Step Templates Are Reusable Checklists, Not TASKPROC Rows

What a planner means

A step template is a reusable group of activity steps. Oracle: define a group of steps common to multiple activities, then assign the template to different activities. Templates that are relevant in many projects streamline data entry and keep work identified consistently.

Professional example: a repeating “Write Specifications” activity with Submit initial spec → Review initial spec → Revise initial spec → Final review → Final revision. Create one template and assign it to each applicable activity instead of typing the list each time. If the steps already exist on an activity, convert them to a template (name, description, weight, and selected UDFs).

Create (EPPM): Administration → Enterprise Data → Activities → Step Templates → Add → Template Name → Save. Then configure the Steps detail window: Step Name, Description, Weight; add, delete, or Move Up / Move Down. Create (Professional): Enterprise → Activity Step Templates; upper grid Step Template Name, lower grid steps. Professional: unlimited templates; no limit on steps per template; step weight at least 1.0 (higher = greater importance); UDF columns on the template are saved with it.

Assign (EPPM): Activities → Steps detail window → Assign… → Select Activity Step Template. Oracle: you can use more than one template, but add steps from only one template at a time. After a template add, you can edit step details but not the step name. Assign (Professional): one or more templates to one or more activities; the template’s steps, weights, descriptions, and UDFs are loaded into the Steps tab. After that you can modify those steps on the activity.

The rows that land on the activity are TASKPROC (see Activity Steps (TASKPROC) — Not Activities, Not MSP Subtasks). The template is the dictionary, not those applied rows. This is not WBSSTEP, not a notebook, and not an activity code. See WBS Milestones Are Weighted WBS Checkpoints, Not TASK Milestones, Notebooks (MEMOTYPE / TASKMEMO / WBSMEMO) — Not Schedule Logic, Activity Codes Are a Pick-List, Not a UDF.

XER

Oracle’s project XER data map lists TASKPROC (Activity Steps) and WBSSTEP (WBS Milestones). It has no step-template table (the cited TOC has no template table). Do not invent one. Step templates are enterprise data (Enterprise Data / Enterprise → Activity Step Templates), not a project-map %T.

TASKPROC on that map has no template-id column. Do not invent a live template FK on applied steps.

API fields (not XER column names). Do not write these as %T columns.

ActivityStepTemplate: Name, ObjectId, SequenceNumber, StepCount (plus Create/LastUpdate user and date).

ActivityStepTemplateItem: Name, Description, Weight, SequenceNumber, ObjectId, ActivityStepTemplateObjectId. API Weight: 0.0–999999.0; “used to calculate the physical percent complete when the project option is set.” That option applies to the applied activity steps, not to a missing XER template table. See Activity Steps (TASKPROC) — Not Activities, Not MSP Subtasks.

Microsoft Project

Desktop Project has no step-template dictionary. Do not map a P6 step template to an outline/subtask list, a checklist custom field, or a recurring task.

Don't

• Treat a step template as TASKPROC (those are the applied steps) or as WBSSTEP.
• Treat a step template as a notebook or an activity code.
• Invent a step-template table in a project XER parse.
• Invent a template foreign key on TASKPROC.
• Map a step template to MSP subtasks or outline indent.
• Treat assign as a live link to the template; Professional says the steps are loaded onto the activity.