Windchill Promotion Requests - Multiple Enhancements

[lhoogeveen]

Promotion Requests Ideas (in no particular order):

1. Treat Promotion Requests like other change objects (Change Request, Change Notice, etc.).
   • Change Icons appear all over Windchill for objects affected by Promotion Request.
   • Promotion Requests show up in Changes tab. It's very difficult to find related Promotion Requests unless users know to look in the History Tab>Authorization.
   • Promotion Requests show up in Product/Library folders - why? Promotion Requests should be treated like other change objects.
2. Add Objects to Promotion Requests. If Promotion Request hasn't been approved yet it should be easy to add objects. Also make this available from Workspace.
3. Create New Promotion Request from Workspace (only available from Workspace during Check In today). Something like the Workspace>Edit>Set State or 'Add to Change Task' should be available for Promotion Requests so users can quickly create a Promotion Request from objects in their workspace.
4. Ability to have objects go to multiple states in the same Promotion Request (like Set State and Change Notice can do). Currently all objects have to go to the same state. What if some objects are going to Released and others to Canceled/Obsolete? This currently requires 2 Promotion Requests instead of 1.
5. Better out of the box emails and easier to customize emails (I believe this is coming in Windchill 12).
6. Ability to have a Promotion Request Notify Role - don't need their approval just want to notify them via email.
7. Include basic logic checks like the Wincom Promotion Validate Extensions with base Windchill. Why should we have to buy something to have basic logic checks? This is why we pay Windchill software maintenance for PTC to make enhancements like this.

I'm using Windchill 11.0 M030.

[JeffZemsky]

@lhoogeveen You have added many items - let me address some

1.  Promotion Requests are not Change objects - while there is some relation they are not meant to be used as Change Management tools.  That being said we would like to add easier display and indicators in the future.  We do need to look at "indicator" bloat - if we add this, Problem Reports, plus others it could get overwhelming. 
2. The ability to update Promotion Requests after creation was added in 11.0 M030
3. Its a future consideration to add similar to what we have for Change Notices
4. We don't have plans to support multiple states - a Change  Notice should be used for this case (and can be much simpler than a Promotion Request here)
5. Notifications and emails is a generic workflow enhancement we are looking at in two steps - customization support and then UI configuration support.
6. One can easily configure activities in Workflows for this.
7. Since 11.0 we support using the Business Rules frameworks for Attribute checks.  This can be configured and run in your workflow process.

[TomU]

4.  We don't have plans to support multiple states - a Change  Notice should be used for this case (and can be much simpler than a Promotion Request here)

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I would love to see a demo where creating and completing a change notice is simpler than using a promotion request...

Using the full blown change management objects seems exceedingly complex, especially for companies that aren't trying to run their entire organization's change management process in Windchill, and especially those who aren't using WT Parts.  From the demos I've seen, the number of screens and steps required to get something promoted is quite high.  I realize there are probably ways to customize and simplify the out of the box change process, but for small companies without dedicated development staff and/or those not already intimately familiar with the nuances of Windchill's change process, this seems largely unattainable.

In the environment I work in, people don't "live" in Windchill.  They only go there long enough to accomplish a specific task and then get out.  Most people will do everything they can to avoid working in Windchill (stay in their CAD tool, download a PDF and review that, etc.)  It seems like full blown change management in Windchill is geared towards those organizations where people spend their entire day doing nothing but working in Windchill.  None of the places I've worked (so far) are like that.  People here aren't getting paid for what they do in Windchill, they're getting paid for what they design in CAD.

If change notices can be made as simple as creating a promotion request (3 step wizard and no extra screens or additional objects to manage), please send me instructions so I can configure our test system to work this way.  I'd love to try it out!

[lhoogeveen]

Great discussion. I numbered my list to match Jeff's comment.

@JeffZemsky 

1 - Promotion Requests are in limbo today. It's very difficult to find a related promotion request (doesn't show up on the Change Tab like you might expect) or that objects are currently being promoted on a Promotion Request (icons don't appear like you might expect).

2 - I don't believe editing a Promotion Request possible in Windchill 11.0 M030? See my screenshot below.

3 - Awesome! Yes please!

4 - Multiple states would be super helpful. I agree with Tom... the Change Notices screens are more complex and add the concept/complexity of affected/resulting objects. Change Notices also potentially require additional Windchill licensing if you're just trying to do something like CAD or document promotion. Navigate Contribute users would not be able to use Change Notices.

6 - A notify email is something that a lot of companies would probably appreciate without creating custom workflows - for Promotion Request as well as Change Notices.

7 - Most people don't know how or want to code Business Rules like this. PTC could create several common rules to choose from like the Wincom apps that admins can select from a GUI - watch the video about the Wincom Promotion Validate app on the 'media' tab. Having to open the workflow and write java code is not a great solution.

As per our discussion on Product Idea for Improving Change Notice Usability, I think it could be really helpful to create a recorded webinar/YouTube series about PTC's vision for setting up Change Notices, Promotion Requests, etc and common configurations that help make them more usable. Maybe with the Windchill 12 launch so PTC can showcase the new enhancements?

[TomU]

2 - I don't believe editing a Promotion Request possible in Windchill 11.0 M030? See my screenshot below.

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It is possible.  It's an optional feature you have to turn on.  See https://www.ptc.com/en/support/article/CS19603.

Also covered in the help documentation here:

• http://support.ptc.com/help/windchill/wc110_hc/whc_en/#page/Windchill_Help_Center%2FNewandChanged_ChangeEditPromotionRequests.html%23
• http://support.ptc.com/help/windchill/wc110_hc/whc_en/#page/Windchill_Help_Center%2FProdMatPromoReqEdit.html

[lhoogeveen]

@TomU Another one of those hidden settings that would be helpful to have in video series. Thanks for sharing!

[lhoogeveen]

Why are there some Windchill server settings outside of the Windchill GUI? I initially looked in the Promotion Request options in the Windchill Site settings (see image below) but this setting wasn't in that list so I assumed it wasn't possible.

[TomU]

It seems the 'why' is probably best answered with this statement:

In Windchill 10.2 M030, PTC provided a new property that controls new features that may impact the default user experience of established end-user capabilities. This new property is set to false by default to help minimize costs that may be associated with deploying new end-user functionality with a maintenance release.

http://support.ptc.com/help/windchill/wc110_hc/whc_en/#page/Windchill_Help_Center%2FNewandChanged_X26_M030_OptEnabled_Intro.html%23

[JeffZemsky]

@TomU  thank you  -

Yes for every M release new features that are considered a behavior change are part of opt-in features.   The opt-in is documented in the What's new section for each M release

Here is an example

11.0 M010 Opt in Features

I will work on some video examples in two weeks - I have some travel upcoming.

[lhoogeveen]

@TomU and @JeffZemsky Thanks for the info. I was worried that these optionally enabled features would still be hidden in future builds but it looks they get incorporated bigger releases (11.1, 11.2) - at least Edit a Promotion Request appears to have.

Thanks Jeff! I look forward to the videos.

[BjoernRueegg]

4.  We don't have plans to support multiple states - a Change  Notice should be used for this case (and can be much simpler than a Promotion Request here)

@TomU and @JeffZemsky

I also have tried to simplify a change notice and use a subtype for promotion. I have customized it so far, that at least the selected objects are added to the resulting objects table. So the user needs only to select the state.

I also tried to eliminate the second step to create the implementation plan and show only the resulting object table. But the dependency is just to big to figure it out.

My idea would be:

A checkbox in the Change Notice template to configure if the change notice has a implementation plan or not.

• If yes, the current wizard is being shown.
• If no, the implementation step is replaced with the two Change Task steps. (Perhaps even the attribute step could be simplified since the promotion needs no Change audit or only a change audit and no review.)

[lhoogeveen]

@BjoernRueegg Seems like having several new Change Notice options would be helpful:

• An option to specify whether initially selected objects should go in the Affected By or Resulting Objects. We would also prefer to have the objects go into the Resulting Objects so users only have to pick the state. Would this be a site level option or controlled in a CN Template?
• Have you seen the site level option Change Notice with Embedded Change Task? Seems somewhat related except for being able to select it in the Change Notice template.

I would also prefer to have more options in the Change Notice Templates or options inside in the individual prepopulated CN Tasks rather that site level options (or maybe in addition to): Optional Assignee and Review State, Optional Review Allowed, Participant List Table, etc.

I can add these ideas to this related product idea for Change Notices.

[BjoernRueegg]

@lhoogeveen 

Have you seen the site level option Change Notice with Embedded Change Task? Seems somewhat related except for being able to select it in the Change Notice template.

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Yes, I'm aware of this setting, but this works only for the info page of the change notice but not for the create and edit wizard.

[lhoogeveen]

One additional enhancement request is the ability/option to have Attachments with Promotion Requests.

[tschweizer]

I would also like to have the possibility to promote to different states at the same time!

Example: There are companies that work with ERP interfaces and use the Promotion Request request Target State as a "trigger".

The CAD objects are released directly, while the WTParts wait in a "trigger" state for the ERP transfer, and are then released by the interface after successful creating in the ERP.

[AlexTigano]

All features are useful and interesting and thank you all for sharing the already available solutions for some of the issues.

Many of my customers would like to have 3. (fire p.r. from workspace).

regards
Alessandro Tigano