Ariba Sourcing Process Management Guide - Updated Through SP9

Ariba Sourcing™
Process
Management
Guide
Release 9r1 SP9
Document Version 1
February 2010
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9r1SP9.0018.en_us
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Introduction to Sourcing Process Management . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

About Process Management in Ariba Sourcing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Creating a Sourcing Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Step 1: Entering Header Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Step 2: Choosing a Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Step 3: Adding Team Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Step 4: Setting up Sourcing Events. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Step 5: Setting Up Tasks (optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Step 6: Setting Up Documents (optional) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Creating an Ad Hoc Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Step 1: Creating the Survey Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Step 2: Inviting Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Step 3: Adding Content. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Step 4: Publishing the Survey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Chapter 2 Working with Sourcing Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

About the Sourcing Project Overview Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Working with Sourcing Projects as a Team Member. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Accessing Sourcing Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Viewing and Completing Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Editing and Updating Documents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Adding Announcements to a Sourcing Project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Designating Watched Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Linking Sourcing Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Enabling Desktop File Sync (DFS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Using Notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Setting Notification Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Controlling Sourcing Project Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Chapter 3 Working with Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

About Project Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Types of Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
File Name Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
File Size Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Document Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Controlling Document Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Managing Document Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Viewing Document Versions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Deleting Older Versions of a Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Comparing Microsoft Word Document Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Working with Document Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Using Document Shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Performing Savings Tracking. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Ariba Sourcing Process Management Guide iii

Table of Contents
Chapter 4 Creating Sourcing Project Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

To Consider Before Creating a Template. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Creating Templates - Practicing With a Copy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Managing Template Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Providing Document Choice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Using Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
About Condition Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Forming Condition Questions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
About Dynamic Template Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Adding Subprojects to Template . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Importing and Exporting Templates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Controlling Template Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Understanding Project Owner Group Characteristics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Using Notification Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Rules for Notification Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Chapter 5 Working with Tasks and Phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Working With Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Working with the My Tasks Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Creating To Do Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Working With Review and Approval Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Creating Negotiation Tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
page 48Changing a Task Type or Associating a Document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Using Predecessor Tasks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Working With Phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Creating Phases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Editing Phases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Using Predecessor Phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Using Recurring Phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Chapter 6 Adding Users to Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

About Project Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Project Owner Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Project Group Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Using the Team Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Assigning Roles to Project Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Understanding Team Access in Subprojects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Chapter 7 Using Knowledge Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Related Knowledge Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Knowledge Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Creating Knowledge Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Using Knowledge Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Types of Knowledge Document Matching. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Matching Using Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Directly Linking Knowledge to a Task . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Refreshing the Knowledge Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Administering Knowledge Management Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
iv Ariba Sourcing Process Management Guide

Table of Contents
Chapter 8 Integrating with Microsoft Project and Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Working With Microsoft Project Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Converting Output Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Importing Tasks From Microsoft Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Exporting and Importing Microsoft Project Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Understanding Limitations Between Ariba Sourcing and Microsoft Project . . . . . . . . . . 75
Working With Microsoft Outlook Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Using the Microsoft Outlook Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Working With Limitations Between Ariba Sourcing and Microsoft Outlook . . . . . . . . . 76
Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Ariba Sourcing Process Management Guide v

Table of Contents
vi Ariba Sourcing Process Management Guide

Introduction to Sourcing Process
Chapter 1
Management
This guide describes how to use the process management functionality of Ariba Sourcing.
This section covers the following topics:

• “About Process Management in Ariba Sourcing” on page 7
• “Creating a Sourcing Project” on page 7
• “Creating an Ad Hoc Survey” on page 12
About Process Management in Ariba Sourcing

Ariba Sourcing has process management functionality that allows you to control the sourcing event process
and:
• Includes negotiation tasks that allow you to collaborate with internal or external users to review and revise
sourcing events, including workflow notifications for sourcing event reviewers, approvers, and
negotiation participants.
• Stores sourcing events and associated documents, and provides search capabilities to access these
documents.
• Uses templates that enable you to create new sourcing events using approved business processes.
• Allows you to designate planned projects using the Planned project state. Using the Planned project state
allows you to keep track of upcoming projects for the quarter or year, and enables you to allocate
resources for future projects. The Planned state allows you to track upcoming projects in reports, that
allow you to plan needed project resources, potentially leverage global spend, and measure the progress of
your sourcing program.
• Includes savings and spend tracking. You can create a form to track savings and spend, including
negotiated, implemented, and actual savings, and break out the savings by project attributes such as time
or region.
Creating a Sourcing Project

Sourcing projects are work areas in Ariba Sourcing that help you manage the workflow surrounding the
creation of a sourcing event. You create sourcing projects using templates. The template you use to create the
sourcing project represents the standard process that your group follows when creating sourcing events.
Sourcing project team members are those users responsible for creating, reviewing, observing, or executing
tasks during the sourcing event in the sourcing project. The sourcing project also contains tasks for team
members to perform, such as choosing suppliers to invite to the sourcing event, creating the sourcing event,
reviewing the sourcing event, and approving the sourcing event for publishing.
Before creating a sourcing project:

• Ask your Sourcing administrator about the sourcing project templates available to you.
Ariba Sourcing Process Management Guide 7

Creating a Sourcing Project Chapter 1 Introduction to Sourcing Process Management
• Choose the appropriate sourcing project template that meets your requirements
• Consider the supplemental documents you will include with the sourcing project.
The steps for creating a sourcing project include:

• “Step 1: Entering Header Information” on page 8
• “Step 2: Choosing a Template” on page 9
• “Step 3: Adding Team Members” on page 10
• “Step 4: Setting up Sourcing Events” on page 10
• “Step 5: Setting Up Tasks (optional)” on page 11
• “Step 6: Setting Up Documents (optional)” on page 12
Step 1: Entering Header Information

To create a sourcing project, you enter some basic information, such as its name and description, and choose
the template to use to create the sourcing project.
W Create the sourcing project:

1 Log in to Ariba Sourcing and view the dashboard. As you work, you can return to the dashboard at any
time by clicking Home.
2 Click Sourcing > Create Sourcing Project.
3 Choose to create a Full Project.

Choosing to create a Full Project indicates that you want to create a project with process management
capabilities. If you choose Quick Project, then you will create a project containing only a sourcing event,
with limited process management capabilities.
Note: If you want to copy an existing sourcing project, use Copy from Project, to copy data from a previous
sourcing project into a new sourcing project. Note that any events associated with the original project are not
copied into the new project.
W Enter header information for the sourcing project:
Enter as much header information as you can, as you can create detailed reports based on this information.
Access the reports from the Common Actions panel, under Manage, by choosing Prepackaged Reports. See
the Ariba Sourcing Reporting and Analysis Guide for details.
• Enter a name and description. The name can contain up to 254 characters and cannot be the name of
another sourcing project in the same folder. Newly created projects exist in a folder depending on the
month and year in which they were created. Projects located in different folders can have the same name.
The name cannot contain special characters such as #*^@)}].
• Choose the project state. States are Active, On Hold, Planned, Cancelled, or Completed. If you choose the
state Planned, the Planned Start Date, Planned End Date, and Planned Event Type fields are available.
Using the Planned project state allows you to keep track of upcoming projects for the quarter or year, and
enables you to allocate resources for future projects. When your project is ready to work on, you can later
change the project state of a planned project to Active. The Planned state allows you to track upcoming
projects in reports.
• Specify whether to copy from an existing sourcing project.
8 Ariba Sourcing Process Management Guide

Chapter 1 Introduction to Sourcing Process Management Creating a Sourcing Project
• Choose whether the sourcing project is a test project. Use test projects for internal testing and training.
They can easily be excluded from reporting so that your reports only contain data from actual events. Test
projects generate email, just as regular projects do. You can delete test projects.
• Choose a base language. If a user tries to view your sourcing project, and their preferred language is set to
a language for which your sourcing project does not have a translation, the application displays the
content in the language defined in the Base Language field.
Note: In view mode, the application displays templates and sourcing projects in the language that the user
chooses as their preference. In edit mode, the presented language is that of the preference setting of the
template or sourcing project. Uploaded document titles are created in the language preference defined in
the template or sourcing project.
• Use Commodity to indicate which goods or services the sourcing project deals with. Your company might
refer to commodities as categories, UNSPSC codes, or by other terms. An example of a commodity is
office supplies.
Note: Be sure to populate the Commodity, Regions, and Department fields. You can set templates to
conditionally appear based on the values in these fields. These fields are also used for Knowledge
Management keyword designations. Ariba Sourcing uses Regions, Department, and Commodity fields for
reporting. For example, if you run events for different departments, you can report your results by
department. Observers cannot view these results.
Some organizations use commodity codes extensively. For this reason can optionally make Commodity a
required field.
• Choose the sourcing mechanism, project reason, and execution strategy.
• Baseline Spend is the amount you believe you will spend for all the goods or services listed.
• Target Savings% is the percentage you want to save as a result of the event. This is not shown to
participants.
• Predecessor Project is a related project or event, that came before.
To edit a sourcing project’s header information, for example, its title or description, after you have created
the project, click Actions > Edit Overview on the project’s Overview tab. If the sourcing project is in a Planned
or Active state, you can change any editable attribute. For example, when you are ready to work on a project
(it is no longer planned) you can change the project state from Planned to Active.
Step 2: Choosing a Template

Ariba Sourcing displays available templates at the bottom of the screen. You use one of these template to
create your sourcing project. The available templates can change depending on the header information you
provide.
W To choose a template:
At the bottom of the Create Sourcing Project screen, choose a template to use to create your sourcing
project. Answer any questions associated with the template. Your sourcing administrator adds these
questions when they create the template for you to use to create the sourcing project. For example, you might
have to answer whether the sourcing project is important enough to require the approval of a vice president.

Creating a Sourcing Project Chapter 1 Introduction to Sourcing Process Management
Step 3: Adding Team Members

After you create your sourcing project, you can add team members. Depending on the template used, some
team members might already belong to the sourcing project. See “To add team members to your project:” on
page 63 for details on adding team members. You must be a project owner to edit the team members.
W To add team members:

1 Click the Team tab.
2 In the upper right hand corner of the screen, click Edit.
3 To add a member to an existing group, click the select link associated with that group, and then choose a
name from the checklist or click Other and search for a team member to add.
W To add a team group:

1 On the Team tab, click Edit.
2 Click Add Group.
3 Specify a title for the group, and choose any roles that this group should inherit. See the Ariba User
Management Guide for Sourcing, Contract Management, and Spend Visibility for details on groups.
4 Click OK.
5 Add members to the group, as previously described.
Step 4: Setting up Sourcing Events

Sourcing projects control the process around sourcing events. An important part of creating your sourcing
project is to create the event that it contains.
W To create a sourcing event associated with your sourcing project:

1 On the Documents tab, check to see if an event already exists.
Depending on which template you choose, an event may already exist on the Documents tab. For
example, the following event is named RFX:
In order to tell whether an object on the Documents tab is an event, click its name and choose View Details.
If the object is an event, the field Type reads Event.
2 If an event is not already present on the Documents tab, create a new event by clicking Actions > Create >
Event.
3 Set up the event according to the steps described in the chapter “Your First Event” in the Ariba Event
Management Guide.
Note a few differences:

Chapter 1 Introduction to Sourcing Process Management Creating a Sourcing Project
• When creating an event within a project, most of the header information associated with the event is
automatically taken from the project. For example, you cannot specify the Region value of an event
contained within a sourcing project, because the Region of the event is the same as the project.
• The Event Type selector on the Create Sourcing Project page shows the types allowed by the project
template.
• Also, there is no Team step in an event associated with a sourcing project. The team information is
drawn from the Team tab of the sourcing project.
• Sourcing has limits on certain event elements as described in the “Creating Content” chapter of the
Ariba Sourcing Event Management Guide.
Step 5: Setting Up Tasks (optional)

Your project probably already has tasks associated with it, drawn from the template you used to create it.
View the Tasks tab and verify that the phases and tasks associated with your sourcing project are correct.
Ensure that the tasks make sense for your project, and that the order and due dates of the tasks are accurate.
Check to see that the team members are responsible for tasks that correlate with their area of expertise.
Create any additional tasks that your project requires.
Drag and drop the phases and tasks on the tab in the order in which you intend the tasks to be performed.
You cannot modify or delete tasks that were provided by the template. Note that the use of predecessor tasks
can change the order in which you perform tasks.
The Completion column lists the completion dates of the phases and tasks. You can set the completion date
to a specific date, or base it on the start date for the task’s parent phase. See Chapter 5, “Working with Tasks
and Phases” for details.
W To create a task:
1 On the Tasks tab, click Actions > Create To–Do Task.
2 Enter the title, the description, and the owner of the task. Set the due date.
3 Click OK.
4 On the Tasks tab, make sure that the task is in the correct phase and place in the flow of your sourcing
project’s tasks.
5 To associate the task with a document, on the Tasks tab, click the task’s name and choose Associate
Document.
W To change a task’s completion date:

1 On the Tasks tab, click the task’s name and choose Edit Task.
2 Change the Due Date field. Choose a specific number of Days after parent phase starts or a Fixed Date.
The Owner column lists the group or specific team members responsible for each phase or task. You can see
the members of each group on the Team tab.
W To change the task’s owner:

1 On the Tasks tab, click the task’s name and choose Edit Task.
2 Modify the Owner field.
Note: For To Do tasks, the owner is also the person expected to perform the task.

Creating an Ad Hoc Survey Chapter 1 Introduction to Sourcing Process Management
Step 6: Setting Up Documents (optional)

Your project probably already has documents associated with it, drawn from the template you used to create
it. View the Documents tab and ensure that the documents associated with your sourcing project are relevant
and correct. Check to see that important documents have tasks associated with them that assign their creation
and review to members of your team. Create any additional documents that your sourcing project requires.
W To create a task for a document:
For example, perhaps your sourcing project contains a project charter that your team must complete. You
can create a task to assign the job of creating the draft version of the document to a member of your team.
See Chapter 3, “Working with Documents.”
1 Enable Desktop File Sync (DFS). See “Enabling Desktop File Sync (DFS)” on page 21.
2 On the Documents tab, click the document name and choose Create New Task > To Do.
3 Give the task an appropriate name, for example, “Create draft of project charter.”
4 In the Owner field, search for the team member to be assigned the task.
5 Click OK.
W To create a new document:
You can add documents as your team works in Ariba Sourcing.

1 On the Documents tab, click Actions > Create Document.
2 Click Browse and choose the document to upload.
3 Click Create.
Note: To print a page, click the Print icon at the top of the page. It formats the screen for
printing, presents a preview, and shows the normal print dialog box for your operating system.
Use this Print icon instead of the browser print function, which does not reformat the page by removing the
tabs and header information at the top.
Creating an Ad Hoc Survey

Inside a Sourcing project or a workspace you can create a survey that enables you to ask questions of your
suppliers and/or members of your own organization. If you have the Supplier Performance Management
(SPM) product, this type of survey is different in that it is not a survey about a specific supplier as an effort
to rate their performance. By creating a survey from a Sourcing project, you can ask any question of the
survey participants.
The steps for creating an ad hoc survey include:

• “Step 1: Creating the Survey Project” on page 13
• “Step 2: Inviting Participants” on page 14
• “Step 3: Adding Content” on page 14
• “Step 4: Publishing the Survey” on page 14

Chapter 1 Introduction to Sourcing Process Management Creating an Ad Hoc Survey
Step 1: Creating the Survey Project

To start an ad hoc survey, you enter basic information, such as the name and description, and choose the
template to use to create the project.
You can also create an ad hoc survey from your personal workspace. If you are doing that skip to “To create
an ad hoc survey from your personal workspace,” below.
W To create an ad hoc survey from a project:

1 Log into Ariba Sourcing.
2 In the Common Actions Menu, select Create > Sourcing Project.
3 Choose to create a Full Project.
W Enter header information for the project:

1 Enter a name and description. The name can contain up to 254 characters and cannot be the name of
another project in the same folder. The name cannot contain special characters such as #*^@)}].
2 Choose whether the project is a test project. Use test projects for internal testing and training. Test
projects generate email, just as regular projects do. You can delete test projects.
3 Choose a base language. If a user tries to view your project, and the preferred language is set to a
language for which your project does not have a translation, the application displays the content in the
language defined in the Base Language field.
4 Optionally, choose commodity, region, and departments. Use commodity to indicate goods or services for
the project. Your company might refer to commodities as categories, UNSPSC codes, or by other terms.
5 If relevant, specify a predecessor project, which is a related project must be completed before the current
project.
6 Choose the ad-hoc Survey template.
7 Click Create.
8 In the Documents area, choose Actions > Create > Survey.
9 Select the Ad-hoc Survey template.
W To create an ad hoc survey from your personal workspace

1 Enter your personal workspace.
2 In the Documents area, choose Actions > Create > Survey.
3 Select the Ad-hoc Survey template.
Step 3: Setting the Survey Rules

The survey rules control when the survey is published and how long participants have to submit their
responses.
Response start date

Unless you define your own template the survey will start when you click the Publish button.

Creating an Ad Hoc Survey Chapter 1 Introduction to Sourcing Process Management
Due Date
This specifies when the period for submitting responses ends. If you choose duration you can select an
interval that starts when you click Publish. If you select Fixed time, you can choose a calendar date and a
time of day for the response period to end.
Allow scoring
If you allow scoring you can assign weights to the possible answers to your survey questions, on the content
page. This is useful for scoring the survey participants on their responses.
Can owner see responses before event closes

If you want to be able to see the responses as they come in, choose Yes. Otherwise you cannot see any
responses until the response period ends.
Step 2: Inviting Participants

Click Invite Participants. at the bottom.
Choose to search by organization or participant information to find participants, such as external suppliers or
internal people by their user name or other characteristics. Choose Participant Group to select groups. You
can import participants from an Excel spreadsheet. For more information on importing participants from
Excel, see “Editing Spreadsheets for Import” in the Ariba Sourcing Event Management Guide.
Step 3: Adding Content

In the Content section, you can add the following elements:
• Section
• Question
• Requirement
• Attachment
• Content from the library
When you select a type of content to add, fill in the fields to define the item, The fields for the various types
of content are defined in Chapter 6, “Creating Content,” in the Ariba Sourcing Event Management Guide.
Step 4: Publishing the Survey

Publishing the survey sends it to the participants. Review the information on the Summary page.
To publish the survey, click Publish. Participants can see the survey after it is published and until it closes.
While it is open, internal participants can see the survey in their To Do list on the Dashboard. After it closes,
it appears on the Event Status Table on the dashboard
Additional information on the Summary page is covered in Chapter 15, “Reviewing and Publishing an
Event,” in the Ariba Sourcing Event Management Guide.

Chapter 2 Working with Sourcing Projects

• “About the Sourcing Project Overview Tab” on page 15
• “Working with Sourcing Projects as a Team Member” on page 17
• “Enabling Desktop File Sync (DFS)” on page 21
• “Using Notifications” on page 21
• “Controlling Sourcing Project Access” on page 22
About the Sourcing Project Overview Tab

The Overview tab displays information that applies to the entire sourcing project. From this tab you can
perform global tasks on the sourcing project. This tab is divided into several areas:
• Overview
• Process
• Quick Links
• Announcements
The following paragraphs describe these areas.

• Overview Area: In this area you see the status, version, owner, and other information about the project.
The following table lists the tasks available from the Actions menu in this area.
To do this... Choose...
Edit overview Actions > Edit Overview to edit the overview information.
information
This information displays on two tabs, Overview and Template Questions.
On the Overview tab, you can edit information such as the project name, state, status,
description, owner, commodity, regions, departments, and access control. See “Controlling
Sourcing Project Access” on page 22 for details on access control.
On the Templates Questions tab, you can view template questions and change the answers
to these questions. These questions are part of the template and affect the content of the
project, with your answers to the questions causing the project to change dynamically. For
example, if you change the answer to the question “Does this template apply to APAC?” to
“No”, Ariba Sourcing removes conditionalized items that have to do with APAC from the
project.

About the Sourcing Project Overview Tab Chapter 2 Working with Sourcing Projects
View details for the Actions > View Details. This information displays on three tabs: Overview, Documents, and
sourcing project Version History.
On the Overview tab, you can view status, version, test project status, base language, owner,
and access control. You can change this information by choosing Actions > Document > Edit
Attributes and editing the attributes as needed. You can move the project to a folder, lock
and unlock documents, and save a new version. You can also view and initiate tasks from
this tab.
On the Documents tab, you can view a list of documents associated with the project.
On the Version History tab, you can view the version history for the project.
Move Actions > Move to move your sourcing project to another folder in the Vault. An example of
folder hierarchy is shown below:
Copy a project Actions > Create > Copy Project to copy your sourcing project to a new project with a
different name. You can also copy documents and groups from the original project.
When you copy a project, you must provide a new sourcing project name. You are asked
these questions:
• Do you want to copy documents that were modified in the project being copied?
• Do you want to copy project groups that were not in the template from the project being
copied?
Answer these questions and click Create.
Create a follow-on Actions > Create > Follow-On Project to create a follow-on project to conduct after you are
project done working on the original project. See “Creating Follow-On Projects” on page 20.
Delete a project Actions > Delete Project to delete a project. The project owner can delete any project for
which they are a project owner. Deleting a project does not remove it completely. However,
to search for a deleted projects and documents, you must have the
“acm.SearchDeletedDocument” permission, as set by your administrator.
To turn this capability off, ask the Administrator to set the parameter
“Application.ACM.AllowProjectOwnerToDeleteAnyDocument” to False. If you turn this
feature off, then to delete a project, the project must be in a state that allows deletion:
• You are the project owner
• The project is not in a running state
• It is a test project (in any state)

Chapter 2 Working with Sourcing Projects Working with Sourcing Projects as a Team Member
Display the project in Actions > Full View or Actions > Compact View. Full View displays the Documents, Tasks,
compact or full view and Team tabs for the sourcing project. Compact View displays the project without tabs.
This is useful if you have a simple sourcing project with few tasks and documents.
• Process Area: This area lists task phases, follow-on or predecessor projects, and milestones to provide
visibility for these items. Click All Tasks to access the Tasks tab.
• Quick Links: This area lists documents that you want to access quickly. On the Documents tab, create a
Quick Link by clicking a document name and choosing Open > Add to Quick Links.
• Announcements: This area displays the announcements pertaining to the sourcing project. These are
intended for the entire sourcing project team. Click New to add a new announcement, or Details to view,
edit, or delete announcement details.
You can also view announcements from the dashboard. Only announcements from sourcing projects you
have specified as Watched Projects appear in the Announcements area of the dashboard. To specify a
particular sourcing project as a Watched Project, navigate to the project and on the Overview tab, click
Actions > Add to Watched Projects.
Working with Sourcing Projects as a Team Member

After you create a sourcing project as described in “Introduction to Sourcing Process Management” on
page 7, you work with it further, perhaps as a team member. Team members are assigned to the team by the
sourcing project owner.

• “Accessing Sourcing Projects” on page 17
• “Viewing and Completing Tasks” on page 18
• “Editing and Updating Documents” on page 18
• “Adding Announcements to a Sourcing Project” on page 19
• “Designating Watched Projects” on page 19
• “Linking Sourcing Projects” on page 20
Accessing Sourcing Projects

As a team member, you receive an email notifying you that you are part of a sourcing project team.
W To search for your sourcing project:

1 On the dashboard, click Common Actions > Search Projects.
2 On the Search Projects page, enter the title of your sourcing project (shown in the notification email).
Another way to search for your sourcing project is to enter the name of the project owner in the Keywords
field.
3 Click Search.
4 Click the title of the sourcing project and click Open.

Working with Sourcing Projects as a Team Member Chapter 2 Working with Sourcing Projects
Viewing and Completing Tasks

When the project owner added you to a team group you were assigned some tasks. A task is a reminder of an
action that you must complete. Tasks in Ariba Sourcing include:
• To Do tasks remind you to take some action outside of Ariba Sourcing. For example, “Compile list of
potential customers” might be a To Do task. After you complete the task, mark it as complete.
• The review, approval, and negotiation tasks are associated with documents. See “Working with
Documents” on page 23 for details. You receive notification associated with these tasks as they flow
through reviews, approvals and negotiations. See “Using Notifications” on page 21 for details.
When you log in to Ariba Sourcing each day, check the To Do This Week area on the Dashboard, which lists
your tasks that are due in the current week. Click the name of the task to see task details. To ensure that the
To Do This Week area is up to date, click the Force refresh of all content on this page link at the bottom of the
screen.
W To mark a task complete:

1 Click the task’s name and choose View Details.
2 Click Mark Complete.
Editing and Updating Documents

After you enable Desktop File Sync, you can edit and update the documents associated with your project.
Depending on the template on which your sourcing project is based, certain documents are pre-loaded. You
can view the initial versions of these documents and update them for your specific project.
W To view and update a document:

1 Enable DFS. See “Enabling Desktop File Sync (DFS)” on page 21 for details.
2 On the Documents tab, navigate to the document you want to edit.
3 Click the name of the document and choose Download Draft. The document downloads and opens in
Microsoft Word.
4 Edit the document. When you have finished, save the document, and close Microsoft Word.
5 Return to Ariba Sourcing. You should see the Document Update dialog box. If you do not, press F5 to
refresh the page.
6 Click Update Now.
7 Enter any notes about the changes you have made in this version.
8 Click Save.

Chapter 2 Working with Sourcing Projects Working with Sourcing Projects as a Team Member
Adding Announcements to a Sourcing Project

Announcements appear in the Announcements area of the Overview tab of a sourcing project. Use
announcements to communicate general information to the sourcing project team. Also, announcements can
appear in the Announcements area of the dashboard if the announcement is for a Watched Project. See
“Designating Watched Projects” on page 19 for details.
W To add an announcement:
1 View the sourcing project in Full View.
2 In the Announcements area of the Overview tab, click New.
3 Enter the announcement text.
4 Click OK.
W To view or edit announcements:

1 View the sourcing project in Full View.
2 In the Announcements area of the Overview tab, click Details.
3 You can edit or delete any announcements you created. You cannot modify announcements created by
other members.
If you are a team member for this sourcing project, you can add announcements by clicking New.
You can sort announcements for a sourcing project by clicking the column headings at the top of the
announcements table.
4 Click OK.
Note: If you edit the text of a previously created announcement Ariba Sourcing does not change the creation
date for that announcement.
Designating Watched Projects

Watched projects are sourcing projects that require your attention. Your organization should decide for itself
what constitutes a watched project. Ariba Sourcing identifies Watched Projects in the Recent Projects list
with a bullet to the left of their titles.
For details on how watched projects affect Announcements, see “Adding Announcements to a Sourcing
Project” on page 19.
W To mark a sourcing project as a watched project:

1 Navigate to the sourcing project you want to mark as watched.
2 Go to the Overview tab. You can be in either Full or Compact view.
3 On the Actions menu, click Add to Watched Projects.

If the project is already on the Watched Projects list, you can select Remove From Watched Projects from the
Actions menu, instead.

Working with Sourcing Projects as a Team Member Chapter 2 Working with Sourcing Projects
Linking Sourcing Projects

You can create subprojects or follow-on projects in Sourcing. They are different: You work on a subproject
in addition to your original project. You work on a follow-on project after you finish working on your
original project.
• “Creating Subprojects” on page 20
• “Creating Follow-On Projects” on page 20
Creating Subprojects
A subproject inherits team membership and other characteristics from the original sourcing project. You
create the subproject in the parent sourcing project's folder hierarchy.
For example, you might create a subproject if you had a large project that required sourcing several types of
goods or services (such as occupying a new office). You could set up subprojects to source various types of
office furniture, and services.
W To create a subproject:
1 On the Documents tab, choose Actions > Create > Subproject
2 Choose the type of subproject to create.
Note: The parent project appears on the subproject’s Overview tab. Sourcing lists the subproject as a
document on the Documents tab of the parent project.
If the parent sourcing project has the restriction private to team members, individually added subproject
members cannot access the parent. If needed, add these subproject members to the parent sourcing team to
grant them full access. For more information on setting access controls, see “Controlling Document Access”
on page 26.
By default subprojects do not appear in the Recent Projects area of the Navigation Panel. However, you can
list them in the Navigation Panel if you add them to the Watched Projects list.
When you close a parent sourcing project, any subprojects remain open. You must close subprojects
separately.
You cannot make a sourcing project a subproject after you create it. You can, however, make an existing
sourcing project a follow–on project.
For more information on controlling inheritance of team members in subprojects, see “Understanding Team
Access in Subprojects” on page 65.
Creating Follow-On Projects

A follow-on project is a sourcing project you create after you are done with an original sourcing project, but
find that another, related sourcing project is needed.
W To create a follow-on sourcing project:

1 On the Overview tab, in the Overview area, choose Actions > Create > Follow-on Project.
2 Choose the type of follow-on project to create.

Chapter 2 Working with Sourcing Projects Enabling Desktop File Sync (DFS)
Enabling Desktop File Sync (DFS)

DFS automates the uploading and downloading of files in Ariba Sourcing and allows you to check document
version compatibility.
Note: DFS does not have to be enabled for you to export to Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel.
DFS must be set up to use any of the following features:

• Uploading or downloading files in one step
• Synchronizing server and client versions of documents
• Comparing versions of documents in Microsoft Word
• Exporting tasks to Microsoft Outlook
When you log into Ariba Sourcing, the Desktop File Sync reminder warns you if you do not have DFS
enabled. The DFS reminder gives you the option of enabling DFS, ignoring the reminder for your current
session, or disabling it permanently. You will only see the reminder if you do not have DFS enabled and have
not disabled the reminder.
W To enable DFS:
1 Click Preferences at the top of the dashboard.
2 On the User Preferences screen, click Change Desktop File Sync.
3 On the Desktop File Sync Preferences screen, click Enable.
4 Choose a Desktop Directory.

The Desktop Directory is the directory to which Ariba Sourcing synchronizes your files. It is the only
directory in which DFS looks for or places files. The My Documents directory is the default choice.
5 Click Done.
Using Notifications
Ariba Sourcing provides email notifications to team members and others to inform them or remind them of
project-related events. These events include the:
• Start of tasks and phases (including predecessors)
• Creation of projects
• Creation of subprojects
• Addition of comments to the project
Setting Notification Preferences

You can customize notifications in your preferences.
W To set notification preferences

1 Click Preferences.
2 Click notification preferences.
3 Choose the email notifications you want to receive.

Controlling Sourcing Project Access Chapter 2 Working with Sourcing Projects
4 Click OK.
Individual notification preferences take precedence over any template–level notification profile settings.
Controlling Sourcing Project Access

You can apply access controls to an entire project. Access controls allow you to specify which team
members can view the sourcing project.
Note: If you are a project owner, you can see all documents in your project regardless of their access control.
W To set access controls:

1 In the Overview area of the Overview tab, choose Actions > Edit Overview.
2 Find the field Access Control. Click select.
3 Choose the checkboxes for the access controls you want to implement.
4 Click OK.
The following table defines the access controls:
Access Control Description

Classified Only members of the groups Classified Access, Contract Manager, Sourcing
Manager, and Procurement Manager can view the object.
Owner Only Only project owners can view the object.
Private to Internal Users Only internal users can view the object.
Private to Team Members Only team members can view the object.
Private to Contract Management Basic Only Ariba Contract Management Basic users can view the object.
Users
Private to Contract Management Pro Only Ariba Contract Management Pro users can view the object.
Users
Private to Sourcing Professional Users Only Ariba Sourcing Professional users can view the object.
Private to Sourcing Users Only Ariba Sourcing users can view the object.
Private to Spend Visibility Only Ariba Spend Visibility Basic users can view the object.
Note: If you assign an access control at the project level, all documents in the project inherit that access
control as well.

Chapter 3 Working with Documents
• “About Project Documents” on page 23

• “Document Tasks” on page 24
• “Controlling Document Access” on page 26
• “Managing Document Versions” on page 27
• “Working with Document Choice” on page 28
• “Using Document Shortcuts” on page 29
• “Performing Savings Tracking” on page 29
About Project Documents
Types of Documents
Ariba Spend Management provides a central storage system that enables you to store and manage multiple
versions of project documents and to manage file access for multiple users. Ariba Spend Management
supports the following types of documents:
• Non-assembled documents
Non-assembled documents can be any format, including:
• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• ASCII
• Graphic files, such as PNG, BMP, JPEG, or GIF
• PDF
• Assembled PDF documents

Assembled PDF documents are created by Ariba Spend Management from documents in a project.
File Name Restrictions

File names cannot contain the following characters:
\ / : ? “ < > |
File Size Restrictions

The maximum size for an individual file in a project is 100 megabytes (MB).

Document Tasks Chapter 3 Working with Documents
Document Tasks
The Documents tab displays the documents in your project. Project templates typically provide a default set
of documents.
The following table lists that tasks you can perform from the Documents tab. The available tasks can vary
depending on the document type.
Open a document to The document name and choose Open. The document opens in its associated editor.
edit
View document details The document name and choose View Details. You can view the description, status,
version, owner, editors, base language, date last modified, creation date, keywords,
access control, conditions, and Version History tab. See “Managing Document Versions”
on page 27 for details on document versions.
Click Actions to work with the document, or Actions under Tasks to initiate tasks to
associate with the document.
Edit the document attributes The document name and choose Edit Attributes. You can edit the document title,
description, owner, editors, add keywords, and change the access controls. See
“Controlling Document Access” on page 26 for details on access control.
Copy the document to reuse The document name and choose Copy to copy the document to a new version of the
it in multiple projects document with a new name, or to copy it to another project.
Note: You cannot copy PDF files.
Move a document to The document name and choose Move to move the document.
another folder in the project
Make the document The document name and choose Publish.

available
Make a document you use The document name and choose Add to Quick Links, to list the document name at the top
often easy to access of the Documents tab, and in the Quick Links area on the Overview tab. You can later
choose Remove From Quick Links.
Lock a document so others The document name and choose Lock. Later, you can choose Unlock to open the
cannot modify it document so other team members can modify it.
If you create a task and lock the document (by setting the Lock Document field to Yes
when submitting), the document locks normally. When you complete the task (by
clicking Mark Complete button), the document unlocks. If you lock a document that does
not have an associated task manually, the document stays locked until either you or a
user with owner access unlocks it.
You can also lock content at the folder level, and all documents underneath that folder or
contained in that project are locked as well. Locking an entire project only locks its
associated documents, not the project itself.
Delete a document The document name and choose Actions > Delete. The project owner can delete any
document for which they are an owner, except documents that were added from the
template. To turn this capability off, ask the Administrator to set the parameter
“Application.ACM.AlwaysAllowProjectDelete” to False.
Be careful when deleting documents. The system cannot tell if a document is attached to
a project. If you delete a document that is attached to a project, the link is deactivated.

Chapter 3 Working with Documents Document Tasks
Save a new version of the The document name and choose Save as New Version. You cannot save new versions of
document documents originating from the template. See “Managing Document Versions” on
page 27 for details.
Access a document outside The document name and choose Create Shortcut. This allows you to specify a shortcut
the project for the document in the current project or in another project. You can associate tasks with
shortcut documents. You can specify shortcuts for folders as well.
Create tasks to associate The document name and choose Create New Task > To Do, Review, Approval, or
with the document Negotiation. To Do tasks are simple tasks; you do them and they are finished. Review,
Approval, and Negotiation tasks have work flows associated with them, and are routed to
reviewers, approvers, or participants in a negotiation. See Chapter 5, “Working with
Tasks and Phases” for details on tasks.
Search for documents Actions > Search to search among documents associated with the project.
Browse for a document to Actions > Upload > Document to browse for and upload a document. Teams edit these
upload documents, and the application creates a new version of the document after each edit,
automatically storing previous versions. For details on documents versions, see
“Managing Document Versions” on page 27. Documents you upload must have a
filename (including full path and the filename itself) of 241 characters or less. If the
filename exceeds 241 characters, your document cannot upload. Also, the document
name must not contain any special characters. You can format the document description
text with bold, italic, underlining, lists, or colors.
When you upload a document, you can specify whether the document must be published
in order for the project to be published using the Is Publish Required flag. You can also
specify whether there should be an announcement of the creation of the new document.
Note: Observers can upload documents.
Create a folder Actions > Create > Folder to create a folder to organize your documents.
If you have an empty document folder in a project that you want to copy using Copy
Project, the empty folder is not copied over into the new project. Only document folders
containing documents are copied.
Create an analytical report Actions > Create > Analytical Report. Create the report in Ariba Reporting and Analysis.
After you create the report, you can save it to your project on the Document tab.
Export data to an Microsoft Actions > Create > Reporting Excel Template to browse for an Excel template to use for
Excel template data export. See Chapter 8, “Integrating with Microsoft Project and Outlook” for details
on exporting data using Excel.
Create a compound report Actions > Create > Compound Report. Create the report in Ariba Reporting and Analysis.
After you create the report, you can save it to your project on the Document tab
Load a document into the Actions > Create > Document to browse for a document to add, or search for a document.
project
Create a form Actions > Create >eForm. An eForm is an electronic representation of a business form.
An eForm can be approved, reviewed, and stored on the Documents tab like any other
document. Reporting can be done on eForm content.
eForm types must be created by your administrator through customization. If you need
an eForm for a specific task, contact your administrator.
Note: The eForm that you use might not seem like a conventional document (and can
even be a performing a specific function, such as savings tracking), but all eForms must
reside in the Documents tab of a project.

Controlling Document Access Chapter 3 Working with Documents
Add a URL as a document Actions > Create > URL to add a URL as a document. Click the URL icon in the
document list to navigate to the web page for the URL. Use this to communicate
knowledge located on the web to your team, and to store those references in the project.
Add a contract to associate Actions > Create > Contract. You access Ariba Contract Management, and can create a
with your project contract workspace. The contract workspace resides on the Document tab of your
project. See the Ariba Contract Process Management Guide for detail on working with
contract workspaces.
Add an event to your Actions > Create Event. This allows you to access the event creation wizard. See the
project Ariba Event Management Guide for details on working with events.
Create a savings form to use Actions > Create > Savings Form. Create a form to track savings and spend, including
with your project negotiated, implemented, and actual savings. See“Performing Savings Tracking” on
page 29 for details.
Create a content document Actions > Create > Content Document. The content you can add includes KPIs, sections,
lots, line items, questions, requirements, attachments, cost terms, formulas, and library
content. You can add weights to the content and use scoring. See the Ariba Event
Management Guide for detail on using scoring.
Create a folder shortcut Actions > Create > Shortcut. Allows you to create a shortcut to your current project or
any other project you have access to.
Create access to a document Actions > Create > Shortcut here. Allows you to create a shortcut to a document or
or folder in another project folder in your current project or in an outside project.
Create a subproject for the Actions > Create > Subproject to create a subproject.
project
Controlling Document Access

You can control which team members can access documents. For example, if you set the access control for a
document to Owner Only, only the document owner (opposed to the project owner) can view it in the
project.
You set access control on a per-document basis by editing the details of the document. You can, for example,
set access controls on a particular document in a template so that all projects created from that template
contain that document with those access controls.
Documents can be modified by an individual or a group who is the owner of the document. A document
cannot be owned by members of a non-owner group. To allow members of a non-owner group to edit a
document, create a group and add all the members who you need to give access to make changes to the
document and then make this new group the owner of the document.
Note: The access control Draft Access Restricted applies to documents only. If you have that permission, you
can see documents with the status of Draft that have this access control. All team members will be able to
view the document when its status changes to Published.

Chapter 3 Working with Documents Managing Document Versions
Managing Document Versions

The application tracks document versions, and displays the current document version in the Version field.
There is no limit on the number of versions for a document.
Viewing Document Versions

You can view the version history for documents. Documents you upload into a project have an initial version
of Original, whereas all documents that originate in templates are initially v1. When you submit an approval
task for a document, the application creates a new document version. There can be only one active version of
a document.
W To view document versions:

1 Click the document title and choose View Details. This shows you information on the current document
version.
2 Click the Version History tab to see information on previous versions. You can view any document
comments as well.
The following table describes document versioning:
Action Version Status

Upload an ad hoc document to a project. Original Draft
Create a project and view a document from the template. v1 (all documents Not Edited
originating from templates
begin as v1)
Modify a document with the version v1 and choose Save v1(editing) Draft
and continue editing.
Modify a document that has the version v1(editing) and v1(editing) Draft
choose Save and continue editing.
Modify a document that has the version v1(editing) and v2 Draft
choose Save as v2. You can add a comment to the new
version.
Publish a document that has the version v3. v3 Published
Publish a document that has the version v3(editing) and v4 Published
Draft status.
Submit an approval task on a document with the version v4 v4 Draft
and Draft status.
Submit an approval task on a document with the version v5 Draft
v4(editing) and Draft status.
Deleting Older Versions of a Document

When you delete an old version of a document, you delete only draft versions. This preserves finalized
document history. You cannot choose to delete only selected older draft versions.

Working with Document Choice Chapter 3 Working with Documents
When you delete old versions of a draft document, all comments and announcements relating to those
versions are deleted, and any associated tasks (no matter what state they are in) of the deleted versions are
updated to associate with the most recent version of the document.
W To delete old versions of a draft document

1 Make sure the following statements are true for the document:
• There is more than one version of the document.
• You are viewing the most recent version of the document.
2 Click the document title and choose Delete Old Versions.
3 Confirm the deletion of all old versions of the document.
Comparing Microsoft Word Document Versions

You can compare versions of Microsoft Word documents in a workspace and view the differences.
W To compare versions of Microsoft Word documents:

1 Click on the document name from the Documents area in the project.
2 Select Action > View Details.
3 Click the Version History tab.
4 Under the area for the new version, select View Changes > Compare with Previous Version (version n).
Working with Document Choice

Your template administrator can create document choice documents for you. These are documents that allow
you to choose among a list of documents to choose the one you need to work on. Document choice
documents are shown with this icon in your list of documents:

Chapter 3 Working with Documents Using Document Shortcuts
W To choose a document from a choice document:

1 Choose the document name and choose Edit.
2 Choose the document you want to use.
3 Change the document title as needed and click Create.
Using Document Shortcuts

You use shortcuts when you want a reference to the original version of a document. The access to the target
document through a shortcut is read-only.
There are two ways to create a shortcut to a document or folder:

• Create Shortcut: Allows you to create a shortcut to an item in your current project. The destination for
the shortcut can be your current project, or an outside project.
• Create Shortcut Here: Allows you to create a shortcut to an external document or folder in your current
project.
You can modify the title of the shortcut document or folder. This change has no affect on the original object.
Shortcuts can have the same title as the original object as long as they are not in the same folder.
Performing Savings Tracking

You can use savings tracking with Ariba Sourcing to measure the success of your sourcing programs, and to
generate savings reports. For this purpose you can create a form to track savings and spend.You can track
savings for sourcing projects you create in Ariba Sourcing, or for sourcing projects you are working on
outside of the application. You can use savings tracking for various types of savings during the life cycle of a
sourcing project, from the planned state to post-award.

Performing Savings Tracking Chapter 3 Working with Documents
Note: Custom fields can be added to the savings tracking form document. See your local administrator if you
find that you need custom fields added to the form.
You can enter values into the savings tracking form, and some values are populated from your sourcing
project. Values that come from the header of the project are:
• Base language
• Commodity
• Regions
• Departments
• Baseline spend
• Target savings percentage
• Contract months
• Sourcing mechanism
• Execution strategy
• Contract effective date (which is used as the start date on the savings form)
Values that come from the awarded event are:

• Baseline spend (can update value provided from the header information)
• Negotiated spend
• Negotiated savings
• Lead bid total
The goal of entering and accumulating savings data is to use it in savings reports that allow you to monitor
the various aspects of your savings and spend. You can use the data from the savings tracking form to create
these savings reports to allow you analyze your savings and spend:
• Savings Summary Report: This report displays the amount of savings your company has achieved for a
given time period. It provides an executive overview of savings achieved by various departments.
• Savings Detail Report: This report displays spend and savings data for all projects executed in a given
time period.
• Actual Savings Report: This report displays the amount of actual savings realized when you begin to
purchase items per project.
These reports are comprised of project header data, event data as the event progresses, and savings data that
you enter. See the Ariba Sourcing Reporting and Analysis Guide for details on reporting. You can create
multiple savings forms. In that case, the multiple forms are shown in the reports in multiple rows in Ariba
Reporting and Analysis.
The values that are calculated in the savings form are based on baseline spend, which represents the amount
of spend off of which you want to base your savings. There are different types of baseline spend:
• Historic: The amount paid previously for the good or service.
• Market: The amount established by the market.
• Estimated: An estimated price established by the buyer.

Chapter 3 Working with Documents Performing Savings Tracking
• Industry Published: A price published in an industry journal or derived from other another third party
publication.
• Vendor Published: A price published by a supplier or vendor.
• Average of Opening Offers: The average price resulting from running an initial quote such as an RFP.
• Vendor Opening Offer: A single supplier’s quote (such as an incumbent), usually arrived at after
running an RFI or RFP.
W To create and edit a savings tracking form:

1 In the Documents tab for a Full project, choose Actions > Create > Savings Form.
If your savings form is part of a template, it might be document that already exists in the Documents tab,
or could be a document you choose from Document Choice. A savings form has all of the features of any
document in the Documents tab, and can be collaborated on, and have To-Do tasks and approvals as
needed.
2 Enter the form title, description, and base language and click Create.
3 Enter data into the form. Savings data can be populated from the project header (including project header
flex fields) or the awarded event. You can edit the form again during any stage of your project. You can
enter savings data at various stages of the event:
• Estimated Savings: The savings that you estimate to accrue as a result of executing the project. Also
known as forecasted, target, or expected savings. Enter this amount at the beginning of the project.
• Negotiated Savings: The savings negotiated during the project. This is typically the awarded savings.
This can be derived from the project, or entered during the course of the project.
• Implemented Savings: Savings amount that could be implemented based on the contract. Also known
as planned or contract savings. Enter this data after the contract has been awarded.
• Actual Savings: The actual savings realized when you begin to purchase items named in the contract.
Also known as realized savings. Enter this data after the contract is being used to implement purchases
and actual costs are known.
Use Display to control the type of savings displayed, or to display all savings types. Select Actions > Update
Savings From Event to update the data in the savings form as your sourcing project changes status, or
Actions > Refresh to update the form if you have adjusted the values. The fields updated when you select
Actions > Update Savings From Event are:
• Baseline spend (can update value provided from the header information)
• Negotiated spend
• Negotiated savings
• Lead bid total
4 You can specify detailed savings allocations out of your savings over various project attributes such as
time or region in the Detailed Savings Allocation area at the bottom of the form.
To allocate detailed savings over time choose Add > Monthly Allocation. The savings form automatically
allocates your baseline spend over the months of the contract life. For example, if your contract is 10
months long, and your baseline spend is $12,000, and you allocate it monthly, then the spend is
represented in 10 instances of $1,200.
Note: If you do not have a value for Contract Months, you cannot specify monthly allocations.

Performing Savings Tracking Chapter 3 Working with Documents
If you have entered values for Contract Months and Start Date, but have not specified monthly allocations,
Sourcing will ask you if you want to have monthly allocations when you publish the savings tracking
form.
To allocate detailed savings for a span of time you specify, or an element other than time, such as a region,
department, or supplier, choose Add > Single Allocation.
You can have multiple savings forms, so you could have different forms to use to analyze single
allocations for different regions, department, or suppliers.
Click Save to save the changes. Click Publish to publish your savings form. When you publish the savings
form, the data made available to Ariba Reporting and Analysis for reports creation.
Since your savings form is a document, it is versioned like a document, and you can track the various
versions over time. To do so, click the form name and choose View Details to access the Version History
tab.
You can print the savings form by clicking Print in the upper right corner of the page, and then clicking
Print again in the Print panel.

Chapter 4 Creating Sourcing Project Templates
A template is a blank project with certain predefined characteristics. Ariba Sourcing supplies default
templates for you to copy and modify, or you can create your own templates. This section is intended for
users with the Template Creator Permission, such as those in the Template Creator group. This section
covers the following topics:
• “To Consider Before Creating a Template” on page 33
• “Creating Templates - Practicing With a Copy” on page 33
• “Providing Document Choice” on page 36
• “Using Conditions” on page 37
• “Adding Subprojects to Template” on page 43
• “Importing and Exporting Templates” on page 43
• “Controlling Template Access” on page 44
• “Using Notification Profiles” on page 45
To Consider Before Creating a Template

Before you create a template, think about your company’s business needs and processes for sourcing events.
Some factors that will determine the content of the sourcing project templates you create are:
• Team members for sourcing events and their roles
• Additional documents you want included in every sourcing event
• Tasks for various team members to perform
• Routing for reviews or approvals
• Conditions on parts of the sourcing project that your users will want to expose under certain conditions, or
hide under other conditions. See “Using Conditions” on page 37 for details.
Creating Templates - Practicing With a Copy

You can create a new empty template, but for learning purposes, it might be easier to work with a copy of an
existing template. When you are ready to create templates for use, you can work with a copy or create a
totally new template.
Note: While practicing, it is important to leave the default template that was provided with the application
intact. Be sure to make a copy of this default template, and edit the copy.
W To copy a template:
1 Log in to Ariba Sourcing as a user with the permissions to edit templates (a user who is a member of the
global group Template Creator) See “Controlling Template Access” on page 44 for details on template
access.
2 Choose Common Actions > Manage Templates in the Navigation Panel.
3 Choose a template to copy. Click the template name and choose Copy.
Template copies do not reference the original templates.

Creating Templates - Practicing With a Copy Chapter 4 Creating Sourcing Project Templates
4 Enter a title for the template copy, and click OK. Keep template names relatively short, as a long template
name will prevent your template from being published.
Template copies have Draft status by default, and are placed in the same folder as the original.
You can see the status of the version of a template in the upper right-hand corner of the template editor.
W To edit the template:

1 Edit the new template as necessary. Your ability to edit a template depends on the template’s status.
Template status is shown in the upper right corner of the template editor screen. A newly-copied or
created template has the status Draft. The following table defines template statuses:
This Status... Means...

Draft You can edit templates with this status. Newly created templates are automatically in Draft status. To
allow a template version to be used to create projects, you must publish it. To discard a Draft version
of a template you are working on, you can Revert it.
Active After you publish a template, its status is Active. You can use templates with this status to create
sourcing projects. You cannot edit Active templates. To make changes to an Active template, you
must create a new version by choosing Actions > New Version. The new version has Draft status.
Inactive You cannot use an Inactive template to create sourcing projects, or edit the template. To use an
inactive template, change the status back to Active by choosing Reactivate. Or, you can choose
Create a New Version, which creates a new version of the inactive template with Draft status.
2 Add project groups on the Teams tab. Examples of groups are Project Owner, Surrogate Bidders,
Administrators, and Team Graders. Team graders participate in consensus grading of supplier responses.
See the Ariba Event Management Guide for details on team grading. You can specify whether the project
owner can edit a project group, as shown in the following:
You can specify this editing ability for each project group.
Note: Add phases and milestones on the Tasks tab. Phases help your users organize groups of tasks.
Milestones help them track important tasks on the Overview tab. You can specify predecessor phases and
tasks. Using predecessor tasks and phases allows you to guide Ariba Sourcing users to complete tasks in
the proper order. For approval tasks, you can specify automatic approval of the task by choosing Yes for
Allow auto approval. Use this function for tasks that do not need approvers added to them in order to
complete the workflow.
3 Add and organize documents in the Documents tab. You can organize the documents in folders. There is
no constraint on the type or number of documents you can store in a template, and you can nest document
folders.

Chapter 4 Creating Sourcing Project Templates Creating Templates - Practicing With a Copy
You can also add Document Choice documents. These enable you to control document choices for users.
See “Providing Document Choice” on page 36 for details. You can add shortcut documents in a template.
This allows you to specify the location of a document or folder that is outside the current project, but that
you want to make accessible.You can associate tasks with shortcut documents. When users create a
project using the template, the shortcuts are replaced with copies of the actual documents. When users
edit the document in the project, there is no effect on the template copy.
4 Add document tasks (such as reviews, negotiations, or approvals) as you add documents.
5 Add To Do tasks in the Tasks tab.
6 Specify conditions for documents and tasks. See “Using Conditions” on page 37for details. For example,
if a project is in the Planned state, you can make certain documents available that apply only to that state.
7 Click Exit to save your changes and exit the template editor.
W To publish a finished template:
Choose Actions > Publish on the Overview tab. This makes the new template available to users when they
create a new sourcing project.When you publish, any previous active version of that template is archived.
You can create a new version from an archived version to recover an older version as the current draft.
Note: If you update a document in a subsequent version of a template, it does not update the document in the
previous version of the template.
After you have completed work on a template, you can export it to a ZIP file and import it for later use. See
“Importing and Exporting Templates” on page 43 for details.
W To delete templates:
You can delete a template that has never been used by clicking the template title and choosing Delete. If users
have created sourcing projects with a template, you cannot delete it.
If you have templates you want to remove that:

• Are inactive
• Cannot be deleted because they have been used to create sourcing projects
• Were created for demonstration or practice
You can make templates inaccessible by modifying the project owner to an inactive user and removing the
rest of the project team.
Note that the parameter “Application.ACM.AllowProjectOwnerToDeleteANyDocument” does not apply to

templates. The conditions for deleting templates are the same regardless of how this parameter is set.
Managing Template Versions

Template versions are shown in Properties in the Overview area, with Version History beneath.
You can create a new version of a template from an older version, which becomes the most recent version.
This reverts the template to a previous version without losing its history.
1 Add version comments.
2 Change the owner, if needed.
3 Modify access control if necessary.

Providing Document Choice Chapter 4 Creating Sourcing Project Templates
4 Click Done.
Providing Document Choice

You can add document choice to templates that allows users to choose from among a a list of documents.
The choices can be conditional.
W To create a document choice:
Before creating a document choice, create a template that contains the documents you want to provide as
choices, and publish this template.
1 While editing the template in which you will provide the choices, navigate to the Documents tab. Click
Actions > Create Document Choice.
2 Enter a title for the document choice. This title appears within all sourcing projects created from the
template, so use an appropriately generic title. When users create a document from the document choice,
they have the opportunity to choose a more specific name.
3 Choose the type of the document choice document to create. This field allows you to constrain the choices
of objects that the document choice can be used to create.
For example, if you choose Event, as is shown in the graphic above, then the Document Choice object can
only be used to create a sourcing event.
4 If you choose Event, then back on the Create New Document Choice page, click Add Choice. The Add
Event Choice page allows you to choose specific Event Templates that the Document Choice can be used
to create. For example, you may want to allow RFI Events to be created in Projects created from this
template, but not Reverse Auction Events.Choose the available documents you want to add as choices.
Note: Do not put the document choices in a folder, or they will not be available as choices. Leave them at
the first level on the Documents tab.
5 Click OK.
6 Click Save.
7 Click Done.

Chapter 4 Creating Sourcing Project Templates Using Conditions
Using Conditions
Conditions in templates allow you to specify whether certain template functionality will be available to the
user under specific conditions. Thus, a single template can result in different content based on the
information supplied when the user employs the template to create a project. You set the conditions using
expressions in the Conditions tab in the template editor, which also displays all conditions and questions
defined for a particular template.
About Condition Expressions

There are five types of expressions that can be associated with conditions:
• “Using Field Matches” on page 37
• “Defining Reference to Condition” on page 38
• “Using All of Expressions” on page 39
• “Using Any of Expressions” on page 40
• “Using None of Expressions” on page 40
Using Field Matches

You use field matches for conditions that match against whether a particular field has a certain value. Field
matches on conditions cause an object (such as a document or a task) to be included depending on certain
field settings.
The list of fields for possible field matches can be different for each type of project and is defined by which
fields are included in the TemplateMatch group. If you add a new template type, make sure you add suitable
field match fields to the TemplateMatch group for the newly created template type.
Examples of fields on which you can use field match to create a condition”
• Event Type
• Commodity
• Regions
• Departments
• Project State
Field match conditions can be defined on numeric, money, and date fields. You can also nest expressions to
create more complicated outcomes.

Using Conditions Chapter 4 Creating Sourcing Project Templates
Using Conditions on User Permissions

Using a field match on user permissions is intended only for use in controlling overall template visibility. It
is not advisable to use a field match on user permissions to control item (such as a document, an individual
clause, or a task) visibility within a template. Using a field match on user permissions on a particular item
makes the applicability of that item dependent on the permissions of the project user who has triggered
dynamic template application, which is unlikely to be the desired behavior.
For more information on applying a condition to an entire template see “Setting Conditions on Entire
Templates” on page 40.
Defining Reference to Condition

When you define a condition as a reference to another condition, any time the condition you reference is
true, so is the newly created one. For example, create condition A as being true any time the Region is USA,
and create condition B as a reference to condition A. Any projects created with USA as the region cause both
conditions to be true.
W Example of setting a region condition on a document in a template:

1 Define the condition.
a Log in as a user with permissions to edit the template where you want to create the condition.
b Make sure the template is in Draft status.
c Navigate to the Conditions tab of the template and click Add Condition in the Conditions area.
d Define the condition.

For example, if you need a condition that is used to make documents or tasks appear in created projects
only when the Region is set to USA, define the condition as follows:
e Click OK.
2 Link the document to the condition.
a Navigate to the Documents tab in the template and find the document you want to link to the newly
created condition.
b Click the document title and choose Edit.
c Set the Conditions field to the newly created condition. Multiple conditions can be associated with any
given item and you can choose Any of, All of, or None of for that item.

d Click Save.
3 Test to make sure the document appears when the region is selected.
You can use the Test Conditions area in the Navigation Panel to help show which documents are
applicable for different field choices. For example, if you check and deselect the box next to Region =
USA, you see the document you set the field for both displayed normally and greyed out as follows:
If the document appears greyed out, it is not included in any project built from this template with the fields
set as shown in the Test Conditions area of the navigation panel.
Using All of Expressions

An All of expression is an advanced expression that can include multiple expressions used for conditions
that require all expressions to match. You can use the All of expression for making a condition true under
specific circumstances. For example, if you set the condition expression as shown in the following
illustration, the condition is true if you have a Tools and General Machinery project with a manufacturing
client in Europe or if you have a Tools and General Machinery project with a Manufacturing client in Asia.
The condition in the previous graphic would not be true if any of the fields did not match during project
creation.

If you want to create an expression that makes a condition true only if you have a client in both APAC and
EMEA, set your expression as follows:
Note: Expressions can be stacked and nested in many possible combinations. Take care while designing
conditions that the logic you define makes does not unintentionally contradict itself.
Using Any of Expressions

An Any of expression is true if one or more of the fields defined in it are chosen. For example, if you define
an Any of condition with four regions in it, that condition is true if from one to all four of those regions are
chosen during project creation.
Using None of Expressions

A None of condition is true only if none of the fields defined in it match. For example, if you define a None
of condition with APAC, EMEA, and the USA, the condition is true if Australia or Africa is chosen, but not
if Europe is.
Setting Conditions on Entire Templates

Sometimes you will want to make a template available only under certain conditions. You can associate a
condition to an entire template by setting the Conditions field in the Properties area of the template. If you
associate a condition with an entire template, the template only appears as an option during project creation
if the field that makes the condition true is set appropriately.
W To set a condition on an entire template:

1 Define the condition you want to apply to the entire template.
2 In the Properties area of the Overview tab of the template, click Actions > Edit Properties.
3 In the Conditions field, choose the condition you defined earlier.
4 Click Save.

5 Make sure the condition appears in the Overview tab of the template. In the example below, this template
only appears as a choice during project creation if the region is set to EMEA.
Forming Condition Questions

Questions in Ariba Sourcing help define sourcing project content from a given template during project
creation. Questions are useful only when combined with conditions, and are intended to help determine
which conditions are set for a given sourcing project.
Because answers can define conditions and the visibility of questions can be controlled with conditions, you
can have cascading conditional questions that are only asked if previous questions are given particular
answers.
Questions are presented to users during project creation using a particular template. Questions, when linked
to conditions, determine whether objects such as documents and tasks are included in the project.
To view or create questions for a particular template, navigate to the Conditions tab where the questions are
visible at the bottom of the screen and click Add Question.
The order of the questions in the table on the Conditions tab is the order in which the questions appear
during project creation. You can rearrange the questions by dragging and dropping them.
Questions define conditions for each defined answer and, exactly like conditions explicitly defined, you
must associate the condition to the object in the template you want to be conditionally included.
You can also change the visibility of a question by associating one or more conditions with it using Visibility
Conditions. Visibility conditions control whether the user creating the project from the template can see a
particular item. For example, if you set the visibility condition of a particular question’s answer to a
condition that is true only if the Region is APAC, that answer is only offered to users creating a project from
that template if the Region is APAC.
Note: Questions cannot be used to specify whether a template is available during project creation because
questions are defined within a given template, and cannot be defined independently of a template.
Creating and Editing Questions

Questions are always paired with answers. Answers are predefined responses to questions in templates.
Answers can trigger conditions, and whether an answer is visible is controlled by its visibility condition.

By default, only two answers are shown: Yes or No. You can change the text of any answer by editing it
directly in the table. Add as many answers as you like by clicking Add Another Answer. Answer text cannot be
blank. At least one answer must define a condition that is to be true if that answer is given, and any of the
answers can define a corresponding condition. Enter the condition name in the Defined Condition column.
The condition you define here is functionally identical to a condition defined explicitly, such as a Region
match. For a condition to have any effect on projects created from a template, you must associate the
conditions for each answer to an object, such as a task, document or user, in the system. The conditions that
a question's answers define do not appear in the Conditions table on the Conditions tab, but appear in italics
in a detail row below each question in the Questions table.
You can control which answer is the default and, therefore, shown initially during project creation by using
the radio button under Default Answer. If you check the Default must be Changed checkbox, the user is
required to actively choose an answer, and cannot create the project without making a choice. In many cases,
--- is shown for the text of a default answer that the user must supply, and you define no condition for that
answer.
Using Advanced Question Controls

When you are creating or editing a question, you have the option to set the Yes/No radio buttons for Is answer
visibility conditional? and Can answers set project fields? These provide more advanced capabilities for
controlling questions and answers.
If you set Is answer visibility conditional? to Yes, an additional column appears in the table of Answers, so
you can define a Visibility Condition for one or more answers. Setting Is answer visibility conditional? to
Yes allows you to have answers that the user sees only if one or more conditions are true.
If you set the Can answers set project fields? to Yes, a detail row appears under each answer, and you can
choose a field that should be set to a specified value when that answer is chosen. Initially, when you change
the field name for one answer, the field name changes for all of the fields. After you set a value for an
answer, you can change the field name for each answer independently. The assumption is that initially you
set the same field for every answer, but you can either override that and set different fields or set a field only
for a subset of the answers.
You can then define conditions based on particular values being set on the field, which can be used to gate
the appearance of additional content.
Testing Questions
You can test newly created questions using the Create My Test Project command under Advanced Options in
the navigation panel. Create My Test Project shows you what users will see when they create a project of the
same type as the template. In this test page, the template you are testing is the only choice. You can see the
questions and answer them. Create My Test Project allows you to return to the template editor only if you
answer required questions and enter data in all required fields. However, if you click Return to Template Editor
you can return to the template editor at any time.
When you return, the list of Test Conditions in the navigation panel is checked according to the results of the
choices you made during Create My Test Project. Items in the Documents, Tasks, and Team tabs are
inaccessible if their conditions are not checked. Although you can manually change the condition values in
the Navigation Panel, it is often more useful to change them through repeated cycles of creating a test
project.
Note: Using Advanced Options > Default Conditions resets the conditions back to their default state.

Chapter 4 Creating Sourcing Project Templates Adding Subprojects to Template
About Dynamic Template Application

The application evaluates template conditions are evaluated when you initially create a project, or when you
make changes are made on the Edit Overview screen.
Access the Edit Overview screen by clicking Actions > Edit Overview in the Overview area. On this screen,
you can change:
• The field choices made during project creation.
• Answers to questions on the Template Questions tab.
When you makes changes to field choices or question answers, the application evaluates template
conditions. Content not previously applicable can become applicable, and unmodified and non–applicable
content (added to the project from the template because of a condition that is no longer true) that you have
not modified and is no longer applicable can be removed from the project. Modified content is never
removed regardless of its applicability.
Note: The application treats any action with a document as a modification. Viewing a document, for
example, is considered modifying it.
Adding Subprojects to Template

You can add subprojects to templates. Subprojects are described in “Linking Sourcing Projects” on page 20.
W To add a subproject to a template:

1 Under Documents, choose Actions > Create > Subproject.
2 Choose the type of subproject to create.

The subproject is listed as a document on the Documents area of the template. It is actually a template for
the subproject.
When a user creates a project using this template, the subproject appears on the Documents tab, and in the
Documents area of the Overview.
Importing and Exporting Templates

You can export a finished template to a ZIP file, and import a compressed template back into Ariba
Sourcing.
Note: Do not export templates from a prior release of Ariba Sourcing, and then attempt to import them into
the current release. This will result in errors.
W To export a template:
1 Navigate to the Templates area of Ariba Sourcing. You must be able to view a template to export it, but
you do not necessarily have to be the owner.
2 Open the template you want to export. The template can have any status.
3 In the Properties area of the Overview tab of the template, click Actions > Export Template.
4 Choose the location to save the archive ZIP file. Note that DFS is not required for template export or
import, and exported ZIP archives are not placed an any particular location by default.

Controlling Template Access Chapter 4 Creating Sourcing Project Templates
5 Choose a name for the archive ZIP file and save it. By default, the ZIP file is named for the Workspace ID
of the template. You can rename it.
W To Import a Template:
1 Click Templates in the Navigation Panel. You must be able to view the Templates project to import a
template.
2 Go to the templates workspace Documents tab, click the Actions > Import Template.
3 Browse for a valid ZIP template archive file and click Import.
4 Verify that the template has imported properly. You are the owner of any templates you import, so you
automatically have the ability to view it.
Exporting Templates with External References

When exporting a template, only documents from that template export to the ZIP archive.
If there are shortcuts to Knowledge Library documents, only the shortcuts copy, but not the referenced
Knowledge Library documents themselves. If the referenced Knowledge Library documents are in the target
system, then the shortcuts will point to those. If the referenced documents are not available, the shortcuts are
still imported but a warning message will result when you attempt to view the referenced documents.
Controlling Template Access

You can control access to the Manage Templates link (and to the template editor) by:
• Asking your administrator add the specific users to the global group Template Creator. See the Ariba User
Management Guide for Sourcing, Contract Management, and Spend Visibility for details on groups.
• Adding specific users to the Templates project team
If a user is a member of the Templates project team, they can access Manage Templates.
W To add a user to the Templates project team:

1 Log in as a user who already has access to the Templates project team.
2 Click Common Actions > Manage Templates. Click the Team tab of the Templates project.
Add the user to one of the project groups, but not the Project Owner group. Be careful not to add
inappropriate users to the Project Owner group, since that group enables special privileges.
Understanding Project Owner Group Characteristics

Users in the Project Owner group can add or remove users from the other team project groups so it is
important to carefully choose members of Project Owner group for the templates workspace. Users that
should only view and create templates should not be added to the Project Owner group.
After a template exists, anyone in the Project Owner group for the template can view and edit it, regardless
of whether they are on the templates team. Thus, the user who initially creates the template can then add
other users cannot create templates, but can can edit and improve the a template.

Chapter 4 Creating Sourcing Project Templates Using Notification Profiles
Note: When a project is first created from a template, all tasks are generally owned by the Project Owner
group, or another project group it is the owner shown in the template.
Initially the tasks are open to any of the users in the owner group to take them on, but individuals take
ownership of tasks when they mark them as started. The previous owner project group is set as a Participant,
so group members can continue to edit the task.
You can use project group ownership to restrict viewing of folders within templates. This practice makes
templates team members unable to explore in a folder restricted to owners and has a particular project group
as its owner. This practice does not, however, prevent the template team user from searching to find
templates within such folders. Project access permissions do not check nested folder permissions containing
the project or template.
Only members of the templates team can move templates with drag and drop in the templates area. If a user
isn't in the Team for the Templates Project, that user could still be a team member of an individual template.
However, because that user is not a member of the Templates Project, the user would have to search for the
template by name to view it.
Note: Users who are not members of the Templates workspace cannot view templates because the Access
Control for the workspace is set to Team Members Only. Furthermore, if the Access Control for the
Templates workspace is set to Private to Team Members, only members of the team can see the Templates
link in the upper right of the Search Projects screen or the Manage Templates link in the Navigation Panel. If
you want all users to be able to view templates, you can remove the access control.
Using Notification Profiles

Notification profiles in templates specify exactly how and when notifications are sent for tasks. You can
design notification profiles within a template and then apply the profile to any task in that template. Any
sourcing project created from that template inherits the specified task-specific profiles.
Notification profile specifications are overridden by any notification preferences that users specify. See
“Using Notifications” on page 21 for details on these preferences.
Rules for Notification Profiles

Notification profiles have these characteristics:
• Notification profiles cannot be shared between templates
• Two distinct templates can both contain identical profiles, with identical names without incident
• Users cannot override the notification profile for tasks in a sourcing project created from the template
• When users create an ad hoc task, they can choose between the profiles specified in the template, or create
a custom profile
• The settings in a user's Email Notification Preferences always override the notification profile
• The None profile sends no notifications for any task
• You cannot use negative day offsets in notification profiles
W To create a notification profile:

1 Navigate to the template in which you want to create the profile.
2 Navigate to the Tasks tab.

Using Notification Profiles Chapter 4 Creating Sourcing Project Templates
3 Click Actions > Manage Notification Profiles.
4 On the Notification Profiles screen, click New.
5 Enter the profile name and values.
6 Click OK.
This profile is now available to associate with tasks in the template.
W To associate a notification profile with a task:

1 Navigate to the template (in Draft mode).
3 View the details of the task.
4 Click the task name and choose Edit Task to edit the task.
5 Expand the Notifications section of the screen, and choose a notification profile.
6 Click OK.

Chapter 5 Working with Tasks and Phases
• “Working With Tasks” on page 47

• “Working With Phases” on page 55
Working With Tasks

All tasks can be required or optional. Tasks can depend on phases, but not on other tasks, unless they are
designated as Predecessor tasks. It is good practice to place your tasks in phases. This allows you to set up
the task start date as a number of days after the parent phase starts, allowing you to have a task start date
already established when you create the project.
The Tasks tab displays the tasks that apply to the project. Generally, project templates provide a default set
of tasks. The following graphic shows a list of example tasks.
The following table lists the actions you can perform from the Tasks tab.
Control task display the table icon and choose View By to change the task listing (by owner, or status, for
example), or choose Show/Hide Columns to show or hide columns.
Expand collapsed phases, or the table icon and choose Outline Expansion > Expand All or Collapse All.
collapse them
Export a list of tasks to the table icon and choose Export to Excel > Export all Rows.
Microsoft Excel
View task details the task name and choose View Task Details. You can view the task status, owner,
whether it is a milestone, due date, start date, the observers, whether it is required,
and the predecessor tasks.
Edit the task the task name and choose Edit Task. You can edit the task title, the owner, whether it
is a milestone, the completion date, the start date, the observers, whether it is
required, and the predecessor tasks.
Mark the task as complete the task name and choose Mark Complete. The task status changes to Complete.

Working With Tasks Chapter 5 Working with Tasks and Phases
Mark the task as started the task name and choose Mark Started. The task status changes to In Progress.
Reactivate a complete task the task name and choose Reactivate. This changes the status of the task from
Complete to Not Started.
Associate documents with a the task name and choose Associate Document. This allows you to either change the
task, or change the document document associated with the task or change the task type. For example, if you
associated with a task associate a document to a To Do task, you can then change the task type to Review
Task. For more information, see “page 48Changing a Task Type or Associating a
Document” on page 53.
Create a new phase Action > Create > Phase to create a phase for dividing your tasks. You can format
the phase description text with bold, italic, underlining, lists, or colors.
Create a To Do task Action > Create > To Do Task to create a To Do task, which is a simple task to help
you keep track of actions you or other team members should perform. You can
format documents descriptions.
Cancel optional tasks Action > Cancel > Optional Tasks to cancel non-required tasks. This can help clarify
what is important for the project if your group has accumulated too many optional
tasks.
Add due dates for tasks Action > Commit > Due Dates to add dates in the Due Date field for each task into
the Committed column of the Tasks screen. You can use this date to keep track of
project progress and track externally committed due dates. Only the project owner
can commit due dates. Committed due dates do not have an approval process.
Note: Task due dates are expressed in calendar dates and do not take time zones into
account. This means that, from a task owner’s point of view, that a task might be
completed a day earlier or a day later depending on the time zone of the individual
assigned to complete the task.
Import or export the task list to Action > Microsoft Project > Import/Export to import or export your task list. See
Microsoft Project “Integrating with Microsoft Project and Outlook” on page 69 for details.
Working with the My Tasks Page

Click My Tasks to access the My Tasks page, which lists all tasks assigned to you in all projects. You can filter
tasks by project name, status, date, or required or optional.
W To access My Tasks:
1 On the dashboard, click View More in the To Do content area.
2 Choose My Tasks:

Chapter 5 Working with Tasks and Phases Working With Tasks
The following table lists the tasks you can perform from the My Tasks screen.
View a project the project title. This takes you to the project itself.
Control task display the table icon and choose View By to change the task listing (by owner, or status, for
example), or choose Show/Hide Columns to show or hide columns.
Expand collapsed phases, or the table icon and choose Outline Expansion > Expand All or Export Current Page.
collapse them
Export a list of tasks to the table icon and choose Export to Excel > Export all Rows Expansion > Expand All
Microsoft Excel or Collapse All. This expands or collapses your view of the phases.
View task details the task name and choose View Task Details. You can view the task status, owner,
whether it is a milestone, due date, start date, the observers, whether it is required,
and the predecessor tasks.
Edit the task the task name and choose Edit Task. You can edit the task title, owner, whether it is a
milestone, due date, start date, the observers, whether it is required, and the
predecessor tasks.
Mark the task as complete the task name and choose Mark Complete. The task status changes to Complete.
Mark the task as started the task name and choose Mark Started. The task status changes to In Progress.
Reactivate a complete task the task name and choose Reactivate. This changes the status of the task from
Complete to Not Started.
Associate documents with a the task name and choose Associate Document. This allows you to either change the
task, or change the document document associated with the task or change the task type. For example, if you
associated with a task associate a document with a To Do task, you can then change the task type to
Review Task. For more information, see “page 48Changing a Task Type or
Associating a Document” on page 53.
Approve a task the task name and choose Approve Task. This allows you to approve an approval task
assigned to you without viewing task details.
Deny a task the task name and choose Deny Task. This allows you to deny an approval task
without viewing task details.
Open a document the task name and choose Open Document to open the document associated with the
task.
Complete the review of a task the task name and choose Complete Review to finish the review of a document
associated with a task. This action is available only if you are a reviewer for the
document. This action only completes your portion of the review, and might not
complete the task
Dismiss a task Action > Dismiss Tasks where Dismiss is the only possible action to dismiss tasks
you did not own but were completed by the owner before you could mark them
complete.
Or choose Dismiss Tasks where I am a watcher, not an approver to dismiss tasks

that you are not required to complete, reverse, approve, or deny.

Creating To Do Tasks
A To Do Task is a simple task that tracks an action. Unlike negotiation, review, or approval tasks, a To Do
task does not have to be associated with a document.
W To create a To Do task:
1 On the Tasks tab, choose Actions > Create To Do Task.
2 On the New To Do Task screen, enter a title and description.
3 Choose the owner (the team member who performs the task).
4 Choose any observers. Observers can view the task and add documents.
5 Specify a due date for the task.

6 Specify if the task is a milestone. If you choose Yes, the task is listed on the Overview tab and is identified
by an icon on the Tasks tab.
7 Specify if the task is required. Required tasks are marked with an asterisk (*).
8 For tasks you create in templates, enter a rank, which is a number that controls the chronological ordering
of tasks. For example, a task with rank 10 appears above and before a task with rank 20. You can also
change the ordering of task by dragging and dropping them on the Tasks tab.
9 Specify predecessors. These are the tasks which must be completed before the current phase can start. See
“Using Predecessor Tasks” on page 54 for details.
10 Click OK.
Note: You can also create Document To Do tasks. To do so, go to the Documents tab, click a document name
and choose Create New Task > To Do.
Working With Review and Approval Tasks

Review and Approval tasks are associated with a particular document being sent for approval or review. For
example, if you have a form to be reviewed by a particular team member, you could assign a Review task
directly from that document.
Note: Use an Approval for Launch task rather than an Approval task to manage approvals for an event.
Creating Review and Approval Tasks
W To create review or approval tasks on documents:

1 On the Documents Tab, click the name of the document you want to send for review or approval and
choose Create New Task > Review or Create New Task > Approval.
To send multiple documents for review or approval, you must group them together in a folder and send the
whole folder for review.
2 Enter a title and description for the task.
3 Choose the reviewer. To specify multiple reviewers, you can use either of the following methods:
• Select multiple names from the chooser next to the Reviewers or Approvers field. This adds the users as
parallel nodes in the approval flow. Only one user in a set of parallel nodes is needed to review or
approve the document.

• Click the Review Flow or Approval Flow tab and then add users or groups. This enables you to add
reviewers in parallel nodes or serial nodes (users must review or approve the document in the specified
order).
If you are viewing the details of a task that is inherited from a template or viewing the task details for
subsequent review rounds, you must click the Review Flow or Approval Flow tab to add reviewers.
The behavior for groups in approval flows is controlled by system parameters and the task type. The
default behavior is as follows:
• For review tasks, the system expands the group (and any subgroups) and inserts each user as a parallel
approver in the approval flow. Each user receives notification about the task. Multiple members of the
group can review the document; the task remains in each user’s My Tasks list until the user reviews the
task or the task owner marks the review complete.
• For approval (and negotiation) tasks, the system inserts the group as a single unit in the approval or
negotiation flow. All users in the group receive notification about the task. Any one user in the group is
sufficient to approve (or review) the task (or move to the next approver in a serial flow).
6 Specify predecessors. These are the tasks which must be completed before the current phase can start. See
“Using Predecessor Tasks” on page 54 for details.
7 Enter a message to the reviewers.
8 Expand the Advanced Task Details. You can choose to lock the document (prevent changes while it is
locked), receive notification on comment, enable the reviewer to edit the document, and specify the order
of the task in relation to other tasks and phases. Expand Notifications to specify the time duration for
notification.
9 Click OK.
You can also create a Review or Approval task by first creating a To Do task, and then associating a
document with that task. For more information on this, see “page 48Changing a Task Type or Associating a
Document” on page 53
W To create review or approval tasks for an entire project:

1 In the Overview Area on the Overview project tab, choose Actions > View Details.
2 In the Tasks area, choose Actions > Create New Task > Create New Task > Review or Create New Task >
Approval.

3 Follow the instructions from step 2 for “To create review or approval tasks on documents:” to complete
the task.
Creating Negotiation Tasks

Negotiation tasks consist of one or more rounds of negotiation between two parties. A negotiation task
captures the negotiations between two or more parties related to a document. For example, if you are
negotiating with a supplier or customer, a negotiation task can capture comments (for of both you) and
changes.
Negotiation tasks are associated with a single document. You cannot associate multiple documents with a
single negotiation task. You can associate multiple tasks with a single document. You can associate a
negotiation task to a folder containing more than one document, but in that case the negotiation only
operates on the folder itself, not on the documents in the folder. You cannot create Negotiation tasks for PDF
documents.
If you have a Negotiation task on an eForm, the party with which you are negotiating often does not have
write access to the eForm. They either accept the eForm as it is or suggest changes in a counter proposal
where the changes are described in comments or in attached documents. The eForm owner can make the
changes and submit the new version as the proposal for the next round. The ability to make the counter
proposal using the eForm user interface itself is not supported.
Note: If you have a Negotiation task with a person who cannot access the application (a supplier or customer,
for example), you can negotiate with that person by assigning them as an Email Reviewer.
W To create negotiation tasks for a document:

1 On the Documents tab, click a document name and choose Create New Task > Negotiation.
2 Enter a title and description for the task.
3 Choose the reviewer. For more information about choosing reviewers, see “Creating Review and
Approval Tasks” on page 50.
6 Specify predecessor tasks. These are the tasks which must be completed before the current phase can
start. See “Using Predecessor Tasks” on page 54 for details.
7 Enter a message to the reviewers.
8 Expand the Advanced Task Details. You can choose to lock the document (prevent changes while it is
locked), receive notification on comment, enable the reviewer to edit the document, and specify the order
of the task in relation to other tasks and phases. Expand Notifications to specify the time duration for
notification.
9 Click OK.
Negotiation tasks consist of rounds of negotiation. You can create a new round by clicking New Round. The
current round appears in the upper right of the task View Details screen.
You can delete a round under the following conditions:

• This round is not the first round
• The round is submitted
• The negotiation task is optional

• The negotiation task is required and the previous round was not denied or withdrawn
• The document version in the current round is the same as the previous round.
W To create negotiation tasks for an entire project:

1 In the Overview Area on the Overview project tab, choose Actions > View Details.
2 In the Tasks area, choose Actions > Create New Task > Create New Task > Negotiation.
3 Follow the instructions from step 2 for “To create negotiation tasks for a document:” to complete the task.
Changing a Task Type or Associating a Document

Sometimes you might need to either add a document to a To Do task, or to change the task type of an
existing task. You can do both of these using Associate Document.
You can use Associate Document only for ad hoc tasks (tasks not specified by the template used to create the
project). Associate document allows you to change task types as well as associate a document or folder with
a task.
Using document association, you can create a To Do task, and then associate a document with it. This is also
useful when building templates, as often the tasks must be created before their associated document.
You can use Associate Document in both projects and templates, but it is only allowed for Inactive tasks.
This prevents a task from being changed while another team member is working on it.
W To associate a document with a task or change a task's type:

1 Navigate to the task that you want to add a document to, or whose type you want to change.
2 Click the task title and choose Associate Document.
3 Depending on what type of task you started with, you can change the type using Task Type. If you started
with a To Do task (which does not have an association with a document), you must choose a document
from the chooser before seeing a Task Type other than To Do.
4 Click OK.

Using Predecessor Tasks

You can use predecessor tasks and phases. These help you enforce business rules about the tasks team
members must complete before they move on to the next task. You can nest tasks in phases. Tasks can have
and be predecessors for phases or tasks. Choose the predecessor from the available tasks and phases:
You can specify more than one predecessor. The predecessors are listed as shown in the following:
You can specify predecessors in templates and projects. If you create predecessors from a template, team
members cannot change predecessor relationships in the project, but can add new predecessors to it. Also,
you cannot start a task until all of its predecessors are complete.
If you delete a task, or if a condition deletes it, the application removes it as a predecessor. When you cancel
an optional task that is the predecessor for another task, you can start that next task if there are no other
dependencies.
You cannot set a task as its own predecessor, or create a cyclic dependency. For example, if you set Task A as
a predecessor for Task B, you cannot then set Task B as a predecessor for Task A. Also, you cannot set
predecessor tasks in combination with recurring tasks.
Note: Predecessor tasks do not automatically start and complete. You must manually start or complete a
predecessor task.

Chapter 5 Working with Tasks and Phases Working With Phases
Working With Phases

A phase is an organizational structure for tasks. It is not necessary to use phases in a project, but they are
helpful in organizing tasks and activities.
Phases can either come from a template, or you can create them in a project. Like any object, you can edit
the properties of a phase by clicking View Details and Edit.
When you have multiple phases in a template, and then use it to create a project, the first phase starts
automatically and shows the status of In Progress in the resulting project.
• “Creating Phases” on page 55
• “Editing Phases” on page 55
• “Using Predecessor Phases” on page 56
• “Using Recurring Phases” on page 56
Creating Phases
W To create a phase:
1 On the Tasks tab of the project, click Actions > Create > Phase.
2 Enter a title for the phase.
3 Provide a description for this new phase. You can view this description by clicking the phase in the Tasks
tab of a project and choosing View Details.
4 Use Subscribe For to choose associated keywords.
5 Use Display After to choose the position of this phase in the list of phases and tasks. For phases you
create in templates, enter a rank, which is a number that controls the chronological ordering of tasks. For
example, a phase with rank 10 appears above and before a phase with rank 20. You can also change the
ordering of phases and tasks by dragging and dropping them on the Tasks tab.
6 If this phase (and the tasks in it) are going to occur in the project more than once, set Recurring Schedule to
Yes and set the Recurrence Schedule. See “Using Recurring Phases” on page 56 for details.
7 Specify predecessors. These are the phases or tasks which must be completed before the current phase can
start. See “Using Predecessor Phases” on page 56 for details.
8 Click OK.
Editing Phases
After you create a phase, you can edit it to further suit your needs. To edit a phase, click its title and choose
Edit Phase. The following table lists the options available for phases:
This Phase Setting... Controls...

Title The display title of the phase.
Description The description of the phase. The description can be helpful in explaining when recurring
phases should be started, or when a particular phase is necessary.

Working With Phases Chapter 5 Working with Tasks and Phases
This Phase Setting... Controls...

Subscribe For Which keywords are seen as important in this phase. You can use phases to present
keywords for knowledge matching by entering relevant keywords for the phase in the
Subscribe For field. For example, if a phase deals with customer relationship, you could
add the keyword Supplier. Then, all documents in the project that are associated with
Supplier automatically appear in the Related Knowledge area on the Dashboard when this
phase is active. See “Using Knowledge Management” on page 63 for details on knowledge
matching.
Display After Where, visually, the phases are displayed. This setting does not control the due date of the
phase, only the vertical order in which the phase appears.
Planned Start Date When the phase should begin. You can choose a specific date for a phase to begin or set a
date offset, so that if previous tasks or phases run longer than scheduled, you do not need
to change the date manually.
Recurring Schedule Whether or not this phase is recurring. If this is set to Yes, additional recurrence controls
appear to allow you to specify recurrence. For more information on recurring phases, see
“Using Recurring Phases” on page 56.
Alert The alert color for the phase. By default, outside actions do not trigger this value and you
must set it manually. The alert is a visual cue for overdue phases.
If set, the alert appears as a colored box on the far right of the Tasks tab for the phase.
Using Predecessor Phases

You can use supports predecessor tasks and phases. These help you enforce business rules about what phases
and tasks team members must complete before they move on to the next phase or task. You can nest tasks in
phases. Phases can have and be predecessors for phases or tasks. Choose the predecessor from the available
tasks and phases. You can specify more than one predecessor. Predecessor phases must be completed before
the succeeding phase or task can start.
You can specify predecessor phases in templates and projects. If you specify the predecessor phase in a
project, team members cannot change the predecessor relationship, but can add new predecessors to it. Also,
you cannot start a succeeding phase or task until all of its predecessors are complete.
Predecessor phases can auto-start upon creation and can auto-complete when all tasks in the phase are
complete if the application settings allow automatic phase start and completion. See your application
administrator about phase autostart and complete settings.
Note: Only parent phases can be designated as predecessor phases. You cannot specify nested phases as
predecessors to other phases or tasks.
Using Recurring Phases

You use recurring phases for repeating processes. For example, if you have a monthly review that involves
three tasks for each recurrence, you can set a recurring phase containing those tasks. They can be provided
as part of the project template, or you can create them in your project. Recurring phases are controlled by a
master recurrence, which has a rotating arrow icon:

Chapter 5 Working with Tasks and Phases Working With Phases
The application marks the recurring phase with the month in which it was created.
Note: Do not specify recurring phases as predecessors.
Creating and Modifying Recurring Phases

The occurrences of a recurring phase inherit all of the properties of the master recurrence, such as recurring
schedule. Modifying the master recurrence modifies all of the occurrences it creates.
W To create a master recurring phase:

1 On the Tasks tab, click Actions and choose Create > Phase.
2 Enter a name for the recurring phase.
3 For Recurring Schedule, click the Yes radio button.
4 Enter the recurrence time pattern.

5 Click Done.
W To change the time interval for a recurrence:

1 Display the master recurrence.
2 Click the master recurrence name and choose Action > View Phase Details.
3 Click Action and choose Phase > Edit.
4 Modify the recurrence time.
5 Click OK.
W To create a new occurrence in the recurring phase:
You can only create a new occurrence in a recurring phase that has been started.
2 Click the master recurrence name and choose Action > View Phase Details.
3 Click Action and choose Create New Occurrence.
Starting and Stopping a Recurring Phase

You must start the recurrence for the first time to trigger the recurring phase sequence. Each occurrence has
a unique name (such as Progress Report - April 2007). The application continues to create occurrences until
you stop the recurrence or end the project, regardless of whether the previous phases are completed.
When you start the recurrence, the master recurrence disappears and is replaced by an actual phase. This
phase contains all of the tasks the master recurrence contained. The application marks the phase with the
month in which it was created. The next scheduled phase in the recurrence will begin automatically unless
you stop the recurrence. Stopping the recurrence halts the automatic generation of new recurring phases
from the master recurrence.
Because the application copies all tasks for each occurrence of the phase from the master recurrence, be sure
to publish all documents associated with the master recurrence before starting the recurrence so that they can
be used in the occurrences.

Working With Phases Chapter 5 Working with Tasks and Phases
W To start, stop, or restart the recurrence:

2 Click the master recurrence name and choose Action > Start Recurrence, or Action > Stop Recurrence, or Action
> Restart Recurrence.
Displaying Recurring Phases

By default, after the recurring phase begins, the occurrences display but the master recurrence is hidden. You
can show the master recurrence in order to view its details or edit it, or hide it when you don’t need to work
with it to keep the Tasks tab uncluttered.
W To display or hide the master recurrence:
Click the name of any occurrence of the master recurrence and choose Action > Show Recurrence or Action >
Hide Recurrence.
Handling Documents Associated with Recurring Phases

If a task in a recurring phase refers to a document, such as a review or approval task, you can specify either
of the following two behaviors for the document when the phase recurs:
• Each occurrence creates a new version of the document
• Each occurrence creates a new v1 copy of the document
On the Tasks tab, the Document column displays the documents associated with tasks in a recurring phase.
W To specify how to handle documents associated with recurring phases:

1 In the master recurrence, locate the document associated with a recurring task.
2 Click the document title and choose Edit Attributes.
3 In the Recurrence area at the bottom of the document screen, choose whether to create a new version of
the document or a copy of the document for each occurrence.
4 Click Save.

Chapter 6 Adding Users to Teams
• “About Project Teams” on page 59

• “Assigning Roles to Project Groups” on page 64
• “Understanding Team Access in Subprojects” on page 65
About Project Teams

When you create a project, you specify a team of users to work on the project. A project team consists of
project groups. Each project group has different roles, which specify the permissions for the users in that
group. The permissions specify the objects the users can access and what actions the users can perform in
that project. Creating groups with different roles enables you to assign users to the project team with
different roles and capabilities.
The Team tab area shows the project groups for that project. The following graphic shows an example of a
team, with the various project groups that comprise the team. Note that project groups can have one or many
members.
Group members can be individual team members or global groups. In this example, Event Administrator is a
global group. Global groups differ from project groups. Project groups are specific groups that are working
on a project. Global groups function for all of Ariba applications, not just in the project. Users can be
members of both types of group, but membership in a project group does not automatically assign a user to a
global group or assign any permanent access to the user.
In addition to team membership, there are access controls that can be set at the document or project level.
These access controls enable a project or document owner to refine the control of project team member
access to a project or document. Each project or document has associated access control settings. Users who
satisfy the access control settings are able to view the project or document and potentially modify it. Users
who do not satisfy the access control settings cannot view the project and are unaware that it exists, even if
they are team members.
Membership in a project group allows users to perform certain tasks at a project level, not a global level. If
you want to give a large group of people access to an event, set the access control rather than adding them as
team members. Add people as team members if you have a small group of people who need to receive
notifications and participate in the project.

About Project Teams Chapter 6 Adding Users to Teams
Project Owner Group

Every project team has a Project Owner group. In general terms, the Project Owner group is the most
powerful group in a project and always has special capabilities and access rights, independent of any roles
assigned to it.
Unique Characteristics
The Project Owner group has the following unique characteristics:
• The system creates a Project Owner group for every project.
• You cannot delete the Project Owner group.
• The Project Owner group always contains the Owner for the project. By default, the user who creates a
project is the Owner for the project, so the Project Owner group initially contains the user who created the
project.
You cannot remove the Owner of the project from the Project Owner group. If a user is the Owner of the
Project, the only way to remove that user from the Project Owner group is by using the Replace User
operation to change the Owner of the project to another user, then removing the original owner from the
Project Owner group.
• To prepopulate the Project Owner group from a template, you must use a Team Member Rules file. (If
you add users to the Project Owner group in a template from the Team tab, those users will be members of
the Project Owner group for that template project only; they are not inherited by any projects created
using that template.)
• The Project Owner group always has certain permissions and access rights regardless of any roles
assigned to it. For descriptions of these permissions and rights, see “Project Owner Group Capabilities”
on page 61.
• External users, such as suppliers, cannot be members of the Project Owner group.
Additional Users with Project Owner Capabilities

The Project Owner group is also unique because the following users have the same permissions and
capabilities as members of the Project Owner group without being members of the group:
• Users who are members of a global group that has the permission Manage Project (such as the Project
Administrator or Event Administrator group) and are on the project team (as a member of any project
group).
Users who are members of a global group with permissions that grant some Project Owner capabilities
(such as the Contract Administrator group, which grants access to classified and draft documents in
contract projects) will get those permissions for a given project if they are a member of any group in that
project.
• Users who are members of a project group that has the Project Owner role assigned to it.
Ariba Spend Management also provides a Project Owner role. You can create a project group and assign
it the Project Owner role, and members of that group will have the same permissions and access rights as
members of the Project Owner group within that project.

Chapter 6 Adding Users to Teams About Project Teams
Project Owner Group Capabilities

The Project Owner group has the following special permissions and access rights regardless of any roles
assigned to it. Users in the Project Owner group can:
• View edit, and create documents, including subprojects, for which they have the appropriate access. The
Project Owner group satisfies the requirements for the following access control settings:
• Owner Only
• Private to Team Members
• Draft Access Restricted (members of the Project Owner group can access documents that have never
been published even if they are not the document owner and Draft Access Restricted access control is
set)
• Classified
• View, edit, and create the following items in the project:
• Announcements.
• Project Attributes.
• Tasks, including comments from reviewers, approvers, and negotiation partners.
• Surveys.
• RFIs and RFPs.
• Create new project groups and add new users to project groups.
• View the project history (the History tab).
• Compose or read messages in events.
Project Owner Group Restrictions

Users in the Project Owner group cannot:
• Delete objects inherited from the template.
• Change a required task inherited from the template to an optional task.
• Edit project groups with the template field Can owner edit this Project Group set to No.
Project Group Roles

When designing templates or creating a project, you might want to create groups with different capabilities
and access rights. You configure capabilities and access rights for a group by assigning a role to a group. You
can create groups and assign these roles to groups at the template or individual project level.
You can add the following roles to a project group:

• Project Owner
• Active Team Member
• Observer Team Member
• Team Member with Limited Access
Tip: The most commonly used roles are Active Team Member and Observer Team Member.

About Project Teams Chapter 6 Adding Users to Teams
Project Owner Role

Assigning the Project Owner role to a user-created project group gives members of that group all the
capabilities of the Project Owner group, as described in “Project Owner Group” on page 60.
Active Team Member Role

In general terms, the Active Team Member role can add tasks and documents to a project. Specifically, users
in a group with the Active Team Member role can:
• View and create the following items in the project:
• Announcements
• Tasks
• Documents, including subprojects, for which he has the appropriate access. The Active Team Member
role satisfies the requirements for the Private to Team Members access control setting.
• View project groups.
Active Team Member Restrictions

Users in a group with the Active Team Member role have all the restrictions of a Project Owner member
(“Project Owner Group Restrictions” on page 61). In addition, they cannot:
• Edit project attributes.
• Edit a document if they are not the document owner.
• Edit or submit tasks if they are not the task owner.
• Create tasks for a document if they are not the document owner.
• Add or edit project groups.
• View the project history (the History tab).
Observer Team Member Role

In general terms, the Observer Team Member role can view information about a project but cannot create
tasks or documents. Specifically, users in a group with the Observer Team Member role can:
• Create or edit project announcements.
• View tasks.
• View documents, including subprojects, for which he has access.
The Observer Team Member role does not satisfy any access control setting requirements. A member of a
group with this role would be able to view a project document that had no access control settings.

Chapter 6 Adding Users to Teams Using the Team Tab
Observer Team Member Restrictions

Users in a group with the Observer Team Member role have all the restrictions of the Project Owner group
(“Project Owner Group Restrictions” on page 61) and Active Team Member role (“Active Team Member
Restrictions” on page 62). In addition, they cannot:
• Create documents.
• Create tasks.
Team Member with Limited Access Role

A user in a group with the Team Member with Limited Access role can:
• Create or edit project announcements.
• View tasks.
• View documents, including subprojects, for which he has access.
The Team Member with Limited Access role does not satisfy any access control setting requirements. A
member of a group with this role would be able to view a project document that had no access control
settings.
A user in a group with the Document Signer role can be added as a signer to a signature task.
Using the Team Tab

Define the team for your project on the Team tab. The Team tab displays the groups and group members that
are collaborating on the project. The initial groups are provided by default by the template, and you cannot
delete these groups. Click the group name to see details about the group.
By default, all projects contain the Project Owner group. This group has special capabilities, as described in
“Project Owner Group” on page 60.
W To create a project group:

1 When viewing a project in Full View, click the Team tab.
2 Click Edit.
3 Click Add Group.
4 Enter a title for the group.
5 Define any roles for the group. see “Assigning Roles to Project Groups” on page 64.
6 Click OK.
W To add team members to your project:

2 Click Edit.
3 To add a member to an existing group, click the select link associated with that group, and choose a name
from the checklist, or click Other and search for a team member.

Assigning Roles to Project Groups Chapter 6 Adding Users to Teams
W To remove a team member:

2 In the upper right hand corner of the screen, click Edit.
3 To remove a member from a group, click the select link associated with that group, and click the
member’s name.
Note: To globally replace a team member with a different team member, contact your administrator. The
procedure is documented in the Ariba Upstream Platform Customization Guide.
Assigning Roles to Project Groups

When designing templates or creating a project, you might want to assign different roles to the various
groups who use the template. Two roles that are significant for projects are Active Team Member and
Observer Team Member. You define these roles for each project, at the template or individual project level.
The active team member can modify the project and its contents. Active Team members can create tasks in
projects, can create documents, and receive email notifications about events in the project’s life cycle.
The observer team member can view the project, but does not participate in its creation. The following
example illustrates how to add an observer group to a project.
W Example: Adding an observer group

1 Navigate to the Team tab.
2 Click Edit.
3 Click Add Group.
4 Name the project group observers and choose the observer team member.
By default, the Observer Team Member role grants only the ability to edit announcements. Users in this
group do not receive email notifications about the project, and can only create basic objects in the project,
like To Do tasks and documents.
5 Click OK.
Note: If you specify the project owner at the template level, the project owner can edit the project group. This
capability is granted by group, and is not global for all project groups.

Chapter 6 Adding Users to Teams Understanding Team Access in Subprojects
Understanding Team Access in Subprojects

A subproject is a project owned by another project, residing within the parent project's folder hierarchy, that
inherits team members and other information from its parent.
A team member who belongs only to a subproject cannot view the parent project if the parent is marked as
private. If subproject team member needs to access the parent project, you must add that member as a team
member for the parent project.
If you have groups in the parent project and in the subproject with the same names, then members of the
subproject groups have the same access they had in the parent project. Groups that have different names
between subprojects and parent projects do not inherit access.
Note: The same project groups must exist in the master project and the subproject in order for permission
inheritance to work.
You can control the inheritance of the team from the parent project to the subproject in a template by setting
the Doesn't Inherit Team field in the template. Setting this field only affects team inheritance attributes.
W To set Doesn't Inherit Team on a subproject in a template:

1 Navigate to the Documents tab of a template. You must be a member of the Templates Team to view
templates.
2 Make sure the template is in Draft status so it can be edited.
3 Click Actions > Create Subproject on the Documents tab.

This does not actually create a subproject, but creates a placeholder for subprojects that you create later
when users create a parent project with this template.
4 Choose the type of project for the future subproject.
5 Set the attributes of the subproject placeholder, including Doesn't Inherit Team.
6 Save the subproject placeholder.
7 The subproject placeholder appears on the Documents tab as a folder icon with a phase icon on it. You can
assign conditions to this object exactly as you would any other document, task, or user in the template.

Understanding Team Access in Subprojects Chapter 6 Adding Users to Teams

Chapter 7 Using Knowledge Management
• “Related Knowledge Area” on page 67

• “Knowledge Projects” on page 68
• “Using Knowledge Projects” on page 69
• “Types of Knowledge Document Matching” on page 70
• “Refreshing the Knowledge Area” on page 72
• “Administering Knowledge Management Keywords” on page 72
Related Knowledge Area

Knowledge management allows you to associate archived business information with certain commodities,
regions, departments, or with pre-loaded keywords. When users create projects with those attributes or
associated keywords, Ariba displays the pertinent information in a Related Knowledge area on the
Dashboard.
The following is an example of listed related knowledge for a project.
Ariba can display a maximum of four projects and six published documents in the Related Knowledge area,
although there is no limit to the number of documents or projects you can set up as Related Knowledge. You
can access additional documents through the Search Knowledge link. The More link displays a menu
containing additional related knowledge projects and documents.

Knowledge Projects Chapter 7 Using Knowledge Management
The most relevant information appears at the top of the Related Knowledge area. For example, if your
project pertains to China, knowledge specific to China appears at the top, followed by knowledge for APAC,
and then generic knowledge.
Knowledge Projects
You access the information used in Knowledge Management by creating knowledge projects. These are
projects designed to contain general knowledge about your company and your company's processes that you
want to access or reuse.
Users do not need to be able to view or create knowledge projects to take advantage of the knowledge itself.
Related knowledge appears in the Knowledge Area independently of a user's access.
Creating Knowledge Projects

Global access control your ability to create knowledge projects. The groups Event Administrator,
Commodity Manager, Customer Administrator, Ariba Sourcing Manager, Procurement Manager,
Procurement Agent, Contract Manager, and Contract Agent have the ability to create and edit knowledge
projects.
W To create a knowledge project:

1 Log in as a user who is a member of one of the groups that have the ability to create a knowledge project.
2 In the Common Actions area, click Create > Knowledge Project.
3 Enter the information pertaining to the type of knowledge you are archiving.
4 Click Create.
Note: Initially, you create knowledge projects in the same location as other projects. After you create it, you
must move your knowledge project into the Knowledge Area of the Vault, which is a content repository.
W To move a newly created knowledge project to the Knowledge Areas area of the vault:
1 Select the type of object to search for and click Search.
2 On the Search Projects screen, click Vault in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
3 Locate the knowledge project you just created. It should be in the New Projects folder in the vault.
4 Move the knowledge project into the Knowledge Areas folder by dragging and dropping it.
5 Open the Knowledge Areas folder and move the knowledge project to the appropriate folder.

Chapter 7 Using Knowledge Management Using Knowledge Projects
Using Knowledge Projects

For knowledge project content to appear in the Related Knowledge area of a project, the attributes for the
fields Commodity, Region, and Department or keywords must match for the project and the knowledge
project.
For example, if you create a project in APAC (with no other attributes specified) only knowledge projects
with no value, All, APAC, or a child of APAC regions are can display knowledge documents in the Related
Knowledge area of a project.
When you create a project and specify nothing in the fields concerned with knowledge matching, only
knowledge projects marked as no value or All for those fields match. For example, if you specified your
knowledge project as only pertaining to North America, a project created without a region selected does not
display knowledge from that knowledge project. The following shows an example of a category knowledge
project being created with All selected for Region, Commodity, and Department:
The following table lists several examples of when a project and a knowledge project match:
If the commodity And the region of the And you create a new project Is the knowledge in the
of the knowledge knowledge project with... knowledge project
project is... is... available for use in project?
IT APAC Commodity = IT no
IT none Commodity = All yes
IT APAC Commodity = IT yes
Region = APAC

Types of Knowledge Document Matching Chapter 7 Using Knowledge Management
If the commodity And the region of the And you create a new project Is the knowledge in the
of the knowledge knowledge project with... knowledge project
project is... is... available for use in project?
none APAC Region = China (hierarchical child yes
of APAC)
none APAC and EMEA Region =APAC no
none APAC and EMEA Region = APAC, EMEA yes
IT no value Region = APAC, EMEA no
none no value Region = APAC, EMEA yes
none no value none yes
none APAC Region = APAC, EMEA no
none All Region = APAC, EMEA yes
none Japan and France Region = APAC, EMEA yes
none APAC and EMEA Region = Japan, France yes
Types of Knowledge Document Matching

There are two types of knowledge matching:
• “Matching Using Keywords” on page 70
• “Directly Linking Knowledge to a Task” on page 71
These document matching strategies do not function properly unless they are coupled with project level
matching, discussed in “Using Knowledge Projects” on page 69. The following section discusses both
techniques.
Matching Using Keywords

Matching for keywords occurs for phases containing tasks, not individual tasks. Matching knowledge
documents to a particular phase of a project using keywords is a subscribe–publish relationship. Documents
located in a knowledge project can publish a keyword, and other projects that subscribe to that keyword see
those knowledge project documents in the Related Knowledge area. Documents in the knowledge projects
can also be located using the Search Knowledge link at the bottom of the Related Knowledge area.
If the knowledge project containing the knowledge document does not match the project containing the
phase, the knowledge document does not appear in the Related Knowledge area. Documents with the
keyword All appear in the Related Knowledge area regardless of whether or not the phase subscribes to
anything.
Documents publishing no keywords never appear in the Related Knowledge area. You can locate them using
the Document Search.
W To match a knowledge document to a project phase:

2 Click Knowledge Areas in the upper right hand area of the screen.

Chapter 7 Using Knowledge Management Types of Knowledge Document Matching
3 Navigate to a knowledge project.
4 Navigate to the document in the knowledge project you want to match to the project phase.
5 Click the document name and choose Edit Attributes.
6 In the Publish Keywords field, click choose the keyword you want to associate with this document. The
administrator defines which keywords are available.
7 Click Publish.
8 Navigate to the template used to create the project containing the phase you want to associate with the
knowledge document.
9 Make sure the template is in Draft mode, so you can perform edits.
10 Edit the phase.
11 On the Edit Phase screen, click select in the Subscribe For field and select the keyword you chose for the
knowledge document above. For example, if the Keyword is Supplier, the selection would appear as
follows.
12 Click Publish.
When a user creates a new project with the template, the knowledge document appears in the Related
Knowledge area in the Dashboard whenever you view the phase.
Directly Linking Knowledge to a Task

When you create a direct knowledge link between a task and a knowledge document, you see a link to that
document on the Task Details screen, rather than the Knowledge Area.
The following are factors to keep in mind when creating a direct knowledge match between a task and a
knowledge document:
• A direct link is established in the project template before project creation.
• If the knowledge project containing the knowledge document does not match the project containing the
phase, the knowledge document does not appear in the task.
• Task-specific knowledge links directly to the task, not the task keyword.
W To link a knowledge document to a specific task

2 Click Knowledge Areas in the upper right hand area of the screen.
3 Navigate to the document to be linked to a task.
4 Click document name and choose View Details.
5 In the Actions menu on the Overview tab, click Edit.

You must have the proper group access to Edit the document.

Refreshing the Knowledge Area Chapter 7 Using Knowledge Management
6 Click select to select all relevant tasks in the Describes Task field.
7 Click Save.
Refreshing the Knowledge Area

When you change knowledge project content, this does not immediately change the content displayed in the
Knowledge Area. The content remains the same until a user edits the project attributes, or the application
automatically refreshes the content according to its schedule. The application refreshes all Knowledge Area
content once every 12 hours. Thus, that twelve hours is the maximum amount of time that the content of the
Knowledge Area can be out of date.
Administering Knowledge Management Keywords

Knowledge Management keywords link knowledge management information to projects.
W To add or delete a keyword:

1 In Ariba Administrator, click Project Manager > Manage Keywords.
2 Perform one of the following actions:

• To add a new keyword, enter it in the Add text box and click Add.
• To delete a keyword, highlight the keyword you want to remove and click Delete.
Note: If you delete a keyword, all references to the keyword are deleted. This can cause unintended results
with knowledge matching. You cannot delete the keywords “All” or “Quick Link.”

Integrating with Microsoft Project and
Chapter 8
Outlook
• “Working With Microsoft Project Integration” on page 73

• “Working With Microsoft Outlook Integration” on page 75
Working With Microsoft Project Integration

Ariba Sourcing integration with Microsoft Project enables you to:
• Export a complicated project to Microsoft Project so you can discuss the project with team members
outside of Ariba Sourcing before processing further.
• Import tasks from a Microsoft Project to populate numerous tasks in a new template, or change the task
structure of a template.
• Export a project to give an overview of the project to someone without access to Ariba Sourcing.
Note: Microsoft Project integration is available only in English.
Converting Output Files

When you export a project to Microsoft Project, you generate an MPX (Microsoft Project Export) file. The
name of the MPX file matches that of the project.
The MPX file is an exchange format, and is only useful after you convert it to an MPP file. To convert an
MPX file to an MPP file, open the MPX file from the desktop and save it as an MPP. The conversion fails if
you manually modify the file extension from MPX to MPP.
Importing Tasks From Microsoft Project

The following sections discuss the options to use when importing tasks to a project or template from a
Microsoft Project file.
Using Date Offset

When importing tasks from a Microsoft Project (.mpp) file to either a project or a template, you can choose
to use Date Offset. If you choose to import using Date Offset, the import calculates the number of days
between the begin date in the Microsoft Project file and each task, and sets the offset accordingly.
For projects, if you do not use Date Offset, you must use Fixed Date. For templates, you must use Date
Offset.

Working With Microsoft Project Integration Chapter 8 Integrating with Microsoft Project and Outlook
Using Fixed Date

Selecting the Fixed Date option during the import of tasks from a Microsoft Project file adds each task to the
project with the an assigned date in the Microsoft Project file. There is no Fixed Date option for templates.
Overwriting Tasks Currently in the Project or Template

The Microsoft Project import overwrites only tasks that have the same name. If task names do not match, the
tasks in the Microsoft Project file are added to the project. You can control the overwrite behavior using the
Overwrite matching tasks field, which will:
• Copy all tasks into the project or template whether or not they previously existed. For this behavior,
choose No in the Overwrite matching tasks field.
• Remove all tasks with the same name from the project or template and replace each with the task of the
same name from the Microsoft Project file. For this behavior, choose Yes in the Overwrite matching tasks
field.
Exporting and Importing Microsoft Project Tasks

You can either export tasks to or import tasks from Microsoft Project.
Note: Microsoft Project integration does not support comma, (), or [] in the data you export. When exporting
tasks to a project where the user name contains a comma, (), or [], an error is generated and the name appears
blank in the project file.
W To export a project to Microsoft Project:

1 Navigate to the project or template you want to export to Microsoft Project. Make sure you are viewing
the project or template in Full View.
2 On the Tasks tab, click Actions > Microsoft Project > Export.
3 Choose the location to save MPX file. The file name matches the project title (with + signs instead of
spaces) for the tasks tab you are exporting from.
4 View the file by opening it in Microsoft Project.
W To import tasks from Microsoft Project to a template:

1 Navigate to the template you want to import tasks to. Make sure the template is in Draft mode.
2 Make sure you are viewing the template in Full View.
4 Click Actions > Microsoft Project > Import.
5 On the Import Microsoft Project File screen, browse for the mpp file (not a mpx file) to upload, and
choose whether or not to overwrite existing tasks.
If you choose to overwrite matching tasks, you effectively delete all template tasks and replace them with
the tasks from the Microsoft Project file. If you choose to not overwrite matching tasks, the tasks you
specify in the Microsoft Project file are added to the template. The overwrite adds tasks to the template
that already exist in the Microsoft Project.
6 Click Import to Project.

Chapter 8 Integrating with Microsoft Project and Outlook Working With Microsoft Outlook Integration
Understanding Limitations Between Ariba Sourcing and Microsoft

Project
Keep the following limitations in mind when using Microsoft Project as a tool to handle projects:
• Integration with Microsoft Project is not intended for use as a mass edit function, so do not attempt to use
it to overwrite a group of tasks. For example, if you create multiple tasks in a template, export them to
Microsoft Project, then delete some tasks from the Microsoft Project file, and import it, the deleted tasks
still appear in the project.
• You cannot load dependencies in Microsoft Project into Ariba Sourcing. Examples of dependencies are
based on or offset dates in Microsoft Project, which Ariba Sourcing ignores.
• If you have complicated dependencies between phases and tasks in your project, the export to Microsoft
Project might use an unexpected date. Because there are more date fields in Ariba Sourcing than in
Microsoft Project, the mapping is not always exact.
• Recurring tasks are not supported in the Ariba Sourcing integration with Microsoft Project.
Note: During task export to Microsoft Project, users might be prompted to open or save twice. This behavior
is not due to Ariba Sourcing, but is caused by Microsoft Windows settings.
W To eliminate the second save dialog box:

1 Navigate to Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer).
2 Open Tools > Folder Options.
3 Navigate to the File Types tab.
4 Scroll to the MPX - Microsoft Project Exchange File in the Registered File Types window and highlight
it.
5 In the Details for MPX Extension section that appears in the lower portion of the window, click Advanced.
6 In the Edit File Type window that appears, make sure the Confirm open after download box is not
checked.
7 Click OK.
8 Click Close.
Working With Microsoft Outlook Integration

Ariba Sourcing supports one way integration with Microsoft Outlook to:
• Keep track of upcoming tasks if you are offline for a time
• Provide a way to track progress in a more familiar tool
Using the Microsoft Outlook Feature

You can export tasks to Microsoft Outlook.
W To export tasks from a project to Microsoft Outlook:

1 Enable DFS.
2 Navigate to the My Tasks screen.

Working With Microsoft Outlook Integration Chapter 8 Integrating with Microsoft Project and Outlook
3 Click the table options icon to the right of the screen and choose either Export to Outlook > Export all Rows or
Export to Outlook > Export Current Page.
Exporting all rows exports all tasks on the My Tasks screen to Microsoft Outlook, regardless of their
visibility on the screen. Exporting the current screen exports only the tasks shown by the current filter
settings.
A message displays across the top of the My Tasks screen indicating the number of tasks exported to
Microsoft Outlook.
4 All exported tasks appear in the Tasks folder of Microsoft Outlook:
After you have exported to Microsoft Outlook once, every subsequent export has the option of keeping all
previously exported tasks or deleting previously exported tasks. Deleting all previously exported tasks
before exporting the current tasks keeps tasks folder current. It can also be useful if you cancel or put on hold
a project, and prevents you from having to manually delete numerous tasks.
Keeping previously exported tasks is useful if you are still working on one or more tasks, and do not want to
remove them, but need to export new tasks.
Working With Limitations Between Ariba Sourcing and Microsoft Outlook

Keep the following limitations in mind when exporting tasks to Microsoft Outlook.
• Export to Microsoft Outlook is only available from the My Tasks screen
• You cannot import tasks from Microsoft Outlook to Ariba Sourcing
• Modifying a task in Microsoft Outlook does not update tasks in Ariba Sourcing. There is no
synchronization capability between Microsoft Outlook and Ariba Sourcing

Index
A controlling display of tasks 47

access controls 22 controlling document access 26
adding a URL as a document 26 controlling the order of phases 55
adding due dates for tasks 48 copying a document for reuse 24
adding keywords for Knowledge Management 72 copying sourcing projects 16
adding Quick Links 17, 24 creating a subproject 26
alerts for phases 56 creating document tasks 25
announcements creating documents 25
adding 19 creating follow-on projects 16, 20
adding or editing 17 creating phases 55
viewing 19 creating subprojects 20
Watched Projects 17, 19 creating tasks 11
approval tasks 50 creating tasks for documents 12
Ariba Sourcing
document versioning examples 27
D
arranging tasks 11
assigning roles 64 dashboard
associating documents with a task 48 checking for tasks 18
viewing announcements 17
deleting documents 24
B deleting sourcing projects 16
browsing for a Microsoft Excel template 25 deleting templates 35
Desktop File Sync. See DFS 18
DFS
C editing documents and 18
enabling 18, 21
canceling optional tasks 48
features related to 21
changing Planned projects to Active 8
purpose of 21
changing task
document choice 28
completion dates 11
documents
owners 11
approval tasks 18
checking the dashboard for tasks 18
choice documents 36
compact view for sourcing projects 17
controlling access 26
completing tasks 18
creating 25
conditional expressions in templates 37
creating as subprojects 20
conditions
creating eForms 25
all of expressions 39
creating tasks for 12
any of expressions 40
creating tasks to associate with 25
example of a region condition 38
deleting 24
field matches 37
document choice 28
none of expressions 40
editing and DFS 18
questions 41
folders 25
reference to condition 38
locking and unlocking 24
testing questions 42
managing versions 27
user permissions 38
moving 24
using expressions 37
negotiation tasks 18
visibility conditions 41
Quick Links 17, 24
contract authoring
review tasks 18
defined 23
saving new versions 25

Index
searching for 25 MPX files 73

shortcuts to 29 My Tasks page 48
subprojects, creating 26
uploading 12, 25
URL 26 N
Documents tab 24 negotiation tasks 52
dynamic template application 43 notification profiles and notification preferences 45
notifications 17
setting preferences 21
E setting profiles 45
editing document attributes 24
editing documents 24
editing documents and DFS 18 O
editing phases 55 observers, role of 51
editing sourcing project information 15 observers, role of for negotiation tasks 52
editing tasks 47 organizing documents in folders 25
eForms, creating 25 organizing sourcing projects 16
email reviewers for negotiation tasks 52 Overview tab 15
enabling DFS 12, 18, 21
export list of tasks to Microsoft Excel 47
P
phases
F alerts 56
F5 to refresh browser 18 controlling the order of 55
field matches 37 creating 55
follow-on projects, creating 20 defined 55
full view for sourcing projects 17 editing 55
predecessor 56
recurring 55
G planned project state 8
global groups predecessor phases 56
as team members 59 predecessor tasks 54
project groups 63
project owner
I group characteristics 44
importing and exporting templates 43 providing document choice 35
publishing templates 35
K
Knowledge Management Q
adding keywords 72 questions and dynamic template application 43
function of 67 Quick Links 17
keyword matching 69
Related Knowledge area 67
Knowledge Projects 68 R
reactivating tasks 48
recurring phases 55
L removing team members 64
locking documents 24 replace a team member 64
review tasks 50
rounds in negotiation tasks 52
M
marking tasks
as complete 47 S
as started 48 saving a new version of a document 25
moving documents 24 searching for documents 25
moving sourcing projects 16 searching for sourcing projects 17

Index
setting access controls 22 team members

setting notification preferences 21 access controls 22
shortcuts, document 29 as global groups 59
sourcing projects assigning roles 64
announcements 17 creating a project group 63
as Watched Projects 19 defined 59
controlling access 22 example of a team 59
copying 16 removing 64
creating follow-on projects 16 team permissions for subprojects 65
deleting 16 team roles 64
editing document attributes 24 Team tab 63
editing documents 24 Template Creator Permission 33
editing overview information 15 template statuses 34
moving 16 templates
notification of membership 17 adding subprojects 43
Overview tab 15 conditions 37
reusing a document 24 controlling access 44
searching for 17 created before sourcing projects 7
using full or compact view 17 creation considerations 33
verifying tasks 11 deleting 35
version history 16 document choice 35, 36
viewing document details 24 dynamic application 43
viewing documents 24 editing 34
subprojects importing and exporting 43
adding to templates 43 notification profiles 45
creating 20 practicing creation with a copy 33
publishing 35
questions 15
T statuses 34
tasks Template Creator Permission 33
adding due dates 48 Templates tab 15
and documents 18 To Do tasks 18
arranging 11 To Do tasks, creating 50
associate documents 53
associating with a document 48
canceling optional tasks 48 U
changing owners 11 unlocking documents 24
changing the completion date 11 uploading documents 12, 25
controlling display of 47
creating 11
creating a new phase 48 V
creating To Do tasks 48, 50 Vault hierarchy 16
editing tasks 47 version history 16
exporting a list to Microsoft Excel 47 view details for tasks 47
exporting lists to Microsoft Project 48 viewing announcements 19
importing lists to Microsoft Project 48 viewing document details 24
marking as complete 18, 47
marking as started 48
My Tasks page 48 W
negotiation tasks 52 Watched Projects
predecessor 54 and announcements 17
reactivating 48 marking a sourcing project as 19
review and approval 50
To Do 18
verifying for a sourcing project 11
view details 47
Tasks tab 47

Ariba Sourcing Process Management Guide - Updated Through SP9

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Ariba Sourcing™

Chapter 1 Introduction to Sourcing Process Management . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chapter 2 Working with Sourcing Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Chapter 3 Working with Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Ariba Sourcing Process Management Guide iii

Chapter 4 Creating Sourcing Project Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Chapter 5 Working with Tasks and Phases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Chapter 6 Adding Users to Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Chapter 7 Using Knowledge Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

iv Ariba Sourcing Process Management Guide

Chapter 8 Integrating with Microsoft Project and Outlook . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Ariba Sourcing Process Management Guide v

vi Ariba Sourcing Process Management Guide

This section covers the following topics:

About Process Management in Ariba Sourcing

Creating a Sourcing Project

Before creating a sourcing project:

Ariba Sourcing Process Management Guide 7

The steps for creating a sourcing project include:

Step 1: Entering Header Information

W Create the sourcing project:

3 Choose to create a Full Project.

W Enter header information for the sourcing project:

8 Ariba Sourcing Process Management Guide

Step 2: Choosing a Template

Ariba Sourcing Process Management Guide 9

Step 3: Adding Team Members

W To add team members:

2 In the upper right hand corner of the screen, click Edit.

W To add a team group:

2 Click Add Group.

5 Add members to the group, as previously described.

Step 4: Setting up Sourcing Events

W To create a sourcing event associated with your sourcing project:

10 Ariba Sourcing Process Management Guide

Step 5: Setting Up Tasks (optional)

W To change a task’s completion date:

W To change the task’s owner:

2 Modify the Owner field.

Ariba Sourcing Process Management Guide 11

Step 6: Setting Up Documents (optional)

W To create a task for a document:

W To create a new document:

You can add documents as your team works in Ariba Sourcing.

2 Click Browse and choose the document to upload.

Creating an Ad Hoc Survey

The steps for creating an ad hoc survey include:

12 Ariba Sourcing Process Management Guide

Step 1: Creating the Survey Project

W To create an ad hoc survey from a project:

2 In the Common Actions Menu, select Create > Sourcing Project.

3 Choose to create a Full Project.

W Enter header information for the project:

8 In the Documents area, choose Actions > Create > Survey.

9 Select the Ad-hoc Survey template.

W To create an ad hoc survey from your personal workspace

2 In the Documents area, choose Actions > Create > Survey.

3 Select the Ad-hoc Survey template.

Step 3: Setting the Survey Rules

Response start date

Ariba Sourcing Process Management Guide 13

Can owner see responses before event closes

Step 2: Inviting Participants

Step 3: Adding Content