Projects

Projects

Projects Overview

Authorium allows agencies to manage document-centric projects (including but not limited to procurements, grants, budgets, legislation, etc.) from the initial request to writing/editing, stakeholder review, submissions, and ongoing contract management. 

The core feature of Authorium is Project Templates, which are used to create individual Projects, which inherit documents and workflow from their parent template. 

For example, you might create a template specifically for medical device or software procurement, with standard forms for suppliers to fill out. With Authorium you can set this up once, then have those forms automatically Included on all future solicitations of that type.

Both projects and project templates are divided into Workflow Stages. These workflow stages define the project’s lifecycle, from building documents and forms to handling approvals, submissions and evaluations, all the way to contract award and management. The workflow stages of an active project are shown as a timeline beneath the project title.

User permissions can be managed on a per-project or even per-workflow-stage basis. For instance, some team members might be limited to filling out forms during a specific stage while others give input on document creation and evaluating submissions across multiple workflow stages. See Managing Project Members for more on how to manage team members’ access to workflow stages.

Topics in this section:

  • Creating a New Project Template

  • Adding Workflow Stages

  • Publishing & Updating Project Templates

  • Creating Projects from Templates

  • Advancing Projects Between Stags

  • Managing Project Members

Creating a New Project Template

Project Templates allow for easy re-use of common components and language across all projects built with a given template, minimizing errors and allowing projects to be built and run based on predefined workflows. 

To create a new project template, starting from the Dashboard:

Navigate to the Configuration screen, then to the Project Templates tab.

Select Add Project Template.

Fill in:

  • Project template name

  • Project type 

  • Description


Note that the project type you select will affect what document templates are available. Current project types include: 

  • Bill Analysis

  • Direct Contact Request

  • Solicitation

  • Solicitation Request

Save to bring up the Add Workflow Stage screen.



Adding Workflow Stages to Project Templates

Project templates are divided up into Workflow Stages which control the whole project’s lifecycle, from preparing the initial documents and forms all the way through to contract award. 

There are six different types of Workflow Stage, each with its own function. These six types are as follows:

  • The Form Builder Stage is where your team creates customized forms for gathering essential project information.

  • The Collaborative Document Management Stage allows you to add documents to projects, handle approval routing for documents, and control document editing workflows and permissions. 

  • The Multi-Party Project Assignment Stage allows you to assign project members to complete specific child projects.

  • The Online Submissions Stage is the stage for external suppliers to submit their bids and documentation, and, if Q&A is enabled, ask questions to your team. 

  • The Submissions Evaluation Stage is where you and your team evaluate the submissions received and select a supplier for project award.

  • Lastly, the Contract Distribution & Execution Stage allows you to manage supplier review and contract issuance, signing and compliance.


To add any workflow stage to a project template, starting from the Configuration screen:

Locate your project template under the Project Templates tab, and select View Template.

Select Add Stage to Workflow.

Select the type of workflow stage you would like to add.

Fill in the stage name and description, along with any other details the stage asks for. Changing the Stage Type will change which type of workflow stage is added.

Save Stage when finished.


Updating Project Templates allows you to affect all projects built with that template going forward, or even retroactively. When updating a Project Template, you will be able to choose whether or not to update any pre-existing projects that use that template.


Publishing & Updating Project Templates

Once your Project Template is ready for use, be sure to publish it to allow your team to begin making projects with the template. 



To publish a project template, starting from the Configuration screen:

Locate your project template under the Project Templates tab, and select View Template.

Select Publish from the three-dot menu beside the “In Progress” template status.

Confirm that you would like to publish the template.


To make changes after a project template has been published, you will need to unpublish the template, making it unavailable for creating projects with. Once you are finished making changes, you can republish the project template.

To unpublish a project template, starting from the Configuration screen:

Locate your project template under the Project Templates tab, and select View Template.

Select Publish from the three-dot menu beside the “In Progress” template status.

Confirm that you would like to publish the template.


Creating Projects from Templates

Once a Project Template has been published, it can be used to set up individual Projects, which inherit documents and workflow from their parent template. 

To create a project based on a published project template, starting from the Dashboard:

Open the Projects drop-down in the main navigation bar.

This will show you a list of Project Types which exist in the system. Currently this includes: 

  • Bill Analysis

  • Direct Contact Request

  • Solicitation

  • Solicitation Request

Select the Project Type which matches the project template you wish to use.

Select Add Project.

Fill in your new Project’s name, number, and description, and select your project template from the drop-down list. 

If you do not see your project template in this list, it may still need to be published, or it may be under a different project type than you expected.

Also on this screen you can select a Project Owner (which will default to the user creating the project), and choose whether you need stage-specific controls on project member permissions. (This will be covered in more detail under Managing Project Members)

When you are finished, Save your new project.

 


Advancing Projects Between Stages

Workflow Stages control the whole project lifecycle, from preparing the initial documents and forms all the way through to contract award. 

When a workflow stage is finished, the project owner will need to confirm and complete the stage, so that the project can move on towards the next milestone. Note that in order to mark a workflow stage as complete, all documents pertaining to the stage must be marked complete.

To advance a project to the next workflow stage, starting from the Dashboard:

Open the Projects drop-down in the main navigation bar and select the Project Type corresponding to your project.

Find your project and select View Project.

This should take you to the currently active workflow stage. 

Select Mark Stage as Complete and confirm. 

If you are unable to mark a workflow stage as complete, confirm that all documents pertaining to the stage have been marked complete. Note that in order to mark an Online Submissions complete, the project must have received at least one submission.


Managing Project Roles & Members

Authorium comes with pre-defined Project Roles with different permissions. For example, only Project Owners and Project Managers can add new project members. Editors can modify project information, while Contributors can’t.

By default, the user who created the project will be the Project Owner, though this can be changed when creating the project or after the fact. 


Adding and Editing Project Roles

Additionally the Authorium platform allows you to create specific Project Roles with customized permission. These roles are global and can be added to any project. For example, you might create a “Contract Reviewer” role for members of your legal team assigned to review contract documents, which would be relevant to many different projects.

Note: Some of the default roles in Authorium have permissions that cannot be turned on or off and will be grayed out to indicate this.

Note: Project Roles are separate from Organization Roles (which are discussed under Administrative Features). 


To edit Project Role permissions, starting from the Dashboard:

Open the three-dots menu next to the logo in the main navigation bar and select Roles & Permissions.

Select the Project Roles tab. The Project Roles tab contains a table showing Roles as column headers and displaying specific permissions (which each role does or does not have) along the rows of the table.

Select Edit Permissions. This will allow you to adjust each role’s permissions by toggling them on or off in the Project Roles table.

Once you are finished editing permissions, save your changes.


To add or edit Project Roles, starting from the Project Roles tab:

Select Edit Roles. 

This will take you to a page which shows a list summary of all the project roles in the organization, including how many permissions each role has, how many users have that role, and how many active projects are associated with that role.

To add a new role, select Add Role, then name and describe the role, and save the new role. You will need to edit the role to change its permissions.

To edit a role, click the three-dots menu beside it, then select Edit Role Information.

From here, you can rename the role, change its description, and toggle Role Permissions on or off as required. These control whether the role can view and/or manage project information, project members, project documents and project forms.

When you are finished making changes, Save.



Configuring Project Member Management

Global Project Members maintain their roles and permissions for the entire project.

Stage Members only have access to specific stages. For example, we may want only certain team members to be able to fill out a particular budgeting form in a specific stage.

Projects can be configured to allow only global project members, or to enable stage-specific project members as well. 


To change how a project handles its Project Members, or change the Project Owner of a project, starting from the Dashboard:

Open the Projects drop-down in the main navigation bar and select the Project Type corresponding to your project.

Find your project and select View Project.

Select Edit Project Info from the three-dots menu beside the project status.

Under ‘Project Member Management’, you can toggle whether the project allows only Global Project Members, or both Global and Stage Based Members. 

You can also use the project owner drop-down to select a new Project Owner. The Project Owner is required to be a member of your organization (no external users allowed).

When you are finished, Save your project.


Adding Members to a Project & Assigning Project Roles

Project Members are shown in the Members tab. On this page, you can see all of the members of the project, as well as their email, role, and when they were last active. You can also change team members’ roles for the project and remove them, if necessary.


To add members to a project, starting from the Project page:

Navigate to the project’s Members tab. 

Select Add Project Member.

Search for and select the user(s) you wish to add as a project member. If the user isn’t part of your organization, you can enter their email and send them an invite with Send Invitation.

Assign the user to the appropriate project role, and (if stage-based permissions are enabled), assign that role to a specific project stage.

When you are done adding project members, save and confirm.




To change project members’ roles or remove a project member, starting from the Project page:


Navigate to the project’s Members tab. 

To remove a project member, open the three-dots menu beside the project member you wish to remove and select Remove Project Member.

To change a project member’s role, open the three-dots menu beside the project member you wish to remove and select Change Role.

When you are finished, confirm and save your changes.


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