Requiring Users to Specify Activities Based on Request Type

You can control whether users must specify activities for requests of particular request types when they add those requests to their time sheets. You can specify which activities are available to users for each request type, and you can specify a default activity. Implications for copying time sheets are also discussed in this section.

Requiring Users to Specify Activities for Requests of Particular Request Types

In time sheet policies, you can require users to specify activities for all requests on their time sheets (see Configuring the Activities Tab). You can also require users to specify activities on time sheet lines for requests of particular request types if the following prerequisites are met:

  • The capability has been enabled by setting the TM_ENABLE_REQ_ACTIVITY_CONTROLS server.conf parameter to true (most conveniently set by using the Administration Console). The default setting is false.

  • In the PPM Workbench, on the Resources tab of the request type, the Use Time Management to track actuals option is selected.

To enable the ability to require users to specify activities for a particular request type:

  1. Log on to PPM.

  2. From the menu bar, select Open > Administration > Open Workbench.

    The PPM Workbench opens.

  3. From the shortcut bar, select Demand Mgmt > Request Types.

  4. Click List to list the request types.

  5. Select the request type of interest and click Open.

  6. Click the Resources tab.

  7. Make sure the Use Time Management to track actuals option (checkbox) is selected.

    The bottom left side of the Resources tab has the options related to requiring activities. In the following figure, options have been chosen that enable all the buttons and fields described in step 8 and in the section Specifying Which Activities Are Available to Users and Defaults at the Request-Type Level.

  8. Select the Activity is required for time logged against requests (checkbox) option.

    Users are then required to specify activities for requests of this type before they can submit their time sheets. An error message is displayed if they do not do so.

Note: On the Activities tab of time sheet policies in the PPM Workbench, you can require that users specify activities on time sheets for requests of all types, and that setting takes precedence. That is, if the time sheet policy requires entry of activities for requests, users with that policy must enter activities for all requests in order to submit their time sheets, regardless of the setting of the Activity is required for time logged against requests option in any request type.

On the other hand, if a time sheet policy does not require that users specify activities for requests on their time sheets, selecting the Activity is required for time logged against requests option in the request type requires all users to enter activities on time sheets for that request type.

In both cases described above, only activities that are enabled and configured to use for requests (on the Create Activity or Edit Activity page) are available to users to add to requests on their time sheets.

Specifying Which Activities Are Available to Users and Defaults at the Request-Type Level

When users are required to specify activities on time sheet lines for requests of a particular type as described in Requiring Users to Specify Activities for Requests of Particular Request Types, you can control which activities are available to users.

On the Resources tab of a request type in the PPM Workbench, when the Activity is required for time logged against requests option (check box) is selected, subordinate options become available. By default Allow all activities is selected, but you can select Allow specific activities and use the Add and Remove buttons to select specific activities. Then, on time sheets users can add only those specific activities to requests of that request type.

You can optionally specify the Default Value field for the activity, whether all activities or only specific activities are allowed. If only specific activities are allowed, the values in the auto-complete for the Default Value field are limited to those specific activities. If the Default Value field is specified, that activity appears as the default for all requests of that request type on all time sheets for all users. Users can still click Line Details on time sheets to edit the activities on their time sheet lines as usual.

Note: At the time a user adds an activity to a time sheet line, Time Management displays the available activities as they are currently configured on the Resources tab of the request type. If that configuration has changed since the user last added activities to any time sheet, the user sees the new set of activities. If an activity a user previously selected for a request on a time sheet has since been removed from the set of allowed specific activities on the Resources tab, that activity can no longer be added to any request of that type, but it remains on the time sheet from the previous usage and does not cause an error when the time sheet is saved or submitted.

In any case, only activities that are enabled and configured to use for requests (on the Create Activity or Edit Activity page) are available to configure on the Resources tab of request types so that users can then add them to requests on their time sheets.

Copying Requests with Disallowed Activities to New Time Sheets

A user can copy an existing time sheet or, if the TM_DISABLE_INCLUDING_LAST_TS_ITEMS server.conf parameter is set to false, a user can create a new time sheet that includes items from his or her previous time sheet.

Assuming the TM_ENABLE_REQ_ACTIVITY_CONTROLS server.conf parameter is set to true, consider the following sequence of events:

  1. A time sheet is created with a request line that includes one or more specifically allowed activities. (Multiple activities for a time sheet line appear in separate rows in a time sheet.)

  2. Some of those activities are later removed from the set of allowed activities (that is, they are disallowed) on the associated request type.

  3. A user copies the time sheet.

In this scenario, depending on the activities, the request line is copied to the new time sheet with or without activities as follows:

  • When the existing time sheet includes a request line with one or more activities and all of those activities were later disallowed, no activity is copied to the request line on the new time sheet, that is, the activity for the copied line is blank.

  • When the existing time sheet includes a request line that has multiple activities and some but not all of those activities were later disallowed, the copied request line on the new time sheet includes separate rows for each of the activities that remain allowed.

If the TM_ENABLE_REQ_ACTIVITY_CONTROLS server.conf parameter is set to false, all activities are copied to the lines in the new time sheet.