June 23, 2022
These notes outline how to launch and manage a project. If you are new to our application, we recommend you read our information on Overall Navigation before you start.
Launch your Project
Set up a New Project from the + icon on the blue top level Horizontal Navigation Bar. See this Launching a Project information for the key steps. Don’t forget to save before you exit the screen. If you haven’t managed projects in our application before, we recommend you read our information on Initiative Navigation.
Import a project template (if relevant)
If there is a similar project already set up, you can save time by importing key information from this project, as long as the project is tagged as a template. Your organisation may also have set up some standard projects as templates. Navigate to the project you have launched and use the Functions drop down button to import a template. The Functions button is viewable on most project views, in the top right hand corner. See this Project Templates tutorial for more information.
Add your project objective
Your project objective outlines what your project will achieve. Note that this has a different focus from the project’s description which is a more general summary of content of your project. For example, the Food & Beverage Professional Development Project has the following objective and description:
Objective: To improve professionalism of staff.
Description: Project to encourage Wellington based food & beverage staff to enrol in relevant NZQA qualifications. If successful then this work could be extended to other Wellington and Auckland based teams.
Use the Functions drop down button to add objectives. This button is viewable on most project views, in the top right hand corner. See this Objectives tutorial for more information.
Link your project to your organisation and/or group’s strategic drivers
You can show how your initiative contributes to organisational and/or group level strategy by linking relevant strategic drivers. Strategic drivers are the key components of a strategy. See this Link Strategic Drivers tutorial for more information.
Add project benefits
Benefits are the positive outcomes expected as a result of the project work being carried out. For example a benefit may be increased staff engagement or increased customer loyalty or increased profit. These benefits can be financial or non financial in nature. They may have measures attached which help track how well they’re being achieved. Benefits in our application are assigned a gold, silver or bronze value. This value estimate enables you to compare the relative value of benefits of different types.
Your organisation expects that your project will generate benefits of some sort, otherwise why would you be carrying out the work. While project managers aren’t generally accountable for the realisation of benefits, they are accountable for making sure that work being carried out by the project ensures that the benefits can be realised. In our application, we use benefit reviews to support this. Benefit owners are accountable for reviewing the feasibility of their benefits regularly. (Project managers may need to encourage them to do this.) You, as a project manager, are responsible for taking account of these regular benefit reviews and making changes to the project, as appropriate.
If your project has a business case or some sort of project initiation documentation, then you will probably find information on your project benefits. Use the Shortcuts drop down button to add benefits. This button is viewable on most project views, in the top right hand corner. See this Benefits tutorial for more information.
Add your deliverables
Your project’s deliverables are the key outputs required to complete the project eg products or services. For example, the deliverables for the Food & Beverage Professional Development Project are:
- Qualifications of current staff identified.
- Relevant local training institutions identified.
- Relevant NZQA qualifications identified.
- Staff enrolled in trainee programme.
- Study incentives developed.
- Support structure for trainees developed.
Most projects have 3-6 key deliverables. Deliverables are a critical part of a project. If you can’t clearly define these, then you project is unlikely to succeed. Deliverables are often listed in a project’s business case or other project initiation documents.
Use the Shortcuts drop down button to add deliverables. This button is viewable on most project views, in the top right hand corner. See this Deliverables tutorial for more information. Once you’ve added your deliverables, you’ll need to update them from time to time, to keep track of progress.
Add your people
Use the Shortcuts drop down button to add your project team and other people involved in leadership or governance roles. This button is viewable on most project views, in the top right hand corner.
It’s best to add people before you start adding much detail to your project to make it easier to allocate people to other items such as tasks. When you add people to your project you also define their roles on the project and decide what level of access they will have to your project information.
See this People tutorial for more information.
Add your project lifecycle
A project lifecycle defines the series of generic stages a project goes through during the course of its life. An example of a very simple project lifecycle is: Initiation, Delivery, Benefit Realisation. Organisations often define the lifecycle(s) to be used by their projects. Approval is generally required to move to the next stage of the lifecycle.
If your organisation has set up project lifecycles, you can apply the relevant lifecycle to your project. You then update this lifecycle information as your project moves through the stages.
Use the Functions drop down button to add a lifecycle. This button is viewable on most project views, in the top right hand corner. See this Lifecycle tutorial for information on how to add and update your project lifecycle.
Add your milestones
Your project’s milestones define a significant point or event. They represent a moment in time so have no duration.
Be wary about adding too many milestones as this can be overwhelming. Just add your key milestones, particularly when you are setting up your project. As a general rule, don’t add milestones for information which is already included in your project in some other form. For example, you don’t need to add milestones for the completion of individual deliverables - you’ll have already entered due dates for your deliverable. The same applies to tasks - you don’t need to add milestones to show the completion of individual tasks.
Use the Shortcuts drop down button to add a milestone. This button is viewable on most project views, in the top right hand corner. See this Milestones tutorial for more information. Once you’ve added your milestones, you’ll need to update them from time to time, to keep track of progress.
Add your tasks
Tasks are time bound portions of work used to organise and schedule the work of your project. In our application tasks can be used for some or all of the following functions:
- Scheduling portions of work (tasks) and identifying the people who will carry out this work.
- Allocating percentages of people’s time to your project.
- Recording the time people have worked on your project.
How you define your tasks, depends on which of these task functions you use. For example if you want to use tasks for all three of the functions above, we’d suggest the following:
- Set up one task or task pool (see next section) to allocate people to your project and record the time people have worked on your project. (This reduces the overhead involved for you and your team).
- Set up individual tasks to define the work you need to do (when you allocate people to these tasks, allocate them at 0%).
If you are running an agile project, we’d suggest the following:
- Set up a timesheet task for each sprint and use this to allocate people’s time and to record the time they actually worked.
- Set up individual tasks to track the individual pieces of work each of your team members are carrying out in the current sprint (when you allocate people to these tasks, allocate them at 0%).
Use the Shortcuts drop down button to add a task. This button is viewable on most project views, in the top right hand corner. See this Tasks tutorial for more information. Once you’ve added your tasks, you (and others managing tasks), need to update them regularly, to keep track of progress.
Add your task pools
Task pools are simpler to set up than tasks and show on the gantt as a different shade of blue. You can use these to allocate percentages of people’s time to your project and record the time people have worked on your project. You can also use them to manage overhead work such as project management admin, as a way of distinguishing these tasks from other project work.
Use the Shortcuts drop down button to add a task pool. This button is viewable on most project views, in the top right hand corner. See this Task Pools tutorial for more information. Once you’ve added your task pools, you’ll need to update regularly, to keep track of progress.
Add your dependencies
Dependencies in our application can be incoming or outgoing. Incoming dependencies are tasks or milestones in other projects which need to be completed for your project to succeed. For example, you are developing software which cannot be deployed without a server and this particular server is being built by another project. Your project is dependent on the other project to build the server. In the context of your project, the server build is an incoming dependency. Outgoing dependencies are tasks or milestones in your project which another project is dependent on.
When you identify another project’s task or milestone as a dependency it will show up in your project as an incoming dependency. This task or milestone will show on your project’s gantt (coloured yellow). If the other project alters the time frame for this task or milestone by more than a week, then an issue will be automatically generated in your project.
Use the Shortcuts drop down button to add a task pool. This button is viewable on most project views, in the top right hand corner. See this Dependencies tutorial for more information.
Add document links
You can add document links to your project. For example you might want to link the approved business case for your project. See this Document Links tutorial for more information.
Review your project regularly
Use our status reviews to report on the current status of a Project. It’s good practice for project managers to carry out these status reviews regularly eg once a month or at the end of each sprint. Status reviews are a fundamental aspect of project management. They’re also important in our application as status review information contributes to rolled up information throughout the application.
Before you add your status review, we recommend you review your Storyboard, Schedule and General Information tabs to check if any information needs updating.
Use the Shortcuts drop down button to add a status review. This button is viewable on most project views, in the top right hand corner. See this Status Reviews tutorial for more information.
Manage your risks
Risks are uncertain events or conditions which, if they occur, could lead to undesirable consequences. These risks may threaten successful completion of your project or they could threaten the health of your organisation in some way. For example, risks for the Food & Beverage Professional Development Project could include:
- Project budget overspend.
- Solutions developed not being fully implemented.
- Disengagement of staff unable to study.
- Escalation of staff costs.
Project managers generally identify key risks at the beginning of their project. They then review these risks and add additional ones on a regular basis throughout the life of the project.
Use the Shortcuts drop down button to add a risk. This button is viewable on most project views, in the top right hand corner. See this Risks tutorial for more information.
If you already have risk information contained in a spreadsheet or document, or have a large number of risks to add, see here for information on how to Import New Risks into your project.
Manage your issues
Issues are events or conditions which have occurred and could lead to undesirable consequences. Issues may threaten successful completion of the project or the health of your organisation in some way. For example, issues for the Food & Beverage Professional Development Project could include:
- A key team member is no longer available.
- Project budget is overspent.
- Insufficient staff have enrolled in the trainee programme.
Adding issues as they arise and reviewing open Issues regularly will help project managers manage them effectively. If your issue is related to a risk you’ve already identified, you can convert the risk to an issue.
Use the Shortcuts drop down button to add an issue. This button is viewable on most project views, in the top right hand corner. See this Issues tutorial for more information.
Manage your decisions
These are used to identify and track decisions which need to be made for the project to progress effectively. Note this excludes change requests which are managed separately (see below). You can add decisions which need to be made, invite people to assess them and record details of the final decisions made. Recording decisions in our application helps project managers keep track of decisions and avoid having to relitigate them later on.
Use the Shortcuts drop down button to add a decision. This button is viewable on most project views, in the top right hand corner. See this Decisions tutorial for more information.
Manage your change requests
These are requests to make changes to the project which are outside the authority of the requester. For example you might need to request more budget or change the scope of the project significantly. You can add change requests which need to be considered, invite people to assess the change request and record what decision was made. Change requests are generally managed by the project manager or sponsor. Using this process provides the project manager with an audit trail of change requests.
Use the Shortcuts drop down button to add a change request. This button is viewable on most project views, in the top right hand corner. See this Change Requests tutorial for more information.
Conversations and blogs
You can use our online conversations and blogs to exchange information and discuss ideas relating to your project. If you use the right hand Side Panel of your project (Community tab) to start conversations in your project, then they will be linked to your project and visible to people who have access to your project.
See here for information on how to create and respond to Conversations and Blogs
Reporting
You can report on your project by:
- Linking to key online views.
- Producing customisable PDF reports.
See here for information on Reporting.
Help Side Panel
Don’t forget to use the Help tab on the right hand Side Panel to see definitions and links to tutorials related to the screen you are currently viewing. To access this Help, click the ? icon on the right hand Side Panel.