# Epic FND-36 - Provide project templates within new OpenProject instances

Project: Stream workspace foundations
Status: in specification
URL: https://community.openproject.org/work_packages/FND-36

## Detailed specification

### Motivation and background information

Setting up a new project in OpenProject currently requires users to manually configure all project components from scratch - including work package types, custom fields, workflows, statuses, modules. This creates several problems:

  - **Onboarding friction** for new users who are unfamiliar with OpenProject's configuration options. Even if OpenProject offers certain functionalities some admins get the impression that these are not available.

  - **Inconsistent project structures** (assuming that admins do not use the available project template functionality) across teams, making cross-project reporting and governance difficult.

  - **Low adoption rates** among non-technical teams who expect out-of-the-box usability.

  - **Effort** for the initial setup by admins, incl. effort for setting up project templates manually.

User feedback confirms that the lack of templates is a pain point. Providing a curated set of templates for the most common project methodologies will directly improve user satisfaction, reduce support and setup overhead, and increase platform adoption.

### Acceptance criteria

General

*   provide the listed templates as a project template within OpenProject
    
*   integrate the templates in an out-of-the-box OpenProject setup
    

Content of project templates (draft / in specification)

**1\. Basic agile software development template**  
**Target users:** Small to mid-size software development teams practicing Scrum or Kanban.

*   Modules: Backlog, Boards, Work Packages, Roadmap, Document, Gantt, Activity, GitHub, Meetings
    
*   Work package types: Epic, User Story, Task, Bug, Spike
    
*   Boards: pre-configured kanban board
    
*   Statuses: New, In Progress, In Review, Done, Rejected
    
*   Work package views (TBD)
    
*   Dashboard
    
    *   Graphs (TBD)
        
*   Roles: Product Owner, Product Manager, Scrum Master, Developer, QA, Project Admin
    
*   Work package forms & custom fields (TBD)
    

**2\. SAFe template (Portfolio + ARTs)**  
**Target users:** Large enterprises operating at scale using SAFe.

*   Modules: Backlog, Boards, Work Packages, Roadmap, Document, Gantt, Activity, GitHub, Team Planner, Time & Cost, Budget, Calendars, Meetings
    
*   Hierarchy: Portfolio -> ARTs (Programs) -> Teams (Projects)
    
*   Work package types
    
    *   portfolio level (TBD): Strategic Theme (?), Portfolio Epic (?), Enabler (?), Risk, Dependency
        
    *   ART level (TBD): Epic, User Story, Task, Bug, Spike, Risk, Dependency
        
    *   Team level (TBD): Epic, User Story, Task, Bug, Spike, Risk, Dependency
        
*   Statuses (TBD)
    
*   Boards:
    
    *   pre-configured Kanban boards on each level
        
    *   dependency boards on each level
        
    *   risk boards on each level
        
*   Program Increment (PI) board configuration + PI as custom field
    
*   Roles: Business Owner, Release Train Engineer (RTE), Product Manager, Product Owner, Developer
    
*   Forms & custom fields: to be defined
    
*   Work package views
    
    *   PI scope
        
    *   dependencies
        
    *   risks
        
*   Dashboard
    
    *   Graphs (TBD)
        
*   Work package forms & custom fields (TBD)
    
*   separately templates for SAFe projects in the hierarchy in order to allow adding new ARTs (program) and teams (project)
    
    *   ART (program) template
        
    *   Team (project) template
        
    *   \[open\] can we currently offer project structures (portfolio, program, project) as a template or only single projects? If only single projects, then we would need three separate project templates for SAFe in order to mirror the project hierarchy
        

**3\. Basic waterfall template**  
**Target users:** Teams managing structured, sequential projects with clearly defined phases and deliverables.

*   Modules: Gantt Chart, Work Packages, Wiki, Documents, Activity, Time & Cost, Budget, Calendars, Meetings
    
*   Work package types: Phase, Task, Milestone, Risk, Deliverable, Summary Task
    
*   Default phases: Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring & Control, Closure
    
*   Statuses: Not Started, In Progress, On Hold, In Approval, Approved, Completed, Cancelled
    
*   Gantt chart preconfigured with phase dependencies
    
*   Work package views (TBD)
    
*   Dashboard
    
    *   Graphs (TBD)
        
*   Roles: Project Manager, Project Sponsor, Team Member, Stakeholder
    
*   Work package forms & custom fields (TBD)
    

**4\. Non-tech project template**  
**Target users: Business, marketing, HR, operations, and other non-technical teams.**

For now only one template. In future we could consider adding specific templates per department (e.g. marketing, HR etc.).

*   Modules: Work Packages, Calendar, Wiki, Documents, Backlog (?), Boards, Gantt, Meetings
    
*   Work package types: Task, Summary Task, Approval, Milestone
    
*   Statuses: Open, In Progress, Waiting for Input, In approval, Approved, Done, Cancelled
    
*   Boards: Kanban board
    
*   Work package views (TBD)
    
*   Dashboard
    
    *   Graphs (TBD)
        
*   Roles: Project Lead, Team Member, Stakeholder
    
*   Work package forms & custom fields (TBD)
    

**5\. OKR template**  
**Target users:** Leadership teams, strategy departments, and any team running quarterly or annual goal-setting cycles using the OKR (Objectives & Key Results) framework.

*   Modules: Work Packages, Documents, Activity, Boards, Gantt, Meetings
    
*   Work package types: Strategic Initiative, Objective, Key Result
    
*   Dashboard
    
    *   Graphs (TBD)
        
*   Statuses: Draft, Active, On Track, At Risk, Off Track, Achieved, Missed, Completed
    
*   Custom fields: Complete (%), OKR cycle (e.g. Q1 2026)
    
*   Work package views (TBD)
    
*   Roles: OKR Champion, Objective Owner, Key Result Owner, Stakeholder
    
*   Work package forms & custom fields (TBD)

### Out of scope

Development of new features.

| Attribute | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Mockups |  |

## Planning

| Attribute | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Roadmap | 2027 Q2 |
| Date |  |
| Votes |  |
| List |  |
| Target versions | Product Backlog |
| Sprint |  |
| Backlog bucket |  |
| Relevance | Medium — Useful Mid-Term |

## Subitems

_No work packages_

## Bugs and other work packages

_No work packages_

## Details

| Attribute | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Module |  |
| Enterprise plan |  |
| Labels |  |

## People

| Attribute | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Assignee |  |
| Accountable | Rosanna Sibora |
| Product manager | Sonita Soth |
| Designer | Parimal Satyal |
| Developers | OP Dev Comms Team |
| Requested by |  |
| Interest by | Home (224196000003952096) |

## Estimates and progress

| Attribute | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Work | 30d 0h |

## Description

As a global OpenProject admin I would like to use out-of-the-box projects templates in order to quickly setup various types of projects.

Goals:

*   Deliver ready-to-use project templates for the most requested project types
    
*   Reduce the time required to set up a new project from hours to minutes
    
*   Improve OpenProject adoption among non-technical and enterprise users
    

Templates to be provided:

*   [x] basic agile software development template
*   [x] SAFe template (Portfolio + ARTs)
*   [x] basic waterfall template
*   [x] non-tech project template
*   [x] OKR template