WorkflowGen for Planisware

Add forms and processes to project portfolio management

WorkflowGen’s extensive deep integration capabilities allow the solution to be integrated into a variety of existing applications and platforms, from internal company portals to widely-used software such as iManage and Planisware.

Planisware is a leading project and portfolio management (PPM) solution whose customers are medium and large organizations across many sectors, including several industry giants.

WorkflowGen can be integrated with Planisware using an assembly application. Users complete and submit forms from the WorkflowGen User Portal, and the assembly application then makes a call to the Planisware API to search for the project and update the activity. WorkflowGen can also retrieve “in” data and update or create “out” data as needed.

Add forms and workflow automation to Planisware

This use case involves an Engineering Change Note process for a manufacturer that uses Planisware to manage its projects and sub-projects. First, an activity to identify sub-projects in the WBS is created in the WorkflowGen Administration Module. Then, a dedicated default project (which includes a sub-project) is created in order to receive task data for projects either not managed by or not yet created in Planisware.

From the end-user perspective, the process is as follows:

1. In WorkflowGen, the user fills out and submits a request to create or modify a project managed in Planisware.
2. WorkflowGen manages the approval circuit involving the various actors in the project.
3. Once the approvals are complete, WorkflowGen calls a web service to look for the destination project in Planisware based on the project name entered in the form.

• If the project is found, WorkflowGen searches for the sub-project; if the sub-project is not found, processing is cancelled and an error is returned.
• If the project is not found, the default project and its sub-project as configured in WorkflowGen will be used to create a project and sub-project in Planisware.

4. The project name coupled to the task ID is used to identify and search for the activity in Planisware.

• If the activity is found, its data is modified based on the data entered in WorkflowGen.
• If the activity is not found, an activity is created with the attributes configured in the destination sub-project.

How it works

In this example, the assembly application is a C# Class Library. The process is executed as follows:

WorkflowGen–Planisware integration schema

1. The WorkflowGen client uses an action to send an update activity request to the Planisware assembly application.
2. The Planisware assembly application sends a SOAP request to the Planisware API.
3. The Planisware API updates the activity on the Planisware server.
4. The Planisware server returns whether the update was successful or failed to the Planisware API.
5. The Planisware API returns this result as a SOAP response to the Planisware assembly application.
6. The WorkflowGen client then captures the response in a form data that can be used for subsequent actions.

Benefits

• All data is kept in sync across the two platforms, eliminating unnecessary (and potentially incorrect) data re-entry.
• Users can create or update projects and perform other process actions via the WorkflowGen User Portal, saving them the trouble of having to switch between two applications.
• WorkflowGen is configured to automatically create a new project and sub-project in Planisware if the project name in the form data is not found, eliminating the need to do this manually in Planisware first; everything is done all at once from within the form in WorkflowGen.
• Approvals can be performed quickly and easily, from anywhere and on any device, using WorkflowGen’s Remote Approval and Quick Mass Approval features; WorkflowGen manages the entire approval circuit and automatically updates or creates the project in Planisware according to the request data.
• Other actors can be added to the workflow as needed to intervene in requests and approvals.