Project schedule overview [in-depth guide]
While your project schedule should be predetermined to the best of your knowledge in your Project templates, there does come a time when you may need to update your project's schedule to meet the current needs of the client project(s).
This guide will cover the steps of creating new tasks on a blank schedule, as well as adding tasks to an existing schedule, plus, some advanced features to give you a further understanding of how the schedules are designed to work for you.
NOTE: The Schedule screen will now update if someone else is editing the same schedule at the same time.
Guide contents: Schedule overview | Schedule view toggles | Task Details | Gantt View | Copy Tasks | Assignment Details | Creating a new schedule | Copying Tasks from a Template or Project | Adding tasks to an existing schedule | Update Multiple Tasks | Advanced schedule features | More options | Resources
Schedule overview
In the setup of any project, you will see "Schedule". Clicking on this will open your project schedule.
The Schedule screen provides the following features:
- The schedule can be set to auto-save when moving from field to field or save changes only when clicking the SAVE button.
- The Gantt view, task details, and copy from are fixed panels that can be hidden or shown in any combination.
- You can view task-based conversations.
- Assignments, though visible/editable via the Task details panel can open up into a separate panel. This panel allows navigation between tasks.
- You can create "column sets". These are predefined sets of columns that you can toggle between to allow you to view/edit the information that is necessary at that time, ex. setup of schedule may have different columns vs. traffic.
Schedule view toggles
While the Schedule Grid will always be visible, the toggles in the upper right of the schedule allow you to see more features inline with the grid. These include the Task Details, Gantt and Copy Tasks feature.
Task Details
From the upper right of the schedule click on Task details.
The task details allow you to adjust and view all task-related information
Along the top of the Task detail panel you will see:
-Task name
-Navigation to next/previous task
-View/edit current task detail
-View/edit current task to-do list
-View/edit current task conversations
Editing the task details
The tab is separated into assignments at the top, task plan, actual, and other information.
Plan
This area allows you to adjust the planned areas of the task, this includes plan start, plan complete, duration, constraint, & predecessors.
NOTE: This panel is the only area that allows the setup of cross-project predecessor links.
Actual
This area allows you to set how actuals are tracked and to edit %complete, priority, actual start, & actual complete dates.
Other
This section is used to set up task controls, such as track budgets & allow all on time sheets.
To Dos lists
This tab allows you to add/edit/view to-do lists for the selected task.
Task-level Conversations
This tab allows you to add, edit & view all conversations for the selected task.
Gantt View
From the upper right corner, click on Show on the Gantt chart icon.
Once open, you can select day, week, or month views.
Copy Tasks
In the top right corner, click on Add task from the Templates icon.
Select a template or project from the drop-down list. You are able to copy all tasks or drag-n-drop tasks from displayed tasks into the current schedule.
Assignment Details
Clicking on the Assignments from the grid or the task details will open the new Assignments panel.
There is a more detailed look at the assignments, where you can also manually adjust weekly buckets. To access this, click on the blue letters in the Assigned column, or Assignment Details from the Task Details.
This will open a new screen where you can edit the assignments with greater focus.
Clicking Show Weeks will change how you can allocate time and then bucket the hours by the week.
NOTE: Once you override the hours in the weekly buckets, the system will use those numbers for allocations in resourcing.
Creating a new schedule
When creating a new schedule, the project schedule screen will appear rather empty, with the only option to add a task.
NOTE: If you are working in a project template, there are no dates listed, just days in duration for each task.
Click Add a task.
Name the task and enter the days on which you plan to complete the task.
NOTE: Track budgets is checked by default for all new assignment-level tasks.
Enter the Task Name, Days, and Assignment(s). To add Assignments, click on the Add link in the Assigned column, or click Add Assignment from the Task Details on the right.
Be sure to populate the User Name, Service, and Allocated Hours.
NOTE: This is what drives all the Resourcing features within Workamajig.
You can add multiple assignments to a single task, so long as they all share the same goals.
Add additional tasks by clicking on Insert row from the schedule.
If you have checked in your Display options, then you will see the Predecessors automatically populate.
Now, continue to fill out the remaining tasks to fulfill your project schedule needs.
Copying Tasks from a Template or Project
Click on one of the two shortcuts to open the Templates panel.
Choose your template or project. Then, click on Copy all tasks (this will bring over the full schedule), or drag and drop just the tasks you want to bring over (this copies only the data for those individual tasks).
In this situation, the end result looks like this.
Adding tasks to an existing schedule
Let's say you have the following schedule and you want to add a revisions task after the reviews task.
Option 1
One way is to click on the Insert below the plus sign on the task that you want to enter the new task below.
Enter the new task's name, duration of days, and assigned people.
The end result would look something like this. Note how the Final task has two predecessors. To adjust predecessors, see the next section.
Option 2
The other way is to simply click Insert row at the bottom of the schedule and then drag and drop the task to where you want it to be.
The new task is inserted at the end.
Drag and drop the task to its desired place in the schedule.
After the task is moved, note how the predecessors are still based on how the task was originally added.
Update Multiple Tasks
The checkboxes on the left side of each task allows you to update individual or multiple tasks at once.
These include options to adjust the predecessors, assignments, or notify users.
Link/Unlink
Allows you to adjust the predecessors of the selected tasks.
NOTE: When selecting tasks one by one, the order in which you click is the order in which they will be Linked. Clicking the top checkbox will highlight all tasks from the top down.
For example, to mass update the predecessors of an entire schedule, do the following:
Click the checkbox at the top to check all tasks. Then select the Unlink button.
Now, all the tasks should have the same start date (today).
Click the checkbox again to highlight all tasks and now click the Link option that appears.
The end result would look something like this, where all tasks now push out based on the previous task.
NOTE: If you have Summary and Sub Tasks, then the first task under the summary will not be linked to anything. But the Summary task will be linked to the last detail task before it.
Add Assignments
Choosing Add Assignments will open a new panel to pick from Available People or Services. Check the User or Service to add and input some hours to allocate to the new assignment.
NOTE: When adding people, their Default Service is used.
Edit Assignments
Choosing Edit Assignments will list all the current assignments for the tasks selected. Which allows you to edit the assignments listed as well. Additionally you can add new assignments from the top of this screen.
NOTE: There are many ways to edit the assignments on a task. This is just one of those ways.
Reassign
Similar to the Reassign option form More > Reassign. But this applies only to the selected tasks.
NOTE: Using the "Replace a person with a different person" or "Assign a person to a service" (where a person is already assigned), will do what is a called a "Hand Off". This will take into account the hours already entered to the assignment and create a new assignment for the remaining unused allocated hours.
Notify Users
Similar to the More > Notify Users. But going this route will only include the selected open tasks in the email. Great way to email users of a specific task to pay attention to.
Complete
Updates all checked Tasks (and Assignments within) to 100% complete.
Set Baseline
This will populate/override the Baselines Dates with what is currently in the Plan Dates for the selected tasks.
To update just the tasks with no Baseline Dates, then use More > Set Baseline > Set Only Tasks with No Baseline.
NOTE: You can automate this using the Update Blank Baseline Dates option from Project Status Codes.
Delete Tasks
Deletes all selected Tasks. Be mindful when using this option.
NOTES:
- There is not a way to undelete or bring back tasks that have been deleted.
- If Auto Save is on, then be careful with this option. If Auto Save is off, then you can choose to not save your changes and the tasks will remain.
- Tasks that have an Estimate or Labor/Expense transaction linked to them cannot be deleted.
- Tasks where all its transactions have been transferred to another task, can be deleted.
Advanced schedule features
Switch to project
You can switch to another project's schedule right from the schedule you have open.
To do this, click on the Search icon next to the project number.
Then from the drop-down, choose the project you want to switch to in the schedule.
You can enter the client ID for more refined results.
Then click GO!
Schedule direction
By default, the schedule direction for new projects is set to 'from project start'. This works best with the 'as soon as possible' constraint. The design here is that your assigned users work based on the task's start date and not necessarily the due date. The schedule status will turn red if any task's due date pushes past the project's due date.
You can change the schedule direction to 'from project completion'. Doing so will make each task constraint set to 'as late as possible'. When using the schedule this way, your predecessors will then work backward from the last task's due date. If a task is not completed by the task due date, then the task will permanently turn red and cannot auto-push forward.
Task constraints
The default task constraint is 'as soon as possible'. The design here is that the current task is ready to start now, based on the use of predecessors. The other constraints allow you to adjust how each task behaves.
For more info, please refer to the Task constraints [in-depth guide].
Predecessors
This refers to the link established between tasks and is designed to push the planned start date of the next task, based on the actual completion date of the previous task.
Predecessors are created automatically based on where you are adding a task to the schedule.
For more on this, please refer to the Task predecessors [in-depth guide].
Auto pushing of task dates
By default, the system will update the active project's task's plan start & plan due dates each night if the task has an actual start and/or actual completion date.
There are three main settings that control this automation.
- Push schedule dates on tasks: Auto-pushes the task's planned start date nightly.
- Push schedule end dates on started tasks: Auto-push the task's planned completion date nightly.
- Actual dates change the plan date: Instantly adjusts the remaining tasks/predecessor's plan dates based on the actual completion date of the previous task.
This can be set at a system or project level.
For more info, please refer to the Auto schedule [in-depth guide].
Cross-project predecessors
This feature is designed for use in campaign-related projects. This allows you to have a task in project 1 "trigger" the start of a task in project 2.
For more info, please refer to the Cross-project predecessors [in-depth guide].
More options
From the More button at the top of the schedule, you can access more features and adjust how the screen works.
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Collapse/Expand All - Clicking this will collapse all sub tasks to show the top level tasks only. And clicking again will expand the to show all the most detail tasks. Lock - Applies a Lock to the Schedule. Where only the user show clicked Lock can edit. There are also security rights for who can edit others Locked schedules. Administrators can always edit locked schedules. Set Baseline - Clicking this easily allows you to populate the Baselines Start and Complete Dates of each task, with the current Plan Dates. You can choose to update all tasks, or only ones with no Baseline Dates yet. Reassign - Opens the Reassign screen to reassign assignments based on specific criteria for the entire schedule. Send Notifications - Sends an email to each user assigned with at least one open task. The single email will include a list of all tasks the user is assigned. Edit Column Sets - Allows you to create alternate views of the schedule grid. Dashboard - Open the Project Dashboard. Is useful if you opened the Schedule from another path. Burn Chart - Opens the Burn Chart for the project. Reload Blockout Days - Is used for when public blockout days are added to the calendar that same day. As this helps readjust the schedule. Display Options - Access the list of user display options. System Settings - Access the list of administration system settings. |
Additional details for some of the More options.
Set Baseline
When going this route to set the baseline dates, you get two options to choose from.
Set All Tasks - This will override all Baseline Dates in the schedule (even if populated), to match that of the tasks current Plan Dates.
Set Only Tasks with No Baseline - This will only populate the Baseline Dates on tasks where these are currently blank, and populate them with the tasks Plan Dates.
NOTE: This settings is remembered by your browser the next time you access this screen.
Reassign
This is a great way to Assign/Reassign work throughout the entire project schedule. Saving you time from having to go task by task for the same line of work.
When you select one of the choices, yo will see a list of matching tasks below, which are checked by default.
Some of the options will limit to data in the schedule. Like when you choose a Service to reassign.
NOTE: Using the "Replace a person with a different person" or "Assign a person to a service" (where a person is already assigned), will do what is a called a "Hand Off". This will take into account the hours already entered to the assignment and create a new assignment for the remaining unused allocated hours.
Edit Column Sets
You can now create custom column sets, instead of choosing the columns by the security group.
NOTE: You will need at least the Security Right of "---Allow access to lists" in order to be able to edit column sets.
You can also override the label of each column to suit your preference.
Once a column set is added, the drop-down will then appear for all users. Default layout relies on the columns for that security group.
Display Options
These are the options that the signed in user has access to.
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Automatically Save Schedule - When checked, the task row will attempt to Auto Save when its no longer the focus. Expand Schedule When Opened - When checked, all Summary tasks will be collapsed when first loading. Set Previous Task as Predecessor of New Task - When checked, the behavior is for new tasks to be auto-linked (as a predecessor) to task above it. Show Tasks with Completed Predecessors Only - When checked, this will hide any task that is either 100% Complete, or hide tasks where its predecessor task is not yet complete. |
System Settings
These options are for an Administrator type user to determine.
When Saving, you get the option to reset the users Display Options to match.
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Auto Save Schedule - When checked, the task row will attempt to Auto Save when its no longer the focus. Can be changed by the User. Locked Columns - Determines the number of Columns from the left to keep visible at all times on screen. Edit Columns - Allows you to edit the Default Columns that are visible to all users. Expand Schedule When Opened -When checked, all Summary tasks will be collapsed when first loading. Can be changed by the User. Edit Column Sets - Opens up the Columns Sets feature. Which allows you to create alternate views then just the Default Columns grid. Include Projects in Template List - When checked, you can copy tasks from any project in the system. Include Assigned Users on Task Conversation Email List - Great option to ensure that Conversations started on tasks will include the assigned users of the task. Set Previous Task as Predecessor of New Task - When checked, the behavior is for new tasks to be auto-linked (as a predecessor) to task above it. Can be changed by the User. Default Track Budgets on New Task - On by default. When a new task is added, the option for Track Budgets will automatically be checked. Burn Chart - Allows access to the Projects Burn Chart from More > Burn Chart. |
Resources
Project templates [in-depth guide]
Task predecessors [in-depth guide]
Task constraints [in-depth guide]
Using timeline segments [in-depth guide]