Setting Project Preferences

For each project and project concept, the project owner and members with Project Lead access can define whether task due alerts are sent to task assignees, when they are sent, and whether and how often additional reminders are sent. Members of the project can view the alert preferences so they know whether and when to expect alert notices.

A setting allows you to base a project's schedule on estimated or actual dates. If actual dates are selected, each time an actual date is entered for a WBS task, the system recalculates the project schedule.

Before you begin: View the basic information for a project. See Viewing Information for a Project or Project Concept.

  1. From the page Actions menu or toolbar, click Project Preferences.



    If you are the owner of the project or have Project Lead access, the fields are editable. If not, you can only view the preferences set by the owner.

  2. Choose values for the preferences:

    Schedule Based On. Select whether the project is scheduled based on Estimated start/end dates or Actual start/end dates. If set to Actual, when actual dates are entered for a WBS task, the project schedule will be automatically recalculated.

    When set to Actual, the following behavior occurs:


    • As WBS tasks are started or completed, the actual start and finish dates will also reflect as the estimated dates. The actual dates are copied to the estimated fields reflecting actual dates.
    • The WBS schedule is re-calculated taking into account the actual dates which are now also reflected as estimated dates for those tasks that are started and/or completed.
    • When a task is completed, the estimated duration of the task is overwritten reflecting the actual duration of the task taking into account the actual start and finish dates. The duration unit is maintained when the duration is updated to reflect actual duration.
    • Tasks that are started or completed after normal working hours (for example, before 8 AM or after 5 PM) are not counted toward the duration and those dates are rounded to next available working hours when calculating dependencies.

    Duration Unit. From the drop-down list, choose Days or Hours as the project's default duration unit. The unit will be pre-selected with Days (but editable) when creating tasks. Does not show for a task.

    Send Reminder. From the drop-down list, choose the number of days before or after the project due date that you want reminders to be sent. If you don't want to send reminders, choose Do not send reminder.

    Recurrence Interval. From the drop-down list, choose how often you want to send reminders after the initial reminder. These intervals are relative to the date chosen in the Send Reminder list. If you don't want to send reminders, choose Do not send additional reminders. Reminders are only sent if the project is not completed.

    Effort Settings. The following items control efforts on a project.

    Effort Notifications. Select TRUE to enable e-mail notification when efforts are submitted for approval.

    Effort Submission. Select whether efforts are submitted at the Task level or Phase level.

    Assigned Task Notification Setting. The following items control notifications for assigned tasks.

    Send Reminder.From the drop-down list, choose the number of days before or after the task due date that you want reminders to be sent. If you don't want to send reminders, choose Do not send reminder.

    Recurrence Interval. From the drop-down list, choose how often you want to send reminders after the initial reminder. These intervals are relative to the date chosen in the Send Reminder list. If you don't want to send reminders, choose Do not send additional reminders. Reminders are only sent if the task is not completed.

  3. Click Done.