Update an assignment

You can create assignments to get project work done without specifying who will do the work or identifying any existing components. When you know who you will do the work, you can update the project assignment to choose a specific participant.

You must have permission to the Projects Module to work with projects.

  • By default, only users with the following permissions can create project workflows and assignments:
    • Administrator permissions
    • Access to the Project Module with the Create permission
  • Even if you don't have these permissions, you can be granted a special permission to create workflows and project assignments after a project is created.

Tips and tricks

To update an assignment, do one of the following:

  1. Click Projects_TopMenuOpt Projects.
  2. On the Project Management tab, double-click to open the project that contains the assignment you want to update.
    You can also open a project by:
    • Right-clicking the project and then selecting Open.
    • Clicking Action_Menu the Options menu and then selecting Open.
  3. In the Assignments pane, right-click the assignment that you want to update, and select Update...

    Results: The Update Assignment screen opens.

  4. In State, choose one of the following options that best describes the status of the work:
    • To Do: An activity for the assignment has been created. A user may or may not have been assigned yet.
    • Ready to Claim: In this State, no specific user has been assigned to complete the work. Instead, a list of possible users was identified and they are all notified that the assignment can be claimed. The first user to claim the assignment by setting the State to In Progress can complete the work.
    • In Progress: A user has been assigned or has claimed the assignment activity.
  5. Optionally, you can add the following information:
    1. If you didn't set the State to Ready to Claim, in Assigned To, select a participant who has been added to the project.
      Make sure you assign work to a participant who has access to the component, otherwise you will see an error when you click Create.
    2. In Start By, to choose a date when work should begin, click the calendar icon calendarand select a date on or after the current date.
    3. In Due By, to choose a date when work should be complete, click the calendar icon calendarand select a date after the Start By date.
    4. In Description, enter details about the work to be done in 3000 characters or less.
    5. If you want assignment notifications sent to other users besides the Project Coordinator and the assignee, in Additional Notifications, enter the email addresses separated with a ; (semi-colon).
  6. On the Update Assignment screen, you can optionally add or remove components in the assignment.

    1. Select the Components tab.
    2. Optionally, to add more components, click elementNames Add Components...
    3. On the Select Project Components dialog, in the Folders pane, open the folder that contains the components you want to add.
    4. In the Components pane, select the checkbox for each component you want to add, and then click Select.

      Inspire checks to see if the component(s) you want to add are in another assignment, project workflow or review workflow.

      • You see warnings if a component is already in use.
      • If you want, you can close the warnings and create the assignment or workflow anyway.
    5. Optionally, to remove a component from the assignment, in the component's row, click Remove.
  7. On the Update Assignment screen, if you set the State to Ready To Claim, you can change the list of users who will receive the project assignment notification to claim the work.
    1. Select the Claim Assignment tab.

      Result: You see a grid where you can create a list of users who can potentially claim this project assignment.

      You can use the Security Type column to see if the account shown in Name is an individual User account or a group Role.

    2. Optionally, to add more users or roles, click Add.
    3. On the Select Users/Roles screen, select the checkbox for each user or role you want to send a notification to and allow to claim this assignment.

      If you are selecting an individual user, check the value in the User Type column to make sure the account has permissions to complete the assignment. For example, an account with a User Type of ReviewOnly may not be able to complete a publishing assignment.

    4. On the Select Users/Roles screen, click Select.

      Result: On the Claim Assignment tab, you see a list of the selected users and roles.

    5. Optionally, to take one user off the list, at the end of their row, click Remove.
  8. Optionally, if you need to provide more instructions to the user about the work to be done, you can add a list of notes.

    1. On the Create Assignment screen, select the Notes tab.
    2. Optionally, to create another note, click Create.

      Results: The Project Assignment Note screen opens.

    3. On the Project Assignment Note screen, in Note enter your text.
    4. On the Project Assignment Note screen, click Update.

      Results:

      • The the Project Assignment Note screen closes.
      • On the Notes tab, you see up to 50 characters of your Note Content.
      • To display the entire note, hover your cursor over truncated text.

      The Notes you enter can be seen in:
      • Assignment Notifications
      • When using the View Assignment option in a projec
    5. Optionally, to remove a note from the assignment, in the note's row, click Remove.
  9. On the Update Assignment screen, click Update.
    Results:
    • Participants associated with this assignment receive an email notification that changes were made to the assignment.
    • If you are the Project Coordinator and a participant for the assignment you just updated, you won't receive an email notification.

    If you try to assign work to a participant who doesn't have access to the component, you will see an error.

    • The error tells you the name of the restricted component.
    • You are returned to the Update Assignment screen to change the participant or the component.
    • For details on how to set permissions, refer to: Set permissions.