When a PM Compass project is integrated with a schedule, the change request typically involves changing the schedule. When a change request such as adding activities to the schedule, or other changes such as the addition of resource assignments or changes to relationships are made, the live project is not updated until the change request is approved. Instead, changes entered are stored in a temporary (sandbox) project and applied to the current database through the Open Plan PM Compass Change Requests Add-In.
When the change is approved, PM Compass updates the current schedule. Only those fields affected by the change request are updated. Thus, if the schedule has changed since the workflow was created and the change details entered, when the change is approved, those changes are applied to the updated schedule.
Assume a change request is for the addition of a new resource assignment on an activity. Since the workflow was created, the duration on the activity has increased and a relationship has been added. When the change is approved using the Add-In, the entire activity in the change request is not copied to the schedule; that would overwrite the subsequent changes. Instead, only the actual changes that were made are applied. In this example, the resource assignment is added to the activity. The new duration and relationship are not affected.
Using the PM Compass Change Requests Add-In to approve a change request has a number of advantages:
The changes are applied to a read-only copy of the project so you can see the effect of the change request on the entire schedule including deliverables or target dates in the schedule.
You can use all of your custom views and processes to analyze the data.
The scheduling algorithms that are part of Open Plan are used.
Configure Open Plan for the PM Compass Add-In
Add Activities Using the Open Plan Add-In
Configure Open Plan access rights