Action Works Coordinator - 5

VERSION 5.
User Guide
Coordinating for Success
The Coordinator i
Copyrights and Trademarks
Neither the documentation nor the software may be copied, photocopied,
reproduced, translated, or reduced to any electronic medium or machine-readable
form, in whole or in part, without the prior written permission of an officer of
Action Technologies, Inc., except in the manner described in the documentation.
This publication is the property of Action Technologies, Inc., and its possession
and use are subject to the terms and conditions of the License Agreement with
Action Technologies, Inc.
Copyright 1993–2003 Action Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.
Action Technologies, Inc.

1301 Marina Village Parkway
Alameda, CA 94501
Phone: 510-521-6190
Fax: 510-769-0596
Web: www.actiontech.com
ActionWorks is a trademark of Action Technologies, Inc.

U.S. Patent Nos. 5,216,603 and 5,630,069 and 5,208,748 and 5,734,837 and
6,073,109 and 6,058,413.
All other product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their

respective owners.
ii Action Technologies, Inc.

WELCOME
Welcome
Welcome to an exciting new enterprise application—Coordinator….coordinating
for success.
The Coordinator is going to change the way you run your business—for the bet-
ter. It is an application framework for managing all the business interactions of an
organization. Coordinating people’s decisions and actions in business critical
processes and projects collapses cycle times in key value-chain elements, such as
new product development, customer support and contract negotiations. Working
in collaboration with your suppliers, employees, partners and customers creates
enduring relationships that increase customer satisfaction and switching costs.
Action Technologies’ award-winning solutions manage this human side of col-
laboration, where processes and projects rely on people’s inventions, innova-
tions, and improvisations rather than pre-defined, repetitive tasks.
Additionally, the Coordinator accepts all business process applications built in

Metro and displays all work items whether in projects, processes, or day-to-day
collaborations in a unified manner.
The Coordinator Mission

We've created a coordination platform that makes it simple to utilize the time and
resources of knowledge professionals working together to produce custom
goods, services, and programs. Knowledge workers who regularly engage in
complex inventive work with colleagues, customers, suppliers, and partners can-
not function with simple, task-based systems; these professionals need the ability
to negotiate customer requirements (internal and external), make promises, and
then track these promises so that the team delivers on time and on budget.
Whether you are working

• in projects, processes, or daily collaborations
• in professional service engagements or new product development
• between departments or across corporate boundaries
The Coordinator helps you manage all the commitments necessary to deliver the
custom goods, services, and programs your customers require. Coordinator users
The Coordinator iii

call it a “real life” tool and they find that it incorporates everything on their “wish
list” for a management application.
The Coordinator is an enterprise application for knowledge workers. These peo-

ple have high demands placed on them, requiring a high level of education and
specialized information. They organize their efforts around engagements, with
teams that have new members each time. They do all this in conjunction with tre-
mendous engagement complexity, uncertainty, and moving deadlines, while
requirements change on a daily basis in response to customer issues. Without
efficient management, the results can be chaotic.
Whether the engagement is a professional services project or new product devel-

opment, it is imperative that engagement managers have frequent, rich interac-
tions with the customer and their team members to produce a quality deliverable
on time and on budget. These interactions must be visible to all team members so
everyone knows the engagement status at any given time.
The product mission of the Coordinator addresses the basic concerns of this type
of engagement management. We believe that the most crucial interactions in
business seek commitment. The question, “Will you engage our company for this
project by the end of the month?” looks for a definite answer. “Yes” is better than
“No,” but either is better than the uncertainty of “Perhaps,” or “Maybe,” or
“Probably not,” or “I don't know.”
There are four essential elements in the dictionary definition of “commitment”:

1. An agreement,
2. With someone,
3. To do something,
4. In the future.
The Coordinator manages all four of these elements of commitment and helps to
bring clarity to team interactions. This makes the future more predictable and
helps order your work environment, turning chaos into organized complexity.
What You Can Expect From the Coordinator

Using the Coordinator, people working together on engagements will experience:
iv Action Technologies, Inc.

WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM THE COORDINATOR
•A flexible tool set that goes far beyond simple tool assignment and allows
knowledge professionals to innovate, improvise and negotiate with each
other.
•Explicit descriptions of expected deliverables.
•A clear view of how one piece of the engagement contributes to the whole.
•More predictability about the timing of future work.
•The ability to negotiate the who, where, what, when, and how of work.
•More time to spend on high-value contributions with less time spent on
administrative tasks.
•A commitment platform that manages all critical customer interactions and
ensures that nothing slips through the cracks.
Using the Coordinator, your company will achieve greater command of its
resources and profits, while improving its customer relations. With the ability to
give any team member an instant view of the current status of all customers from
single engagements to one-to-one collaborations, you will:
•Reduce cycle times.
•Improve customer relationships.
•Increase customer switching costs.
•Increase utilization of your most important resource—people.
•Increase productivity by improving coordination among team members
working together towards the successful completion of a custom deliver-
able.
Small improvements in any of these areas can create large gains in profitability. It
follows that large changes in all five of these areas can create dramatic gains in
profitability. The Coordinator will help you achieve this reality.
As you work with the Coordinator, you can expect real results. You’ll develop a
knowledge repository of best practices that you can use as a basis for estimating,
planning, and implementing future engagements. You can also achieve continu-
ous process improvement through reporting and analysis features. This ensures
continuity among engagements while minimizing project design time for similar
engagements. Efficiencies implemented in one engagement are stored as a
knowledge base that can be adapted for other similar engagements.
Questions on billing or time spent on engagements are easily resolved as time

spent on a project is documented every time team members report hours. Time
The Coordinator v
sheets are compiled in the overview of each case as they are inputted and are
immediately available to the manager. The manager can track profit potential and
completion objectives simultaneously.
How To Use This Manual

This is not designed as a manual to be read from cover to cover, rather it is a
workbook intended to guide you through the start-up process of learning the
Coordinator. All the basic tasks are covered in this book. You’ll learn the skills
you need in short, easy-to-follow chapters.
You’ll find the Coordinator to be intuitive and easy to master. Use this book as a
road map to point you in the right direction until you can strike out on your own.
Give Us Your Input

Think of this book as a working document of what the Coordinator can do for
you. As such, we encourage you to share your thoughts on its design and content
so as we can include your suggestions in any future updates.
It is the goal of Action Technologies to create a book that makes the start-up pro-
cess of learning this exciting new enterprise application as simple and painless as
possible. We welcome your comments.
To provide feedback on this book or any aspect of the Coordinator, please click
Product Feedback under Help in the Engagement Center Navigator, and enter
your comments in the form.
vi Action Technologies, Inc.

Table of Contents
Copyrights and Trademarks .................................................... ii
Welcome ................................................................................ iii
The Coordinator Mission ....................................................... iii
What You Can Expect From the Coordinator........................ iv
How To Use This Manual...................................................... vi
Give Us Your Input................................................................ vi
Introduction to the Coordinator ...............................................1

The Coordination Center..........................................................2
The Engagement Center...........................................................3
The Calendar and Work Views................................................4
Interaction Suite .......................................................................5
Your Personal Profile...............................................................5
Address Book...........................................................................6
Contacts....................................................................................7
Projects.....................................................................................7
Custom Applications................................................................8
Summary ..................................................................................9
Chapter 1 The Business Interaction Model .................................... 11

Introduction to the Business Interaction Model.....................11
Phases of work.................................................................12
Participants ......................................................................13
Available Actions ...........................................................13
Interactions Between Participants ...................................15
Pending Work..................................................................15
Tracking Commitments .........................................................16
Tracking the Phase of Work With Work Views..............16
Tracking the Phase from Status form ..............................16
Tracking Pending Work in the Coordinator ....................17
Reaching Agreement in Coordinator .....................................19
Reaching Agreement in Meetings ...................................19
Reaching agreement in requests ......................................19
Reaching Agreement in Issues ........................................20
Reaching Agreement in Tasks.........................................20
The Coordinator vii

Performing Work in the Coordinator ..............................21
Accepting Work in the Coordinator ................................21
Closing Work in the Coordinator...........................................21
For Request......................................................................21
For Task...........................................................................22
For Meeting .....................................................................22
Restarting Work in Coordinator ......................................22
Chapter 2 Interactions .................................................................... 23

Types of Interactions..............................................................23
Interactions for making requests .....................................24
Interactions for scheduling ..............................................25
Group Interactions ...........................................................25
Approvals ........................................................................27
Starting new interactions........................................................28
To Initiate Interactions ....................................................29
Document Tab .................................................................33
Participating in Interactions ...................................................33
Email notification ............................................................33
General Tab of Status Form ............................................34
Updating Interactions ......................................................36
Taking Actions ................................................................37
Changing Due Dates........................................................37
Transferring Work ...........................................................38
Delegating Work .............................................................38
Adding Documents to Interactions..................................39
Work Templates.....................................................................40
Managing Structured Business Processes ..............................41
Using Add Hoc Work in a Structured Process ................42
Chapter 3 Resources ...................................................................... 45

Contacts..................................................................................45
Creating a New Contact ..................................................46
Types of Resources .........................................................47
Contact Cards ..................................................................48
Editing Contact Information............................................48
Interacting with Contacts.................................................49
Contact Email ..................................................................50
viii Action Technologies, Inc.

Advantages of Contacts...................................................51
Limitations of Contacts ...................................................52
Managing Contact Work in Views ..................................52
Organization Roles and Shared Work....................................52
Offices .............................................................................53
Positions ..........................................................................53
Creating Organizational Roles ........................................53
Assigning Work to Organizational Roles........................54
Address Book.........................................................................55
Opening the Address Book..............................................55
Assigning Work ..............................................................56
Project Address Book ......................................................57
Switching Between Project and Global Contexts............57
Resource Management...........................................................58
Skills ................................................................................58
Resource Finder...............................................................60
Time Management .................................................................62
Time Off ..........................................................................62
Time Allocation...............................................................66
Chapter 4 Managing Work............................................................. 69

The Coordination Center........................................................69
Editing Lenses........................................................................71
Adding and Dropping Lenses..........................................71
Work Views ...........................................................................72
Focusing Options on your Work Page ............................72
Searching Work Views....................................................75
Adjusting Work Views with Search Settings ..................75
Managing Work Items in Bulk ........................................77
Changing the Read Mark.................................................77
Changing the Due Date ...................................................78
Sending a Follow Up .......................................................78
Changing Priority ...........................................................78
Marking Work as Completed ..........................................78
Transferring Work ...........................................................79
Moving Work ..................................................................79
Cancelling work ..............................................................79
Deleting work ..................................................................80
The Coordinator ix
Chapter 5 Working with Projects .................................................... 81
Project Finder and Views.......................................................81
Finding Projects...............................................................82
Favorites ..........................................................................83
Project Tabs ...........................................................................83
Plan Tab...........................................................................84
Calendar Tab ...................................................................85
Documents.......................................................................85
Discussions Tab...............................................................85
The Discussions tab shows threaded discussions. It is a space where
team members can raise questions and address issues important to
the project. .......................................................................85
Reports.............................................................................85
Overview Tab ..................................................................85
Resources Tab .................................................................86
Using the Plan Tab.................................................................86
Project Work Views ........................................................87
The Express Plan View and the Plan Views ..........................88
The Express Plan view ....................................................88
The Plan view ..................................................................89
Adjusting Project Views with Search Settings................90
Adding Interactions to a Project ......................................91
Project Structure.....................................................................92
Interactions ......................................................................92
Milestones .......................................................................92
The summary task ...........................................................92
Project Links....................................................................93
Private Items....................................................................93
Project Indentation ..........................................................93
Expanding and collapsing the project hierarchy .............94
Accessing projects .................................................................94
Project Favorites..............................................................94
Chapter 6 Managing Projects......................................................... 97

Creating Projects ....................................................................97
Creating your team ........................................................100
Notifications ..................................................................100
Access Control ..............................................................100
x Action Technologies, Inc.

Creating interactions in your project ............................101
Project Information........................................................102
Project Start Date...........................................................103
Changing Project Status ................................................103
Publishing Rules............................................................104
Publishing Projects ........................................................104
Activating a project .......................................................105
Copying and Reusing Projects .............................................106
Building a Template ......................................................107
Merging Projects ...........................................................107
Gantt Charts...................................................................108
Project Roles ........................................................................109
Setting up Project Roles ................................................109
Using Project Roles .......................................................111
Adding Skills to Project Roles ......................................113
Managing Project Interactions .............................................114
Dependencies.................................................................115
Moving Work ................................................................116
Managing Dates ...................................................................119
Recalculating Dates .......................................................119
Publishing Dates............................................................120
Using Gantt Charts to Manage Dates ............................121
Chapter 7 Document Management .............................................. 123

Adding Documents to the Coordinator ................................123
Adding documents to the Library..................................124
Adding Documents to Projects......................................125
Adding Documents to Interactions................................127
Managing Documents ..........................................................128
Document Views ...........................................................128
Updating Documents .....................................................129
Revisions .......................................................................130
Setting access control and properties ............................131
Searching for Documents ..............................................132
Chapter 8 Access Rights and Administration ............................... 135

A Two-tiered System of Access Rights: Global and Project135
Explanation of different permissions ............................137
The Coordinator xi
Access Roles and Group Properties Administration............140
Assigning people to Access Roles.................................140
Bulk Properties Administration.....................................141
The Bulk Properties Window ........................................142
Other Responsibilities of an Administrator .........................143
Lenses ............................................................................143
Setting Lens Properties..................................................143
Keywords for Documents..............................................143
Locations .......................................................................144
Chapter 9 Using the Coordinator Publisher................................. 147

Importing Microsoft Projects ...............................................148
Microsoft Outlook Integration .............................................154
xii Action Technologies, Inc.

Introduction to the Coordinator
Welcome to the Coordinator, the platform for enterprise level coordination, col-
laboration, and Business Process Management. The Coordinator makes it easy to
collaborate with customers, partners, and people inside your company. Specific
modules for managing important commitments, projects, documents and
resources come ready to use. If you are a new user, there are several features that
are important to get to know. In this introduction we will give you a brief over-
view of some of the most commonly used features of the Coordinator including:
Interaction Suite
•Coordination Center
•Calendar
•Personal Profile
•Contacts
•Address Book
•Process Integration
The Coordinator 1
Figure 1 Important features
The Coordination Center

The Coordination Center is a perfect place to begin your tour of the Coordinator.
Once you log-in to the system, you can access the Coordination Center by click-
ing on the Home button at the top of your screen. The Coordination Center acts
as your personal Web-based organizer; displaying new documents, your favorite
projects, pending work and more. The Coordination Center is separated into indi-
vidual divisions called lenses. Each lens is a separate view that 'focuses' on spe-
cific information. The lenses highlight specific areas of change within your
organization. They also help keep things simple. By providing an overview of
specific areas of concern, such as documents, discussions or favorite projects,
and give you links to related information.
2 Action Technologies, Inc.

THE ENGAGEMENT CENTER
Figure 2 The Coordination Center

You can add or remove lenses from the Coordination Center by clicking on the
Edit button on the right hand corner of the Coordination Center frame shown
above. You can also modify the content of your lenses by clicking on the edit
command button located in the top right hand corner of each lens.
The Engagement Center

The menu found along the left side of Coordinator screens is known as the
engagement center. It is the primary place for navigating through the Coordina-
tors many views. Each section expands to reveal a different set of features. This
area can be customized to include additional Web pages, reports or applications.
See the Coordinator Developer's guide for details.
The Coordinator 3
The Calendar and Work Views

The calendar feature is an important tool for managing your commitments. You
can access your calendar by clicking on the calendar link on the left hand side of
your screen under the section labeled Collaboration. The calendar provides you
with daily, weekly, and monthly views of important personal and professional
commitments. The daily view shows you all of your Appointments, and Meet-
ings, as well as any Tasks, Issues, Requests, and interactions from custom pro-
cesses. The weekly and monthly views give you a general overview of pending
items, letting you quickly assess your workload during a given week or month.
From any of the calendar views, you can instantly view and take action on your
work, by clicking on the subject of the work item. You can also synchronize your
Coordinator Calendar with Outlook, using tools that let you import/export Meet-
ings, Tasks and Requests from Coordinator. In addition to the Calendar view,
Coordinator offers a variety of work views that are easily customized to show
only the work you wish to display, making it easy for you to track work and com-
mitments.
Figure 3 Calendar view displaying work items due

INTERACTION SUITE
Interaction Suite
The Interaction Suite is the entire set of interactions available from the Create
menu. Interactions let you quickly start Requests, Tasks, Meetings, and even
Projects. The Create menu is located next to the Home and Back buttons at the
top of your Coordinator screen. The Create menu contains a pull-down More
menu which provides additional options for creating work, letting you start
Group Requests, Issues, personal templates, and custom processes.
Figure 4 Status form of a Request
Your Personal Profile

From your Personal Profile you can set your email address (used for sending
updates on work), system preferences, and even add a picture. You can quickly
access your Personal Profile by clicking on your name, highlighted in yellow, on
the top right hand corner of the Coordinator screen next to the Create menu
(Figure 3). From the Options tab of your Personal Profile you can also set your
system preferences. System preferences control how you view work and deter-
mine which lenses to display in the Coordination Center.
The Coordinator 5
Figure 5 Personal Profile
Address Book
New users should get to know the Coordinator Address Book, as it makes it easy
to assign work to users of the system as well as to contacts who do not have
Coordinator accounts. Using the Address Book, you can assign work to the right
person, contact, or role, and you can also add people to be copied on the work.
You can access the Address Book by clicking on the address icon, next to the Per-
former field of a new or existing Request, Task, or Issue.

CONTACTS
Figure 6 Address Book with Users button selected
Contacts
Using the Coordinator's unique interaction tools, it is possible to communicate
with anyone who has been added to the contact list in the Coordinator, regardless
of whether that person has an account in the system. Simply assign work to a
contact, and the contact will receive email updates enabling them to comment
and take action on the work without requiring the contact to log-in or even to be
familiar with the Coordinator. Using contacts extends the scope of work that you
can manage in the Coordinator. With contacts, it is possible to interact and man-
age work with customers, partners, even personal commitments with friends and
family members, all within the Coordinator framework.
Projects
Coordinator Projects are a great tool for organizing and tracking important work.
Coordinator projects offer state-of-the-art project management tools such as
Gantt charts and task dependencies; letting you track your project work in real-
time, utilizing Action's Business Interaction Model to help you manage your
The Coordinator 7
commitments. Additionally, when you create a work item in a Coordinator

project, the participants in the work item receive notification via email and can
track and negotiate the work using specialized web forms from the Coordinator's
Interaction Suite.
Figure 7 Coordinator Project
Custom Applications
The Coordinator is an extensible environment that can be customized in a num-
ber of ways. By editing simple XML files, developers can add elements and com-
mands to the existing user interface. This makes it possible to link to external
applications, or customized business process applications that are running within
the Coordinator system itself. For more information about customizing the Coor-
dinator, see the SDK manual.

SUMMARY
Figure 8 ActionWorks business process map used to control structured busi-

ness processes in the Coordinator
Summary
The Coordinator User Manual will give you additional details about some of the
features you have already seen. The Coordinator provides a great environment
for managing projects, documents, and all of your important commitments. The
Coordinator lets you link directly with clients, contacts, and people from your
office, making it easy to collaborate with people from different locations, and
from different companies. We ask you to get to know the Coordinator feature set.
Before beginning to use the system, all Coordinator users should take a look at
the chapter on the Business Interaction Model, as it goes into detail about the
underlying theory which makes the Coordinator such a powerful tool. All users
of the Coordinator will benefit from an introduction to the concepts behind
Action's innovative model for managing commitments.
The Coordinator 9

CHAPTER 1 The Business Interaction Model
The ActionWorks® Business Interaction Model (BIM) provides a clear structure

that helps to simplify and extend business communication. The BIM has strong
theoretical and practical foundations drawing on research in business, philoso-
phy, computers and linguistics. The BIM plays a key role in making the Coordi-
nator a powerful tool for creating, keeping, and managing commitments. Reading
this chapter will show you how you can use the Coordinator to determine the
phase of commitments, monitor your pending work, and take actions in a variety
of business interactions.
Introduction to the Business Interaction Model

The Business Interaction Model evolved from the research of Fernando Flores
and Terry Winograd. Based on the study of a wide range of fields, Flores and
Winograd created a conceptual model that helps direct commitments and clearly
communicate ideas. One of the most remarkable aspects of The BIM is that it
incorporates the complete set of language that is relevant in making and negotiat-
ing commitments, and maps this language to the four states that are visible in the
graphical representation of the BIM (Figure 9). This relationship between the
The Coordinator 11
Chapter 1... The Business Interaction Model
state of a commitment, and the language that is used in business conversations,

produces an elegant and intuitive model for improving human interaction and
business relationships.
The Business Interaction Model has four distinct states—preparation, negotia-

tion, performance, and acceptance. In each phase the Customer (the person
responsible for reviewing and accepting work) and the Performer (the person
who fulfills the conditions of satisfaction) have different responsibilities.
Although the roles of Customer and Performer generally do not change during
the four phases, the responsibility to make the next communication or ‘action’
shifts between the participants during the course of the conversation. For
instance, when a Customer makes a request, the Performer then owes the next
response in the conversation. If the Performer takes an action such as “yes with
these changes”, the responsibility shifts back to the Customer to agree or disagree
with the proposed changes. In practice, The BIM helps to build a structured con-
versation between Customers and Performers, a conversation that mirrors the
way people make and keep commitments in real life.
PHASES OF WORK
The diagram below gives an overview of The BIM. The phases of work; prepara-
tion, negotiation, performance, and acceptance are explained in more detail
below.
Figure 9 A graphical rendering of the Business Interaction Model

INTRODUCTION TO THE BUSINESS INTERACTION MODEL
PARTICIPANTS
The key participants in the BIM are a Customer, who proposes the work and a
Performer who fulfills the request. Additionally, there may be Observers who can
review and comment on the work, but do not directly participate in the comple-
tion of work. Below is a definition of each of these roles.
•Customer – Person who is responsible for proposing work and reviewing or
accepting the work when it is declared complete.
•Peformer - Person who does work by fulfilling the conditions of satisfac-
tion of a request.
•Observer(s) - Person or who can review and read and comments on the
request.
The Customer and Performer have different responsibilities and available

actions, depending on the phase of an interaction. This potential set of choices is
referred to as the Available Actions.
AVAILABLE ACTIONS
Available Actions are an important part of the ActionWorks® BIM. A person’s
available actions are the list of choices at a specific moment in an interaction. For
instance, if you are the Performer in a request that is in the negotiation phase, you
will have the following actions available to you:
•Yes, agree
•This is done
•Yes with these changes
•Cannot, will not or no (decline)
•Postpone responding
•Comment
By giving you a structured set of choices, the BIM makes it easy for you to
clearly specify your intentions. Your available actions are displayed in your in
Coordinator e-mails as well as the interaction forms. You can take action on work
directly from your Coordinator e-mails by clicking on any of the different action
links (Figure 10). When logged into Coordinator, you can see your list of Avail-
able Actions in an interaction at any time from the Action drop-down list on the
work item Status form (Figure 11).
The Coordinator 13
Figure 10 Coordinator email form with interactions available
Figure 11 A Coordinator Status form

INTRODUCTION TO THE BUSINESS INTERACTION MODEL
Taking action on an interaction may result in a status change of the commitment.

For instance, when a Performer agrees to do work in a request by taking the
action "Yes, agree" the work moves from the negotiation to the performance
phase. Similarly, when a Performer reports the completion of work by taking the
action "This is done" the work moves from the performance phase to acceptance.
Your list of available actions changes depending on the context of the interaction.
It can vary depending on the phase of the work, the type of interaction—whether
meeting, request, issue, task, or a specialized interaction, and your role in the
work—Customer, Performer or Observer. See “Participating in Interactions” on
page 33.
Note: The ‘Comment’ action does not change the phase of work.
INTERACTIONS BETWEEN PARTICIPANTS

The ActionWorks® Business Interaction Model maintains a focus on clear agree-
ment and Customer satisfaction. The agreed upon terms of an interaction have
special significance in ActionWorks® methodology. These agreed upon terms
are referred to as the conditions of satisfaction. The conditions of satisfaction
include the specifics of what needs to be accomplished. When a Customer first
creates a request, he/she spells out these conditions. Later, through negotiation
with the Performer, the conditions of satisfaction may change. As the conditions
of satisfaction for a particular interaction emerge from negotiation between Cus-
tomer and Performer, the result is that both Customer and Performer possess a
shared understanding of what work needs to be performed. This shared under-
standing helps build trust between parties, and creates a degree of clarity that is
often missing in unstructured business communication.
PENDING WORK
Clarity and understanding are critical to successful business communication. The
Business Interaction Model helps avoid misunderstanding and breakdowns by
creating an expected order of action, creating a natural flow of communication
between Customers and Performers. This flow of communication depends on
participants being aware of when they are expected to take action. This is a key
benefit to users of ActionWorks® systems, as it allows users to be not only aware
of what work they are responsible for completing, but also of where and when
they owe a response, regardless of whether they are the Customer or the Per-
former of the work. In the BIM, pending work is divided into two categories:
work that is Pending by Me, and work that is Pending to Me.
The Coordinator 15
•Work that is Pending by Me is work where I am expected to take the next

response.
•Work that is Pending to me is work where another user owes a response to
me.
Tracking Commitments
Since the Coordinator uses the ActionWorks® Business Interaction Model to
provide structure and clarity in communication, it is easy to monitor the phase of
commitments, track pending work, and reach agreement on work.
TRACKING THE PHASE OF WORK WITH WORK VIEWS

You can determine the phase of your work from both the work item Status form
and your Coordinator work views. It is easy to know the phase of any interaction
in your Work views. See “Work Views” on page 72. For each interaction, the Sta-
tus column in your Work view displays an abbreviation that tells you the phase of
the work. Additionally, the color of the abbreviated letters provides information
about the item. For example, a red color status icon tells you that work is late
while a green color icon tells you that the work is on course.
Status Icon: The Status column of your work item view contains letters that rep-
resent the phase of a workflow:
Preparation
Negotiation
Performance
Acceptance
TRACKING THE PHASE FROM STATUS FORM

Information is also given about the phase of work on the work item Status form
itself. See “General Tab of Status Form” on page 34. On the Status form, the sta-
tus icon bar lets a person quickly determine the phase of a commitment, and who

TRACKING COMMITMENTS
is expected to take the next action. The participant’s menu on the Status form
gives a user additional detail. It lets a user quickly determine the Customer, Per-
former, and Observers in a particular interaction.
Figure 12 Status form showing participant information in upper left hand cor-
ner
TRACKING PENDING WORK IN THE COORDINATOR
The Coordinator makes it easy to know who is expected to take the next action
on work. When a user is expected to take action, they will receive an e-mail with
a link to the item in the Coordinator. The work also appears in a user’s Pending
by Me lens in the Coordination Center and in a user’s Pending by Me view in his/
her work views. See “The Coordination Center” on page 69. Both the Pending by
Me lens and Pending by Me view help you quickly determine what actions you
owe, making it easy for you to respond to pressing tasks.
The Coordinator 17
Notice that the Coordinator work views let you see not only who is the Customer
or Performer in work, but also who is responsible for the next action. Knowing
when you are expected to take action is a key part of making and keeping com-
mitments.
On the Coordinator Home Page you will find a number of useful Lenses that help
you focus on important areas of interest. Below are descriptions of two lenses
that deal specifically with tracking commitments. For more information about the
Coordinator Home page and lenses in general. See “The Coordination Center” on
page 69. on Managing Work.
Pending by Me Lens - The Pending by Me lens contains work where you are
expected to take the next action.
Pending to Me Lens - The Pending to Me lens contains work where another user
is expected to take action in a work item in which I am participating in.
Two related views also exist for managing pending work—the Pending by me,
and Pending to me views. These two views enable you quickly see what work
requires your response, and what work requires others to respond to you.
S y m b o l s f o r p en d i n g w o r k
The Coordinator provides a number of symbols that let you instantly see who is
expected to take action on work. Two symbols are of particular importance; the
blue diamond and the yellowish-green diamond, each of which can appear next
to a person’s name in the Person column of a work view:
Blue diamond - The blue diamond appears next to items that are pending by
me. For these items, the ball is in your court, meaning that you owe a response.
Yellowish-green diamond - The yellowish-green diamond appears next to the

name of the person to whom the response is pending.

REACHING AGREEMENT IN COORDINATOR
Reaching Agreement in Coordinator

Agreement is an important part of the ActionWorks® Business Interaction
Model. All of the Coordinator interactions See “Types of Interactions” on
page 23., with the exception of the task, allow Customer and Performer to negoti-
ate the conditions of satisfaction. The capability to negotiate encourages people
to make realistic requests and commitments.
REACHING AGREEMENT IN MEETINGS

For planning and informing people of important meetings, the Meeting interac-
tion is exceptionally useful See “Interactions for scheduling” on page 25. A
Meeting enters the negotiation phase after it has been activated by the Customer.
The Coordinator gives the Performer a number of options in the negotiation
phase of a meeting:
•Yes, I will attend
•No I cannot attend
•Comment
When agreeing to attend a Meeting, a user should check their calendar to see if
they have any prior obligations that may conflict with the meeting, and should
check both the location and duration of the meeting. After agreeing to attend a
meeting, the user’s name appears in the Meeting Status form with a green-check-
box next to it.
REACHING AGREEMENT IN REQUESTS

Coordinator Requests make it easy to coordinate with partners, clients, or people
inside your company. After a Customer initiates an active request, the work
immediately moves into negotiation, where the Performer can consider making a
commitment.
Options for the Performer in Negotiation

When the Performer opens the status form in negotiation, they are presented with
a number of options shown from the ActionWorks® drop down list of the Status
form. See “A Coordinator Status form” on page 14. To agree to perform a request
the Performer should take the action “Yes, agree”.
The Coordinator 19
Of course, it is possible for the Performer in a request to take other actions in

negotiation other than agreeing to do the work. The Performer may want to
amend the Conditions of Satisfaction (such as the due date of the work item) set
forth by the Customer. In that case, the Performer should take the action “Yes
with these changes”. Taking this action, throws the ball back in to the Cus-
tomer’s court. The Customer can agree to the Performer’s changes, which puts
the work into performance, or the Customer can make changes to the Performer’s
changes and the work remains in negotiation until an agreement is reached.
F ro m A g ree m en t t o P er f o r m a n c e
After agreement, the Performer still has the responsibility to make the next
response. In a “typical” request the Performer takes the action “Yes agree”, fol-
lowed later, after the work is completed, with the action “This is done.” By tak-
ing the action “This is done” the Performer indicates that the work is complete.
Note: Agreeing to perform a Request is not the same as declaring that you have
completed the work. In the Interaction Model, agreement is a first step in
negotiation. It means that you as user understand the conditions of satis-
faction and agree to complete them, but does not signal that you have
completed the work.
REACHING AGREEMENT IN ISSUES

The issue is a type of request designed for tracking problems that arise during the
course of a project. Issues show up in special views accessible from the View
menu in the Work view. It is easy to raise, track, and resolve important issues
with Coordinator. Issues enter negotiation immediately after they have been acti-
vated by the Customer. In negotiation, the Performer may take the act “Yes
agree”, to agree to resolve the issue. Since it is a request, the Performer in an
issue also has the option to decline, postpone responding, or redefine the scope of
the issue. (“Yes with these changes”).
REACHING AGREEMENT IN TASKS

A Coordinator Task does not use the negotiation acceptance phases. When the
Performer receives a task the work is immediately in performance, meaning that
the conditions of satisfaction can not be negotiated and the work must be per-
formed. Tasks are suited for routine work where negotiation of the conditions of
satisfaction is not required. Once the task is completed the task immediately

CLOSING WORK IN THE COORDINATOR
moves to the closed phase. Although there is no acceptance phase for the Cus-
tomer in a task, the Customer can revive a closed task, by taking the restart
action, which immediately puts the task back into the performance phase.
PERFORMING WORK IN THE COORDINATOR

In the Performance phase, the Performer fulfills the request and reports comple-
tion. If a work item is in the performance phase, the work appears with the letter
P highlighted in either the status column of your work view, or from the icon sta-
tus bar from your status form. To report completion on a work item, the Per-
former takes the action “This is done”.
ACCEPTING WORK IN THE COORDINATOR

After the Performer reports completion, the Customer in a request or issue is
given the option to accept the completed work. This ensures that work is com-
pleted to the Customer’s satisfaction. In a request, to declare satisfaction, the
Customer should take the action “Thanks, close”. If not satisfied with the com-
pleted work, the Customer takes the action, “More please”, which sends the work
back into performance, where the Performer must complete the work to the Cus-
tomer’s satisfaction.
Closing Work in the Coordinator

Closing work is a key moment in completing any commitment. Work does not
close automatically. A Performer must do some work and then report the work
complete. In some cases such as in a Task, this may be enough to close out the
commitment. In other cases such as a Request, the Customer must first review
the work, and then decide to accept it, or ask for further actions.
FOR REQUEST
Certain actions will move the request into a closed state--if the Customer declares
satisfaction (Thanks, close), if the Customer cancels the work in question, or if
the Performer declines to complete the request. If the Customer needs to revive a
closed request, she/he can do so by taking the restart act.
The Coordinator 21
FOR TASK
Certain actions will move the task into a closed state--if the Performer takes the
action, “This is done”, if the Customer cancels the work, or if the Performer
declines to perform the task. Although there is no negotiation or acceptance
phase in a task, the Customer of a task can revive a closed task by taking the
restart act from the Action drop down list.
FOR MEETING
In a meeting, the Customer can close the meeting for all participants by taking
the action “Close meeting”.
RESTARTING WORK IN COORDINATOR

Closed work appears in a user’s closed work view. There may be times when the
Customer of an item needs to restart important work. A Customer can instantly
bring work back to life, by choosing the restart action. The restart act is available
to the Customer of the work item for closed or canceled work in requests, tasks,
issues, meetings, and approvals.

CHAPTER 2 Interactions
This chapter will introduce you to the Coordinator Interaction Suite. The Interac-
tion Suite is the term used to refer to the array of business interactions that are
supported in the Coordinator. The Interaction Suite gives users a variety of pow-
erful communications tools for managing agreements, tracking appointments and
working together in groups on specific tasks. This chapter will also show you
how to create work in the Coordinator and how to take action on existing work.
With Coordinator's user-friendly forms for creating and updating work, and
Action Technologies' innovative model for managing commitments, Coordinator
interactions provide a productive environment for collaboration.
Types of Interactions
The specialized interactions available in the Interaction Suite offer exciting pos-
sibilities for users. The Coordinator provides interactions for making requests,
tracking issues, managing meetings and appointments, or working together with
others on a common task or tasks.
You may have already noticed the Create menu bar at the top of the Coordinator
screen. From here it is simple to create new work . The Create menu lets you cre-
ate Requests, Meetings and Appointments. The More menu provides more spe-
The Coordinator 23
Chapter 2...Interactions
cialized interactions. Below is a list of the interaction types available in the

Interaction Suite:
•Request - This type of interaction is used to send work to other people.
Interactions of this type include the request, issue and task.
•Approval - Used to route approvals to one or more people, either all at one
time or in a sequential fashion.
•Group Requests - Used for sending work to more than one person at the
same time, or many work items to different people, or many work items to a
single person. This interaction type includes the work packages and group
requests.
•Scheduling - This type of interaction includes the Meeting and the Appoint-
ment.
All the Coordinator interaction types differ slightly from each other. Meetings
and appointments let you specify a specific time, and have an optional Location
field. Group requests let you specify more than one Performer for the work in the
Performers field. Below we will examine each of the different types of interac-
tions, and examine how each type can help you coordinate more effectively.
INTERACTIONS FOR MAKING REQUESTS

At its core, the Coordinator is a tool for making and managing commitments.
Below are descriptions of the interaction types designed for managing commit-
ments and issues between individuals.
Requests - Are used for managing commitments between people that require
negotiation. When a request is made the Customer and Performer can negotiate
the conditions of satisfaction. See Figure 12 on page 17.
Tasks - Are a close relative of the request. However, the task lacks both a negoti-
ation and acceptance phase. Thus there can be no negotiation of the conditions of
satisfaction or rejection of completed work in a task. The task is designed for
simple interactions where no review of work is necessary, and where Performers
do not need the option to decline or change an agreement.
Issues - Are designed for tracking problems. Like the request, it has negotiation
and acceptance. Within a project, team members can track issues from the All
Issues view. Like a request, the issue has a negotiation and and an acceptance
phase. The Performer is expected to "Agree" to consider the issue, just as in a
request one agrees to perform the request. Unlike a request however, an issue is

TYPES OF INTERACTIONS
used to resolve a problem where the specific actions that need to be taken are not
necessarily clear at the outset.
INTERACTIONS FOR SCHEDULING
The Coordinator is a great tool for managing your personal schedule. Meetings
and appointments help users track important events. Meetings give people impor-
tant details about the upcoming Meeting and let users manage ongoing discus-
sions related to it.
Meeting - also contains a check calendar feature that helps you avoid scheduling
conflicts. By pressing the Check Calendar button, you can view the calendars of
other Meeting participants to see if there are any schedule conflicts, while still
maintaining the privacy of user interactions. (The content of others user's work is
not revealed, the view only shows whether a schedule conflict exists, but does
not display any specific information about another user's commitments).
Appointments - are used to track personal scheduling items. When you create an
appointment, it will show up in the calendar, and be displayed to other users if
they check your schedule in preparation for a meeting. In contrast to meetings
appointments only affect 1 person.
Note: The Check Calendar feature can be affected by the profile settings of indi-
vidual users. A user can choose not to let others know about his/her
schedule conflicts by un-checking the profile option Display my calendar
event as busy items from the Option's tab of a user's personal profile.
GROUP INTERACTIONS
The Coordinator has a set of interactions designed for managing work involving
a group of people.
Group Requests - This is a standard requests, with multiple people listed as Per-
formers. Any of the Performers can take action on the work item.
Work Packages to One - is a multiple requests with only one perfomer. This is
an excellent tool when several people need to work together on a specific request.
The initiation form of a group request is the same as a standard request, except
that in a group request you can specify more than one Performer in the Perform-
The Coordinator 25
ers field. After you submit the group request Initiation form, all the people that
you have added to the Performer list will be able to take actions on the work item.
Work Packages to Many- provide another convenient way for managing related
work. The work package to many is designed for managing several tasks that
share a common purpose. For example, a complex process such as designing a
house may require many work items and participants. In this respect, a work
package is almost like a miniature project in that it lets you manage several
related tasks together. In order to specify what tasks to include in your Work
Package and to select the appropriate people for those tasks, go to the Tasks tab
of the Work Package and click Add. See Figure 13 on page 27 A dialog box
appears, that lets you add individual tasks to your Work Package. Additionally, it
is possible to create a Work Package using a Work Template.
Another important advantage of working with items in a group is that you can see
and interact with everyone involved from one easy to use form. Coordinator
group forms lets you see and make comments to the entire group. You can also
perform other types of group management for all of the items in the group at
once. It is possible as the customer of a group item to change the date of all
group interactions, close the group task, or restart the group task, by taking action
on the group as a whole.
Note: The start date is a very important aspect of group interactions. The start
and due dates of all work package interactions depend on the start date of
the project itself. If you decide to change the start date of a project, the
dates for all the tasks will automatically be recalculated relative to the
new start date. For example if you make the start date 10 days later than
was originally specified, the start and due dates of all the tasks will move
ahead 10 days. The start date is set when a project is created, and can be
changed later using the Project Information console See "Project Informa-
tion" on page 92.

TYPES OF INTERACTIONS
Figure 13 A task being added to a Work Package
APPROVALS
The approval interface is similar to the work package. Approvals are designed to
handle common processes like document or expense reviews. With the approval
interaction, these once complicated processes become easier to manage. Each
step of the approval gives the approver the option to endorse or reject, based on
the conditions you specify. The Approval can handle large approval processes, as
it permits you to have as many as twenty approvers. Each step of the Approval
appears within a group form, providing built-in group management capabilities,
such as canceling or restarting the approval process. There are two types of
approvals to choose from:
Sequential - When you submit a sequential approval the it follows the order that
you specify. Approvers are expected to take action only when it is their turn to
evaluate the work. All participants receive an email when the approval starts,
even if the approver is not expected to approve the item until later. When it is an
approver's turn to take action on the approval, the approver receives an additional
The Coordinator 27
email notification. In the email the approver is provided with a set of actions for
approving, rejecting, or making a comment on the approval.
Parallel - When a user initiates a parallel approval all of the approvers receive an
email and are requested to take action on the approval simultaneously.
Starting new interactions

The Coordinator Interaction Suite offers a variety of communication tools. Coor-
dinator interactions include requests for managing commitments, approvals for
handling complex review processes, meetings and appointments for scheduling,
as well as work packages and group requests for managing multiple work items
collectively. While it is also possible to create your own custom interactions for
use in the Coordinator, the Coordinator comes with a variety of interactions
available for you to use immediately, as soon as your system is installed. Below
is a list of the interactions which comprise the Coordinator Interaction Suite:
•Request - Make a request to someone that uses the full range of negotiation
available in the Business Interaction Model.
•Task - Make a request to someone without allowing for negotiation of the
conditions of satisfaction (see chapter x for more details).
•Approval - Route something either sequentially or in parallel, to one or
more persons seeking their approval.
•Meeting - Schedule a meeting
•Appointment- Schedule an appointment for yourself, for calendaring pur-
poses.
•Issue - Ask for input on an issue that needs resolution. An issue is a ques-
tion or an alert of a situation that needs resolution. It may require some
unspecified action (differs from a request which calls for very specific
action), or it may call for a decision.
•Group Request - Assign one task to many people all at one time.
•Work Package to One - Assign many tasks to one person all at one time.
•Work Package Many - Assign different tasks to many people all at the
same time.

STARTING NEW INTERACTIONS
There are two different forms that are important in any Coordinator interaction.
The Initiation form is used to create work. The Status form is used to review and
take action on existing work. To see the Initiation form, open a new Request,
meeting or appointment using the Create Menu. See Figure 14 on page 30. To see
the Coordinator Status form, click on an existing work item in one of your work
views.
Below are directions for initiating a request. You may wish to follow along and
create your own sample request using the instructions provided. Once you learn
the basics of creating a request, it should be easy to create other interactions in
the Coordinator, like meetings, appointments, and issues, as all of the Coordina-
tor interactions have a similar look and feel.
Note: You can choose to make the interactions part of a project or outside of a
project, if that is your preference. If work is outside of a project, only the
participants can see the interaction. Interactions made inside of a project
can be viewed by all team members of the project, unless the work is spe-
cifically designated as private. When creating an interaction it is recom-
mended that you make the subject tag, as specific as possible. The more
specific the subject the better, as the subject is used to identify work in
your views. Use the comments area to give more detail about the condi-
tions of satisfaction.
TO INITIATE INTERACTIONS
When creating interactions in the Coordinator, you should be familiar with the
Create menu located at the top of the Coordinator screen, just to the right of the
Home and Back buttons. Commands for starting all types of Coordinator interac-
tions are located in the Create menu. The Create menu also contains a More
Command located on the far right. The More command is designed for starting
specialized interactions such as Group Requests, Issues and Work Templates.
When you create a new interaction such as the request, you are asked to make
certain decisions. You are asked to decide who you want to complete the work;
what project the work should be part of and whether to start the work in draft
mode (for project managers working within an active project only), or to activate
the work right away. Keep these choices in mind as you read the directions
below.
To initiate an interaction:
The Coordinator 29
1. An interaction can be initiated by clicking on one of the interactions listed

on the Create menu located at the top of any Coordinator screen or from
the More menu.
2. Complete the available fields and submit the form. See below for details
about the fields on interaction forms.
Figure 14 The General tab of a Request interaction
Note: For project managers it is possible to activate your draft items or pub-
lished items from either your work item views or in bulk by changing the
status of the project.You can learn more about these options in the chapter
on managing your work items view, and the chapter on project manage-
ment Also see “Managing Work Items in Bulk” on page 77.
Each interaction form has a General and a Documents tab. The interface of each
of the Coordinator interactions differs slightly, as each form includes only the
fields appropriate to that interaction type. Below are definitions of the data fields
found on the General tab of Coordinator interactions:
Project - This field is used to specify the project for an interaction. If the field is
left blank, the interaction is not assigned to a project. After an interaction has
been created, it is possible to move an unassigned interaction into a project, or to
move project-related work outside of a project. You can remove work from a

STARTING NEW INTERACTIONS
project, and place that work outside of a project, by choosing "none" in the
project data field from the Project Finder.
Subject - This field is analogous to the subject field of an email message.
Customer and Performer - These fields are for recording who should do the
work (Performer), and to whom the work is due (Customer). You can use the
address book to select the appropriate person for each field. The address book
also lets you assign the work to an organizational role or contact.
Copies - People who observe interactions. Observers (people on copied list)

receive email, and can make comments, but are not responsible for completing
any work.
Due Date - This field is where you specify when you want the work completed.
The person you are asking to do the work (the Performer) can change the due
date and you can negotiate this change in a Request (but not in a Task).
Start Date - This field specifies the date the work should begin. The start date is
especially important for project planning, as it is displayed in the Gantt chart and
other project management reports.
Priority - This drop down menu list is used to designate the importance of the
request.
Private - If this choice is checked, only participants (i.e. Customer, Performer,

and those who are copied) can see the work. Interactions that are not in projects
are private by default.
In the Plan - This field is available to Project Managers in project-related work.

Interactions that are in the Plan are included in management views and display
for managers and executives in project-related reports.
Milestone - A milestone is an important task or high level goal. (See the chapter
on projects for more information).
Estimated Effort - The number of hours you estimate the Performer will spend
working on the task.
Insert - When creating new work from the Plan page of a project, the item will
by default be project-related. New interactions are generally inserted in the list at
the end; however, if another interaction is selected before you begin to create a
The Coordinator 31
new item, you can choose to insert your new item above, below, or as a child of
the selected item.
Location - This field allows you to enter the location for a meeting.
Meeting time or Time - For Meetings and Appointments you must specify a
time. You can click the calendar icon to open the Date selector dialog box for
selecting a time and date.
Duration - For Meetings and Appointments you must specify a length of time in
hours.
Allow Negotiation and Acceptance - When this box is checked, the performer
has the option to negotiate with the customer on the conditions of satisfaction.
(Requests have this box checked by default. Tasks leave the box unchecked by
default).
Activate - This feature is only available for work that is a part of a Project. Using
this feature allows you to stagger the initiation time of the interaction based on
the start date you specify. For example if you select "activate 2 days before start
date" participants will not be made aware of the interaction until two days prior
to the start date. This is useful if you do not want somebody to begin working on
a request until some other work is completed. When used in conjunction with
other work items, this feature enables you to make dependencies between inter-
actions. See “Managing Projects” on page 97..
Draft - This mode lets you create a version of a new interaction that is only visi-
ble to you. The other people listed as participants cannot see it. By creating inter-
actions in draft mode you can revise and improve your request before making it
active.
Published - This option is only for work in Projects. A published interaction

behaves like a draft, except other team members can view the item, but cannot
edit or record any actions.
Active - This option creates a "live" interaction. If you choose Active other par-
ticipants in the interaction will receive email notification about the work and the
work will display in the work views of participants.

PARTICIPATING IN INTERACTIONS
DOCUMENT TAB
The Coordinator provides a rich set of document management features. It is easy
to add documents to Coordinator interactions just as you add attachments to
email. You may have an existing document from the Coordinator document
Library, or you may want to add one directly from your computer. All partici-
pants of an interaction can see documents that are attached to an interaction. The
access to control list of a document can be modified at any time by the owner of
the document. See “Setting access control and properties” on page 131.
Participating in Interactions
A Status form similar to the Initiation form we reviewed in the previous pages is
used for taking action on existing work. The Status form makes participating in
interactions easy. It puts a wide range of functionality at your fingertips, provid-
ing a comment history for reviewing previous actions, a status bar for letting you
know who is expected to take action on work, and easy to use controls for chang-
ing the due date, taking action, or changing the Customer or the Performer. In this
section we will explore how to participate in interactions using the Status form.
We will show you examples of how to agree to complete a request, and how to
ask about progress on an existing request. We will also look at how to transfer
work, delegate work, and move a specific work item.
EMAIL NOTIFICATION
Once you submit an interaction, the Performer and the people on the item's Cop-
ies list are notified of the item via email. Email is sent based on the email address
and preferences setting in a user's Personal Profile. See “Editing Contact Infor-
mation” on page 48. Coordinator email has a summary of the information from
the item, a list of the latest comments, a comment history, and a link to the inter-
action in the Coordinator. All of the available actions which a user has in the
work-item status form can also be taken directly from a Coordinator email by
clicking on any of the available action links. This means that you can use the
Coordinator directly from your email box without the need to log in to the sys-
tem.
The Coordinator 33
Figure 15 Email notification from request type interactinon
GENERAL TAB OF STATUS FORM

Actions - This field allows users to take actions. Actions are structured responses
that take place in business conversations. See “ Available Actions” on page 13.
Comment History - This field shows the discussion thread between all partici-
pants of an interaction. It also shows any actions that have been taken, or other
changes to the interaction. The comment history can be viewed in its entirety by
clicking the Flat button on the right side of the status form, or you can see the
comments separately by un-checking the flat option and using the arrow icons to
sift through previous comments.
Delete - When work is no longer relevant, it makes sense to the delete that work.
There are two levels of deletion in the Coordinator. You can either delete work
items from your work views only, or from the entire system. See “Deleting work”
on page 80.
Hours - Timesheet reports can be made directly on interaction item.

Move - Depending on your access permissions, you may have the option to move
work from one project to another. The Move option is a useful feature for anyone
who wishes to combine or consolidate work from related projects, or for some-
one who wants to change the design of their project slightly, by bringing in work
from a different project. When you click on the Move option, the Project Finder
window appears. Choose the project to which you wish to move the item, or if
you want to make the item a non-project related item choose none from the list of
projects shown in the project finder. When you move an item to a project, by
default the item will display at the bottom of the new project's hierarchy. Later, if
you wish, you can move the item to a different part of the Plan using the move
features available from the Project Plan view. See “Moving Work” on page 116.
Note: There are certain restrictions on moving items to different projects. You
need the equivalent of project manager rights in both projects in order to
move an item. Otherwise you receive an alert from Coordinator that that
the item cannot be moved.
Manager Button - The Manager button displays in the top-right corner of the
Status form for Project Managers on project-related work. Clicking on the Man-
ager button opens the Manager's dialog where you can create dependencies, man-
age hours and set projected dates for the work item.
Participants - To view the participants in a work item, click on the Participant's

Menu, gernerally found under the due date heading on a status from.
Parent - If a workflow is in a project, this field tells you the item's parent , if
any exists. See “Dependencies” on page 115.
Check out, and check in - For work that is assigned to an organizational role of
type office, members of the office can check-out, or check-in work from the Sta-
tus form.
Subject - Both the Customer and Performer of a request can change the subject
of an item from the Status form by editing the Subject field. It is recommended
that you do this judiciously however, as the subject is what is used to identify an
item in the user's work-item view.
Status Bar - This is the icon in the upper right hand corner of an interaction. The
boxed letters stand for the five possible states of a workflow:
•Preparation
•Negotiation
The Coordinator 35
•Performance
•Acceptance
•Closure
The icon status bar (two people and loop) tells you who owes the next response
in the conversation. The highlighted person icon represents the person logged in.
Using the icon status bar allows users to quickly determine whether they are a
Customer or Perfomer, if there is any uncertainty.
Figure 16 General tab of status form
UPDATING INTERACTIONS
The Status form is where a user can update an interaction or change data that was
initially entered through the Initiation form. When actions are taken or any of the
information is changed on a Status form, all participants of the interaction will
receive an email notification and the item will display as unread in the work
views of participants. It is possible to add comments, take actions, change due
dates or start dates, move the work to a different project, add documents, or even
report hours using the Status form. Some important operations available from the
Status form are detailed below.

TAKING ACTIONS
The Coordinator Status form is designed for you to take action on work. When
you take an action using the Action field on the Status form, you clearly commu-
nicate your intentions to the other participants. As the Performer of a Request,
you can agree to do work, change your agreement, or report completion. Simi-
larly, as a Customer you can ask about the progress of your request, or change the
due date. In addition to taking a formal action you may also want to simply make
a comment in the comments field. Both taking action and making comments on
work are easy do from the Status form, as there is a pull-down menu of available
actions, and a comments area. See “Interactions Between Participants” on
page 15.
Note: The Status form is not the only place in the Coordinator where you can
take action or make comments on your work. Both the Right-Click menu
in the work views, and the Project’s More menu allow you to change due
dates, open work, mark work as read, delete an item, transfer work, set
dependencies, change the due date, or choose from other actions. How-
ever in general, the Status form is the preferred place to take action on a
specific item, as it gives you a complete history of the work, lets you view
attached documents, and shows a user all of your available actions. The
Project’s More menu and Right-lick menu come into play when you want
to take fast action on your work from your work-item views, or you want
to perform cleanup operations such as closing tasks that need to be closed,
moving work-item due dates in bulk, etc.
CHANGING DUE DATES

Often, the due date of an interaction must be changed. It is simple to change the
due date of a work item from the Status form. Simply click on the calendar icon
and select a different due date.
There are two possible implications of changing a due date. The first is that you
have not yet agreed to perform a request, in which case the action "yes with these
changes" will be taken. However, if you have already made a commitment to per-
form a request and you change the due date, the action "revoked and suggested
an alternative" will automatically be selected. In both cases the Performer
receives notification of the change, and has a right to further negotiate the condi-
tions of satisfaction by accepting the changes, declining them, or proposing addi-
tional alternatives. When changing due dates then, you should always keep in
mind that the due date is considered an integral part of the commitment, and that
changing the date will have an effect on the status of your commitment. When
The Coordinator 37
you change the due date of a work item, the Coordinator interprets your change
and makes a declaration on your behalf, resulting in a change in the status of the
commitment.
TRANSFERRING WORK
When a performer transfers work to someone else, the person to whom work is
transferred assumes full responsibility for completing or approving the work,
depending on whether they are named as a Customer or Performer.
To transfer work:
1. Open the interaction status form.
2. Select the Participants menu. Then, click on the button labeled add/edit. If
you are the Customer you can change either the Customer or the Per-
former. If you are the Performer, you will generally be able to change only
the Customer
You may also wish to add observers, or copies to an interaction. People in the
copies list receive email notification whenever an action is taken on a work item.
Observers can make comments, view documents, even report hours, but are there
to give input, and are not responsible for the completion of work.
DELEGATING WORK
Delegating work is different from transferring work in that the original Performer
remains responsible for the item. When a work item is delegated, the original
item does not change. Instead, delegation creates a new work item that is speci-
fied as a delegation of the original work item. The Performer of the delegated
item is responsible not to the original Customer but to the original Performer (the
one creating the delegation) who becomes the Customer for the new item. Dele-
gation links two items together, and alerts the new performer about work which
you would like them to complete. It also allows the Performer of the original item
to remain responsible for the completion of the work to the original Customer,
without actually doing the work. Items that have been delegated are linked to the
original interaction by a link at the bottom of the form.
To delegate work:
1. From the Status form of a work item in which you are the Performer, click
the Delegate command.

2. In the form that appears, specify the new Performer and add any com-
ments about the delegation.
3. 4.Modify other fields as needed and click Submit.
Delegating work is a relatively advanced feature of the Coordinator. In order to

help clarify how a delegation works, an example has been provided below:
Jane requests that John order a new computer. John wants to remain responsible
for having the work done, but since he is busy, he would like someone else to do
the work. John decides to delegate the ordering a new computer to Mary. Now,
when John or Jane opens the Status form of the 'Order New Computer' request,
they can see that the request has been delegated. They can click on a link and see
the Status form of the task that was sent to Mary. When Mary finishes the request
and reports completion, John still has the responsibility to report to Jane that the
work is now done. Conversely, John could decide that more needs to be done and
either make further delegations, or restart to the original one he sent to Mary.
To Delegate a work item:

1. Open the interaction you want to delegate.
2. Click on the Delegate command.
3. Fill out the new interaction form that is displayed. After you submit it, the
delegated work will be linked to the original interaction via a link visible
at the bottom of the form.
ADDING DOCUMENTS TO INTERACTIONS

Documents can be added to existing interactions just as they are when an interac-
tion is initiated. Additionally, documents can be checked out and edited using the
document management features of the Coordinator See “Adding Documents to
Interactions” on page 127. The Document tab located on both the Status and Ini-
tiation forms is the place to add or edit documents that are included with an inter-
action. Notice that if any documents are attached to an interaction, a paper clip
will appear on the document's tab as a signal to participants that supporting mate-
rials have been included.
The Coordinator 39
Work Templates
Work templates are reusable work packages, for automating common business
processes. Before you use a work template you should be familiar with the basics
of using the Work Package type of interaction. See “Group Interactions” on
page 25. By creating a Work Template, you can reuse your favorite Meetings or
group interactions, and even make them available to others as you develop best
practices. Work Templates can be extremely valuable, as the interactions can be
reused many times in different projects or by different people. The template fea-
ture lets you create blueprints of your most common group interactions, and
reuse those group interactions in different projects with little effort. You can also
make them public, so that best practice designs can be shared easily among dif-
ferent people.
Let's go through the process of creating a Work Template using the example of a
computer consulting firm. Let's say you are a manager who is in charge of several
computer consultants, who install your company's software at different client
sites. A Work Template, containing a set of best practices, or common tasks
would be helpful to you, as it would help streamline the installation process.
Using a Work Template you can define the necessary tasks, add supporting docu-
mentation, and even add a link or links to resources on the web.
Figure 17 Figure showing template creation options

MANAGING STRUCTURED BUSINESS PROCESSES
Creating a work template:

1. Begin by selecting the More command from the Create menu. From the
drop-down list select Manage Work Templates. The Manage Work Tem-
plate dialog appears
2. From the Manage Work Templates dialog click the Add button. In the dia-
log that appears specify, the type of Work Template you wish to create;
Meeting, Group Request, or Work Package, then click OK.
3. A form opens, similar to the Initiation form. Here is where you specify
information for you Work Template. When you are done composing your
template click Submit to save your changes.
Once you have created a Work Template, you can edit that template from the
Manage Work Template consol, by selecting the template from the list of tem-
plates, and clicking edit. If you wish to use an existing template, as a basis to cre-
ate new work, choose the Create Work from Template option from the More
menu.
To create interactions from a Work Template:

1. Go to the More command in the Create Menu
2. Select Create work from template
3. Select the template, in the list of templates which you want to use as a
blueprint for your new work. Once you have selected the Work Template
click OK.
4. If necessary, make any changes to the interactions that were inherited
from the template. When you are ready to start the interaction based on
the template, click Submit.
Managing Structured Business Processes

Structured business processes can be managed in the Coordinator. In most cases
these will be customized applications built with the ActionWorks Builder tool.
Although the means of initiating structured processes will vary depending on the
specifics of your particular application (See Developers Guide for details), work
associated with structured process will show up in standard work views and can
be managed using projects, the calendar, lenses, etc.
The Coordinator 41
Figure 18 Example of a structured business process created with the Action-

Works builder
USING ADD HOC WORK IN A STRUCTURED PROCESS

Often structured business processes include unforeseen add hoc work that must
be initiated on the fly after a process is underway. The Coordinator interactions
discussed above are the perfect tools for managing such add hoc work, and com-
plement the structured business processes with a number of useful features. Com-
ments made in add hoc interactions will become part of the comment history of
the process, and cycle times and statistics will reflect the add hoc work. More-
over, the workflow in the process that is associated with the add hoc work can be
opened from a link on the status form of the add hoc interaction. Conversely, the
add hoc interaction can be opened from a link in the structured process.

MANAGING STRUCTURED BUSINESS PROCESSES
Figure 19 Structured Process form showing linke to add hoc work item in dis-
cussion thread
Figure 20 Add hoc work item showing link back to strucuted process workflow
(at the bottom of form)
The Coordinator 43
To start add hoc work in a structured process:

1. Highlight the work item from the process that the add hoc work is most
closely tied to from a workview, calendar, or lens.
2. Start an interaction from the Create menu
3. A linkage will automatically be created between the work items providing
easy navigation between them. The links will be in the comment history
of the structured process and at the bottom of the Add hoc interaction (as
shown in the pictures above).

CHAPTER 3 Resources
The Coordinator has a number of features that help you coordinate effectively
with people both inside and outside of your company. The Address Book is the
primary interface for selecting participants in interactions and projects. With con-
tact management features, it is possible to have structured interactions with peo-
ple who do not have accounts in the system, such as customers, vendors, and
partners. Roles allow greater flexibility in work assignments, as work can be
assigned to an organizational role, rather than a specific person. This chapter will
provide you with an overview of the Address book, and how to use the resources
it is designed to manage.
Contacts
Contacts are people you want to interact with using the Coordinator. It is possible
to set up contact accounts for people who do not have standard user accounts in
the system. The People view is located in the Relationships tab of the Engage-
ment Center. See Figure 21 on page 46. From the People view, you can create
new contacts; edit information related to contacts, and edit information related to
system users. You can choose to display private contacts, public contacts, or
users, by selecting the appropriate radio button control in the top left hand corner
of the Contact view.
The Coordinator 45
Chapter 3... Resources
Note: Make sure that you are viewing the contacts list and not the user list. It is
possible to add new contacts but not new users from the People view. The
option to view contacts is available through the radio buttons at the top of
any of the contact views.
Figure 21 Contacts view
CREATING A NEW CONTACT

To create a new contact, click on the Add Contact button in the top of your Con-
tacts view. In the form that appears, fill out information about the contact includ-
ing name and email address. Using the options available on the bottom of the
form, decide what options the contact will have in terms of participating in inter-
actions. It is possible to specify whether a contact will be able to take actions
(and change the state), or only comment on interactions. After you have submit-
ted the contact form, the new contact will show in your Coordinator Address
Book and will appear in your Contact's view. Once you have added the contact, it
is then possible to assign the contact to be a participant in Coordinator interac-
tions.

CONTACTS
Note: When creating a contact, it is important to specify an email address in the

email Address 1 field. Contacts that do not have a specified email address
can not participate in Coordinator interactions.
Figure 22 Console for creating new contacts. Notice the participation options
at bottom of screen.
TYPES OF RESOURCES
The Coordinator supports two categories of resouces, Users and Contacts. Con-
tacts can be either public or private.
Private Contacts - You can make requests to private contacts. However, other
users will not be able to see or make requests of any contacts that you mark as
private.
The Coordinator 47
Public Contacts - Are visible to everyone with permission to view contacts.

Public contacts display both in your Address Book and the Address Book of
other users who have permissions to view contacts.
Users - The Contact view also provides the option for you to display a list of sys-
tem users. If they have the enough access, Users can view and edit a their own
profile information from the Contact's view, and even perform bulk updates on
several users at once using Coordinator bulk administration tools. The procedure
for updating user information and for and for performing bulk administration
are explained in more detail in “Editing Contact Information” on page 48.
CONTACT CARDS
A contact card looks and acts like an electronic business card. It provides a per-
son with quick details about the contact including the name, email, fax, phone
and even an optional picture. To view a contact card, simply click on the name of
contact from the Contact's view.
Figure 23 Contact Card
EDITING CONTACT INFORMATION

By clicking on the Edit button of the Contact Card, you can see an expanded pro-
file of the selected Contact or User. The expanded profile contains additional
fields that let you enter more detailed information about the contact. If you select
a User, (a person who has an actual account in the Coordinator) you will be able

CONTACTS
to view and edit additional information about the user related to Access, Options,
Skills (Competence) and Rates. Only people with the appropriate access permis-
sions can edit Contact and User information. Everyone can edit any private con-
tacts they add to the system. Depending on access rights users may have access to
edit their own contact cards.
INTERACTING WITH CONTACTS

Although contacts can not log-in to the Coordinator, you can use the Coordinator
to manage structured interactions with your contacts. Instead of logging into the
system to respond or take actions, contacts respond and take action using a spe-
cialized email form that the Coordinator delivers to the contact. Thus, from the
perspective of a system user, interactions with contacts are managed in the same
way as are interactions with Coordinator users. Simply select the interaction you
want to start, then choose a contact from the Address Book as a performer.
When contacts have a + next to there name it means they have both a contact and
a user account.
Interactions that include contacts can be managed using the same work views and
tools as interactions between users with system accounts. When you start an
active interaction with a contact, the contact will receive an email notification
similar to the one in Figure 25 on page 51.
The Coordinator 49
Figure 24 Global address book showing public contacts
CONTACT EMAIL
When you interact with a contact using the Coordinator, the contact receives a
special email notification similar to the email that all users of the Coordinator
receive. The email offers summary comments, information about the last action
taken, a history of the last ten actions on the work item, and provides links to sup-
porting documents. The Actions section of the email also provides links to a spe-
cial form where contacts can respond to your request, and take specific action.
Note: Contacts can only take actions on work items if they were given permis-
sion when their contact account was set up. Contacts that can not take for-
mal actions can still comment on interactions. See “Creating a New
Contact” on page 46.
For instance, by clicking on the link Yes agree, a contact can take specific action
on the work and is presented with a form where he/she can add additional com-

CONTACTS
ments. Both the action taken and the supporting comments made by the contact
are recorded in the comment history of the interaction. Each time you respond to
work in which a contact is a participant, the contact receives an updated email
with a set of available actions. Thus, the Coordinator maintains a complete audit
trail of your interaction with Contacts, both in the comment history of the work
item, and within the email itself. The Action links provided in Coordinator
emails allow the contact to take specific action on work in which he/she is a par-
ticipant. Using Coordinator action links a contact is given a variety of options
which will vary depending on context. Contacts may have the option to agree to
work, declare work as completed, decline to perform work, or simply comment
on the request depending on the context see.
Figure 25 Example of Coordinator email form that enables contacts to partici-

pate in Coordinator interactions.
ADVANTAGES OF CONTACTS
Extending the types of relationships that you can manage from within the Coor-
dinator, Contacts allow you to quickly and securely interact with people who are
not users of the system. With contacts, you can effectively coordinate work with
The Coordinator 51
people outside of your company without compromising the security of your doc-
uments, projects, and other work. Moreover, there is little administration required
when using contacts, as it takes just a few seconds to create a new contact.
LIMITATIONS OF CONTACTS
Although Coordinator email forms are easy to use, a contact does not have access
to the full range of project management, and work management tools offered to
Coordinator users. Contacts do not have access to review work using the Coordi-
nator work views. Consequently, work that is assigned to contacts may require
more active monitoring by the Customer of the work item than work assigned to
system users. Such work may require more frequent comments and follow-ups to
ensure that the contact is kept fully informed about the work, and understands the
conditions of satisfaction for the work.
Note: A contact does have access to Coordinator help documents and frequently
asked questions. By clicking on the help link provided in Coordinator
contact email, a contact can learn how to view and take action on work,
and can learn additional information about Action’s Business Interaction
Model and Coordinator product features.
MANAGING CONTACT WORK IN VIEWS

Work with contacts, as with other Coordinator work, can be managed from your
Coordinator calendar, work views, and project views. For more information
about managing work see the chapter on “Managing Work” on page 69.
Organization Roles and Shared Work

The Coordinator lets you assign work to an organization role, instead of to a user
or contact. The Coordinator offers two types of organizational roles for work
assignment—offices and positions. Offices have many possible performers while
positions have only one. People who are members or managers of an office will
see work in special work views such as work that I can do, or work in offices I
manage.

ORGANIZATION ROLES AND SHARED WORK
OFFICES
Offices allow flexibility in work assignments, since work can be assigned to an
office, rather than to a specific performer. Members of the office can check for
available work through the Work That I can Do view. Check-out, check-in, and
transfer commands on the work item Status form make it is easy to check-out,
assign, and track shared work from within the Coordinator. To manage work in
offices, click on the Work in Offices command on the main navigation area
under the Collaboration heading. Once you have opened the offices view, you
can change the view depending on whether you are a manager or office member.
Generally when work is checked out, only the person who checked it out can take
actions on it. However, office managers have the ability to check out and transfer
work on behalf of other people.
POSITIONS
Positions are similar to offices, except only one person can be assigned to a given
position at a time. Work that is assigned to a position immediately displays in the
work views of the holder of that position. Since positions can only be held by one
person at a time, the holder of the position is not required to check out work that
is assigned to his/her position. The holder of the position automatically receives
email notifications pertaining to the work when the work becomes active. Work
that is assigned to a position can be transfered in bulk to a different person, sim-
ply by changing the person assigned to the position. This is useful in situations
where the holder of a postion frequently changes or is not definite. Managers of
positions can view all work assigned to a postion from the Work in Offices com-
mand on the main navigation area under the Collaboration heading.
CREATING ORGANIZATIONAL ROLES

New organizational roles can be created from the Org. Roles area, in the
Resources section of the Engagement Center. Click on the Create button in the
top of the Org Roles view, and the Create Role dialog appears. From this dialog,
you can create a role of type office, or position. From the right hand pane of the
organization roles view, you can select a manager for the office or position. Man-
agers can transfer work and check things in and out for other people. Managers
are useful for keeping work organized in offices, as they can reassign work as
necessary. In positions, where there is only one person, the manager option is
mostly useful as an administrative tool for reassigning work after the person
assigned to a position changes.
The Coordinator 53
Figure 26 Organizational Role View
ASSIGNING WORK TO ORGANIZATIONAL ROLES
Work can be assigned to organizational roles using the Coordinator Address

Book. Two views exist for managing organization roles (Figure 27).
Work that I can do - Lets you see all the work for offices that you belong to.
Work in offices I manage - Lets managers see all work for offices and positions
for which they manage, and lets managers quickly assign this work to the appro-
priate person.

ADDRESS BOOK
Figure 27 Manager View of Org Roles
Address Book
The Coordinator Address Book is used for selecting participants in interactions
and projects. The Coordinator Address Book makes it easy to assign work to a
person, contact, or role, or to add people or roles as team members in a project.
For users with the appropriate access rights, the Address Book also offers a prop-
erties button so you can quickly review a user's skills, interests, and preferences
prior to making work assignments. Additionally, it is possible to create new con-
tacts, or organizational roles directly from the Address Book.
OPENING THE ADDRESS BOOK

You can open the Coordinator Address Book by clicking on the address icon next
to the Performer or Copies field on the Initiation form of an interaction. After
clicking on the address icon, the Coordinator Address Book console appears.
The Coordinator 55
Figure 28 The Coordinator Address Book
ASSIGNING WORK
To assign Customer, Performer, or Copies field from the Address Book:
1. Use the radio buttons in the center of the Address Book to select the field
that you wish to update (in the picture above the Customer, Performer, and
Copies fields are shown)
2. From the left hand pane, select the user(s), contact(s), or role(s) that you
wish to assign.
3. Double click or use the Add button to make specific assignments. When
you have finished making your assignments, click Ok.

ADDRESS BOOK
PROJECT ADDRESS BOOK

When inside a project, you will see the Project Address Book by default. The
Project Address Book shows a list of team members in the project, and a list of
project roles and contacts local to the project.
Figure 29 Address Book with Project team member only option in use
SWITCHING BETWEEN PROJECT AND GLOBAL CONTEXTS

The Project Address Book shows team members, contacts, and roles that are
local to a specific project. The Global Address Book shows users, contacts, and
organizational roles for the entire system. Sometimes, when in the context of a
project, you may wish to assign work to a person, role, or contact, who is not a
member of the project. In such cases, click on the Global radio button in the
header of the Address Book to switch to the Global Address Book.
The Coordinator 57
Note: It is only possible to switch between the project and global address books
when you are working within a project. If you are not in the context of a
project, only the global address book will be accessible.
Resource Management
The Coordinator has a number of useful features for scheduling the right person
for the right job at the right time. Using the Resource Finder it is possible to see
what skills people have so they can be found when a specific skill is needed. The
availability and workload of each employee can also be managed using a variety
of time allocation features, helping to ensure that everyone has an optimal work-
load. The Resource Finder enables users to find other Coordinator users that have
specific skills. In order for this feature to be useful data about an organization's
skills must be properly managed.
SKILLS
Users with the proper access rights can view all the skills available, edit existing
skills, and add new ones. See “Access Rights and Administration” on
page 135People can be added to skills by selecting a skill and clicking on the
Add button at the bottom of the screen. To update people's skill levels or change
the name of a skill, click on the skill you want to change edit the information and
submit the changes using the Update button. Information about a persons compe-
tency, experience, and preference (for doing a certain type of work) can be
recorded. This information will be used when use the Resource Finder to search
for people with specific skill sets.

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Figure 30 Skills View showing a skill being selected
To create a new skill, use the Create button. This will bring up a console for
either creating a new skill, or creating a new category. Categories are the bold
faced headings under which skills are organized. For example, in the screen shot
above, JavaScript is one of the skills under the Development Languages category.
Figure 31 Console for new skils and categories
The Coordinator 59
RESOURCE FINDER
When selecting participants for a work item using the Address Book (Figure 32)
it is possible to filter, based on people's skills using the Resource Finder. In order
to use this feature it must be enabled in the personal profile.
To enable Resource Finder:
1.Open your profile by clicking on your name in the upper right hand corner.
2.Go to the Options tab, and check the box next to "Show resource finder when
working with interactions"
Once the Resource Finder has been enabled, users will see a Find button on their
address book. When a person with a certain skill set needs to be selected from the
address book, search criteria can be specified using this feature.
Figure 32 Address book with the Resource Finder (Find button) feature enabled

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
When the Find button is pushed, the Resource Finder console is displayed. This
console allows users to specify exactly what criteria they need.
Figure 33 Resource Finder Console showing users with knowledge of the Java-
Script programming language.
By clicking on the Add button, one or multiple skills can be selected as search
criteria. Competency, experience, and preference can be specified for each skill.
After clicking on the search button, the number that is displayed on the right side
of the search results window represents the availability remaining in the date
range specified. If the Show Over Bookings option is checked users who would
The Coordinator 61
be scheduled for more than 40 hours a week will be included with the % over-
booking specified. If this feature is not selected, only those users with who would
not be overbooked will appear in the search results. In the search results window
the number on the left represents the relative skill ranking based on how closely
the user's skill set matches that specified in the search. The Sort By feature makes
it possible to order the list of users according to how well the skills or availability
of the users matches the search criteria. Users can allocate time directly on a
work item or independently of a work item. See “Time Allocation” on page 66.
Time Management
Time management is closely tied to resource management. When you need some-
one with specific skills for a job, it is often important to also know whether that
person is available to do the work. There are a number of features available in the
Coordintor for tracking available time and managing important elements of an
organizations schedule, such as personal time off or vacations. The Coordinator
has built in modules for requesting time off and allocating time. When a user is
on vacation or has allocated time, their availability will show up in the Resource
Finder.
TIME OFF
When a person wants to request time off, a specialized request allows them to
submit a requested date range to their manager. The Time Off Request is avail-
able from the More command on the Create Menu.

TIME MANAGEMENT
Figure 34 View showing approval type request for time off. Note the capability
to add multiple approvers.
The Coordinator 63
Figure 35 Details tab of Time Off Request.
The range of time specified in the request will be blocked off in user's calendar,
and will be reflected in the Resource Finder if other users try to schedule them
for work. Human Resouce Managers can use the view of all time off requests to
manage the vacation allotment for the entire company from one easy to read view
in the Coordinator.

TIME MANAGEMENT
Figure 36 Calendar view with time off highlighted
The Coordinator 65
Figure 37 HR managers view of PTO days for entire company. Note the options
displayed in the drop down view menu.
TIME ALLOCATION
Allocating time is a way of communicating how busy you are. For example if
100% of your time has been allocated, you will not have time to do any addi-
tional work. Other users that want to assign more work to you will be able to see
that you are already too busy. See Figure 33 on page 61. Time can be allocated
directly through a Coordinator interaction, or independently of any specific inter-
action. When time allocation is associated with an interaction, the allocated per-
centage only applies to the date range specified in the work item.
Note: A start and end date must be specified in time allocations.

TIME MANAGEMENT
To al l o c a t e t i m e on a n i n t e r a c t i o n :
1. Open the interaction you want to allocate time for
2. Click on the Allocate Time Command in the upper right corner
3. Fill out the information on the Time Allocation console.
To a l l o c a t e t i m e i n d e p e n d e n t l y o f a n i n t e r a c t i o n :
1. Open the Allocate Time console for the More Command on the Create
Menu
2. Fill out the information on the Time Allocation console.
Figure 38 Time allocation console
The Coordinator 67

CHAPTER 4 Managing Work
An important function of the Coordinator is to keep users informed of pending

commitments. Coordinator views and lenses show business interactions in terms
of the phase of commitments, highlighting which items require action, negotia-
tion, or closure. The Coordinator provides users with a range of views, filters,
and administrative features that make it easy to manage important commitments.
The Coordinator also provides a set of menu options for taking quick action on
several items at once from your work-item views. These options, available from
both the Right-Click and More menus, make it easy for users to quickly com-
ment, follow-up, or change the date of several work items at once with just a few
mouse clicks.
The Coordination Center

Click on the Home button on the Engagement Center panel, and you are taken to
a view called The Coordination Center. The Coordination Center acts as your
personal web-based organizer. It lets you keep track of your documents, discus-
sions, favorite projects, pending work, and more. It lets you know if you have
new work and lets you see quickly what is due by you, or due to you. You will
appreciate how easy The Coordination Center makes it to manage your commit-
ments, plan your work, set your schedule, and keep track of changes.
The Coordinator 69
Chapter 4... Managing Work
Figure 39 The Coordination Center
The Coordination Center contains a number of lenses for focusing on important

information. The Coordination Center also supports custom lenses that can dis-
play virtually any information that is relevant to people in your company. Below
is an overview of each of the standard lenses that are part of the Coordination
Center.
Calendar – This lens displays important events such as Appointments and Meet-
ings.
Work That I can Do – This lens displays work from an office. A user that is a
member of that office can check-out work from this lens.
Unread Work Items – This lens shows unread interactions where you are the
Customer or Performer.
Unread Copied Work – This lens is similar to the Unread Work Item lens,
except that it includes only work where the user has been copied.

EDITING LENSES
Pending Action by Me – This lens displays work items in which the user owes a
response. The items in this lens are sub-divided into work that needs agreement,
work in performance, and work in acceptance. For more information about these
categories see “The Business Interaction Model” on page 11.
Pending Actions to Me – This lens displays work in which another participant

owes a response to you.
Favorite Projects – This Lens displays projects a user has added to their favor-
ites.
Disscussions - Shows discussion threads in from projects where you are a team
member
Documents - Displays documents added to ‘favorite’ projects.
Outlook – This lens displays the contents of MS Outlook. If you want to be able
to see your Outlook mail in the Coordinator portal, you must display (See Editing
Lenses below) this lens, then follow the installation instructions in the pop-up
windows.
Editing Lenses
The content of each lens can be adjusted using the Edit button in the top-right
corner of each lens. Using this button it is also possible to specify the number of
items to display in the lens, as well as the specific date range for work items that
will display in the lens.
ADDING AND DROPPING LENSES

You can add or remove lenses from the Coordination Center , so you see on the
information which is important to you.
To add or drop a lens from the Coordination Center:
1. Click on your name as it appears in the upper right hand corner of the
Coordination Center.
2. Go to the Options tab of your User Profile (Figure 40) .
3. From the list of lenses, select the lenses you wish to display, and click
Submit.
The Coordinator 71
Figure 40 Options tab of User Profile showing which lenses are displayed
You can also add or remove lenses from within the Coordination Center, using
the Edit button located in the top right corner of the view (Figure 39).
Work Views
Coordinator work views make it easy to find, view, and take action on work. The
Coordinator provides views for managing work by pending action, project, date,
unread work, and work in which you are copied. These views help to simplify the
management of your commitments.
FOCUSING OPTIONS ON YOUR WORK PAGE
You can access all of the work views from your Coordinator Work page
(Figure 41).
To open your Work page:

1. Click on the Work command in the Collaboration section of the Engage-
ment Center.

WORK VI EW S
2. From the Work page you select a view from the list of views shown in the
View drop down list.
The different views shown from this list are detailed below:
All my work view — The default view for your Work page is “All my work”
which lists all interactions in which you are a participant (except as limited by fil-
tering).
Each view has a set of columns that provide quick information about your work
items. Below is the list of columns shown in the All my work view:
1. Due on — The date the work item is due.
2. Subject — The title of the item. Click here to open the Status Form of the
interaction
3. Status —See “Tracking the Phase from Status form” on page 16.
4. Person — The person whom you asked to do the work, or who asked you
to do the work (click the icon before the name to view the legend).
5. Duration — The time range given for completion of the task
6. Effort— The expected amount of time required to complete the work
7. !—The priority status of the item (P1, P2, or P3).
8. Project—If the item is project-related, users can click on the name of the
project, listed in the Project column to access the project directly.
All my work by project view — This view provides the same information as the
All my work view but groups all project related work together by project. Under
each project heading, the first items listed are the milestones in the project, and
items that have been specified as children of the milestones (child items are
indented one level under their parents). Any other items in the project are listed
under the subheading Other Items.
My Closed work—This view contains only items that have been closed.
Unread work—This view contains only work items for which you have not
viewed the most recent changes .
Pending By Me—This view contains only work items in which the next
response is due by you.
The Coordinator 73
Pending To Me—This view contains only work items in which the next response
is due to you.
I Am Copied—This view contains only work items for which you are not the
performer or the customer.
Deleted Work—This view contains only work which has been deleted. You will
not see items in this view which have been deleted permanently as such items are
not retrievable. It is possible to recover work from this view using your Right-
Click menu, by selecting a work item or items, making a right click with your
mouse, and choosing the Recover menu option from the list of options shown.
My Drafts by Project - This view shows all work by project that is currently in
draft mode.
Figure 41 Coordinator Work page being filtered by action Pending By Me

WORK VI EW S
SEARCHING WORK VIEWS
The Coordinator offers full-text searching for work items. From the Search com-
mand you can display only those work items whose comment history, project,
participant, link or subject field contains the word or words that you specify.
With Coordinator full-text searching capabilities it is easy to find work items per-
taining to specific topics or that have a given subject. The Clear Search com-
mand lets you quickly return the view to its previous state.
Figure 42 Search console
To search for a specific work item or items in a view:

1. Click on the Search command in the work-item view.
2. In the text-box that appears, enter the text you wish to search for and click
Submit. The Coordinator search engine will refresh your view and display
all work items where there is a match for the text you entered. The search
engine looks in the comment history ,subject, location, link, participant
and project fields of the item to determine if a match exists.
ADJUSTING WORK VIEWS WITH SEARCH SETTINGS

There are two ways of adjusting the content that is displayed in your work views.
You can set a permanent filter that 'remembers' your settings each time you return
to a view, or you can use temporary search criteria to search for something more
specific.
To update and view your permanent view settings, go to the embedded More
menu and select View Settings. This will bring up the View Settings console
where you can customize the content of all your work views from one convenient
location.
The Coordinator 75
To temporarily change your search settings for a specific view, click the Search
button on the local command bar and choose the Advanced button. On the Work
page, you focus on work by due dates, participant interaction type, and item sta-
tus. You can also control how events (meetings and appointments) are displayed.
Any time you define the filter settings on your Work page, the settings apply to
the current View only.
Figure 43 Advanced search settings
To set filters for a view:

1. Select a view from the View drop down list

WORK VI EW S
2. Click the Search button. The Search settings dialog box (Figure 27)
opens.
MANAGING WORK ITEMS IN BULK

The Coordinator makes it simple to take quick action on several items at once.
From your Work views you can select a number of items at once, and take action
on all of the selected items simultaneously. These commands for managing work
in bulk are available either from your Right-Click menu (which appears when
you highlight a work item in one of your views and make a right click with your
mouse) or by using the More menu at the top of the local command bar. You can
perform any of the following bulk operations on work items listed in your Work
page views:
•Change the read mark
•Send a follow up
•Change priority
•Mark work as completed
•Transfer work
•Move work
•Cancel work
•Delete work
Note: The types of updates that are possible from your work views are different
than the actions available to you from the status form. For information
about updating work items using the status form. See “Participating in
Interactions” on page 33.
CHANGING THE READ MARK

Work items for which you have not reviewed the most recent changes appear in
bold in your work views. After you open the item, the listing will automatically
return to normal text after the screen is refreshed. This behavior serves as a ‘read
mark” and is useful because it allows you to focus your attention on unread
items, such as when you select the Unread Work view. At times, you may wish to
change the “read mark” such as when you have items that you do not need to read
or when you will need to reread an item that you have opened.
The Coordinator 77
CHANGING THE DUE DATE

You can change the due date of one or more work items at once. To change the
due date, you must be the customer or performer, or the Project Manager of the
related project. The other party or parties in each item will be notified by email of
the change (provided that the user has selected the option Notify of Task Changes
via email in the user's Personal Profile. A Request will return to negotiation after
a user changes the due date of the item.
SENDING A FOLLOW UP
If a work item is not proceeding at the pace you expect, or if you need a report on
how work is progressing, you can send a follow-up by submitting a comment.
Follow-ups can be sent directly from the Work page or from the Status form of an
interaction. Follow-ups can be sent in any work item, even if you are not the Cus-
tomer or Performer. A follow-up is entered as a comment in the item history. If
you are the Customer or Performer in the work item, notification will be sent to
the other party. If you are an Observer, notification will be sent to both the Cus-
tomer and Performer.
CHANGING PRIORITY
When you create a new Request, Task, Issue or other interaction from the Create
menu , you are given the option to set the priority of the work. The priority level
that you set for the items appears in your work views under the priority column
(the red exclamation mark). You can change the priority of one or more items if
you are the customer or performer or if you are the project manager of the associ-
ated project. The priority change and any supporting comments are entered in the
comment history of the selected items. Notification may be sent to the other party
in each of the selected the work items.
Note: Notification requires that the recipient has the appropriate setting in his or
her Personal Profile.
MARKING WORK AS COMPLETED

Generally, a performer will signal that work is completed by taking the action
"This is done" from the Status form of a work item. Alternatively, a series of
work items can be marked as completed in bulk, by selecting the work in your
view, and choosing the option Mark work as completed, from the Right-Click or
More menu

WORK VI EW S
TRANSFERRING WORK
It is easy to transfer work for several work items at once using the bulk-transfer
option. The Performer of a work item can be changed by the Project Manager of
the project, or by the current Performer or Customer. When the participants of a
work item are changed, the change is recorded in the work item's comment his-
tory. Notification will be sent to all other participants in the work item. The work
item(s) will be removed from the personal Work page of the old Customer and/or
Performer, and will appear in the personal Work page of the new Customer and/
or Performer. When a Request is transferred, it automatically goes into the nego-
tiation phase.
MOVING WORK
Moving work is a perfect feature for those who wish to combine or consolidate
work from related projects, or for those who just want to change the design of a
project slightly, by bringing in work from a different project. You can move an
item from one project to another if the item is related to a project for which you
are the Project Manager. You must also be a team member or the Project Manager
of the project to which you are moving the item (the target project).
The following considerations apply:

•If you are a team member in both projects but not the Project Manager, you
will be able to move only items that are not in the Plan.
•If you are the Project Manager of the first project and a team member but
not Project Manager of the second project, then you will be able to move the
item, but without maintaining the "In the Plan" setting.
•If you are the Project Manager of both projects, the "In the Plan" setting will
be preserved.
CANCELLING WORK
Often it is necessary for the Performer or Project Manager to cancel work if cir-
cumstances change and the work will not be finished. The cancellation of the
work is noted in the work-item's comment history. Notification will be sent to the
other party in the work item informing him/her that the work has been cancelled.
The customer of a work item can restart canceled or closed work from the closed
work item view from the Status form, by taking the action restart.
The Coordinator 79
DELETING WORK
The Coordinator gives you two different deletion options, allowing you to delete
work, or remove work from your views, but not from the system. Sometimes
there are older work items that have not been resolved but have become obsolete
and are no longer of importance. If you are the Customer or a manager of the
project in which the work item is stored, you can delete these items. On the other
hand, if you wish to keep an item open for other people's use, but you no longer
wish to see the item yourself (or you do not have the access permissions to delete
the item permanently) you can remove the item from your own views. Only a
project manager can delete items that are milestones in a project or are part of the
plan. Also, if you are the performer in a private work item in a project or in a non
project-related item, you will not be able to delete the item permanently. Observ-
ers in an item are not able to permanently delete an item.
Note: You can view deleted work that has not been deleted permanently by
selecting the Deleted Work view on your personal Work page.

CHAPTER 5 Working with Projects
This chapter provides the background you need to successfully collaborate with
team members on important projects. Using Coordinator Projects, team members
and project managers can work together to deliver work on time and on budget.
The Coordinator makes it easy to manage the status of your projects and helps
ensure that everyone on the team fulfills their commitments. The Projects page
provides a list of all projects in which you are a participant, and offers summary
data and statistics for each one. The list of projects shown in your Projects page
can be customized, by using the Group By, Sort By, and Filter controls on the top
of the view.
Project Finder and Views

The Project Finder lets you locate your important projects. The Projects lens and
favorites features help keep track of the most active projects you are involved in.
The Project Center gives you an overview of all your projects, letting you sort
projects by a number of different criteria, such as projects that you manage, draft
projects, project favorites, etc. The project finder, Projects page, and the favorite
projects lens are all valuable tools for working in the Coordinator, as you will
often find yourself involved in multiple projects at the same time.
The Coordinator 81
Chapter 5... Working with Projects
FINDING PROJECTS
The project finder lets you quickly locate specific projects. If you know the name
of the project, type that name in the Project Finder text-box located at the top of
the Engagement Center. You can think of the Project Finder as a search engine
for projects. After typing in the name of your project, you receive a list of all the
projects that include the text that the user typed, and a link to those projects in the
Coordinator. Of course, you may not always know the name of the project you
wish to access. In such cases, use the Projects view.
To view a list of all the projects you have access to:

1. Open the Collaboration section of the Engagement Center
2. Click on Projects
3. Select the Project radio button at the top of the view. It is also possible to
search for templates by selecting the Template radio button.
4. Use the drop down filters on the embedded command bar to customize
the projects you wish to display.
Figure 44 Projects view being selected from Engagement Center

PR OJ E C T TA B S
FAVORITES
By using project favorites, you can instantly access the projects that are most
important to you. Favorite projects not only appear in the Coordinator Center as
part of your Project Favorites lens, but they also display in the Favorite's menu
that appears under Projects in the Collaboration section of the Engagement Cen-
ter. Any project that you access frequently should be added to your Favorites.
To add a project to your favorites:

1. Find the project in the Project view
2. Highlight the project
3. Use the More menu to add the project to your favorites
Note: Use the Right-click menu from the Projects page to add a specific project
to your favorites. Additionally, if you are within a project, you can add a
project to your favorites from the project’s More menu.
Project Tabs
A Coordinator Project is organized like a notebook. On the right, the status of the
project is shown. Coordinator supports four states for projects, Draft, Published,
Active, and Closed, a fact we will examine more closely in the section below on
Project States.
The Coordinator 83
Figure 45 The Plan tab of a project.
Accross the bottom of the project are a set of specific tabs that divide important
information in the project. Below is an overview of each of the tabs.
PLAN TAB
The Plan tab offers views of work sorted by hierarchy, person, or date see “Using
the Plan Tab” on page 86. The Plan tab puts a great deal of functionality at your
fingertips, offering a Move menu for reorganizing items in your project plan, and
a More menu which contains tools for taking quick action on a selected item or
items. If a specific work item is selected, and then a right-click is made, you will
see the Right-Click menu, which lets you take a variety of direct actions on the
selected work item. We will review many of the choices on the Right-Click menu
later in this Chapter.

PR OJ E C T TA B S
CALENDAR TAB
This is the ideal place to manage your commitments in a project. The Calendar
tab allows users to manage specific commitments using daily, weekly, or monthly
views. The Project Calendar is similar to the calendar you see under the Collabo-
ration section of the Engagement Center panel. However, the Project Calendar
only displays commitments in the project.
DOCUMENTS
The Documents tab is where users can add documents that are important for the
project. By default any document added from this tab will be visible to members
of the project. You can also add private documents to a project from the Docu-
ments tab that are not visible to other team members in the project. See “Docu-
ment Management” on page 123 . The Documents Tab also contains a separate
section for links to your favorite web addresses. Links provide an easy way to
reference client web sites, important materials, applications, or anything else that
might be of potential interest to members of the project.
DISCUSSIONS TAB
The Discussions tab shows threaded discussions. It is a space where team

members can raise questions and address issues important to the project.
REPORTS
The Reports tab is where graphs as well as status and analysis reports are avail-
able. Team members can file status reports by using the Status Reports option
from the view drop down menu, and choosing Add Report from the command
menu.
OVERVIEW TAB
The Overview tab gives information about the project mission, hours worked and
milestones in the project. It offers a place where project managers can communi-
cate the goal of the project to the team and where everyone involved in the
project can monitor the team's progress on project milestones.
The Coordinator 85
RESOURCES TAB
The Resources tab is where project managers add people to the team. The
resources tab also lets project managers set access control settings for team mem-
bers in the project, add contacts, and lets project managers create Project Roles,
for use in making work assignments and managing staff requests. For more infor-
mation about roles see “Project Roles” on page 109.
Using the Plan Tab

The Coordinator offers a number of project level views for tracking work and
interactions. From the Plan tab, you will find hierarchical views like the Plan
view, which shows interdependencies in the project, as well as date driven views
like the Express Plan. To adjust the view that is displayed in the Plan tab, select a
view from the View drop down menu (Figure 46).
Figure 46 Figure showing how to adjust views in the Plan tab of a project

USING THE PLAN TAB
The different columns in the plan view give users considerable detail. The left
icon displays whether work is draft, published, or active. The subject provides a
clickable link to open work. The predecessor column tells project managers
information about task dependencies Start date, due date, and participants.
PROJECT WORK VIEWS
Whether you wish to see work sorted by, date, hierarchy, or person, the Coordina-
tor provides a set of easy to use views that let you quickly focus on your most
important project work. Below is a brief description of all the views available on
the Plan tab.
The Plan — Includes all interactions in the project. Gantt charts are also avail-
able in this view. Project managers may view dependencies between work items.
The Express Plan — Shows all items in the project, due within the relevant time
settings, arranged in chronological order. To collapse or expand a week, click on
its heading.
My Work in the Plan — Shows all items in the project, due in the relevant time
setting, for which work has been assigned by you or to you.
Work that I can do - This view is for managing work that is assigned to a
project office. As a member of an office, a user can check out and take actions on
work items assigned to that office.
I Am Copied - Contains only work items for which you you have been included
in the Copies field, but are not the performer or the customer
All Issues - Is limited to all due issues in the case.
Closed Work - Lists only closed items for the chosen case.
Note: Note: In all views where items are ordered by the Due on column, items
will be ordered in ascending order (old items first) or descending order
(recent items first). You can set your preference for ordering work on the
Options tab of your Profile, (click your " name highlighted in yellow in
the upper right hand corner of the Coordinator window to open your Pro-
file).
The Coordinator 87
The Express Plan View and the Plan Views

The Express Plan, and Plan views provide different approaches to analyzing
work in projects. The Express Plan is organized according to the timeline of the
project; work items are grouped together by week, in order of due date. The Plan
view lets you focus on the hierarchical relationship between tasks in the Plan,
showing how a work item or set of work items are related to each other. The
Coordinator makes managing work easier by differentiating between these sepa-
rate areas of concern. Remember that you can fine tune what information is dis-
played for a given view by using the search settings, available from the
embedded command bar. This means that you can choose either the hierarchal
type of view (The Plan) or the timeline type of view (The Express Plan), and still
fine tune the contents with the options on the search console.
THE EXPRESS PLAN VIEW

When the concern is focusing on due dates, use the Express plan view
Figure 47 The Express Plan view
Here you can focus by week on all the work items that are coming due. The rele-
vance bar on the left helps you distinguish items of immediate importance.
Because due dates are commitments, any changes that you make in The Express
Plan view (other than simply removing an item) will come as a result of a human

THE EXPRESS PLAN VIEW AND THE PLAN VI EW S
interaction. To move an item in this view you must change a due date, which nec-
essarily involves communicating with the other person or persons involved in the
work item. For more information about changing the due date of a work item.
See “Changing Due Dates” on page 37.
THE PLAN VIEW

When the concern is focusing on how work items are related to each other, use
The Plan view.
Figure 48 The Plan view of a project Plan page
This view shows the same information about work items, including subject, due
date, Customer, Performer, etc. Here the order is independent of the due date; you
will see milestones and child tasks grouped together. The relationships between
milestones and children are fluid; the project manager can change them as
needed.
Note: The Coordinator makes use of a parent-child analogy to refer to the loca-
tion of items in the Project Plan. A child item always display below and
to the right of its parent. A parent item displays above and to the left of
its children.
The Coordinator 89
Two groupings display in The Plan view of a Project. The first grouping includes
most work items. Private conversations are listed under the second grouping,
"Private Items." In The Plan view, you can rearrange items by moving them from
one group to another or by changing their order. You can also make one item the
child of another, as the view supports up to six levels of hierarchy.
The purpose of moving work items is to arrange them in a way that makes the
relationships between these items more understandable. You can rearrange items
in chronological order, order of importance, or choose another design strategy.
By rearranging the hierarchy and creating child, grandchild and other item levels,
a project manager creates a picture that clarifies dependencies; you can see how
meeting one commitment may depend on the performance of another related
task. For details on how to move work items, see the section on moving work
items. See “Moving Work” on page 116.
ADJUSTING PROJECT VIEWS WITH SEARCH SETTINGS

The Search console is for controlling what you see in your views. It is possible to
search and customize a project view in the same way as other work views. Using
searches, a project manager or team member can find a specific piece of informa-
tion . The Search option is available when your Work page is open or from the
Plan tab of a project. To access the Search console click on the Search command
on the embedded command bar. You can then either seach for a key work or use
the Advanced button to select specific parameters such as Customer or Per-
former.
Figure 49 Search box that is displayed after clicking search command

THE EXPRESS PLAN VIEW AND THE PLAN VI EW S
Figure 50 Advanced settings of Search console
If you click on the Advanced options button, specific search criteria can be edited
to fine tune the information that is displayed in your view.
ADDING INTERACTIONS TO A PROJECT

From the Plan view, the Coordinator lets you determine where you want to insert
work into the project hierarchy. By default, work will appear at the bottom of the
hierarchy. However, it is possible to insert work at any location in the project
structure. To insert new work into a project, you should select the item in the
view under which you want the new interaction to appear. Next, from the Create
menu bar, open a new Request, or other interaction. In the insert pull down list at
The Coordinator 91
the bottom, you are given a number of options about where you can place the
work. You have the option to put the work, above, below, or as child of (to the
right of) the selected work. If you are not happy with the placement of a work
item in a project, it is possible to rearrange the order of items using the Move
menu.
Project Structure
Project managers can designate important high-level work in projects as mile-
stones. They can also provide links to other projects using project links. Below
are some of the important components of Coordinator projects.
INTERACTIONS
These are the general work items, requests, approvals, meetings, etc. that make
up a project. Project managers have the option of including interactions “In the
Plan” using the check box available on inititiation and update forms. Work items
that are in the plan will be included in management reports as they are considered
to be important events for project managers to track.
MILESTONES
Milestones are important goals or high-level tasks. They are displayed in the
overview tab, and are tracked for you in status reports. By default milestones are
part of the Project Plan view. To designate a new work item in your project as a
milestone, check the Milestone option from the interaction initiation form.
THE SUMMARY TASK

The summary task is the top item in the project hierarchy. It is not an actual task.
Rather, it displays the name of the project in the project Plan. All items in the
project fall under this summary task. The summary task helps give a clear look
and feel to the project structure. When you click on the summary task the Project
Information console is displayed for more information see See “The summary
task” on page 92.

PROJECT STRUCTURE
PROJECT LINKS
Project links create a pointer from one project to another. Project links are easy to
create and provide a simple way to let you access related projects. The linkage
will be displayed as an interaction in the project views. Project links make it easy
to represent complicated sub processes and projects within the well organized
framework of a project. You can create a Project Link from the More menu of a
project.
PRIVATE ITEMS
Private items are only visible to Customers, Performers and participants specified
on the copied list. Other team members cannot see private work. When you
delete a project, the private work in the project is preserved, and moved outside
of the project.
PROJECT INDENTATION
Projects provide your tasks with a certain numbering order, and also a certain left
to right order. In creating your project, you may for instance, wish to place cer-
tain items underneath and to the right of an important milestone. This hierarchi-
cal structure is only visible in the Plan view. For more information about
designing and managing project hierarchy. See “Moving Work” on page 116.
Figure 51 The Plan view selecte in Plan Tab with Project hierarchy
Note: The Coordinator places certain restrictions on what items can be placed
underneath other items to protect the integrity of your project. For
The Coordinator 93
instance, you cannot place public items as a child of a private item. You
do not necessarily need to know such rules, just know that they are there.
You may occasionally encounter a message detailing such a rule, if you
attempt to move an item to a position in the project hierarchy which is not
permitted.
EXPANDING AND COLLAPSING THE PROJECT HIERARCHY

The project hierarchy can be collapsed or expanded to help you focus on specific
sets of tasks in a project. The plus and minus controls next to work items are used
for expanding or collapsing specific groups of interactions. The plus control indi-
cates that there are items below a given interaction that are not being displayed.
By clicking on the plus control, the next level of work below the task becomes
visible. Likewise, the minus control indicates that the item has been completely
expanded. Clicking on the minus control causes work below a given task to be
hidden. By using the minus and plus controls in your project view, you can adjust
the project hierarchy as needed to display only the items that are currently your
focus.
There are also specific controls provided from the Coordinator Right- Click and
More menus for expanding or collapsing the entire project hierarchy. The Col-
lapse All and Expand All commands can be used to make quick adjustments to
the appearance of work in the project.
Accessing projects
There are many places in the Coordinator where you can organize your projects.
The Coordination Center provides a Favorite Projects lens where you can quickly
add or remove projects from your favorites. Any projects in your favorite
projects list, will in turn display in the project favorites menu which appears just
below the Projects entry on the Collaboration section of the Engagement Center
panel. You can also find projects using the Project Finder, which you can invoke
from either the Engagement Center panel or by clicking on the Find link located
on your Favorite Projects lens.
PROJECT FAVORITES
Favorites let you gain quick access to your important projects. A favorite may be
a project that you are managing, or a project in which you have a large amount or
work. The Project view also lets you quickly add or remove projects from your

ACCESSING PROJECTS
favorites list using the Right-Click menu. It is a good idea to continually update
your favorite projects list to reflect your current project priorities. If you are no
longer using a project regularly, it is a good idea to remove the project from your
favorites.
Note: Note: The favorites list can contain an unlimited number of projects or
templates. You may wish for convenience to limit this list to the five or
ten most frequently used projects and templates When projects are added
to your favorites list, you will gain extra visibility on these projects. For
example, documents that are added or updated in any of your favorite
projects will show up a unread in your documents lens.
The Coordinator 95

CHAPTER6 Managing Projects
This chapter is intended for Project Managers. It will explain the fundamentals of
creating and managing Projects in the Coordinator. With Coordinator Projects,
you can build dependencies between project tasks, copy or merge work from dif-
ferent projects, and capture best practices in Project Templates. The Coordinator
also offers Gantt charts for real-time reports of commitments by person, date or
hierarchy. Whether you are familiar with other project management tools or this
is the first time you have used project management software, the Coordinator
makes it easy to create new projects, build a robust project structure, and reorder
work in an existing project.
Creating Projects
If you are new to Coordinator projects, you may benefit from building a demo
project. Creating a project is simple to do in the Coordinator. Below is an exam-
ple of a Coordinator Project, designed to manage a software development effort.
The Coordinator 97
Chapter 6... Managing Projects
Figure 52 Plan tab of Coordinator project
To Start a new project:

1. Click on the Project button on the Create menu bar. The New Project dia-
log appears.

CREATING PROJECTS
2. This console let you create either a new project, or a new template.
3. The Based on field lets you select an existing project or template to serve
as a base for your new project. In this case, since we want to make a new
project from scratch, we can leave this field blank. Using the Name field
name your project and specify a start date. When finished, click on the
Create button. The new project opens in a new window. With just those
steps you have created a new draft project in the Coordinator!
4. By default projects are created as drafts, meaning only the person who
created the project can see it. If you want other people to see the project
you can publish or activate it from the Project Information console box.
See “Publishing Projects” on page 104.
Note: A new Project begins in draft mode. This means only the author is ini-
tially able to see the Project. When creating a project pay special attention
to the start date. The start date will be used to calculate the dates of many
of the interactions in the project.
The Coordinator 99
CREATING YOUR TEAM

Adding people to the project team is easy to do in the Coordinator. Project man-
agers can add people to the team with the Add command on the Resources tab of
a project. The participants that you add to the project are those who will partici-
pate in discussions, take part in work, and receive email invitations upon activa-
tion of the project.
NOTIFICATIONS
Upon activation of a project, team members receive an email invitation with a
link to the project in the Coordinator. See “Activating a project” on page 105. .
Additionally, team members receive email about specific work when that work is
activated. Team members are also able to see the project in the Project view, and
Project Finder.
ACCESS CONTROL
Although project access control may appear complex, in reality it does not
require much input on the part of project managers. In most cases, the default
access setting given to users when they are added as team members is appropri-
ate. By default team members are able to:
1. Create work in a project
2. See project documents
3. Participate in discussions
By default, team members are not able to set dependencies, delete the project or
project components, or place items in the project Plan It is possible to change
some of the access rights of a member of the project, from the Resources tab,
using project access controls.
To modify the access level of a team member in a project:

1. From the Resource tab of the project, select the team member whose
access rights you wish to change.
2. In the Project Access tab, select by the appropriate settings, and click
Submit to save your changes.

CREATING PROJECTS
Figure 53 Resources tab of a project
From the Project Access tab you can control what members of the project can do.
You can control whether users can create discussions, add documents, or view
project data. It is also possible to give team members the right to act as a Project
Manager. Giving a user project manager access allows the user to mark items in
the plan, alter project dependencies, and change the Customer or Performer of
work items. If necessary, you can also change the owner of the project to a person
other than yourself, and the new owner automatically receives project manager
rights for the project.
CREATING INTERACTIONS IN YOUR PROJECT

Project interactions are created using the Create menu bar. When creating a new
work item in a project, you can also control the location of the item in the project
Plan.
The Coordinator 101

To insert a new work item into a project at a specific location:

1. Select the work item you want the new work item to appear above, below,
or as a child of.
2. Use the Create menu to open the Initiation form of the type of interaction
you wish to create
3. At the bottom of the Initiation form, you are given the option of inserting
the new work item in relation to the selected task. Using the Insert selec-
tion list, you can specify where the new interaction will appear in relation
to the selected work item.
Note: If you are working with a draft project it is not necessary to specify due
dates or the customer or the performer or your work items at the outset.
Instead, you can simply enter the subject of the interaction and click Sub-
mit. Later, you can return to your work items and specify more detail as
needed.
PROJECT INFORMATION
From the Plan tab of a Project, the Project Info button lets you control Project
visibility and alter important data in the project.
Figure 54 Project Information dialog
From the Project Information dialog, a Project Manager can change the name of a
project, add a mission statement, change the progress indicator and change the
status of a project. It is also possible to change other data from this dialog. For
instance, you can change the owner of the project or the start date. (The end date
of the project is calculated based on the dependencies you set in the Project). The

CREATING PROJECTS
Project Information dialog also lets you change fields that relate to cost, revenue,
time, and contract type; data which others can view from the Overview tab of the
project.
Note: The Project Information dialog is available from the Plan tab by clicking
on the Project Info button or from the Overview tab of the project, or
from the More menu, or by clicking on the project summary task.
PROJECT START DATE.

As mentioned above, the project start date is a very important aspect of any Coor-
dinator Project. The start and due dates of all project interactions depend on the
start date of the project itself. If you decide to change the start date of a project,
the dates for all the project’s interactions will automatically be recalculated rela-
tive to the new date. For example if you make the start date 10 days later than
was originally specified, the start and due dates of all the projects interactions
will move ahead 10 days. The start date is set when a project is created, and can
be changed later usingthe Project Information console see “Project Information”
on page 102.
CHANGING PROJECT STATUS

The Project Information dialog can be used to change the status of a project. The
Coordinator allows Projects to exist in different states. Below is a description of
the different states a Project may have:
Draft - A new project begins as a draft by default. This means, no work items or
notifications will be sent when a project is initially created. Projects in the draft
state do not affect personal calendars or work views. Draft projects and templates
remain invisible except to the person who created them.
Published – The published state means that other people in the organization,
who are team members, can see the project. The project itself will show up in a
team member’s lists of projects. However, none of the work will be displayed in
their Coordinator work views.
Active – When a project is activated, the team members will receive notifications
via email, and the work items will show in the user's work views. Additionally, a
single notification is sent out to team members to let them know that they are
participants in the new project. All active work in a project displaysin the work
view of item participants.
The Coordinator 103

Closed – When a project is closed all work in the project will be cancelled. The
project will no longer appear in the views of open projects.
Note: At the top of the Project Information dialog are the four different options
for project status.
Changing the status of a project has important consequences. When you move a
project from draft to active, for instance, you indicate that the project is ready to
go "live." When moving from draft to published, the project becomes visible to
other members of the team.
When changing the status of your project, you must decide what if any changes
should be made to the status of the individual work items in the project. It is
important to keep in mind that work-item status and project status are different. A
project can be active, but have work in various states. Some of the work could be
in draft mode (only visible to the owner of the project), some of the work could
be published (visible to others but not active), and some could be active. In fact,
it is often desirable to have work in various stages-since some work may be ready
to go "live" and other work may require further development.
PUBLISHING RULES
Certain rules govern the available status of interactions during different stages of
a project. When a project is in draft mode, all interactions are also in draft mode.
Since only the project owner can see the project itself, work cannot be visible to
other people. Changing the status of the project, through the Project Information
dialog, causes an Activation Wizard to appear. The Wizard gives you direct
options for changing the status of all, some, or none of the work in your project.
PUBLISHING PROJECTS
Publishing a project makes the project visible to team members but does not cre-
ate any 'active' work. You can manually publish interactions that are in draft
mode from your work views by using the More menu. To do this, select the item
or items that you wish to publish, and click "publish the selected items." When
interactions are published, others are able to see the interaction, but cannot yet
comment or participate in the work. Work that is in a published state does not
display in a user's pending work views.

CREATING PROJECTS
ACTIVATING A PROJECT
Activation is a significant event in the life of your project. Activation is the

moment when your project becomes "live”. When you choose to make your
project active (by changing the status to active and clicking submit from the
Project Information consol), you are presented with activation options from the
Activation Wizard. The dialog offers you three options-- activate by start date,
activate all, or activate none.
Figure 55 Activation Wizard
The Coordinator 105

Copying and Reusing Projects

The Save As dialog enables Project Managers to reuse successful projects and
templates. The Save As command for projects lets users make a copy of an exist-
ing Project or Template, or save a project as a template. Users can maintain as
much or as little of an existing project's infrastructure as desired by using the
Save As Console.
Figure 56 The Save As console
To use the Save As feature:

1. Open a project you wish to copy and go to the Plan tab
2. Click the Project Info button
3. From the Project Information dialog that appears, click on the Save as
Button.
4. From the Save Project As console, select either New Project or New Tem-
plate.
5. In the Name of new project field, enter a name for the project or template,
and click Create.

COPYING AND REUSING PROJECTS
BUILDING A TEMPLATE
Coordinator templates are frameworks for creating projects. With templates, you
can reuse your successful projects. Designing a template is similar to building a
Project, however no work is actually initiated in a template. When creating a
template, it may be advantageous to make your work assignments less specific,
as you may not know the specific person or persons who will eventually com-
plete the work. Likewise, work item due dates are often less important in tem-
plates, than the specific content of the work you are creating.
One additional difference between templates and projects is that templates use
relative dates for work items. For work item dates in a template the offset value
of a date is preserved, rather than any specific dates you have chosen for the
work. When a project is created from a template, the offset values that you spec-
ify are used to construct the due dates of the work items. Ultimately, the due dates
for the work items in your project created from a template are set based on two
factors:
•• The start date you have chosen for your project
•• The offset values you have specified for the individual work items
in the template.
Note: If it is important for you to preserve the actual due dates that you have set
for work items, it is best to start by creating a project draft, rather than a
template. Templates are designed to preserve dates in offset form. For
templates, the Coordinator preserves the offset value of each work item,
rather than any specific dates that you have set for the work. Project
Drafts on the other hand, preserve the specific dates that you choose for
your work items, and these dates can only be altered by you (either by
manually adjusting the dates of your work items, or by recalculating your
project dates, based on the work-item dependencies that you have cre-
ated. See “Dependencies” on page 115. for more on creating specific
dependencies between your work item tasks).
MERGING PROJECTS
This feature helps you reorganize, reuse or consolidate entire projects. Managers
can consolidate related projects with the Insert Into Project command available
in the Plan tab of a Project from the More menu. Projects can be merged, or
items from one project can be copied into another. When you copy interactions
from one project into another, all of the interactions that are copied begin in draft
mode. This allows the Project Manager to carefully review these items before
The Coordinator 107

they are made active. See “Activating a project” on page 105. If you move work
items into a project, they will disapear from their original location and move to
the new project. Projects can also be linked to each other using the Link Project
command on the More Menu.
Figure 57 The Insert Project console
GANTT CHARTS
Gantt charts are a valuable tool for managing project dates and viewing overlap-
ping commitments. Gantt charts give managers a clear breakdown of the project
over time, exposing both duration and effort in a calendar format. Gantt charts
are available to everyone in the project. Gantts are viewed from the Plan view in
the Plan tab of a Project. The Gantt view can be displayed by clicking on the
Show Gantt check box. If the Tracking Assistant feature is enabled (accessible
from the More menu) the project manager will also see the projected dates for
the project displayed in the Proj. Start Column. Coordinator Gantt charts are
scalable, so managers can zoom in for more detail, or zoom out for a bird's eye
view. Clicking on the specific weeks at the top of the Gantt chart lets you see a
weekly breakdown of project work. Additional clicks bring you to the monthly
view and then to the quarterly view.

PROJECT ROLES
Note: To print Gantt chart information, you may need to change your default
browser settings. To enable printing of a project Gantt chart, go to
Tools\Internet Options\Advanced from your Internet Explorer browser. In
the list of Advanced options, scroll-down to Printing and check the "Print
background colors and images" checkbox.
Project Roles
Project Roles are Coordinator roles that are local to a project. Project roles are
useful for managing groups or roles that are project specific. They enable you to
assign work in a project to a role rather than to a specific person. You may wish
to create local roles such as Software Developer, Technical Writer, or Financial
Analyst and assign people to them in your project. Two project roles are created
by default when you create a Project. They are the Project Manager, and the
Project Initiator. The creator of the project is assigned by default to these two
project roles.
SETTING UP PROJECT ROLES

There are two main steps involved in setting up project roles. First you need to
create the role from the Resources tab of a project. Second, you should add peo-
ple to that role. A project role can be either of type Office or Position .
Office roles – These types of roles behave like an office. Work can be assigned to
an office role, and then people who are members of that office can check-out the
work and take action on it. Office type roles are useful if there is more than one
person who can perform the work or if you are not sure at the time you create the
work, who should complete it
Position roles – These types of roles can only be assigned to one person at a
time. For example, you may have a position such as Auditor in your project. If
you where to create the Auditor position it would be possible for project team
members to assign work to the Auditor without necessarily knowing who the per-
son was. This is useful in large projects where not everyone knows who is
assigned each position. Moreover, positions are very useful if the participants are
likely to change in a project. By assigning work to a position, there is no need to
transfer the work if the person filling a given position changes. The project man-
ager simply assigns the new person to the proper role and the person will have
access to all the work for those roles.
The Coordinator 109

To add a new Role to a project:

1. Open the project where you wish to add the new role, and click on the
Resources tab.
2. Click on the Add menu and choose Add Project Role from the list of
options.
3. Fill out the fields in the New Project Role console and submit the form
(see descriptions of Offices and Positions above).
Figure 58 New Project Role console
To add People to a Role:

1. Highlight the Role in the Resources tab of your project (Figure 59)
2. Click the assign button in the lower right side of the console.
3. Highlight the person’s name in the resource finder who you want to assign
to the role (Figure 60).

PROJECT ROLES
Figure 59 Project Role being selected from the Resources Tab
Viewing Project Roles:
Project Roles are visible in the Resources Tab of a project. The triangle icon to
the left of the role name indicates that an assignment has been made to the role.
To view Project Roles:
1. Go to the Resources tab
2. Look in the Team area
3. Sort the list by “Role”
USING PROJECT ROLES

Once you have created a project role, it is possible to use the role when assigning
work in a project. When the work item becomes active if the role is and office it
will become available to everyone who is a member of the office (Work in offices
is available from the My Work in Offices work view). If the role is a position the
work will be directed to the person assigned to that position.
The Coordinator 111

Figure 60 Example of work being assigned to a project role
To assign work to a project role:

1. Open the address book from an interaction.
2. Use the Roles radio button option to view the roles for the Project.
3. Select the role as a participant in your interaction.

PROJECT ROLES
Figure 61 Initiation form with a role selected as performer
ADDING SKILLS TO PROJECT ROLES
Adding skills to a Project Role enables you to more narrowly define who should
fill the role. This information may be used later in staffing your project. You can
add skill sets and other attributes to Project Roles when you create them or edit
the attributes of existing roles. The relationship between Skills and a Project Role
has the following attributes:
•Competence level
•Competence level modifier
•Experience level
•Experience level modifier and
•Importance value
The Coordinator 113

To Add skills to a Project Role:

1. Go the Resources tab of the project.
2. Select the role on the Roles Tab (Figure 59).
3. Click on the Add/Edit button.
4. Select the skill to associate with the Role using the Check boxes.
Figure 62 Add/Edit skills dialog
Managing Project Interactions

Project interactions are part of a well defined structure and can be managed using
Coordinator Gantt charts, as well as other management tools. Through project
dependencies, you can establish relationships between the start and due dates of
different work items, ensuring that your project dates remain properly synchro-
nized. Project dates can be projected using business logic such as interaction
dependencies that you have defined in the structure of your project.

MANAGING PROJECT INTERACTIONS
DEPENDENCIES
The Coordinator enables Project Managers to design dependencies between indi-
vidual interactions in a project. Dependencies can be used to directly manage the
relationships between start and due dates.
To create task dependencies:

1. From within a project, select the Plan tab and choose the Plan view from
the view selector.
2. Right click on the work item you want to set as the dependent item
3. From the interaction menu that appears, choose the quick edit option
(Figure 63).
Figure 63 Manager Edit tool for managing dates and dependencies of interac-
tions
A dialog like the one above appears.

1. Click Add Dependency to open a dialog box for specifying the type of
the dependency
2. In Predecessor Task, select the item on which the dependent item is to
depend (the start or finish date of the dependent item will be based on the
start or finish of the “predecessor”).
3. The available options include all work items that appear in the Depen-
dency view (items in the case that are designated as “In the plan”). In
addition you can set the predecessor as “Project” to make the item depen-
dent on the start or finish of the case.
The Coordinator 115

4. Select the dependency Type.

5. For instance, Start to Finish means that the start of the dependent item
will be based on the finish of the predecessor task.
6. Specify a Lag. For instance a lag of 4 hours with a Start to Finish depen-
dency type means that the start date dependent item will be 4 hours after
the finish of the predecessor task. You can also enter negative numbers to
make the dependency based on a time before the predecessor start or fin-
ish.
7. Click Add.
8. Repeat these steps as needed to create dependencies between items, then
click Save.
9. Your view returns to the Plan page. Work item dates are recalculated as
needed and these changes are entered into the work item history. Item par-
ticipants with the appropriate notification settings are notified of the
changes.
To modify existing dependencies for an item, click in the predecessor column for
that item while in the Dependency view. In the Update Dependency dialog box
that appears, modify values as in steps 5-7 above.
MOVING WORK
The Coordinator lets you move work within the hierarchal structure of a project,
or between separate projects.
M o v i n g w o r k b et w e e n p ro j e ct s:
You can move an interaction to another project if you are the Customer of the
interaction or if the interaction is part of a project for which you are the project
manager. Additionally, you must also be a team member or the project manager
of the project to which you are moving the item (the target project).
Also the following considerations apply:
•If you are a team member in both projects but are not the Project Manager,
you will be able to move only items that are not in the plan.
•If you are the Project Manager of the first project and a team member but
not project manager of the second project, then you will be able to move the
item, but without maintaining the “in the plan” setting.
•If you are the Project Manager of both , the “in the plan” setting will be pre-
served.

MANAGING PROJECT INTERACTIONS
1. Click Move Workin the command bar of the expanded form of a work
item
2. The Project Selector dialog box opens.
Figure 64 Project Finder dialog box

3. In the Project Finder dialog, select the project to which you wish to move
the work item. (The list will include all projects for which you are a team
member or project manager). You can also make a work item "project
unrelated."
4. Click OK. The work item is added to the selected project at the end of the
list of work items. If the work item was in the plan, or a milestone in the
source project, it will have the same status in the target project, but only if
you are the project manager for the target case.
M o v i n g w o r k w i t h i n a p ro j e c t :
It is important to be familiar with moving interactions in projects, as adjusting the
hierarchy of interactions is a relatively common task. For example, a Project
Manager may want to re-organize work from other team members that currently
falls outside of the project plan. Alternatively, certain work items may expand in
scope and importance as the project grows.
The Coordinator 117

A Project Manager can easily rearrange the order and hierarchy of items in the
Plan tab of the Project using commands from the Move menu. The Move menu
is available in the local Command bar of the Plan tab of a project, when the view
“The Plan” is selected and you are the Manager of the project. When you click
Move a set of commands for rearranging items on the page is provided. In gen-
eral, items are moved in relation to another item. If the other item is adjacent, the
item being moved can be moved in one step; otherwise two steps are necessary.
To move an adjacent item in one step:

1. Select the item to be moved.
2. Click Move in the local command bar and select a move option:
3. Move selected item Up—Item moves one place up in significance (more
important).
4. Move selected item Down—Item moves one place down in significance
(less important).
5. Shift selected item Left—Use this to make selected item no longer a
child of item above it.
6. Shift selected item Right—Use this to make selected item a child of item
above it.
When moving an item in relation to another item that is not adjacent, you must
first mark the item, then select the destination.
To move non adjacent items in two steps:

1. Select the item to be moved (to select an item, click in the row but not on
the item title).
2. Choose Set Mark from the Move menu. The item to be moved becomes
highlighted in yellow.
3. Select the destination item.
4. Click Move, then choose to move the marked item Before, After, or As
child of the selected item.
When an item is made a child, its parent is identified in the Status tab of the Sta-
tus form of the child item. When you move a parent item, any child items (and
lower level descendants) move with it. When you expand a parent item (click the
plus control ) any children of that item become visible.
Note: Project Managers can also specify the placement of work in the project
structure when creating a new work item. To do so, mark the destination

MANAGING DATES
item, select a work-item type from the main command bar, and, in the dia-
log box that appears, specify the placement for the work using the Insert
field.
Managing Dates
The Coordinator provides tools for managing dates in a project. Using the Recal-
culate Dates feature, it is possible to see how dependencies and parent child rela-
tionships are likely to affect the due dates of the work items in a project. The
color coded Gantt charts clearly display both the projected dates and the actual
dates for starting and completing work. After you have reviewed the projected
dates, you can publish those dates which will update the actual start and due dates
of your work items.
RECALCULATING DATES
In managing projects, the start and due dates specified in interactions do not
always accurately reflect the structured plan of a project. This is especially true,
as more unplanned work is incorporated into the project. To address this issue,
the Coordinator provides projected due dates that are visible only to the project
manager. These projected dates are calculated based on your existing project
dependencies, and the hierarchical relationship between tasks in the project. Pro-
jected dates are also displayed in your Gantt charts. The projected due date of a
Summary task, the top task in the project is calculated based on the dates spanned
by all of its children. After you make changes to the structure of a project, you
must use the recalculate dates command for the changes to the projected dates to
be reflected in the actual dates of the interactions.
Note: The projected dates have no bearing on the dates that are displayed to the
participants of interactions. The projected dates are for management and
planning only. If you wish to change the actual dates displayed to the par-
ticipants of interactions, please See “Publishing Dates” on page 120..
To recalculate projected dates:

1. From the Plan view of a project, select the More Menu
2. From the list of options, click on Recalculate Dates
The Coordinator 119

Once you have recalculated the dates of the project, the changes will be reflected
in the Gantt chart See “Using Gantt Charts to Manage Dates” on page 121.The
projected dates can also be viewed by activating the Tracking Assistant.
To activate the Tracking Assistant:

1. From the Plan view of a project, select the More Menu
2. From the list of menu options, select Tracking Assistant
When the Tracking Assistant is selected you will see the projected dates for the
work displayed in a separate column in your project.
PUBLISHING DATES
When you recalculate the dates of a project, the Coordinator will make accurate
projections of dates. However, the projections are not reflected in the actual start
times and due dates of the work items. In other words, the participants of the
interactions will not be aware of projected dates. If you want to use the projected
dates to actually change the start date and due date of an interaction, you need to
publish the projected date. Dates can either be published on an individual basis or
all at once.
To publish dates for all work interactions in a project:

1. From within a project go to the More Menu
2. Click on the Publish Dates Command
To publish dates for a single interaction:

1. Right click on the item for which you wish to publish dates
2. Select the Quick Edit menu
3. Go to the Dates tab
4. Click on the publish button
5. Click on the save button

MANAGING DATES
Figure 65 Dates tab of the Quick Edit menu
USING GANTT CHARTS TO MANAGE DATES

The Gantt charts in Coordinator projects are an essential tool for managing dates.
The light-colored bars in the chart represent the actual dates specified for work
items. The dark-colored bars represent the projected dates that the Coordinator
has calculated. If the projected and actual dates are the same, you will see the
dark and light bars represented as overlapping lines. See Figure 66 on page 122.
The Coordinator 121

Figure 66 Figure showing a Gantt chart with work in various states of publica-
tion

CHAPTER 7 Document Management
This chapter will look at the Coordinator's document management features. In

Coordinator you can add documents to projects, work items or manage docu-
ments as stand-alone resources. The Coordinator keeps track of all revisions to
your documents, and lets you view and access previous versions of a document.
Each document also contains its own access control list, so you can determine
both who can see your document, and who can make changes to it.
Adding Documents to the Coordinator

The Coordinator lets you manage your documents from three different locations-
-from the Library, from projects, or from interactions.
The Library - This is a global repository for documents. Documents can be

added to the Library from a user's computer. Once added to the Library, docu-
ments can be shared with other users and added directly to projects and interac-
tions. When documents are added to the Library, only the person who added the
document has access to the document by default.
Projects - Documents can be added to projects either from the Library or from a
user's computer. If a document is added to a project from a user's computer, it will
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Chapter 7... Document Management
automatically become part of the Library. All team members in the project have
access to project documents by default.
Note: It is possible to change the default permissions of a document from the

Document Properties console (Figure 72).
Interactions - Documents can be added to interactions either from the Library

or from a user's computer. If the document is added from a user's computer the
document automatically becomes part of the Library. All participants in the
interaction have access to the newly added document by default.
Note: All documents that are added to interactions are also accessible to partici-
pants through Coordinator e-mail. By clicking on document links pro-
vided in Coordinator e-mail, users and contacts can view documents
without logging in to the system.
ADDING DOCUMENTS TO THE LIBRARY

After uploading a document to the Library, the document is automatically placed
under version control and becomes available to other Coordinator users. Of
course you will have the option of setting specific access to a document from the
Document Properties dialog, where you can control exactly who sees the docu-
ment and who can make changes to the document's contents. In addition, once a
document is uploaded, it can be added to projects or interactions.
Note: It is more common to add documents directly to projects or work items

than to the library as documents are often easier to manage within a spe-
cific context, like a project or interaction. However, if you do not know
the project or work item a document should belong to, or if the document
is a private document, that you are not ready for others to see, it makes
sense to add the document directly to the Library.
To add a document to the Library:

1. Go to the Collaboration section of the Engagement Center and Click on
the Add Document command. This will bring up the Documents view.
2. Click on the Add Document Command. This will bring up the Add New
Document Dialogue (Figure 67).

ADDING DOCUMENTS TO THE COORDINATOR
3. Browse to where you have stored the document, give it a title, and click
submit. Notice the Upload choices at the bottom that allow you to make
the document public, private or read only. By default documents are pri-
vate when they are added to the Library.
Figure 67 Add new document console
ADDING DOCUMENTS TO PROJECTS

Documents can be attached to projects in the Coordinator. Attaching a document
to a project makes it easy to find for the team members in a project, because it
will be listed under the Documents tab of the project. Documents can be added to
projects from the Library (see “Adding documents to the Library” on page 124)
or they can be uploaded directly from your computer.
To add a document to a project from the library of existing documents:

1. Open the project where you want to add the document and click on the
Document Tab.
2. Click on the Add Document command and choose Add from Library.
The Attach Document console appears. (Figure 68).
3. Using the Look in menu, select from the choices shown to filter what doc-
uments are displayed.
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4. Double-click on the disk icon, next to the document to add the document
to the project. To add more than one document at once, hold down the
Control key, select the documents you wish to add, and click OK.
Figure 68 Attach Document console
To add a new Document from your computer to a Project:

1. Follow the directions above, but click on the From Disk rather than the
From library command. This will bring up the Add a New Document
dialog.
Note: It is also possible to add a document directly to a project using the docu-
ment command from the Create menu. To do so, click on the Document

ADDING DOCUMENTS TO THE COORDINATOR
command on the top of your screen. From the Add new document dialog
which appears, specify the project where you wish to add the document.
You will also be given the option to notify team members of the newly
added document. By checking the option, notify team members via e-
mail, other members of the team will receive an email about the newly
added document, and can access the document directly from e-mail, with-
out requiring users to log-in to the system.
ADDING DOCUMENTS TO INTERACTIONS

Adding documents to interactions is one of the most common operations per-
formed in the Coordinator’s document management system. Just as documents
can be attached to an email they can be added to an interaction in the Coordina-
tor. Documents can either be added from the Document Library, or directly from
your computer. When documents are added to interactions, they automatically
become available in the Library, where they can be added to other interactions or
projects.
To attach a document to an Interaction from the Library:

1. Open the interaction and go to the Documents tab
2. Click the add button. This will give you a choice to add the document
from the library or from your local computer. Choose Add from the
library. This will bring up the Attach Documents dialog.
3. Using the Look in menu sort through the documents until you find the one
you want to add.
4. Double click on the disk icon to add the document to the Project. If you
want to add multiple documents hold the Control key down to do a multi-
select.
To attach a document from your computer to an interaction:

1. Follow the direction above, but click on the From Disk rather than the
From library command. This will bring up the Add a New Document
dialogue.
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Managing Documents
Once a document has been uploaded to the Coordinator, there are a wide range of
tools available for managing the document. These tools include views and filters
for finding and tracking documents, access controls for managing who can see
and edit documents, and version controls for managing changes to the document.
Let’s review each of these features.
DOCUMENT VIEWS
The Coordinator has a number of views that are useful for finding documents. Of
course documents that have been added to a project can be found in the Docu-
ments tab of the Project. For a view of all the documents in the system users can
use the Documents view. This view is available from the Collaboration section of
the Engagement Center.
Figure 69 Document View
Once the Document view is open, you can use the View drop down menu to
determine which documents you which to display. You can choose to see just
your documents, document from a specific project, or all documents in the sys-
tem, depending on your preference.

MANAGING DOCUMENTS
UPDATING DOCUMENTS
After a document has been uploaded to the Coordinator, it is automatically placed
under version control. This means that in order to update an existing document, a
user must first check-out the document. Once a document is checked out, other
users can not update the document until it has been checked-in. All revisions
made to the document are stored, and previous versions of a document can be
reviewed and downloaded.
To check-out a document:
1. Find the document you want to modify in one of the document views and
right click next to the name of the document and select Check Out
(Figure 70).
2. You will be prompted to save the document. Save it on your computer and
edit it as you would a normal document.
To check-in a document:
1. Find the document that you checked out. Make a right click with your
mouse, and select Check In from the quick edit menu (Figure 70).
2. Upon check in, you will be prompted to upload a new version of the docu-
ment. To do so, browse to the location on your computer of the new ver-
sion of document, and click Submit.
Note: If you decide not to make changes to the document, and no longer want
the document to be checked-out in your name, choose the Unlock option
from the right click menu.
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Figure 70 Right Click menu from documents view of a Project.
REVISIONS
The Coordinator stores the versions of all documents that have been checked-in.
Previous versions of a file can be reviewed from the Revisions History dialog.
To view revisions of a document:

1. Open the right click Menu as shown in (Figure 70) from any document
view and select Revisions .
2. From the Revision History dialogue which appears (Figure 71). click on
the specific revision that you wish to view.

MANAGING DOCUMENTS
Figure 71 Revision History console
SETTING ACCESS CONTROL AND PROPERTIES

Once a document has been added to the system you can adjust the access control
and other properties from the Document Properties console (Figure 72). The
General Tab allows you to modify properties of the document such as the name
and author. The Access tab provides options for controlling who can see the doc-
ument. The Access tab also lets you specify if others can edit the document’s
contents. The Reference tab displays all interactions to which the document is
attached.
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Figure 72 Document Properties console
To change access control settings:

1. Find the document in any document view, right click on the document,
and choose the Properties command (Figure 72).
2. From the Access tab of the Document Properties dialog, modify the prop-
erties of the document. To add new people to the document access list,
click on the Add button.
SEARCHING FOR DOCUMENTS

From the documents view Coordinator lets you search for specific documents
using the Search command. By clicking on the Search command, a text-box
appears where you can enter the specific text to search for. The Coordinator
search engine will look for a match for the text based on author, keyword, title,
comments, original file name or project name. When you click Search, the Coor-
dinator will refresh your view and display only the documents which match your
search. To return the view to its original state click Clear Search. If you want to
search for particular criteria such as the author of a document, click on the
Advanced button. See Figure 73 on page 133.

MANAGING DOCUMENTS
Figure 73 Document view showing Advanced search settings
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CHAPTER 8 Access Rights and
Administration
A Coordinator administrator is responsible for setting access rights for users. An

administrator might also be responsible for other tasks required for the system to
run smoothly. Such tasks could include: ensuring that users have a valid email
address, creating a list of Meeting locations, creating a list of keywords for docu-
ments, or even adding and deleting projects and templates.
A TWO-TIERED SYSTEM OF ACCESS RIGHTS: GLOBAL AND

PROJECT
The Coordinator offers a two-tiered access control structure - one set of controls
for company wide (global) information, and another for control of activity within
a specific project. Generally, global rights are given to a user, immediately after
an account is created. These settings determine the user's access to global infor-
mation. The access to project-level information is controlled by the manager for
each individual project. Project access rights are not covered in this section as
they are the prerogative of each project manager, not the system administrator
See “Project Structure” on page 92. The two-tiered access setting system gives
Coordinator a great deal of flexibility. For instance, it is possible to add people to
the Coordinator system who may have very limited access to global information
(they cannot see the client list, or documents not related to projects, or the full list
of users in the system, etc.) yet have complete access to certain project specific
information.
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Chapter 8... Access Rights and Administration
To set a users access rights:

1. To set global access rights for a user, login as ActionWorks, or as another
user who has been granted the right to Act as Administrator.
2. From the Engagement Center Panel, under Relationships, choose People.
Here, a list of all Coordinator Contacts and Users appears. Select Users at
the top of the screen to edit the access information of people with Coordi-
nator User accounts.
3. Click on the user’s name, then click on Edit on the users contact card.
4. From the Access tab, you see a list of all the global access settings.
Figure 74 User Profile access settings
GLOBAL ACCESS RIGHTS
Each of the global access rights corresponds closely with the Coordinator's fea-
ture set. The list of available access rights mirrors the different areas of the Coor-
dinator-templates, documents, discussions, projects, clients, etc.

Certain rights give a user considerable power within the system, and you should
avoid granting everybody these rights. For instance, the right to Act as Adminis-
trator is a sweeping right that lets users view all and delete all projects, and you
should consider limiting this right to administrators. The right to Modify access
control settings lets a user alter any other user's access settings, and it too should
be granted sparingly.
EXPLANATION OF DIFFERENT PERMISSIONS
Below is a brief explanation for some of the global permissions which can be
given to users in the Coordinator.
Note: Users that have access to view all projects will by default have access to
the global project level access rights detailed below. If you do not want a
person who has has permisssion to view all projects to see certain ele-
ments of a project, you can add the person to the project team and use the
project level access rights to overide the global accesss right. Generally,
project level access rights take precedence over global access rights.
Personal
•Open Work-View your Work page
•Time Sheet-Make time sheet hour reports
•Create new projects-Create new projects
•View all projects-View all projects in the Coordinator system, including
those in which you are not participating
•View projects with participation-View only the projects in which you are
participating
•Remove projects-Remove projects from the database
P ro j e c t t e m p l a t e s
•Create new project templates-Create new project templates
•Modify project templates-Modify existing project templates
•Remove project templates-Delete project templates
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Financial information
•View summary information -View project specific financial data on the
Overview tab of a project for which you have not been designated as a team
member.
•View detailed information - Open project specific data about hours, cost
and billing on the Overview tab of a project.
I n t e r n a l p ro j e c t d at a
•View internal project data-View specifics about the client and sensitive-
project information for which you have not been designated as a team mem-
ber
•Modify internal project data-Change specifics about the client and sensi-
tiveproject information for which you have not been designated as a team
member Billing
Billing
•View billing information-See at what rate the company bills your time or
the time of other team members
•Modify billing information-Change your billing rate or the billing rate of
other team members
•Modify billing categories-Change the names and billing status of the cate-
gories used when people report hours
Public Contacts
•Create new contacts-Add public contacts to the list of system contacts
•View existing contacts-See the list of public contacts and assign public
contacts to be a participant in interactions.
•Modify contact information-Change contact information for public con-
tacts.
•Remove existing contacts-Delete public contacts
A d m in i s t r a t i o n
•Act as administrator-Change ownership of a case or document and act as
Project Manager for all projects and all other access rights

Documents
•Add new documents-Add documents to the global documents list and to
the Documents tab of projects for which you have not been designated as a
team member
•View existing documents-Open documents in the global documents list and
to the Documents tab of projects for which you have not been designated as
a team member
•Modify existing documents-Make changes in the global documents list and
to the Documents tab of projects for which you have not been designated as
a team member
•Remove documents-Delete documents from the list of global documents
and from the Documents tab of projects for which you have not been desig-
nated as a team member
Discussions
•Create new discussions-Initiate discussions in the global Discussions list
and in the Discussions tab of projects for which you have not been desig-
nated as a team member
•Read discussions-View messages in the global Discussions list and in the
Discussions tab of projects for which you have not been designated as a
team member
•Reply in discussions-Add input to a discussion in the global Discussions
list and in the Discussions tab of projects for which you have not been des-
ignated as a team member
•Remove discussions-Delete a discussion in the global Discussions list and
in the Discussions tab of projects for which you have not been designated as
a team member
C l i e n t i n f o r m a t i on
•Add new clients-Add new companies to the client list.
•View clients-View a complete list of all clients
•Modify clients-Change the existing information about clients
•Remove clients-Delete a company from the client list
People
•View personal information-View your own personal information
The Coordinator 139

•Modify personal information-Change the personal information of other

team members
•View access control settings-View the access settings of yourself and other
team members
•Modify access control settings-Change your access settings or the access
settings of other users in the system and create or modify access roles.
•View all System Users - Enables a user to see all other users of the system
Accounting
•Close accounting periods-Close accounting periods on a global level so
that users will not be able to make timesheet reports for the closed period.
A n n o u n c e m en t s
•Create new announcements-add announcements that everyone in the sys-
tem can see View announcements-View announcements in the global
Announcements list
•Modify announcements-Change the content or expiration date of an
announcement from The global Announcments' list
•Remove announcements-Remove an announcement from the Announce-
ments' list
Access Roles and Group Properties

Administration
Granting rights on a per user basis can be time-consuming. As an administrator,
your time is valuable. Fortunately, Access Roles make setting user permissions
easier by letting administrators assign permissions to several users at once.
Through bulk administration, Coordinator also provides an easy way for admin-
istrators to set key personal data like company name, cost and billing rates, and
lenses display and availability, for several users at once.
ASSIGNING PEOPLE TO ACCESS ROLES

Assigning rights to users is simple using access roles. When assigning rights, you
can make use of any of the existing Access roles, or you can create your own.

ACCESS ROLES AND GROUP PROPERTIES ADMINISTRATION
To add a user to an Access Role:

1. Log on to Coordinator as the ActionWorks user, or as another user with
administrative rights.
2. From the Engagement Center panel, click under the Relationships tab>
People>Users. Click on the user’s name who you wish to modify, and then
click details on their contact card.
Any user that you add to the access role inherits the permission-set defined in the
General tab of the Access Role. If you change the permissions of this access role,
all users who are assigned to that access role will have their permissions changed.
Access roles in effect let you create your own permissions structure. You can
assign rights to people in a manner that is easiest to you, such as by company,
department, or responsibilities within the system.
BULK PROPERTIES ADMINISTRATION

The Bulk Administration consol provides a quick way to set certain properties
for several users all at once. From this pane, administrators can set key informa-
tion for more than one user such as company, billing, cost, department, email
notification, specific access permissions, and lens display and availability.
To modify properties in bulk:

1. Log on to Coordinator as the ActionWorks user, or as another user with
administrative rights.
2. From the Engagement Center panel, click under the Relationships tab>
People, then select Users at the top of the People screen. To edit more
than one user, hold down on the control or shift key, and select the users
whose profile properties you wish to alter, then select the Bulk Adminis-
tration option from the
The Coordinator 141

From the Bulk Administration consol , you can update specific properties for
more than one user at a time, like billing rate, or company name. You can also
grant or revoke individual permissions for selected users like the right to Act as
Administrator. Only the properties or permissions that you explicitly change are
updated for the selected users.
THE BULK PROPERTIES WINDOW

The Bulk Administration consol shows the combined values of the properties of
the selected users. When no match exists for the value of a property for the
selected users, Coordinator will display the value of the property as blank, or as
0.00, or as a grayed-out checkbox, depending on what makes the most sense for
the specific property.

OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES OF AN ADMINISTRATOR
Other Responsibilities of an Administrator

Administrators may also be responsible for lens display and availability, manag-
ing locations, and managing keywords. Let's take a look at these areas in more
detail:
LENSES
Lenses are the individual divisions that you see within the Coordination Center.
Each lens is a separate view or piece of functionality. A lens provides an over-
view of a specific area of the product, like documents, discussions or favorite
projects, and gives you links to related information.
SETTING LENS PROPERTIES

The Coordinator provides two places where you can set lens properties, from the
Bulk Administration dialog discussed in the bulk administration section, or from
Options tab of a user's Profile.. Each lens has two important properties; availabil-
ity and display. Lens display relates to whether the user sees the lens, when he/
she navigates to the Coordination Center. Lens availability relates to whether the
user has the option of seeing the lens. (A user can choose which lenses she/he
wants to see, from the list of that user's available lenses, using the Edit control in
the top right corner of the Coordination Center.) Available lenses are all the
lenses that it is possible for the user to see, displayed lenses are all the lenses the
user actually does see. If you do not want to make a lens available to a user, make
sure that the available checkbox for that lens is unchecked. If you want the lens to
be available, but not displayed, make sure that the available flag is checked, and
display is unchecked. If you want the user to see the lens when the user first vis-
its the Coordination Center, then both display and availability should be checked
for that lens
KEYWORDS FOR DOCUMENTS

Administrators also have the power to create system-level keywords, which are
used for searching and organizing your company's document collection. Using
official system-level key word creates an orgainzed environment for seaching
and managing documents. However, all users can specifify their own key words
by simply typing it in the keywords field when they upload or edit a document.
To create a list of document keywords:
1. From the Engagement Center, click on Collaboration>Documents.
The Coordinator 143

2. From the Documents>More menu, on the far right, select the Manage
Keywords menu option.
3. From the Manage Keywords dialog that appears, you can create a set of
keywords. Users can then select from the keyword list, when they upload
a new document or edit an existing one.
LOCATIONS
Like document key words, the locations used to set up meetings can also be man-
aged on a system-wide basis for the entire company. Administrators can add
‘official’ locations, and other users can then choose a location from a menu when
they set up a meeting. Additionally, users can type in their own location rather
than selecting an official location from the menu. Locatations that users type in
manually will be stored for future use, but will only be visible to the user who
created it.
To c re a t e a n e w o f f i a l l o c a t i o n
1. Go to the Engagement Center panel>Collaboration>Calendar.
2. From the More menu, select Manage Locations.
3. From the Manage Locations Consol, you can add or edit the list of official
locations.

OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES OF AN ADMINISTRATOR
Figure 75 Location Selector Consol
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CHAPTER 9 Using the Coordinator
Publisher
The Coordinator integrates with both MS Project and Outlook, enabling users to
extend these tools with the Coordinators real-time collaboration features. Coordi-
nator projects can be easily imported from MS Project using the Coordinator
Publisher. This gives users the chance to organize projects with the popular
Microsoft interface while benefiting from the Coordinator's powerful tools for
managing interactions and commitments. Similarly, Coordinator work items and
meetings can be exported into MS Outlook, and Outlook contacts can be
imported into the Coordinator. This means that Coordinator users can manage
most of their routine work in a familiar environment, such as the Outlook Calen-
dar, while still taking advantage of the Coordinators powerful feature set when
more intensive commitment management is required.
Installing Publisher:
1. Download the Publisher from the following URL: http://SERVERNAME/
Coordinator/Publisher. This should be the standard internet address you
go to when you log onto the Coordinator system with the word Publisher
added at the end.
2. Follow installation instructions.
3. You should now be able to find the publisher in your Start Menu under
Program Files/ActionWorks. Open the Publisher and fill out the field in
the General section. Your username and password will be the same as
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Chapter 9
those you normally use to log onto the system. The URL is the address
where you normally go to log on to the Coordinator system. Once you
have filled out the information click the Save button.
Figure 76 Set Login info on the General Tab of the Coordinator Publisher
Importing Microsoft Projects

There are two main options for importing a MS project into the Coordinator.
Either you can create a new project in the Coordinator, or import the work into an
existing project. Although the procedures for importing projects are relatively
simple, it is recommended that users have an understanding of Coordinator
projects.

IMPORTING MICROSOFT PROJECTS
Creating a new Project:

1. When you create a new project it is not necessary to select the option to
create a root node, since Coordinator does this automatically for a new
Project (the first work item in a project is the root node). The root node
allows for easier management of a group of interactions, since they can be
collapsed in a view, or all moved together simply by manipulating the root
node.
2. Make sure the information in the MS Project is correct. All performers in
a project will be automatically imported as the performer in the Coordina-
tor if the username matches the resource name in MS Project. If the names
do not match the performer will be left blank.
3. Importing Customers requires a few extra steps. Since MS project does
not have the notion of Customers, it will be necessary to customize your
MS Project. Coordinator can get the Customer name from one of the Text
fields in MS Project. Using the Tools/Customize/Fields menu in MS
Project you can edit a Text field to include a drop down list of people to
use as customers using the Value List button Figure 77 on page 150. You
can also rename the Text Field to be something more appropriate such as
"Customer Name" using the Rename button on the Customize Fields dia-
log box. Once you have set up your Text field the next step is to add the
column to your MS Project Task view. Add a column by right clicking on
the heading section of the Task Usage view in MS Project and choose the
Text field you modified Figure 78 on page 150. Once this is done you can
add Customers to each of the MS Project tasks and then import them into
the Coordinator using the Resources drop down menu on the Coordinator
Publisher. For more information regarding using custom fields see the MS
Project documentation. If you choose not to import customers, you can
always add them from the Coordinator once your project has been
imported.
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Chapter 9
Figure 77 Customize Fields Dialog from MS Project
Figure 78 Use the Column Definition Dialog to add a new column to MS

Project Task view

Figure 79 MS Project with column added for customer names

4. Choose the MS Project Import option and then click the Import button.
There should now be a Project Draft in the Coordinator. You can now
manage this project just as you would a normal Coordinator Project. Fill
out any missing information and activate it at your convenience.
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Chapter 9
Figure 80 MS Import Selection on the Coordinator Publisher
Figure 81 Example of a project that was created from a MS Project File.

Importing work into an existing Project:

1. Importing work into an existing project follows the same steps as above,
except choose the Insert into an existing project option and check Create
with a node box. Make sure you give the node a name in the field pro-
vided. If you do not create a node, the work you import will still be
imported, but the work will not be organized under its own node. Having
work organized under a node makes it more manageable. See Figure 82
and Figure 83 on page 154 to see example of imported work with and
without nodes.
Figure 82 Example of work that was imported into an existing Coordinator-

project using the root node option
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Chapter 9
Figure 83 Example of a work that was imported into an existinng Coordinator

project without creating a root node
Microsoft Outlook Integration

For people who prefer to manage their schedules in Outlook, the Coordinator
Publisher allows Coordinator to export information such as work items and meet-
ings into Outlook automatically. Contacts can also be shared between Outlook
and the Coordinator. Users should be familiar with how work and contacts are
managed in the Coordinator before attempting to do any synchronization.

MICROSOFT OUTLOOK INTEGRATION
Figure 84 A Meeting and task imported into MS Outlook from the Coordinator
To publish items to Outlook from Coordinator:

1. Open the publisher and go to the Publisher Options selection.
2. Select a date. This will determine the cut off due date of the interactions
that will be published. If you select All, then all interactions due after the
date will be imported. If you select changes, then only those interactions
that where updated since you last exported work to MS Outlook will be
published.
3. If you uncheck the “Create work items as tasks” option, then all work
items will be created as meeting type calendar entries. This option is best
for people who want to manage their Outlook work strictly in the Outlook
Calendar. If you leave this option checked, then work items will be
imported as tasks in your Outlook
4. If you select the “Recreate if deleted in Outlook” option, then any work
items you previously deleted from your outlook system, will be recreated
if they have changed since you deleted them. For example if someone
made a comment on a work item you previously deleted in Outlook, then
that item would be re-published in your Outlook.
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Chapter 9
5. The Comment History option determines how much comment history you
will have published in outlook. Choose the setting that is best for you, but
be aware that if you choose to ‘get full history’, it may take a bit longer to
publish work.
6. The My Role option helps determine under what conditions work will be
published. Choose the option that is best for you.
7. If you want the synchronization to be automatic, select Auto-Publish. If
you don't select this option then you will have to do it manually by open-
ing the Coordinator Publisher and clicking on the Publish button.
Figure 85 View of Publisher Options where MS Outlook sychronization is man-

aged
To import contacts from MS Outlook into Coordinator:

1. Go to the Contacts Import option in the Coordinator Publisher. If you
check the "Only Category ActionWorks Coordinator" then only contacts
that have the ActionWorks Coordinator Outlook category will be

MICROSOFT OUTLOOK INTEGRATION
imported. If this option is not selected all contacts will be imported into
the Coordinator. The contacts that are imported will become private con-
tacts, thus they will only be visible to the user that imported them.
Figure 86 Contacts import option to only import the contacts you specify as
being for ActionWorks Coordinator.
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Chapter 9

INDEX Check out, and check in 35
Closed 104
Closed Work
case Plan page sorting options 87
A Comment History 34
Acceptance 16 Commitments 16
Access Rights 135 Contacts
Global 135 Cards 48
global 136 Creating 46
Project 135 private 47
roles 140 public 48
Setting 136 types of 47
Access Roles Coordination Center 69, 80, 122
assigning people 140 Calendar 70
Actions 34, 37 Favorite Projects 71
Activate 32 Outlook 71
Active 32, 103 Pending Action by Me 71
Adding Documents 123 Pending Actions to Me 71
Address Book 55 Unread Copied Work 70
for projects 57 Unread Work Items 70
Address book Work That I can Do 70
global 57 Coordinator
Agreement 19 introduction to the interface 1
in Issues 20 mission iii
in meetings 19 Copies 31
in requests 19 Copyrights ii
in Tasks 20 Create menu 29
agreement 19 Customer relationships v
All Issues
case Plan page sorting options 87 D
All my work by case view 73 Delegating Work 38
All my work view 73 Deleted Work 74
Allow Negotiation and Acceptance 32 dependencies 115
Am Copied 74 Document Management 123
Approval Adding Documents 123
sequential 27 Customer 13
Approvals 27 Interactions 124
Available Actions 13 Observer 13
Available Actions. 13 Peformer 13
Projects 123
B Setting access control 131
Book document management 123
contents vi Document Managment
how to use vi The Library 123
Business Interaction Model Document Tab 33
Participants 13 Documents 39
adding to interactions 39
C Searching 132
Cancelling work 79 Draft 32
Changing priority of work items 78 Due Date 31
The Coordinator 1
Due date of work items 78 M
Due Dates 37 Manager Button 35
Due dates Marking work as completed 78
changing 37 Microsoft Outlook
Duration 32 Coordinator synchronization 154
Importing Contacts 156
E Microsoft Projects
Email notification 33 Importing 148
Estimated Effort 31 Milestone 31
Express Plan Move 35
case Plan page sorting options 87 My Closed Work 73
The Express Plan view 87 My Drafts by Project 74
Express plan view.See also Projects My Work in the Plan
case Plan page sorting options 87
F
Feedback vi N
Follow Up 78 Negotiation
Options in 19
G Negotiation 16
Gantt Charts
for managing dates 121 O
using to manage dates 121 Offices 53
Global context 57 Order of items
rearranging 118
H Organizational roles 52
Hierarchy of items on the Plan tab of the assigning work 52
case 118
Hours 34 P
Parent workflows 35
I Participants 15, 35
In the Plan 31 participants 13
Insert 31 Pending By Me 73
Interactions 23 Pending To Me 74
Deleteing 34 Pending To Me Lens 18
Group Interactions 25 Pending Work 15, 17
starting 28 Pending work 15, 17
updating 36 Performance 16
Work Packages to One 25 Phase 16
Issues 24 Phases of work 12
Phases of work 12
K Plan
Keywords 143 The Plan view 87
Plan View 88
L Predecessor Task 115
Lenses Preparation 16
editing, adding, dropping 71 Priority 31, 78
Location 32 Private 31
Locations 144 Product Feedback vi
Project
field on interactoin from 30

Start Date. 103 Restarting Work 22
Project Dates
publishing 120 S
recalculating 119 Set Mark
Project Favorites 94 moving a work item 118
Project Structure Start Date
Expanding and collapsing 94 interactions 31
Indentation 93 Status 35
Private Items 93 Status Form 34
Project Links 93 Status form 16
The summary task 92 Subject 35
Projects 97
Activating 105 T
Adding Interactions to a Project 91 Tasks 24
Adjusting Work Views with Filters 90 Templates
Changing Status 103 creating 107
Copying and Reusing 106 Work Packages 40
Creating 97 The Express Plan
Creating your team 100 case Plan page sorting options 87
dependencies 115 The Express Plan view 88
Gantt Charts 108 The Plan View 88
inserting a work item 102 The Plan view.See also Projects
managing interactions 114 Trademarks ii
Merging 107 Transferring Work 38, 79
Moving Work 116
Notifications 100 U
Project Information 102 Unread work 73
Project Structure 92
Publishing 104 W
Recalculating Dates 119 Work items
Roles 109 cancelling 79
Skills 113 changing priority 78
Status 103 changing the due date 78
Published 32 marking as completed 78
Publisher 147 Work Packages to One 25
Installing 147 Working with Projects 81
Publishing Rules 104 WorkViews 72
R Z
Read Mark 77 Contacts 45
Read mark of work items 77 Draft 103
Rearranging the order and hierarchy of Office roles 109
items on the Plan tab 118 Pending By Me Lens 18
Requests 24 Position roles 109
Resouces Published 103
Private Contacts 47 Tracking Commitments 16
users 48
Resources
Public Contacts 48
Types of 47
The Coordinator 3

Action Works Coordinator - 5

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VERSION 5.

Coordinating for Success

Copyright 1993–2003 Action Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.

Action Technologies, Inc.

ActionWorks is a trademark of Action Technologies, Inc.

All other product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their

ii Action Technologies, Inc.

Additionally, the Coordinator accepts all business process applications built in

The Coordinator Mission

Whether you are working

The Coordinator iii

The Coordinator is an enterprise application for knowledge workers. These peo-

Whether the engagement is a professional services project or new product devel-

There are four essential elements in the dictionary definition of “commitment”:

What You Can Expect From the Coordinator

iv Action Technologies, Inc.

Questions on billing or time spent on engagements are easily resolved as time

How To Use This Manual

Give Us Your Input

vi Action Technologies, Inc.

Introduction to the Coordinator ...............................................1

Chapter 1 The Business Interaction Model .................................... 11

The Coordinator vii

Chapter 2 Interactions .................................................................... 23

Chapter 3 Resources ...................................................................... 45

viii Action Technologies, Inc.

Chapter 4 Managing Work............................................................. 69

Chapter 6 Managing Projects......................................................... 97

x Action Technologies, Inc.

Chapter 7 Document Management .............................................. 123

Chapter 8 Access Rights and Administration ............................... 135

Chapter 9 Using the Coordinator Publisher................................. 147

xii Action Technologies, Inc.

Figure 1 Important features

The Coordination Center

2 Action Technologies, Inc.

Figure 2 The Coordination Center

The Engagement Center

The Calendar and Work Views

Figure 3 Calendar view displaying work items due

4 Action Technologies, Inc.

Figure 4 Status form of a Request

Your Personal Profile

Figure 5 Personal Profile

6 Action Technologies, Inc.

Figure 6 Address Book with Users button selected

commitments. Additionally, when you create a work item in a Coordinator

Figure 7 Coordinator Project

8 Action Technologies, Inc.

Figure 8 ActionWorks business process map used to control structured busi-

10 Action Technologies, Inc.

The ActionWorks® Business Interaction Model (BIM) provides a clear structure

Introduction to the Business Interaction Model

state of a commitment, and the language that is used in business conversations,

The Business Interaction Model has four distinct states—preparation, negotia-

Figure 9 A graphical rendering of the Business Interaction Model

12 Action Technologies, Inc.

The Customer and Performer have different responsibilities and available

Figure 10 Coordinator email form with interactions available

Figure 11 A Coordinator Status form

14 Action Technologies, Inc.

Taking action on an interaction may result in a status change of the commitment.

INTERACTIONS BETWEEN PARTICIPANTS