States for requests and projects

For organization selling projects, Requester roles (RQ) are taken by the salespeople managing the sales lifecycle. Similarly, in client organizations, RQ are the people responsible for asking for projects. PMPeople helps RQ manage requests (a.k.a. idea, initiative, commercial bid, proposal, demand, investment, etc.) likewise PM manages projects:

• RQ can label a request as proposed if it is not yet won/approved, in progress, and closed. Sometimes, requests are set on hold, waiting for a better moment to decide. When a request is lost or not approved, it can be labeled as rejected.
• In a symmetric way, the PM can see that the project is not approved if it is in the initiating state. When the project is approved, two states can be distinguished: planning state when resource or budget utilization is not allowed and executing state otherwise. When a project is set to closing state, time sheets or expenses are not allowed anymore. Finally, when a project is archived project data cannot be updated anymore.

The states of both objects, requests, and projects, follow these correspondences:

• A proposed or on hold request corresponds to an initiating project.
• A planning or executing project corresponds to an in-progress request.
• A closing or archived project corresponds to an in closed request.
• A rejected request corresponds to an archived project.

The following table represents the transitions between request states caused by transitions between project states. For instance: if a project changes from initiating to planning, then request changes to in progress:

The following table represents the transitions between project states caused by transitions between request states. For instance: if a request changes from proposed to in progress, then project changes to planning:

Frequently Asked Questions

What does it mean when a request is marked as “on hold”?

An “on hold” request means the decision to approve or reject the initiative is paused, typically waiting for better timing or more information.

How do request states impact project states in PMPeople?

When a request changes to “in progress,” it triggers the project to move from “initiating” to “planning,” allowing detailed planning to begin.

What happens to a project when its request is rejected?

If a request is rejected, the associated project transitions to the “archived” state and is no longer editable or active.