Clarity

Hello All - 

We have numerous processes that unlock, set, then re-lock our "Work Status" attribute (which includes project state values -- i.e. Submitted, Active, On Hold, Closed, etc.).  These values are modified throughout the project lifecycle as each process is executed.

We're encountering an error in these processes for projects that utilize Microsoft Project, which "locks" the project and causes the processes to error out with the following:

PRJ-07002: Update operation failed. The project cannot be locked.

Wondering if either:

• There is a project attribute related to the MSP Lock function which I can add at the start of each process to "unlock" the project prior to the automated locking functions occurring,
• A streamlined way to avoid both locking mechanisms interfering with each other,
• Any recommendations at all.

I thought to create two sets of Blueprints and Processes, one for Clarity projects and other for MSP Projects in Clarity.  And, each processes start option could include "If Blueprint = Clarity, use Clarity-version of process" or vice-versa -- however, this would be very, very cumbersome and time consuming so hoping there's another option out there.

Thanks in advance for your time and effort.

Matt

For GEL processes which are updating the project, I include:

       and not exists (select 1 from prlock pr where pr.prrecordid = inv.id and prtablename = 'SRM_PROJECTS')

In my SQL select statement.  This way a locked project won't fail when the XOG tries to update it later in the script.

The only OOTB facility is to access the locked project, and if you have the rights, unlock it.  It is also a training issue that PM's when updating their scheduled via OWB, MSP or PPM Gantt, that once completed, they check to see if the project is unlocked. 

I am unaware of the facility you mentioned:

MSP Lock function which I can add at the start of each process to "unlock"

Could you hold your "work status" on another object - like a project sub-object or even a entirely distinct master object (with a reference to the project of course). That way MSP would not interfere with your various processes?

This is a possibility, however we're so close to our 'official rollout' that I cannot modify at this time.  Will keep in mind for future however.  Thanks for your input.

Thanks for the replies.  As roland stated, I've found only way to unlock is the manual action of viewing the project and clicking Unlock.

Workaround I believe we'll use is to identify processes that error out, manually unlock process, retry process step.