Project Workspace - Project Plan

Introduction

The project plan is used to keep track of the project's tasks, dates, and assignments. It is an interactive web part with drag-and-drop functionality and can be customized to display relevant tasks, statuses, dates, and data. The project plan can be opened by clicking Project Plan from the navigation menu.

Creating a New Task

A new task can be created by clicking + New Task.

Clicking the new task button opens a registration form.

A structured creation of tasks makes further work in the project plan easier. A good rule of thumb is to define parent and sub-tasks when creating tasks and let the WBS be set automatically. If you want to change the order of a sub-task, you can manually edit the WBS afterwards.

Editing and Deleting a Task

Editing a Task

There are three ways to edit or update a task.

1. Update the task through My Page where you can click the title or link to the project plan.
2. Use the drag-and-drop functionality in the project plan's progress overview.
3. Enter the edit form for a task by double-clicking the task in the project plan's progress overview.

When you have finished editing the task in option 2 or 3, click the Save/Update button.

Deleting a Task

To delete a task, go to the task's edit form and then click the trash can icon in the upper right corner.

When you click the trash can you will receive a confirmation for deletion. Note that if the task is a parent or predecessor task, all sub-tasks must be deleted or the connection removed first. You will then receive an error message with information about this.

Assignment and Notifications

When a task is assigned to a user, either upon creation or through editing, a message will be sent to the user's email and Teams with a link to the project's project plan. The task will also appear on the user's My Page.

Using the Project Plan

The project plan is built on the principle of work breakdown structure (WBS), and through an intuitive and graphical design will manage the project's tasks.

The project plan has three main sections:

1. Tool Menu
2. Task Overview
3. Progress Overview

Tool Menu and Task Overview

Tool Menu

The tool menu makes it possible to customize the displayed data and tasks as the user sees fit. It is also used to save, undo, and redo changes in the project plan's interface.

Static Display Date Change

Moves the timeline used in the progress overview forward or backward by one week.

Manual Date Change

Allows you to set a custom start and end date used to display tasks in the progress overview. The date change is not saved and must be adjusted per view and user as desired.

Auto-zoom

Auto-zoom will automatically set the display date to show all project tasks.

Undo / Redo

Any action taken in the progress overview can be undone or redone using these menu options.

Save

Actions taken in the task overview or progress overview must be saved for the change to take effect.

Search

Using the search field will display tasks that match the search criteria, as well as any relevant parent tasks, predecessors, or previous tasks. Removing the search criteria will reset the filter to its original state.

Status Filter

Using the status filter displays tasks based on their statuses.

Task Overview

An overview of project tasks showing the task name, completion percentage, and responsible resource. The tasks displayed depend on the filters set in the tool menu.

Collapse and Expand

Parent tasks can be collapsed or expanded to hide or show sub-tasks. This will also be reflected in the progress overview.

Drag-and-drop

With drag-and-drop functionality, the user can easily reorganize tasks.

• Drop a task outside the task overview grid to remove it from the parent task.
• Drop a task onto another task to make it a predecessor task.
• A task with parent status cannot be moved using drag and drop.

Progress Overview

The progress overview shows a graphical overview of the tasks, providing a clear view of the scope. Important task management, such as progress and date handling, can be performed directly in the overview using the drag-and-drop functionality, but remember to save your changes!

Symbols and Usage

Today's Date

The current date is displayed as a red line in the overview, making it easy for the user to set up and plan tasks accordingly.

Task Status

Tasks are colored based on their current progress status.

• Gray = Not started
• Blue = Started
• Green = Completed

Task Progress Marker

The progress marker is visible by hovering over the task and can be adjusted by clicking and dragging.

Connection

Connections between tasks are marked with a solid black line. When you hover the mouse over the line it will be highlighted so you can clearly see which tasks are connected. This is necessary when you have several connected tasks.

Parent Task

A parent task is a visualization of the combined dates and progress of its sub-tasks. The parent task will automatically update as sub-tasks are completed.

Milestone

A milestone is displayed as a purple diamond. The milestone helps break up the project and improve progress monitoring. A milestone can only have a duration of one day.