Smart Forms

Smart forms are used in Cora PPM to gather information on projects that are very specific to a customer.  Examples include the Project Brief, the Executive Summary or the Monthly report.  

The form itself can be used in conjunction with the Workflow or for Project control and governance.

Please consult with your Implementation Team or CST for further information on the specific configuration for your implementation.

A typical example of a Smart Form (and this may be configured on your site already) is the RAG Status Update.

It is used to track the RAG Status of a Project and has a number of characteristics that are common to every smart form.

A typical Smart form will have graphical capabilities like a “RAG Bar”  

Or a “Drop-down List” 

And text areas for capturing updates.

You can configure the form so that it captures the information relevant to your Organisation’s requirements.   

Some typical examples are shown below:

It can also be configured to capture the “Submission Date:”

It allows you to track the RAG view:

If you make changes on the Smart Form, for example, if you change the RAG status for the RESOURCES to Red and click SAVE

It commits that change to the form.

Generic Features 

Save

Use the SAVE button to capture the changes you make on the smart form. 

NOTE:  Some fields on the smart form can be configured as a SAVE on change.  That means some fields update and save automatically.  For example, when making a change to the RAG status the auto save function kicks in without the need to click on the SAVE button at the bottom of the panel.

Print

To print the smart for, navigate to the bottom of the page:

Choose the output e.g. word or pdf, page size and orientation for your download:

Submit

The SUBMIT button is used to create a new iteration of a form but also can trigger a workflow process.

For example, The RAG Status Update is a weekly form that would be filled in to show the status of the project.  When the fields have been updated and submitted, it creates an iteration.  

Iteration

To view the iterations, click the drop-down arrow:

To go back to the most recent click on “Latest Iteration”.

You can cycle back through previous iterations to see historic versions of the form and project status.  

This is a powerful feature because if a project lasts over a long period of time, you can use the iterations on the project to see the decision making and updates.

Audit

Clicking on the AUDIT button will show all the changes that have been made on the Smart form.  

This will open the following report which shows the audits granularity and gives traceability of who did what and when.  

The Audit trail Report can be downloaded to Excel by clicking on the EXPORT button.  

The AUDIT setting can be configured to switch on or off per form.  Not every smart form will have it but it is available through configuration.

Project Summary Bar 

The project summary bar shows at the top of the screen.

The properties on the smart form can be used to populate the project summary bar at the top of the screen.

If the RAG status changed it will show in the Project Summary Bar above, for example if the Cost changed to Green:

Note:   This is all subject to configuration.

Smart Forms Associated with a Workflow Process

As part of project control and governance, smart forms can be used in conjunction with the Cora PPM workflow component to manage approvals.

Click on the name of the workflow, e.g., Business Case to open and view the workflow steps. 

The SUBMIT button is what triggers the workflow to the next step.  For example, if you make a change to a completed workflow and want to update e.g., the value 

This will re-start the workflow process and you will see that the status has changed:

Open the workflow by clicking on the name of the Workflow, e.g. “Business Case”.

In the above example the workflow has gone to the Responsible Officer for Sign off.   

When the Responsible Officer has signed off the business case, the status is updated and the workflow moves to the next stage.  

Open the workflow process to see the status.  In our example below it is “Complete”.

Displaying a Dropdown List Function Field 

Dropdown List Fields can be output anywhere that a Dropdown List field can be output.  When the field is output, it will display the text of the entry together with either a colour bulb or an image depending on what has been configured in the list, for example:

On a smart form:

In the project summary bar:

In grids where custom fields are available:

In the snapshot report:

Typical Smart Form Fields 

Examples of typical Smart Forms are shown below:

Business Case

The Business Case is used to present a clear plan for undertaking a project, programme or portfolio and it evaluates the benefits, costs and risks.

Stage Gates

The Stage gate form is used for Governance purposes. 

This allows you to determine what type of methodology the project is using and where it is in terms of its overall lifecycle.  

This allows you to determine what type of methodology the project is using and where it is in terms of its overall lifecycle.  

You can choose they type of Project Methodology you want to use from the drop-down list:  

 In the example below we are using the “Waterfall”.

Each stage has a hyperlink to a form.  For example, ‘’Project Idea form’’.  

If you click on the hyperlink it opens up the form:

Stakeholder Analysis

This allows you to do a stakeholder analysis on the project in terms of mapping out power and influence. 

This can be found by going into project Delivery and clicking stakeholder analysis.

In our example, Trevor Jones has a huge amount of power in the project with medium interest. 

And it pulls in the Engagement Summary

Reports 

All of the fields on a smart form can be used in the reporting suite, e.g., Snapshot report, Report Builder, etc.

Snapshot Report

Note:  Full details of the Snapshot report is outlined in the document Snapshot Report on the Cora Customer Support Portal.

Report Builder       

Note:  Full details of the Report Builder can be found in the document Report Builder on the Cora Customer Support Portal.

Dash

On the Projects Widget on the My Dashboard, Project Dashboard, Programme Dashboard, Portfolio and Strategy Dashboards, you can pull through any smart form field to show in the widget grid view.