This part of the Wiki is created as a short guide on how to start with your first CSV Project and Resource Pool to have them uploaded into Epicflow.

It starts with simple project CSV file preparation, then Resource Pool, Advanced Project, and import into the system.

• The next step involves adding tasks A, B, C, D, E. We’ll make 5 separate line records per each task.
  • “Project_ID” – here we put “1000” as the ID of the project defined during the first step;
  • “Project_Name” –  “Simple Project“, similarly to the previous record;
  • “Task_UID”– we start it from “1” and increment for each next row;
  • “Task_Name” – here for each row we add corresponding value “Task A“, “Task B“, “Task C“, “Task D“, “Task E“;
  • “Task_Type” – in our case it should be “Task” for each row;
  • “Remaining_Work” – set to “8” for each task;
  • “Actual_Work” – set to “0” for each task;
  • “Scheduled_Work” – set to “8” for each task;
  • “Assignment_ID” – Increment it by 1 for each next row;
  • “Assignment_Units” – Since only one resource should be used for work assignment we put here “1“.

Screen #3 – Simple Project – Adding tasks

• When all tasks are added then we can add a milestone.
  • “Project_ID” – here we put “1000” as ID of the project defined during the first step;
  • “Project_Name” – also in a similar way to the previous record – “Simple Project“;
  • “Task_UID”– increment it by 1 from the previous row record. In our case it’s “6“;
  • “Task_Name” – name a milestone as “Mlstn”;
  • “Task_Type” – in our case we set it as “Milestone“;
  • “Deadline” – As deadline we set one day before the End of the Project which is “06-08-2019”. Pay attention that the date format must be kept as “DD-MM-YYYY”.

Screen #4 – Simple Project – Milestone

• As a final step, let’s build a chain of connections between the Project’s elements. Use the “Unique_ID_Predecessors” field. It must contain a number from the “Task_UID” column of the item which must be accomplished before. In our case:
  • “Task B” and “Task D” have “Task A” as the predecessor, so “1” must be set for both of them;
  • “Task C” has “Task B” as the predecessor, so we have “2“;
  • “Task E” has two items as the predecessors which are “Task C” and “Task D” which grant us two IDs separated by comma – “3, 4”;
  • last item is Milestone which goes right after “Task E” and for it we set “5“.

Screen #5 – Simple Project – Relations

• Save the file and verify that “;” is used as a separator in it. For that end, you can open a CSV file within any editor and it should have the following view:

Screen #6 – Simple Project – CSV structure

The next step is preparing Resource Pool, Advanced Project (if needed) CSV files and Import them into Epicflow.

The next item is users adding:

• “ResID” – starting from “990” we’ll increment that value by “1” for each new record;
• “ResName” – specifying name of the users as: “User 1“, “User 2” and “User 3“;
• “ResGrID” – set “GR1” for “User 1“, “User 2” and “GR2” for “User 3“;
• “CapFactor” – define it as “1” which is equal to 1 FTE;
• “StartDate” – in format “DD-MM-YYYY” we set it as “01-01-2018“.

Screen #7 – Resource Pool – Groups + Users

• Save the file and verify that “;” is used as a separator in the file. For that end, you can open a CSV file with any editor and it should look like this::

Screen #8 – Resource Pool – Structure

The next step is preparing an Advanced Project (if needed) CSV file and importing everything into Epicflow.

• Copy a CSV file “Project_SimplePrj.csv” and rename it as “Project_AdvancedPrj.csv“.
• Change for each row “Project_ID” key from “1000” to “2000“.
• Replace in whole file “Simple Project” text in the columns “Project_Name” and “Task_Name” with new naming “Advanced Project“.
• Let’s add a new Milestone as we did it for Simple Project. We’ll place it before “Task E” with the date “05-08-2019“.

Screen #10 – Advanced Project – Adding another milestone

• The next step is to correct relations accordingly to the Project structure. We need to set old values at “Unique_ID_Predecessors” from”Task E” for “nM” milestone and set it as a predecessor for “Task E“

Screen #10 – Advanced Project – Relations

• Let’s add two summaries “Sum1” and “Sum2“. For that end, the following elements must be specified:
  • “Project_ID” – in our case it’s “2000”;
  • “Project_Name” – equal to “Advanced Project“;
  • “Task_UID”– do not forget that these must be unique values so we set that as “8s” and “9s“;
  • “Task_Name” – contains the name of the Summary and we have “Sum1” and “Sum2” correspondingly;
  • “Task_Type” – context of records is summary and we specify special key  “Summary” here;
  • “Assignment_ID” – increment it by 1 from the last added element.

Screen #11 – Advanced Project – Adding Summaries

• The next step is assigning elements into the corresponding summary. For that end, the field “UID_Summary” must be used. In it, set “Task_UID” of the corresponding Summary for each item.

Screen #12 – Advanced Project – Adding items into Summaries

• Last but not least is to assign resources and groups to the tasks. We are going to assign:
  • “Task A” on “Group 1“;
  • “Task B” and “Task C” on “Group 2“;
  • “Task D” on “User 1“;
  • “Task E” on “User 3“;

Use the following fields:

• “Res_UID“, “Res_Name“, “Group_UID” where you should put values of corresponding resources from the Resource Pool.

Screen #13 – Advanced Project – Assigning Resources 

• Save the file and verify that “;” is used as a separator in the file as well as correct date format is used.

The next and final step is to proceed with all files import into the system.

As soon as files are placed at the server side in the required location

• Select the “Import” item at the left menu bar to be redirected to the CSV Import configuration page

Screen #14 – CSV Import – Connection configuration

• Define location of the CSV files where they been placed at the server side in the “Directory where the files are placed” field. Be default it should be something like “C:\inetpub\ftproot\<CompanyHomeFolder>”
• Press the “Next” button to start the “Scope and Projects” configuration.

Screen #15 – CSV Import – Scope and Projects

• With the “Jira Scope” drop-down list select two projects “Project_SimplePrj.csv” and “Project_AdvancedPrj.csv“
• Project Field Mapping – select from the drop-down “Project” item
• Select the appeared projects at the right bottom frame and press the “Next” button by scrolling down the “Scope and Projects” area.

Screen #16 – CSV Import – Projects to import

• During the third step, we are not going to change anything or add any filters so just pressing the “Next” button again and to finalize the Import press the “Import” button.

After importing your CSV data into the Epicflow system will redirect you to the Pipeline page with all projects imported into the system.