How best to handle single projects that eventually need to come together for a fulfillment or kitting project

[CarrieDowning]

Geez - this is hard to describe but I'll do my best, hopefully someone will catch my drift here.

I am the Creative Director and I send multi-project fulfillment/distributions to our print vendor. We have individual projects for pieces like a brochure, a flyer, and a card, that are each on their own project. Let's say the flyer and brochure have been approved and the task to load final print files has been completed on those 2 projects, but the card isn't approved yet. Right now, I just wait and keep checking back to see when the card is approved and print ready (which I have a queue for that). But just "remembering" that there are 3 projects needed to "come together" is hard to do. We enter a separate project for the fulfilment details and tasks, so basically, I have the fulfillment project assigned to me, awaiting the 3 print projects needed to print and fulfill. We have never landed on a great way for me to be notified on my fulfillment project, that each of the individual print projects (tied to that fulfillment) are ready to go. I mean, I can look at my "send to vendor" tasks and I know that they're ready. But out of all the projects in the "send to vendor" task, I can't tell just by looking, that 3 specific ones are the ones that I need for the fulfillment project. I investigated cross project predecessors once but was not successful in figuring out how to do it. It would be nice if when a specific task on the individual projects was complete that it would tie to my fulfillment project, so I know what I can start it. Does anyone have suggestions how best to work this type of situation? Thanks!

[DeniseMoore]

Hello! This is the perfect case for a cross project/task predecessor.
We also build what we call "master projects" and through the process of an issue converted into a project and a resolving project report that I put on a dashboard, we can then view the "sub projects" when in a master project.

[skyehansen · Accepted solution]

Not to say that this is the best way but, we tend to handle this kind of scenario with a parent/child project relationship. Hope this helps.

Bare minimum build -- showing the link between your individual and your fulfillment project. Requires that each project only get fulfilled once (you can't or should not use this concept for multiple prints off one project)

• The concept is that there is a parent project (in this case, your fulfillment project), and the children (individual projects) are represented as issues in the fulfillment project.
• Each issue is converted to the individual project, and in the fulfillment project it serves as both a list of the items you are working on/waiting for, as well as a link to each one.

Let's talk triggers -- when is it ready

• Option 1 : Set up an approval process on the relevant tasks in the individual projects? e.g. put one on the Upload File task, and when it gets completed, it will ping you for "approval" (just go in there and approve, and then go to your project and make the appropriate update)
• Option 2 : Have the other project owners make some sort of update? e.g. update their custom form to indicate it's ready for fulfillment (I like this less, because it leaves room for them to forget and doesn't ping you)

How to track? What is it in your project that is getting updated to indicate that one by one, the individual projects are ready to go?

• Are you completing one task per individual project? Or how are you notating this?
• You could also use a field on the issue custom form*. Just toggle it as each of the pieces get done (i.e. when you get the approval process ping), and you can likely run a project report which will pull in fulfillment projects that are ready to go (i.e. don't have any issue forms left untoggled). At the very least you can always look at the list of issues in each project and visually confirm whether everything is ready to go.
  
  *If you were running Fusion, this would be an opportunity for you to automate this part.

[JillAc]

I agree with the cross-project predecessor master project recommendation. I find that putting all the tasks from multiple print projects into one project is too much to manage. The key to a project that has sub-projects connected with cross-project predecessor is to make a Custom View so you can see more information about the other projects - and also I copy/paste a link to the URL in the description field in the master project.