Project Configuration

Project Configuration Guide - Admin Role

Purpose: This document is intended to provide a high level overview of functionality and configuration of Projects within the Levelpath Platform.

What is a Project?

A project is a request’s collaboration space to bring visibility and transparency to all the steps involved to complete a stakeholder’s request. This is the place to track, take action, and complete requests with all collaborating parties.

What is a Project Type?

A Project Type refers to the various workflows used to complete a stakeholder request. As an example, project types could be:

• Software Purchase Requests
• Vendor Renewals
• Contingent Worker Requests
• General Q & A
• Or any other workflow that results in the completion of a request.

Project types must be created by Levelpath today - please reach out when you have a need for an additional project type.

How do I access Project Types?

In order to access Project Definitions, the user is required to have the role of ‘Organization Admin’ (Org Admin) toggled on. All Organization Admins will have an Admin menu (the icons under the horizontal grey line).

Similar to the Project Hub, when selecting Project via the menu, the user will be taken to a tableview of all Project Definitions:

The admin user will see the following:

• Name: The name of the specific project type/definition.
• Key: Every project type has a key. This is what displays in Hub and Project view before the number.
  • EX: CRW-1, EVNT-5 
  • The number signifies how many projects in that key have been created
• Description: A brief description of what the project intends to accomplish.
• Published On: The publish date of the project’s most recent version.
• Connected Paths: The number of Front Door paths that use the project type as an endpoint.
• Status: The current status of the project. If a Project has never been published, it will show a status of ‘Draft’.

Once the Organization Administrator (Org Admin) is in the Project Configuration, the user is directed to the Step Builder. In the following sections of this guide, we will walk through each of the three Project Configuration components: Step Builder, Intake Builder, and Settings.

PROJECT CONFIGURATION COMPONENTS

How do I Update/Edit/Configure a Project?

To update a project type, the Org Admin will navigate to Projects under the Admin menu and select the project they would like to make changes to. Once a project type is selected, the Org Admin will be presented with the Step Builder Page.

Prior to making any changes, the Org Admin will need to create a draft by selecting ‘+ Edit project’ on the top right corner of the page:

The system will then prompt the user to add notes to their new draft. This allows users to see what changes they made in this draft when looking at the Version History view.

When in draft mode, the user will see “Publish draft” in place of “+Edit project”. If it says "Edit project" the user is still in view only mode.

Below shows the first configuration page:

The Organization Admin will see the following:

1. Project Components Tabs: A tabbed experience that lays out the process to configure the project type starting with the project steps, intake fields, then overall settings
   1. • Step Builder: This is the first thing an Org Admin will see after selecting a project definition. Org Admin will be able to create, edit, and update a project step. We will walk through the Step Builder next. When configuring a project, start with configuring your project steps then build out the intake form.

1. 1. • Intake Builder: The intake builder allows for the Org Admin to configure what a requester needs to fill out to create a request project. It allows the Org Admin to request the most important data from a stakeholder as early as possible within their request process.

2. 1. • Settings:  Project settings display project definition key, version history, and all paths directing users to the specific project definition.
   2.  
      • Version History: Allows Org Admin to see all versions of the Project, including when it was published, who published it, the status (archived, draft, or published) and a description of the version.
   3.  
      • Connected Paths: This tab shows the user which Front Door pills are connected to this specific Project.
   4.  
      • Step Summaries: This tab shows the user a Description of each step in the Project.
3. Path View: The path is consistent with the project display after the request is submitted. The entire path is visible to maintain the context of the workflow. Selecting a specific step (pill) within the path will direct the user to the corresponding stage and step in the list below and open up the form editor directly under the path for an in-depth view of all components of the specific step. The path allows users to navigate through the project.
4. Stage and Step List: Stage and Step list expands and collapses to give the user a view of forms and approvals within each stage and each step. When steps are added, the added steps will dynamically be reflected in the path above. Users also have the ability to drag and drop the order of each step, as well as, forms within the steps. (these are defined in the next section of this document).
5. Form Editor: Form Editor provides the user a simple way to manage the information they want to capture throughout the workflows within a form is easy to follow. Here, a user is able to add/delete fields, drag and drop to reorder the fields, as well as make fields required or optional for the specific step.

When editing or configuring a project, it is important to understand the components and hierarchy of the project. Below is a breakdown of a project:

Stage - The sequential state of the workflow. All steps within a stage need to be completed in order for a user to move from one stage to another. All steps within a stage have to be completed before the subsequent steps become "active".

Step - Within a Stage, a collection of actions that can be assigned to 1 user or 1 user group and status that can be tracked at the step level.

Form - Within a step, a collection of fields that collect information necessary for each step.

Field - Within a form, a field is the individual question/request for information. A data point.

Approval - Within a step, this provides an approver to Approve or Deny the step. If Denied, the entire project is closed out as cancelled.

Confirmation- Within a step, this allows a project lead to review the previous information and complete the step as a whole.

NOTE: Forms and Approvals can also be referred to as ‘Step Actions’

Editing a Project

Add a Stage:

To add a stage, navigate to the Stage list on the lower left hand side of the page, and scroll to the bottom. Select ‘+ Add new stage’:

Once selected, a new stage will appear at the end of the path, and a new stage will appear within the Stage list.

To rearrange the order of a Stage, select the three dot menu on the stage intended to move, and select ‘Move Up’ or ‘Move Down’. To delete the stage entirely select ‘Delete stage’

NOTE: If the project type has conditional logic, steps that are impacted and their stages will not be able to move prior to the inputs necessary to execute the conditional logic.

Add a Step:

When a stage is added, the user can create a new step within that stage. To do so, you can either select the ‘+Add a new step to this stage’ button within the stage, or use the three dot menu within the stage and select ‘. Give the step a name and assign the step to the default project lead or another user/user group:

 

The user will see the newly added step reflect within the Path, as well as the Stage list.

Add a Form:

Once a Step is created, the user can add a form to the step. A form will have fields/questions to collect the necessary information for that step to be completed. To add a form to a step, the user can select the ‘+’ located within the stage, to the right of the step name, and select ‘Form’:

Once a form is added, the user will be prompted to name the form and assign it to the default project lead or a user/user group. Once that is complete the user will see the new step and form populate on the right side of the screen, and can begin adding fields within the form:

What is the difference between System Fields and Custom Fields?

System Fields pull information from the project to other parts of Levelpath. 

Can I change the order of the fields after they are created?

YES! An Org Admin is able to rearrange the order of the fields within a form by using the drag and drop feature. Simply click and drag a specific field and drop it in the order desired.

Step Action Templates

Teams can use Step Action Templates to reduce repetitive work when the same steps appears across multiple workflows. These templates can include step names, instructions, form fields, and more. Once created, they can be quickly added to any project step in the Project Editor.

To edit, duplicate, or archive a Step Action Template, users with the appropriate project permissions can go to Project Editor > Step Action Templates in the left-hand panel. From here, users can either click the template title directly or use the ellipsis (…) menu on the right side of the Step Action Templates table to manage the template.

Step Action Templates work the same way as Step Actions within a project. Users can add system fields, custom fields, and rich text details in the instructions. Each Step Action Template also shows which projects it is currently linked to, along with its version history.

 If a team no longer needs a Step Action Template, it can be archived and later found under the Archived tab for reference. If a user tries to archive a template that is currently linked to a published project, a notification will appear listing the connected projects. These projects will be unlinked from the template should the user decide to proceed with archiving the Step Action Template. 

Note: Levelpath provides the following Step Action Templates by default - Approval Step template, CoupaRequisition Step template, InputForm Step template, LinkedWorkspace Step template, PurhaseOrder Step template, SupplierTask Step template, and Commercial Entity Form. To create new templates, please duplicate an existing template and edit to desired results. 

Adding Conditional Logic to Steps:

Conditional logic can be used to mark project steps as Not Needed depending on various field inputs from previous steps. This can be useful when certain steps may not be required for a request depending on a specific answer to a field (Example. Budget dictating a certain approval, or an existing supplier not having to go through onboarding/security review).

NOTE: Once a user works their way through the project path and arrives at the conditional step, it will update to ‘not needed’ or will remain, depending on the previously answered field that triggers the logic.

To create a conditional step, the Org Admin will have to select the step that will be impacted. Once the step is pulled up on the editor, select the gear icon located just to the right of the Step name along the Stage and Step list:

The user will then be presented the Edit Step Settings within the right panel of the page. Once the ‘Conditional Logic’ is toggled on, the user will be able to input the conditional formula and variables:

In this example, the conditional formula indicates that the ‘Supplier Onboarding’ Step is only necessary when the field "Is it a new supplier?" is answered with ‘Yes’. When creating a conditional rule, the field needs to be from a stage prior to the stage you are looking to have the logic applied to.

Be sure to save the conditional logic prior to publishing the Project draft.

NOTE: Formulas must contain at least one variable.

Example variable: budget_amount - where variable equals a number input from a currency input field named “Expected budget”. Formulas must also contain at least one operator.

Allowed operators are:

>, <, =, <=, >=, <>

Formulas can contain logic functions to combine conditions

Allowed logic functions are:

AND, OR, NOT

Logic functions require parentheses to separate them from each other.

Example:

budget_amount > 10000 OR (budget_amount < 151000)

If the values are text, include ' ' before and after the value as part of the formula. The value is case sensitive.

Adding Expected duration to Steps:

Setting an expected duration allows step assignees to see due dates when they are assigned a step, and the step is automatically marked as overdue if it passes the expected due date.

To apply an expected duration to a step, the Org Admin will have to select the step. Once the step is pulled up on the editor, select the gear icon located just to the right of the Step name:

Populate the expected duration (in hours) for the step and click “Save”.

Linked Projects

Within the project admin project configuration, organization admins can now configure linking a project within a step. This is shown as a Step Action (similar to a “Form” or “Approval”).

To create a Linked Project, click the plus sign.

Clicking the plus sign will bring up the menu of Step Actions below. Click on 'Linked Workspace"

Once configured and published, the assigned user will be able to kick off a new project or mark as “not needed”:

Once a project is kicked off, the new project will have a link tying it back to the “parent” project.

How do I assign Steps, Step Actions and Projects?

Step assignments: you can assign a step to a user group or individual.

Step actions: Forms and Approvals can be assigned to a role from project configuration. Roles currently include the requester, individual, default step user group which refers to the user group assigned to the step. Again, anybody from the user group can then step in and complete this step action.

Supplier Tasks: Click here for the Supplier Task Guide

Within the project admin project configuration, organization admins can now configure a supplier task within a step. This is shown as a Step Action (similar to a “Form” or “Approval”):

Once configured and published, step owners in an active request can then assign information for a third party to fill out. The supplier task will be highlighted in orange.

NOTE: The supplier task is an external to-do for the supplier. Once invited, the supplier will have access to the configured form in the Levelpath Supplier Hub. The supplier does not have access to the project and can only see the fields you share with them and the responses they provide. No other information from the project is visible to the supplier.

Once the supplier task form is sent to the supplier (third-party), the supplier will receive an email invite that will enable them to access the form via Supplier Hub. 

Once the information is sent, the step owner will be able to view the submission progress.

INTAKE BUILDER

Once a project is configured, an Org Admin can proceed to the Intake builder to configure the intake form that stakeholders will complete when submitting their request.

The Intake builder has two main panels:

1. Project Fields: This is a list of ALL fields within the project.
2. Intake Fields: This is a list of the fields that will reflect on the intake form. 

The intake builder allows org admins to dynamically change and reorganize the intake fields.

To add fields to the intake form, users will simply select the arrow to the right of the specific project field they are looking to add.

The field will display under the ‘Optional Fields’ section of the intake form. Once added, fields can be rearranged by utilizing drag and drop:

To move an optional field to required, select the three dot menu to the right of the intake field:

Once the Org Admin is satisfied with the intake form order and layout, they can publish the draft and the changes will reflect on future projects.

Where can I find the project settings?

When selecting the Settings tab, the user will be presented with the Overview:

The Overview gives a snapshot of the Project name, Key, and Description. These are currently not editable.

The next tab within Settings is Version History. Here, a user is able to view the various iterations of a given project:

The Connected Paths tab illustrates all Front Door routes that lead to the specific project type as an endpoint:

You have now mastered the configuration of a project! 🎉

If you have any more questions, please reach out to Levelpath Support.