Automate Project Creation: Configuration Guide – TaskRay

This feature is available to the following product editions:

Starter
Standard
Premium

TaskRay helps streamline the management of repeatable processes with Templates and automation.

Templates are used to map out and structure repeatable processes. Then, Templates are used to spin up projects with the predefined structure applied, ensuring that every step of the process is accounted for every time it is executed. While it is possible to create projects from Templates manually, automating the process allows for more streamlined work management and eliminates a few extra manual steps.

In this article, we provide a summary of the approach to automating the project creation process.

Note: This article provides guidance on how to automate the regular project creation process. If you are on the Premium Edition and are looking to incorporate forecasting into your repeatable process for proactive planning of potential work, refer to the Forecasting: Overview & Configuration Guide instead.

Use Case Overview

While it is possible to automate project creation for various repeatable business processes, we will use a common post-sale scenario to illustrate a typical configuration for the automation.

One common application for TaskRay is to manage the onboarding process for new customers, which begins after an Opportunity is marked as Closed Won. Although the specifics will vary for each organization, the onboarding process typically includes steps to assist new customers with implementation, training, and other relevant activities. In a simplified model, there are two main approaches to structuring the process:

Simple Repeatable Process: This approach assumes that the onboarding process is exactly the same for every new customer. In other words, there are no variations in the steps that must be managed to onboard new customers.
Dynamic Repeatable Process: This approach assumes that the onboarding process incorporates variations depending on what was sold. For example, a common configuration is to dynamically structure the onboarding process by combining various sub-processes, such as based on the specific products sold to new customers. This configuration typically relies on the Opportunity Product framework where each Opportunity Product sold requires a unique set of steps to be executed in the onboarding process.

Automated Project Creation: Configuration Details

Resource Management Configurations

Note: Resource Management configurations are only available in Standard and Premium editions.

About

Certain Resource Management configurations are core to automating the project creation process. Specifically, it is recommended to configure Roles and Resources, which allows for establishing a robust framework for placeholder assignments and allocation of work whenever projects are created from Templates.

Starter Edition Note: While Resource Management is not included in the Starter Edition of TaskRay, it is still possible to establish placeholder assignments on Templates within the Template Builder. When building Templates, the Builder will provide additional guidance on how to do this.

Configuration: To Do

Review and confirm that all the necessary Resource Management settings, such as Roles and Resources are configured according to your organization's use case.

TaskRay Templates

Templates are used to outline repeatable processes. Once set up, Templates are leveraged in the project creation process, ensuring that all the necessary steps of the repeatable process are always accounted for.

The structure of Templates will depend on your specific use case. If you have a simple repeatable process that does not incorporate any variations, then you will need to create a single Template that includes all steps of the process. If you have a repeatable process that incorporates variations, such as dynamically combining various sub-processes for project creation, then you will need to organize each sub-process within its own Template "container" (e.g. Template Task Group).

The specifics for each approach are outlined in each respective article with instructions on how to set up related automations (more details and links in the section below).

Flow Automations

TaskRay provides a set of pre-packaged Flow templates for automating the project creation process. This section provides an overview of these automations and provides resources for guidance on how to set them up.

The overall automated process is designed as two Flows working together. The first Flow checks for Opportunity Stage criteria and launches a sub-flow. The launched sub-flow then creates new Projects based on defined criteria.

regular automations.png

Tip: This approach to structuring automations allows for scalability and flexibility as your repeatable process evolves. For example, if your organization decides to eventually implement Forecasting (Premium Edition feature), the process to upgrade and incorporate the new functionality into your automated process will be streamlined.

TaskRay Create Project from Opportunity

This automation serves as the trigger to launch other automations, such as the Flow to create new Projects from Templates. For more information on how to configure this automation, refer to the Create Project from Opportunity article.

TaskRay Create Project from Template

This portion of the configuration will depend on your specific use case.

The provided article outlines all specifics of how to set up the processes from start to finish, including how to structure Templates, establish the necessary framework, and configure the automation: Automatically Create Project Using Flow.