Hi Eran,

It isn’t clear to me if you are trying to use only Agile PLM Product Portfolio Management (PPM) to manage the design release or you are also using Agile PLM Product Collaboration (PC) module. Probably what you’re looking for is a mix of PPM and PC.
May you elaborate you question a little bit further?

My best
Carlos

In the “About” window is says Enabled Modules:Products
i,m trying to build a workflow that will enable us to revise an object along the same workflow.
for example: the design plan is first approved in the design plan stage, then the project moves on to design inputs phase when we would like to release few more document but also the plan should be revised again as it’s a living document that updated as the project progress.
i would like to be able to release it as rev 01, continue on with the change order,by next approval step i would like to be able to revise the plan again to rev 02 (perhaps have other item released for the first time as 01) , and so on until the final completion of the ECO

hope it’s more clear now

Eran

The workflows in Agile are designed to handle each revision of an object separately. There is no way within a single workflow to handle multiple revisions of an object. With Agile you create an object, assign values, and release it using a change and its workflow. If alterations are needed to that object after it is released, you open a new change, assign the object to it, make the needed modifications, and then release it again with a new revision. The way you are thinking, a workflow *might* have a near-infinite number of steps depending on how many things there are, and how often those things are modified.
 It sounds like PPM is a *much* better way to handle your scenario, whereas the PC module can handle each step of the modification process on each object.

Quite right Kevin.
Eran, in PPM you can create a template project considering the many Change Orders needed to release a product, you can also control project schedule, phase/gates, resource effort and project costs.

Carlos

The organization is not willing to purchase other modules, so i got to make the best of what i got.
what about having several ccb (approval gates) and adding additional items before each approval, if i understand i will only require one release step after the last CCB to release all the objects.
where can i find the life cycle phases list if i wish to add more phases (i currently have just production,prototype,obsolete) maybe i can work with different object statuses to represent the life cycle phase according to the project progress, can i promote life cycle phases during a single workflow (for example promote LC from “Plan” to “Under Validation” to “Released”)

Eran

Then you are kind of between a rock and a hard place. The PC module *cannot* lump everything under 1 change and manage multiple revision/lifecycle values within a single workflow. That just is not how it is (or can be) done.
 If you cannot use PPM, then you may have to use a subclass of Documents (or Folders) that allows you to manage one or more objects as phases of a project, using appropriate workflows. Messy at best, but if you lock things down, it is possible. Let all other Parts/Documents use normal workflows that manage the process of releasing a single revision. But you then have a workflow for that one Document subclass that manages a phase of a project (“First Test Load”, “Second Test Load”, etc.) through the phases of Preparation/Review Issues, Extract Data, Prepare Data, Load Data, Validate Load and Prepare Load Report (yes, I do a *lot* of that kind of work). Nowhere near as good as using PPM, but I have seen a client do it, although they had a LOT of up-front thought that went into it to make sure it all worked. Also hard to adjust things along the way like you can do in MS Project or Agile PPM, or to be able to put together Gannt chart of what has been done, what is in-process and what is in the future. And rather hard to manage,  because the PC module was never really meant to be used like that. Things will have to be pretty simple, but the client I referred to earlier made it work (although only with a LOT of work).

The way we do it today is to have a separate ECO for each phase of the project, this allows me to revise document between phases, most of the phases are just releasing documents, the last phase is a design transfer ECO in which we redline the BOM’s and release products. i find it quit good, but the users are complaining that it’s  cumbersome to approve so many ECO’s. the disadvantage i see is the lack of single place to view all the design history at a glance, if you look up the product you will not see the design plan etc..
I’m asking again (maybe it went unnoticed) which LIST under Data settings holds the life cycle phases? or are they hard coded?

Thanks
Eran

Eran,
when you post “the disadvantage i see is the lack of single place to view all the design history at a glance” I’d like to know what your end users think about the Part Changes tab? It contains the history of all changes in a glance. The History tab contains a more detailed change history, not so easy to find info, but it’s all there.
Part lifecycle phases are not hard coded, you can add/edit values in Java Client, Admin, Data Settings, Classes.
Select the subclass where you intend to add more lifecycles, open it and go to Lifecycle Phases tab. In that tab you can create new ones. If you need to disable lifecycles you must open the class, go to Lifecycle Phases tab and disable the needed ones.
By the way, you can have soup with a fork, but definitely a spoon would be better.
My best
Carlos

Carlos,
since there’s a different ECO for each phase, if a user looks at the changes tab of the product, he will see just the design transfer ECO’s, he wont be able view in an easy manner the entire Design history (when and how were all the other design phases were approved)
If i will create a “project” sub class maybe i can relate all the project documents and items under it (as a BOM) and than they can be viewed together.

By the way, the Lifecycle phases tab is grayed out in any level i try (and i am using the admin login)