Projects and Stages in PRO-dela: How the Project Management Program Works

A project in PRO-dela is a working circuit with technical specifications, participants, tasks, and stages. A stage is a separate entity within a project: it divides the workflow into phases such as "Preparation", "Implementation", and "Testing", and can have its own deadlines, completion status, and its own technical specifications. Below is a breakdown of how the platform handles creating and editing a project in the user and admin API, assigning participants, working with stages, and storing technical specifications at two levels.

This text is useful for those setting up the workflow of an agency, contractor, product, or service team and want to rely on the actual capabilities of the project management program rather than general promises.

Project as a Unit of Work

This is the foundation of the PRO-dela project management system: not just a list of tasks, but a connected circuit of requirements, participants, stages, and results. A project exists within a company and contains:

• author and list of participants with roles;
• name, description, and deadline;
• its own technical specifications with text and files;
• stages, tasks, project chat, and, if necessary, private discussions.

When creating a project, the platform immediately sets up a basic set of task statuses and role-based access settings — this is where management of what each participant can see and do begins. Project creation depends on the company and its tariff: the system checks the available project limit and whether there are enough slots for the standard set of roles that are created along with the project.

CRUD of a Project: User and Admin API

In the user interface, the full project management cycle is available: list of own and accessible projects, creation, viewing the card, editing the name, description, deadline, and technical specifications, and deletion.

In the PRO-dela admin panel, an independent CRUD works for projects: an administrator can create, view, modify, and delete any company project — for example, to support a user or control data — without necessarily being a participant.

Important detail: deleting a project is irreversible and cascading. Along with the project, its participants, tasks, roles, statuses, and stages are deleted. This is not a move to the archive, but a permanent deletion — before deleting a project, make sure this data is no longer needed.

Participants and Roles — Briefly

Each project has participants: they can be added directly if the person is already in the company, or invited — then the invitee decides whether to join. A participant is assigned a role that determines the actions available to them within the project: from viewing tasks to editing technical specifications and stages.

This article does not cover roles and invitations in detail: a full breakdown is in the article about roles and participants in PRO-dela.

Stages: How to Decompose a Project into Phases

A stage is an independent entity tied to a specific project. It has:

• name and description;
• planned start and end dates, duration;
• a "stage completed" mark;
• its own technical specifications;
• fields for cost, prepayment, and remaining payment, which link the stage to the project's financial picture.

Stages can be created, edited, and deleted both in the user and admin API of the project.

Standard Set of Stages in One Action

If a project does not yet have any stages, the platform can generate a standard set: "Preparation", "Implementation", and "Testing" — with the order already set. Once a project has at least one stage, repeated generation is unavailable: from then on, stages are added, renamed, and deleted manually according to the team's specific process.

Order of Stages and Task Linking

The order of stages can be changed: the platform preserves exactly the sequence the user provides, usually by dragging and dropping in the interface. Project tasks can be attached to a specific stage and then detached — without deleting the task itself, this only removes the "task-stage" link. Only a task that actually belongs to the project and is visible to the user can be attached: the platform checks this with each request.

The order of tasks within a stage does not match the overall order of tasks in the project — each stage has its own list, so rearranging within a stage does not confuse the overall backlog. And marking a stage as completed is not something anyone who can change its name or dates can do: this is a separate access right.

Technical Specifications at the Project Level and at the Stage Level

Technical specifications in PRO-dela exist at two independent levels. The project has its own field with the specification text and a separate action to save it. Each stage has its own technical specification field, which is edited along with the rest of the stage data. The overall specification at the project level and the refined requirements of a specific stage do not overwrite each other.

Files can be attached to the technical specifications — both at the project level and at the stage level: up to 10 files per specification, each file no larger than 10 MB. Uploading and deleting files is a separate action from editing the text, and the limit is counted independently for the project and for each stage. The right to change the technical specifications and their files coincides with the right to edit the project or stage itself — there is no separate "specifications only" permission.

How Projects and Stages Are Related to Tasks, Chats, and Budget

Stages do not replace the task list — they give it structure. The task itself exists in the project regardless of whether it is attached to a stage; for working with tasks, subtasks, priorities, and statuses, see the article about tasks in PRO-dela.

The project has a common chat, and each task has its own; for a specific sensitive issue, you can create a private discussion with a limited set of participants — more details in the article about chats and communication in PRO-dela.

The cost and payment of stages, budget, and expenses for the project are accounted for separately and are discussed in detail in the article about project budgets.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a project be run without stages at all?

Yes. Stages are an optional layer of structure. The project's task list works without any stages; stages should be used when the work really needs to be broken down into sequential parts.

What happens to tasks and participants when a project is deleted?

They are deleted along with the project: participants, tasks, roles, statuses, and stages. This is an irreversible action, not a move to the archive.

Is the project's technical specification different from the stage's technical specification?

Yes, these are two independent text fields and two independent sets of files: one at the overall project level, the other at the specific stage level.

Who can create, edit, and complete stages?

This depends on the participant's role in the project: creating, editing, deleting, and marking "stage completed" are different access rights. More about roles in the article about roles and participants.

Start with One Project

Register in PRO-dela and create your first project: add technical specifications, break the work into stages, and invite the necessary participants. Before starting, you can view the tariffs to choose the appropriate volume for your team.