SAP PS - What is a Project?

A Project is defined as a temporary endeavor to create a product or to provide a service.

Projects have the following characteristics −

• Projects have a defined goal, which is agreed between the company and customer and is defined in Project Charter.
• Projects are complex, unique, and definitive in scope and involves a high certain risk to execute and complete on time.
• Projects have a defined quality requirements.
• Projects have definitive cost, duration and resources to work on the project.

Projects are defined as a part of the internal processes of a company. To execute the tasks in a project, you have to get an organizational form that is specific to the project and which is shared by all the departments involved.

You should define the project goal clearly to carry out project in its entirety and the activities to be carried out must be structured.

You can define project structure −

• As per the organization structure.
• As per the defined processes.

Work Breakdown Structure

This is the first step in project planning to define work breakdown structure to divide the activities into tasks. The type of tasks and activities to be defined vary as per project complexity and type of project- customer based or internal project.

In SAP Project system, you define the activities and people in the project in form of Work breakdown structure WBS.

Project Planning also involves the sequence of tasks to be performed and which tasks are dependent on each other and which tasks can be further divided in to smaller tasks. In SAP Project system, sequence of tasks are defined in the form of Network in project planning.

Maintain PS Types

A Project type is used to group or classify the projects as required. For example, banking projects capital projects or IT development projects.

A Project type is also used for reporting, building authorization and for creating hierarchies and network in project planning. It can also be used for developing customer requirements, i.e., use of BADI for WBS settlement rule determination based on project type as a parameter.

By defining PS type for PS texts in SAP system, this helps you to attach the text in project builder and this text can be used in projects.

Defining PS type in PS Texts

To define PS type in PS texts, follow the steps given below −

Step 1 − Go to SPRO → IMG → Project System → Documents → Define PS types for PS texts or use T-code: OPS3

Step 2 − The PS Text Type screen appears. Click New Entries to define new text types as per the business requirement.

Step 3 − In the next window, enter the following fields −

• Type − Enter the 2-digit unique ID to define PS type in system.

• Text Type − Enter the text that defines PS text type in system.

• Description − Enter the text of PS type.

• Simulation version − You can select checkbox to define changes in simulation version

Step 4 − Once you enter the details, click the save button at the top.