From proposal to governed project

Approving a proposal is not the end of governance, it is the handover. When a proposal passes the right gate, Onplana creates the delivery project automatically and keeps the two linked, so the project always carries its approval history with it.

The automatic project

When a proposal passes your organization’s configured project creation gate, the project is created in the same step as the approval:

• Named after the proposal, with its description, budget, and currency carried over.
• Status Planning, classified as strategic work.
• Timeline derived from the proposal’s estimated duration in weeks.
• Owned by the proposal’s author, unless a different project owner was named on the proposal; the author keeps manager access either way.
• Any document libraries and tables gathered in the proposal workspace move to the new project automatically.

The submitter is notified that the project exists, and the sponsor receives the same notification.

Choose when the project is created

By default the project is created when the proposal passes Proposal Review, so teams can start preparing early while the later gates continue. Stricter organizations can move this later:

1. Open Organization Settings, go to the Governance tab, then the Classification section.

2. Under Project Creation Gate, choose the gate that should trigger creation: Proposal Review, Business Case Review, Plan Review, or only once the proposal is fully Approved.

Tip

If a proposal reaches Approved without a project (for example, the creation gate is set late, or the link was removed), reviewers see a Convert to Project button on the proposal to create one manually with a name, dates, and budget of their choosing.

How the link shows up

• On the project: the Overview tab shows a Governance Origin banner with the linked proposal, its current stage, the sponsor, and the gate reviews. If the proposal is ever deleted, an archived snapshot of this information remains.
• On the Projects page: governed projects carry a Governed badge on their cards, so it is obvious at a glance which work went through the pipeline.
• On the proposal: once linked, the proposal shows the project’s live status, and it moves to Active alongside the delivery work.

Governance metadata on the project

Managers and above see a Governance Metadata section when editing a governed project, covering Priority, Risk Level, Department, Strategic Alignment, Sponsor, Expected Benefits, and Business Justification. Saving updates the project first and then the linked proposal, so the governance record never drifts from the project. Project members below manager level do not see this section, governance details stay with the people who run the pipeline.

FAQs

Who owns the new project? The proposal’s author, unless the proposal named a different project owner. If that named owner has since left the organization, ownership falls back to the author so the project is never orphaned.

Does rejecting the proposal later remove the project? No, and you cannot reject an approved proposal at all. Stopping a live initiative means cancelling the project itself; the proposal record stays for the audit trail.

Do gate scores follow the project? Yes. The average review score from the proposal’s gates is synced to the project as its governance score, visible to managers in project health views.