Leadership walkthrough · Chapter 4 of 8
Creating projects
Two projects, two seats. Asha creates Card Checkout, a fixed-price build split into workstreams by epic. Then Ravi signs in and creates Loyalty App, a dedicated team run as one workstream. Both use the same four-step wizard, and nothing is created until the last step is confirmed.
The wizard in four steps
Name, key, description, and the shared workflow it starts from.
Account, programme, delivery model, workstreams, start and target end dates.
Optional: connect Azure DevOps and import its backlog.
Everything once more, then Create project.
Asha creates Card Checkout
Asha's seat: Owner of Northwind Retail.
- Open Projects and choose New project.
- Details. Name: Card Checkout. The Key is suggested from the name; make it short and memorable, such as
CARD, since it labels every address (/projects/CARD). Add a one-line Description. Keep the default Workflow unless the team agreed another; the project gets its own copy to change later. - Delivery.
- Account: Northwind Retail. With only one account to choose from, it is already chosen.
- Programme: Digital Commerce.
- Workstreams: Each epic. Card Checkout has three parts (payments, checkout UI, fraud rules), each with its own releases, milestones and weekly status.
- Start date and Target end date. The target end drives the due signal on the projects list.
- Integrations. Skip, unless the team's backlog is in Azure DevOps. Then enter the organisation address and a token that can read work items; the connection is tested before anything is created.
- Review, then Create project. If something is refused, such as a key already taken, the wizard returns to that step and nothing is left half-made.
The project makes the whole project one workstream. Each epic makes every epic a workstream with its own releases, milestones and weekly status section. Nothing is preselected, and the choice can't be changed after the project exists. Pick Each epic when one project delivers several things on different dates.
The delivery model says how the client pays: fixed price, dedicated capacity, time and materials or managed service. It decides how the project's health is judged, so only someone with organisation-wide portfolio rights may set it: a Delivery manager, a Workspace manager or an administrator. Asha and Ravi see the field greyed out.
Until it is set, the project is left out of portfolio figures rather than guessed at. Ask a delivery manager to set it from Settings›General›Client and contract the same day.
What Asha now holds on Card Checkout
Asha created it, so Asha is its owner: its admin and lead, the one person who can archive or delete it, change someone's role or remove a member. Asha would lead it anyway as the account's Owner, but ownership is what lets Asha archive it later.
Ravi creates Loyalty App
Ravi's seat: Account Product Manager, and Manager of Northwind Retail.
Ravi, first morning
Ravi follows the invitation link, chooses a password and signs in. Ravi's sidebar has more than Asha's: Timesheets, Leave and Calendar, because Ravi has a resource profile and logs time; and Portfolio and Accounts, because Ravi holds a role on Northwind Retail. People lists every resource in the organisation, which helps Ravi staff the project.
- Open Projects and choose New project. Ravi can create projects only because of the Manager role on Northwind Retail. Without a role on any account, the wizard says there is nowhere to create a project.
- Details. Name: Loyalty App, key
LOYAL. - Delivery. Account: Northwind Retail, already chosen as the only one Ravi may create under. Programme: Digital Commerce. Workstreams: The project, because it is one team shipping one app.
- Review, then Create project.
Ravi owns Loyalty App: Ravi leads it, and only Ravi can archive or delete it. Asha leads it too, through the Owner role on the account, without being added.
Two projects, side by side
| Card Checkout | Loyalty App | |
|---|---|---|
| Created by and owner | Asha | Ravi |
| Who leads it | Asha (owner), Ravi once added as Lead, Asha again as account Owner | Ravi (owner), and Asha as account Owner |
| Workstreams | Each epic | The project |
| Delivery model, set by a delivery manager | Fixed price: judged on schedule | Dedicated capacity: judged on staffing |
| Who sees it read-only | Daniel, as Viewer of Northwind Retail: overview, plan, team and published reports | |
Inside a project
Opening a project swaps the sidebar for the project's own sections; All projects at the top goes back.
| Group | Sections |
|---|---|
| — | Overview: health with the reason for each dimension, what needs attention, what lands next. |
| Work | Board, Backlog, Sprints, Work items, Intake |
| Plan | Milestones, Releases, Areas, Reports, Team, Settings |
The projects need people. Chapter 5.