Stage indicator. This arrow-shaped icon shows the current project’s lifecycle stage (“Est”, for estimation).  A similar stage indicator is used for Closeout projects.

“Modified” Asterisk. If the current project has been modified since it was last saved, an asterisk will appear just before the project name.  A pink banner will also appear below the project toolbar notifying you that there are unsaved changes. Both alerts will disappear once the project is saved.

Project name text displays the current project’s name. To change the project name, simply click the Edit Project (pencil) icon in the project toolbar and type in a new name on the Project Settings tab. If you position your cursor over the project name, any descriptive text provided on the project’s Description tab will be displayed in a hover tip.

Project Lock Icon. If the current project is checked out for round trip data exchange with SLIM-Estimate, a lock icon will appear right after the project name and the current solution selector and edit project, save, log solution, advance project, and external calls icons will be disabled until the project is checked in or unlocked. Hover tip text for the lock icon explains the project’s current locked state. This icon is only visible when the project is checked out.

Current solution selector. Located to the right of the project name, this drop-down list control has two functions:

1.   Shows the name of the currently displayed solution. If your current solution has not yet been logged, you will see the default new solution name (“Current solution”). Once you log the solution, “current solution” is replaced with the name provided when the solution was logged.

2.  Allows you to replace the current solution with a previously logged solution selected from the drop-down list control. Only one current solution can be displayed at a given time. Note that if the current solution has changed since the project was last saved, you will be prompted to log it before overwriting it with a solution from the log.

Project (overall) Risk Meter. Once a valid solution has been calculated, an overall risk rating is displayed in a special control located in the middle of the project toolbar.

The risk bar consists of a dark blue bar and a small inverted triangle that gradually changes from dark blue (indicating a low or conservative risk rating) to grey (average risk), to red (high risk) depending on how closely the current solution’s schedule and effort match average duration and effort for a similarly-sized project from the project’s chosen benchmark trend group. For more detail, rest your cursor over the risk meter to bring up a dialog with definitions of each risk category.

Edit Project icon. Click this icon to view or edit the project’s settings and assumptions. Note that this icon is only visible to users with Contribute or Full Access privileges to the project and will be disabled even for those users when the project is locked. View only users can still review project settings and assumptions via the Project Overview, Solution Assumptions, Solution Summary, Milestones, and Size Detail reports on the project dashboard.

Save Project icon. Use the save icon to save a modified project (look for the asterisk to the left of the project name and the “Project/solution is modified” banner under the project toolbar). Only users with appropriate permissions (Contribute or Full Access) will see this icon in the toolbar. If there are no unsaved changes, this icon will be greyed out and the hover tip will say “Project is Saved”. The save icon will also be disabled when the project is locked.

Clone Project icon. This icon creates a copy of the current project with the same name and (Copy n) appended to the end of the project name.

Log current solution icon. The solution log allows you to preserve multiple estimation scenarios, reload them, and compare them on comparison solution charts and reports. Use the pushpin icon to store a copy of the current solution in the solution log. The icon is only available to users with Contribute or Full Access permissions to the project and is disabled when the project is locked or the current solution is invalid.

IMPORTANT: remember that solutions logged while working with a modified project are not permanently preserved until you also save the project!

Solution log icon. This icon brings up a list of the previously logged solutions for the project. Users with Contribute or Full Access permissions can edit items in the list, delete them, or make any logged solution current (replacing the currently displayed solution). For View only users, the solution log dialog will be read-only (editing disabled). These users can review logged solution names, descriptions, and workflow statuses but cannot change them.

The icon is disabled when there are no logged solutions or when the project is locked.

Export project icon. This icon exports the current solution to a SLIM-Estimate compatible .sew  workbook file that can be opened, edited, and saved in SLIM-Estimate.  This icon is visible only to users with FULL access to the estimation service via their default user role and the project’s Access tab (both are needed). Because the exported SLIM-Estimate workbook cannot be “checked in” or used to directly modify the project, it is still available when the project is locked for round trip data exchange.

Check out/Check in project icon. This icon locks the project for editing, exports the current solution to a SLIM-Estimate compatible .sew  workbook file that can be opened, edited, and saved in SLIM-Estimate, and allows the user to upload (check in) the modified workbook file to leverage advanced estimation features available in the desktop applications.

This icon is visible only to users with FULL access to the estimation service via their default user role and the project’s Access tab (both are needed). The icon and accompanying hover tip toggle between “Checkout Project” (lock icon) when the project is not checked out and “Checkin Project” (unlock icon) when the project is checked out.

Import Associated Workbook icon. This icon will only be visible when the project does not have an associated workbook. This is most likely to occur if the project was created in a much earlier version of SLIM-Collaborate. When visible, this icon replaces the Checkin/Checkout icon. Clicking it brings up a dialog that allows you to select and import a SLIM-Estimate workbook to provide settings and data used by the desktop applications during round trip data exchange, and to generate skills breakouts.

Project Notes icon. This icon allows any user to add a note to the project, even if it is currently checked out.  It is available to all users. Users can subscribe to receive email notifications when a note is added to any project they have access to.

Advance Project icon. Use this icon to advance estimation projects to the Closeout stage at project completion.  Once a project is advanced, it cannot be reverted to the  previous lifecycle stage.  Any users who do not have permissions to the Closeout service will lose access to the project.

External calls icon. This icon can be used to launch application calls to external applications to  exchange data or update a project.  This icon will appear for users with full or contribute access to the project. Because external calls can potentially change the project, this icon is disabled if the project is currently locked. It is also hidden if no external calls are defined for your SLIM-Collaborate site.