Administer Projects
A project is a collection of work to be done that is scheduled into releases and iterations. Rally allows you to create a hierarchy of projects to represent multiple teams, scrums, or products which mirror your company development structure.
Setting up projects includes the following:
Projects are created from the workspace summary view. Only users with subscription or workspace administrator permissions for the workspace can access this information.
To access the workspace summary view:
From the Workspaces & Projects tab you can view all projects that are created for your workspace. Click the + icon to expand the workspace and any root level or parent projects and all child projects are listed below the parent.
You can also view all projects for a single workspace from the workspace detail page. Click any workspace name in the summary view to navigate to the workspace detail page. Click the Projects link from the sidebar on the left side of the page to display a projects summary view. From here you can:
- View a listing of all projects for the workspace. Click any project name to see the detail page.
- Perform the common actions of all work item summary views.
Project hierarchy overview
Rally provides hierarchical projects in which a parent project can support multiple levels of child projects. This is an n-tier hierarchy—a tree structure with roll-up capabilities.
The project hierarchy supports an enterprise project structure in which you can match your Rally subscription to your company's organizational structure. You can use parent-child projects to represent internal company components such as:
- Teams
- Programs
- Products
- Product lines
- Projects (non-product)
A typical hierarchy looks like this:
The top-level parent project in the tree is often called by its organization or enterprise name. The next level down can be a product, program, or portfolio container of work. At this level, you can see all of our teams within the product.
When you use a project hierarchy, there are additional benefits for your entire hierarchy. All summary views cumulate totals and display work items for all projects contained within your project scope view. This helps you manage multiple projects and provides visibility into those team members who have responsibilities across multiple projects.
Create a project
Creating a project is limited to subscription and workspace administrators. A workspace must have an open state for a project to be associated with it.
Projects cannot be deleted. Instead, edit the project and set the state to Closed. Once the project is closed it will remain intact, but will no longer display in the project drop-down list.
To create a project:
- In the Workspace Summary view, select a workspace.
- Click the Projects link in the sidebar.
- Click the Actions button and select New Project.
The Projects Summary page displays listing all projects contained within the workspace.
Or,
- In the Workspace Summary view, locate the workspace to which you want to add the project.
- Click the Create Project for ... to access the New Project page.
After your new project is created, the following flair message displays:
This message includes a link to the the Project User Access Grid where you can add users to your new project.
Create a child project
A child project is a subset of work to be done that is scheduled into releases and iterations. Create child projects to represent multiple teams, scrums, or products which mirror your company development structure. Create child projects from the workspace summary view.
To create a child project, begin from the workspace summary view:
- Locate a workspace in which you want to work.
- Expand the workspace to locate the project to be designated as the parent project.
- Click the Add Project
row icon. - Select the Copy Timeboxes check box to copy current and future releases and iterations from the parent project.
- Click Save & Close.
The New Project page displays. Use this page to define your new child project. The Parent field is automatically populated with the parent project name.
Change existing projects to child projects
As your structure grows, you may need to change the hierarchy level of a project and make it a child project of another project.
To change existing projects to child projects:
- In the Workspace Summary view, select a workspace.
- Click the Projects link in the sidebar.
- For the project you want to change, click the Edit icon.
- On the Edit Project page, click the magnifying glass icon in the Parent field.
- On the Choose Parent window, select the new parent project then click Choose.
View the Project Detail page
The sidebar displays on the left side of the project detail page and is an easy way to identify and navigate to the specific artifacts that are associated to the displayed project. Use the sidebar to view all associated children, iterations, releases, users, and revisions contained within the current project.
Click any displayed artifact in the folder to navigate to its detail page.
Use the Actions button located at the top of the project detail to create a new project, edit, or print the displayed project.
Project fields
Whether creating or editing a project, the same fields are presented as follows:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Enter a project name. This field is a required field, but does not require a unique value. |
| State | Specify whether the project is open or closed. An open project indicates the project is active and work can be performed on the related project components. A closed project has been completed or terminated and work can longer continue on any of the project components such as releases, iterations, or tasks. |
| Owner | Select the owner of the project. This value defaults to the name of the administrative user who created the project. |
| Parent | Click the magnifying glass icon to select a parent project. This field allows you to organize projects into parent-child hierarchies, or re-parent existing projects. |
| Copy Timeboxes | This field in only available when you create a child project. Select this check box to copy current and future releases and iterations from the parent project. This option is checked by default. |
| Notes | This rich text format field provides a location for you to add any information that might be pertinent to the project. Link to URLs, insert a graphic, or provide any information that might help in further understanding the project's intent. |
| Change Description | This field only appears upon editing a project after it has been created. Log any information regarding any changes that have been made to the project's general information to provide a change history for the project. |
Related Topics
Heads Up
- Typically, a project hierarchy tree structure doesn't span more than three levels (enterprise → product → team). Anything beyond three levels creates reporting complexity and may slow system performance. Simpler is better. You can add complexity later, if necessary.
- To roll up data in a project hierarchy, create a release and iteration with the same name and dates for every project in the hierarchy. You may bulk create and bulk update releases and iterations.