Page title:Introduction to Rational Project Conductor Introduction to Rational Project Conductor

Closed Captioning text:IBM Rational Project Conductor is a collaborative program and project management application optimized for software and systems delivery. Rational Project Conductor aligns with both Agile and traditional software development methodologies, and supports the various functions in the project management lifecycle, including work management, risk management, resource management, time management, cost management, and scope management.

Page text: IBM Rational Project Conductor is a collaborative program and project management application optimized for software and systems delivery. Use Rational Project Conductor to manage: Project work Project risks Project resources Time updates Project budgets Project scope


Page title:Lifecycle integration Lifecycle integration

Closed Captioning text:Built directly on the IBM Jazz Team Server, Rational Project Conductor extends the Jazz technology platform. Jazz is a scalable, extensible team collaboration platform that integrates tasks across the software development lifecycle.

Page text:Rational Project Conductor is based on the IBM Jazz team collaboration platform, and integrated with other Jazz-based products for software development and delivery.


Page title:Roles and processes Roles and processes

Closed Captioning text:Rational Project Conductor provides robust tooling for program managers, project managers, resource managers, and team members to perform all of their functions in the project lifecycle. The project management process in Rational Project Conductor is governed by a customizable process definition.

Page text: Rational Project Conductor supports tasks and roles across the project lifecycle. A customizable process template records the projects management process for your organization.


Page title:Integrations with Rational products Integrations with Rational products

Closed Captioning text:Rational Project Conductor provides integrations with other Rational tools for software and systems delivery, such as Rational Team Concert, Rational ClearQuest, and Rational Insight. These integrations provide additional capabilities such as integrated change management, team collaboration, data warehousing, and analytical reporting.

Page text: Rational Project Conductor integrates with other Rational products to provide extended capabilities: Integrated change management Team collaboration Data warehousing Analytical reporting


Page title:Define work breakdown structure Define work breakdown structure

Closed Captioning text:If you are a program or a project manager, begin by creating programs and projects, and defining the work breakdown structure. Use a program to group a set of related projects. Within a program, you can create new projects. When you create a project, you can select a calendar and the assignment type as effort or duration. You can also import existing projects from Microsoft Project .XML files. After the import, the project is available in the work breakdown structure. Each project is based on a calendar that is used to calculate the project schedules. You can customize the project calendar by adding exceptions or non-working days in your project. Within a project, you can create different work item types. The work item types are defined in and can be customized in the project management process template. If you are following an Agile development methodology, you can create iterations, and assign work items to the iterations.

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Page title:Define and track schedules Define and track schedules

Closed Captioning text:After you create the WBS, you can define and track the project schedules. In the Schedule view, you can see the expected or proposed schedule, the planned schedule that is based on the resource assignment schedule, and the actual schedule, including the percent work complete. You can specify the expected schedule dates for elements that do not have resource assignments. You can specify the expected start and finish dates and duration. When you specify the start and finish dates, the duration and effort are calculated by using the project calendar. You can also create dependencies between project tasks. After you resolve the project dependencies, the dates of the dependent tasks are updated to accommodate the dependency. In the Gantt chart, you can view a graphical representation of the project plan. You can view details of the planned schedule of WBS elements, and the completion status. You can also quickly make changes to the project schedule. In a dynamic project scenario, you can capture snapshots of your project plan by creating a baseline. In the Baseline viewlet, you can compare baselines with each other or with the current plan.

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Page title:Manage project risks Manage project risks

Closed Captioning text:Use Rational Project Conductor to manage project risks. You can record an identified project risk and provide risk details. You can then define risk management strategies or plans. You can record specific actions to implement those strategies. To execute and track an action, you can create work items for the action. The work items and the corresponding risk element become part of the project WBS.

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Page title:Integrated work items Integrated work items

Closed Captioning text:Use the Details viewlet to track and update work items. The Details viewlet is based on and synchronized with the work item editor in IBM Rational Team Concert. Team members can update their work items in Rational Team Concert, and the changes are reflected in Rational Project Conductor.

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Page title:Assign resources and profiles Assign resources and profiles

Closed Captioning text:Use the Resources view to assign resources and profiles to projects and work items. You can create and save queries to search for resources and profiles. During search and assignment, you can run a saved query to identify the available resources. You can search for resources within specified start and finish dates and you can include the availability information in the search results. You can also search for users by name or view all available resources. When you assign a resource to a project, you can specify the project assignment role. To assign resources to project elements, you can select resources and profiles from the list of project assignments. During the assignment, you can modify the start and finish dates, and the work contour. The assignment dates are reflected in the planned schedule of the work item in the Schedule view. When a project is under planning or when resources are not identified, you can assign profiles to projects or work items. Profiles serve as resource requirement definitions. After resources are available, you can replace the profile with a resource.

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Page title:Manage project budgets Manage project budgets

Closed Captioning text:Use Rational Project Conductor to manage and track project budgets and financial health, you can manage and track project financials. You can enter, track, and compare the forecast, estimate, and actual values for different charge codes. The Labor Cost and Labor Revenue charge codes are calculated by using the cost rates and selling rates for the resources assigned to your project. You can add non-labor charge code categories, and enter forecast, estimate, and actual costs against those charge codes. The total project margin is then calculated and displayed.

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Page title:Enter and approve timesheets Enter and approve timesheets

Closed Captioning text:In the Timesheets view, team members assigned to project work can enter weekly timesheets. For each work item, they can enter the work hours, the percent complete, and any additional effort that they require to complete the task. They can then save or submit the timesheet for approval. In the Timesheet approval viewlet, a project manager can edit and review submitted timesheets, and either reject or approve the timesheet. When a timesheet is saved or submitted, the status of the work items is updated in the Schedule view. This helps project managers to track the actual status of the work.

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Page title:Conclusion Conclusion

Closed Captioning text:The collaborative project and resource management capabilities of Rational Project Conductor, and its integrations with other Rational products allow project managers, program managers, resource managers, and all project stakeholders to leverage information from across their software and systems development applications. This helps them to plan and steer projects within dynamically changing circumstances to optimize the value and minimize the cost of software delivery. Rational Project Conductor is developed on jazz.net where you can register to participate in discussion forums and newgroups, and stay informed about the product releases.

Page text:Use Rational Project Conductor to drive value and reduce costs in your software and systems delivery projects. Register on http://www.jazz.net to participate in the Rational Project Conductor development process.