Edit the values that is based on the project requirement. 11. Click Inquiry to view the actual and forecast project transactions linked to the selected activity.
12. Click Resource Assignments to open the Resource assignment form and view the soft committed or hard committed resources for the project.
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9. Once the template is copied, an Infolog message is displayed stating that the WBS is successfully copied to the specified project. 10. Modify the values in the WBS based on the project requirement.
Rate Card
In Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012, transactions are entered with a cost price. This is the price charged to the project for each unit. However, it is not important that the expense or consumption be invoiced to the customer. If a customer is invoiced for expenses and consumption, a sales price is specified for each unit. Cost and sales prices can be specified for a category or an employee, or more specifically for a customer, project contract, or a project. Specifying the cost and sales price helps standardize pricing, and removes the need to determine the cost and sales price when you make a transaction entry. Price setup depends on the transaction type that is used. For example, when you post hours, the best practice is to set up the cost price in the employee record, and set up the sales price or the billing rate on the project. The sales price set up in the employee record will be used as the default billing rate for all hour transactions. It can be changed at the time of the transaction entry. However, unless there are standard bill rates for all projects, this could lead to data entry errors.
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Sales prices
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2. In the Effective date field, enter the date from which the specified cost price is active. This is a mandatory field. If only the date is filled, a standard cost price will be applicable for all employees on all projects across all categories. 3. In the Worker field, select the employee ID if the cost price is valid for the resource. 4. In the Customer account field, select the customer account if the cost price is valid for the customer. 5. In the Project contract ID field, select the project contract if the cost price is valid for the contract. 6. In the Category field, select the category ID if the cost price is valid for the category. 7. In the Project ID field, select the project ID if the cost price is valid for the project. 8. In the Price group field, select the price group that you must consider when posting the transactions. 9. In the Cost price field, enter the cost price for the factor. You can set up differential pricing by defining cost prices as a combination of one, two or all the factors mentioned in the table under the Rate card lesson in this chapter.
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By creating a standard cost price of 100.00 USD for the category consulting, and a cost price of 150.00 USD for the same category, for the employee who has a higher cost on a specific project, this can be achieved. NOTE: Because salary is defined in the employee record, the cost price can also be set up in the Cost price-hour form. The procedure to set up the cost price on the employee record can be customized to the date, customer, project contract, category and, or project.
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2. In the Effective date field, enter the date from which the specified sales price is active. This is a mandatory field. 3. In the Category field, select the category ID if the sales price is valid for the category. 4. In the Worker field, select the resource ID if the sales price is valid for the resource. 5. In the Valid for field, define if the prices are applicable for the following: a. Table: A specific project/contract/customer b. Group: A group of projects/contracts/customers c. All: All projects/contracts/customers 6. In the Project ID field, select the project ID if the sales price is valid for the project. 7. In the Project contract ID field, select the project contract if the sales price is valid for the contract. 8. In the Customer account field, select the customer account if the sales price is valid for the customer. 9. In the Price group field, select the price group that you must consider when you post the transactions. 10. In the Sales currency field, specify the currency in which the transaction is billed to the customer. The price is displayed in the journal line only if the sales currency in which the price is defined is the same as the sales currency defined for the journal line.
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Summary
The Work Breakdown Structure chapter provided a description on how to create and save work breakdown structure templates and project activity hierarchies in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. The Work Breakdown Structure functionality in Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 helps businesses save time on creating the work decomposition each time for projects with similar activities. The WBS template section described how to create the activity structure. It described how to enter the information that you have to plan and schedule the various tasks involved in the execution of a project. It also described how to save the structure as a template and how activities within the WBS can be modified or deleted. The Project Work Breakdown Structure section described how to create an activity hierarchy from a project, and how to copy an activity from a WBS template and from an existing project. This section also explained how factors such as effort, time duration, and the attributes needed by resources to perform the task can be defined for each activity. Additionally, this chapter defined how to set up rate cards for projects and showed how these pricing details are used by the various transaction types at the time of posting the journals.
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2. How can the estimated time taken to complete a particular activity be defined for the activities in the WBS?
3. What are the options based on, for which a price can be defined for hour and expense transactions?
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6. A summary activity cannot be deleted if there are child activities associated to the summary activity. (True/False)
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2.
3.
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Solutions
Test Your Knowledge
1. How is a Work Breakdown Structure template used to create an activity hierarchy for a project? MODEL ANSWER: To copy the work breakdown structure from a WBS template, click Project management and accounting, Common, Projects, All projects. Click Project to create a new project, click Plan and then click Work breakdown structure. Click Copy From and in the Copy from dialog box, select the Show only template check box. Select the project to copy the WBS from. The activity hierarchy for the project can be created based on this WBS template and modified, if it is needed. 2. How can the estimated time taken to complete a particular activity be defined for the activities in the WBS? MODEL ANSWER: In the Common, Activities, Work breakdown structure template form, click the Schedule FastTab. The estimated time can be entered in days in the Duration in days field or in hours in the Effort in hours field. 3. What are the options based on, for which a price can be defined for hour and expense transactions? MODEL ANSWER: Prices can be defined for hour and expense transactions for a specific factor or as a combination of one, two, or more of the factors, namely, Worker, Category, Project, Contract, Customer, Project, and Price group. 4. Which are the two FastTabs that display the start and end date in a work breakdown structure? () General ( ) Activity requirements () Schedule ( ) Resource assignments 5. The attributes defined in the Activity requirements FastTab are used as a search criterion while assigning resources for the activity. (True/False) MODEL ANSWER: True
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