Process flow via program table (1 Viewer)

[Sergeant]

Looking for thoughts/inspiration on this:

-Currently designing a process mgt app.
-Process flow is pre-defined, but subject to change.
-Flow consists of milestones with cumulative workday suspenses.
-Some milestones are subsets of other over-arching milestones.
-The project will flow according to the currently defined process flow.

The program table might look like this:

Milestone                       CumulativeDays
Test Request Received       0
Initial Working Group        4
Test Order Published        6
T.O. Review Commitee        8
Draft Test Plan Submitted   45
Test Plan Comments Rc'd      60
Test Plan Published          70
Begin Test Execution        (varies)
Interim Summary Report      (optional/varies)
End Test Execution          (varies)
Draft Final Report            (45 after End Execution)
Final Report Published       (60 after End Execution)

Anyone have any constructive ideas about how to approach such a setup?

 

[pono1]

What a monster. I have no strong idea...just idle thoughts while my spicy chicken wings bake...

Table.Project
ProjectID

Table.Milestone
MilestoneID
ProjectID

Table.Milestone.Subset
Milestone.SubsetID
MilestoneID

Table.Request.Received
Req.Rec.ID
MilestoneID

Table.Initial.Working.Group
Initial.Working.Group.ID
MilestoneID

Table.Test.Order.Published
Test.Order.PublishedID
MilestoneID

etc.

I would be tempted to repeat MilestoneID (or ProjectID), as shown above, throughout most all tables since MilestoneID should not change over its life (famous last words) and this will probably make most of your queries far less complex and manageable...it may, however, also result in more maintenance on your tables -- a trade-off you'll have to weigh...

Not sure about the best approach to the people part...which I'm assuming you will want to include. First thought: a bunch of junction tables...

Table.People
PeopleID
Last_Name
RateID (FK to a salary/wage table)
etc.

Table.Milestone.People
Milestone.PeopleID
PeopleID
MilestoneID

Table.Request.Received.People
Request.Received.PeopleID
PeopleID
Request.ReceivedID

Or maybe...

Table.TimeSheet
TimeSheetID
Date
PeopleID
MilestoneID
Stage -- Request.Received or Initial.Working.Group, etc.
Role
Hours
Notes

etc.

I know this is about "theory" but this one does beg the old question: buy or build?

Regards,
Tim

 

[Sergeant]

Thanks for the suggestions. I should clarify, though...
I was looking for thoughts on using a reference table to guide a process through the wickets. I suppose I'm over-complicating the idea in my head...I just thought someone might have a novel idea how to structure such a thing.

We are considering contracting this out, but the reason we need a new one is that the last one was produced via contract...and it's a hunk of crap!

 

[Ron_dK]

Serg,
Would this be of any help :

http://www.access-programmers.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=99946

 

[Sergeant]

Thanks alot for that, Rak. I found "TheBrain" to be very intriguing.
I don't think it's exactly what we're looking for, though...I'll have to look into it a bit further.
What we need is a checklist-driven process tool to manage a project from start to finish. It would automatically load the next step against a project when a step is completed (or load the entire process up front when the project is created). The process spawns documents, notes and meetings, and I'd like to wrap that all into the process mgt app.

 

[Pat Hartman]

Is this something you should be using MS Project for rather than building a custom app?

 

[WindSailor]

This is more of a simplistic approach to what I believe you are describing, but maybe this type / concept of an application will help with ideas on how you want your product to work…

http://www.codeproject.com/tools/ToDoList2.asp

Edit-----
This guy has done wonders with this gem...

Hope this helps.

 

[Sergeant]

Is this something you should be using MS Project for rather than building a custom app?

This was my first thought when I arrived at my job just over a year ago. Although I had never used Project, I knew what it was for. I brought it up and was quickly quieted with "We used that before, and everyone hated it!"

If anyone out there is using a modern version of MS Project and you'd like to sing its praises, please jump in with your 2 cents. Something would have had to changed drastically in the last 5 years for my org to consider it.

 

[Sergeant]

This is more of a simplistic approach to what I believe you are describing, but maybe this type / concept of an application will help with ideas on how you want your product to work…

http://www.codeproject.com/tools/ToDoList2.asp

Edit-----
This guy has done wonders with this gem...

Hope this helps.

I downloaded that...I like it, but our needs would include summary reporting of all projects' status. We also have distributed offices that need access to the info.
Thanks for the link...I routinely look around in CodeProject, but never saw this one.

 

[Ron_dK]

Serg,

It may be a bit of an overkill, but have you looked into MS Visio.
Visio can be connected to Access, word etc.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/visio/prodinfo/demo.mspx

 

[Sergeant]

Serg,

It may be a bit of an overkill, but have you looked into MS Visio.
Visio can be connected to Access, word etc.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/visio/prodinfo/demo.mspx

I have never used it, but I watched the demo...
It probably would be overkill, but some features seam like they'd really hit the spot...like the project management portion. I think we have a guy at work that's used Visio...I'll see what he thought of it.
Thanks for all the inputs.