Creating A Project Schedule In Smartsheet | Tips For Project Management
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- Creating a project schedule in Smartsheet. Tips for Project Management.
As a project manager, three of your main responsibilities are to manage timelines, stay on budget, and deliver the agreed upon scope. This video will focus on how to create a project schedule, starting with truly understanding the work through creating a Work Breakdown Structure, sequencing & defining dependencies, estimating cost / time / resources, and entering it into Smartsheet. Smartsheet is a great tool for collaboration and has many features that make it easy to manage a project schedule. You can use predecessors, assign resources, set up alerts and notifications, and track the critical path. There are various views that you can use to help you get a quick glance at progress once project execution begins.
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Kandis has a Master of Science Degree in Project Management from George Washington University and is a Project Management Professional.
Creating A Project Schedule In Smartsheet | Tips For Project Management: ua-cam.com/video/a7om6Sn0rkE/v-deo.html
I love so much how we as PM's put so much of our time and energy into studying these methodologies - which are, and would be useful - only to get to work and for all of these concepts, principals, "rules" to be thrown right out the window, because "leadership know better".
Hi Kyle! I can agree with this sentiment. This is also why influence skills are so important for PMs. We need to find a way to educate and influence leadership to help them understand we get better OUTCOMES (which is generally what they care about), by following sound PM practices. I suggest starting small with a ‘pilot’ to prove the concepts work. Best of luck to you!
Kandis, I wanted to take the time to provide my feedback; I've just started watching the videos on Smartsheet and all others in your playlists, except for Miro. Your crisp communication, the clarity you provide, the methodological content delivery, and the patience to explain the details, without assuming the viewers "should" already know it, showcases your ability as a great coach. Furthermore, your content delivery, information architecture, and "walk the talk"/ screen-sharing, clearly shows advance preparation, as oppsoed to jumping all over the place, or speaking solely in "big picture terms and jargon" without any consideration for a diverse audience. You avoid getting into the details immediately, by providing content as a preface and as a wrap-up. Lastly, speaking of diversity, your videos are equally suited to individuals witihn the neurodivergent community, incl. those with Autism, some of whom highly value a structured delivery, such as yours. 👍
Thank you so much for this very thoughtful feedback! I am so happy to hear people are benefiting from this channel - thank you for watching. Wishing you the best with your project management journey! 🎉❤️🙌🏻
Hi Kandis, just started a new job and they want to transition to SmartSheet and here I am learning. Your videos have helped tremendously. You are a great instructor! I have one question I cannot find the answer to; What is the difference between creating a grid or creating a project?
Thanks for the feedback, Emily! Congrats on your new job.
In Smartsheet, both "grids" and "projects" are types of sheets you can create to organize and manage data, but they serve different purposes and have distinct features.
A grid is a flexible, general-purpose sheet where you can track and manage information in rows and columns. It's often used for tasks like lists, inventories, or any dataset where you need a structured layout. Grids have standard columns and rows where you can input text, numbers, dates, dropdowns, and more. However, grids do not have features for task dependencies, which are critical for project planning. You can customize the layout by adding or removing columns and rows as needed. While you can apply basic automation, like alerts or approval workflows, grids lack the project management focus found in other sheet types.
On the other hand, a project sheet is specifically designed for project management. It includes tools to help plan, track, and manage tasks and timelines, making it ideal for managing projects. Project sheets feature a Gantt chart view that visually represents your project timeline, which makes tracking progress easier. You can create task dependencies, such as Finish-to-Start or Start-to-Start, which is essential for managing task sequences and understanding the project’s critical path. Project sheets often include resource management tools to assign tasks to team members and track workload. You can also set milestones to track significant events or deadlines within your project. Additionally, project sheets can use more complex automation, such as reminders based on task dates or status changes.
In summary, grids are versatile and useful for various types of data tracking, while projects are tailored specifically for project management, offering tools like Gantt charts, dependencies, and milestones that are critical for tracking tasks and timelines. Choose a grid if you need basic data tracking, or a project if you need specialized project management tools.
@@PMPexpert Thank you so much for the thorough explanation! Really appreciate you taking the time.
Thanks for your great creativity!
You made me aware good option for premevera.!
Looking for your next vdo...
Thanks for watching, Nitin! Best of luck on your projects.
This is very nice. Your demo on baselines is also very good. SS did not support Baselines for the longest time :D But I have a simple question on assignments. If a task needs to be done between Feb 1 and Feb 28, and it has been assigned to a resource (say X), who is on vacation between Feb 7 - 11, how does SmartSheet (a) automatically extend the task by 1 week into March, or (b) indicate that resource X has to work extra-hard (overloaded) in the 3 weeks in Feb?
Great job 👏 BTW you may want to add plumbing to your home 😉
Ha ha! Thanks, Mark. Naaaaah - who needs plumbing?!
Excellent video. Thank you. For projects that are smaller in scope and length (no longer than 9 months max for us), how would you adjust the thinking on the work breakdown structure for length of time to complete a task? 8-80 hours would be most of the project. Should we look at it as a percent of the overall project time estimate instead?
Hi Sean! There isn’t a fast or hard rule on this, although I would want the work broken down week-by-week for a project of this duration, so I wouldn’t go over 40 hours per task in this situation. I think the most important thing it to ensure the task is able to be assigned to one person to ensure everyone is clear on roles and responsibilities. Best of luck!
Love your videos thank you for all the amazing content you are providing. One question i had regarding duration, your minimum seems to be 1d. What would you recommend for a project where most of the tasks are less than a day ( just hours for example) would you recommend the duration to be in hours? would that still help with the schedule and timeline?
Good question! I prefer to keep the minimum duration of one day (versus hours). Often times project team members are working on multiple projects and therefore scheduling tasks to the hour seems unrealistic. However, if you want to reflect a task in your schedule and prefer not to use 1 day, you could also add as a milestone, by putting ‘0’ in the duration. Then you can mark it at 100% complete when finished! I hope this is helpful.
Best of luck!
I'm new to program management, coming from engineering, so I really appreciated the way you explained the basics of project levels and the tips like 8-80 rule etc. The Smartsheet guidance was also very clear. Thank you, subscribed!
This was super useful, thank you!
Thank you, Kandis this is wonderful.
So happy you enjoyed it! Wishing you the best with your projects. 👍🏻
Great video!
So happy to hear, Cedric! Best wishes with your projects.
Thank you!
Thanks for watching, Jackie!
Hi Kandis, thank you for the awesome video! Do you know if there's a way to add resources for people who don't have email? a lot of my guys don't have email.
Hi Tim! You can add them by name, although you most likely won't be able to see them in your resource view without an email.
Check out this community discussion where there was a recommendation to do this: 'Because it doesn't have to be a real email address and it doesn't need to be confirmed, you can add any email address as a resource, and that can be used to have Equipment or anything else as resources. If you're using something as firstname.lastname@company.com for the contacts that you've added to Smartsheet. You can use something like subcontractor.firstname.lastname@company.com.'
community.smartsheet.com/discussion/71985/add-resources-without-adding-users
If you give this a try, please let me know if it works! Best of luck.
Hi @Kandis, what tool do you use to create the sequencing and defining dependencies? Excel?
Hi Ben - I often do it directly in the project plan in Smartsheet. However, using Excel to create a ‘Work Breakdown Structure Dictionary’ can also be very helpful!
How do you recommend tracking detailed tasks shorter than day? Leave it up to the resource to manage separately?
Hi SEH UT! Depending on what project management system/tool you are using, many of them offer features where you can add additional details relating to the tasks or even create subtasks for tracking purposes. I will generally include 'Milestones' for important decisions or items that I want to track in the schedule. They are entered with zero duration and are either 0% complete or 100% complete. You can include them as predecessors or successors to other tasks. I hope this is helpful!
How do you get vertical line that shows today's date?
Hi Ed! Are you wanting an automated column that shows the most recent date with changes or due dates for tasks? If you can tell me how you plan to use it, I can help!
what is the link for the free trial for the video?
Hi John! Here is the link on Smartsheet’s website: www.smartsheet.com/try-it. I hope it is helpful - thanks.
During collaboration, considering sharing with clients, can the data be restricted to a limited version,,
This works good with dedicated resource assumption, how about shared resource inclusion, though time frame remains constant ??
Hello Praveen! Yes, you can limit what is seen by collaborators if you ‘publish’ and then select options to prevent them from seeing comments and attachments. You can give them a ‘view only’ version. Or, you can create a separate sheet that only includes schedule milestones (linking it to this sheet so it updates automatically) and share that version instead.
As far as shared resources, I wouldn’t equate 1 day to complete a task to 8 hours. Maybe it is only 10 hours of work and will take a resource 5 days to complete, based on being allocated to the project at 25%. This is why I recommend getting schedule inputs from actual resources working on the project versus estimating ‘best case scenario’ via other experts.
Thanks for watching!
Thank you for this video!
You’re very welcome, Mai Chou Xiong!
Does Smartsheet autogenerate a Network Diagram upon completing all the above fields when using the software?
Hello! To my knowledge, this highly requested feature has not been added to Smartsheet. It is a hot topic if you search the community forums. Here is one example of where it has been requested as an enhancement: community.smartsheet.com/discussion/101623/network-diagram-process-flow-view-for-sheets
@@PMPexpert thank you. This feature would definitely take smart sheet to the next level. Now I’m having to do one manually with over 100 tasks in it for a university assignment!
I realize you made this video 2 years back however when once I get past the first parent child grouping the duration does not calculate(rollup) for the following parent child groups. I have dependencies enables and this does not fall into a holiday or break in the schedule. The years are all correct, so I do not know why it will not calculate as it shows for you in the video.
Hi Kathleen! I know that must be frustrating. I recommend deleting the rows that won’t calculate and adding in new rows for the tasks. Maybe it is just a glitch or there is something hidden that is preventing the calculations? Might be easier to start with new rows (note: you could always copy/paste the first parent/child grouping if that one is properly calculating and then update the information).
@@PMPexpert Thanks for responding! I actually posted this on the SM website and got a response from the admins. They had advised the frameset has to be completely listed before it will roll-up, I did that and it worked.
@@kathleens7131 thank you for the follow up! I’m glad it worked out for you.
I’m posting a Smartsheet article here that may be helpful, in case anyone is looking for additional information on or having challenges with dependencies/predecessors. Happy New Year!
help.smartsheet.com/articles/765727-enabling-dependencies-using-predecessors
Hi Kandis, I am trying to start managing my projects on Smartsheet, and I find your videos very helpful! I'm just wondering what sequence should I watch these videos. Imagine that you're showing this to a 5 year old for the first time. LOL! Thanks!
Hi! I think you started on a great video for getting familiar with Smartsheet. This is also a great reminder that I should record an ‘Intro to Smartsheet’ video that may be helpful to others that aren’t using it for PM. Let me work on that!
This is excellent. Clear, concise - I now know how to properly get my first project set up! Awesome. I watched it a few times and am now sitting down watching and pausing as I build my own project. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
If your design phases are normal business days but the construction schedule will be off-hours and weekend work, how to you address working days with these dual conditions?
Hello Susan - to my knowledge you can only assign one calendar per sheet.
As a workaround, you may want to try separating tasks into multiple project sheets based on resource working days / calendars and then combining the results back together using Reports. Let us know if you try it out!
This was a very well made video. Thanks
At 20.04 you should edit your audio to remove Friday so it matches what is being shown on the screen.
Thank you!
It really helped me to understand the functionality of Smartsheet. I recently started working on project and by watching this video I am able to create my project schedule.. Thanks Kandis
So happy to hear! Thank you!
awesome video! thanks! 2 comments:
1. I recommend changing your cursor color to black, easier to follow when having a white background
2. I would have liked to see your analysis for assigning rows 11, 21 and 26 to project complete predecessors cell
1. Love the recommendation on the black cursor! Thanks for the feedback.
2. I always like to have the ‘summary’ or ‘parent’ tasks (level two of the WBS) feed into the Project Complete line item. Sometimes inspections or quality control tasks go longer than expected and I want to ensure 100% of the work is completed before the project is marked as complete. This isn’t the only way of building/managing the schedule...just a personal preference!
It’s very detailed, crisp and clear tips. really helpful! Thanks so much.
Thank you for your feedback! Best of luck, Tarique.
I just want to say I found this video very helpful and I've shared it with others at my company.
Awesome, thanks Jennifer! Please let me know if you have any special requests for videos. 🙌🏻
Glad to see a real WBS and schedule. With regard to L2 being deliverables, that will depends on how many system and subsystem layers there are.
Also I suggest a PBS or Product Breakdown Structure be built first. That will help avoid rework in the WBS.
Both great comments! I completely agree that with complex projects, Level 2 of the WBS could represent different ways of organizing the project. Thanks for watching and sharing your thoughts.
Lovely demo and explanation of how to use Smartsheet to create a project. Thank you!
Thank you, Sharon! Best wishes.
Well done Kandis! You have provided clear and substantive guidance on creating a Smartsheet Schedule based on solid best in class scheduling techniques. I've been creating and managing Primavera (now P6) schedules on large federal and commercial construction projects for 30 years, but I listened because I'm seeking a light scheduling program for use by a new small business for health care tenant improvements. I'm wondering if Smart Sheet allows "original activity durations" to be frozen in a Baseline, and then "actual activity durations" to be calculated during updates (using actual start and finish). Also wondering if there are custom reports to compare Baseline to Updates with variances. I'll look for additional videos in your portfolio. Again, well done.
Hello Bill! Yes, check out my video on creating a baseline in Smartsheet. Hope it is helpful! ua-cam.com/video/ih9G2pjdu3c/v-deo.html
Yes, your content and presentation are clear and helpful for my application to construction projects. Thank you. As recommended, I also watched your Creating a Baseline video, and all that makes perfect sense. Do you have a video that covers updating the schedule once the Baseline is set? You cover updating basics very well, but I'm curious about specific functionalities in Smartsheet. Specifically, construction project schedule updates should be done regularly (say weekly or monthly) and other scheduling programs establish a Data Date for the update that can be different than the Run Date. Does Smartsheet have Data Date functionality? Also, does Smartsheet calculate Remaining Duration (RD) based on Actual Start (AS) and % complete? In other words, will Smartsheet always default to the activity Duration (say 10 work days) to calculate a Finish Date even if the activity started 9 work days before the Data Date but is only 50% complete (when it should be 90% complete)? In my experience, Superintendents report AS, % complete (or RD) and AF (or planned finish) on each active activity for an update. I'd love to see a video from you on this topic to squeeze full functionality from Smartsheet.
thank you
Oh yea gunna manage some prjcts now
Rock those projects, William!
Really helpful, thank you!
Thanks for watching, David!
Love it .. this is the best Smartsheet training video I've ever seen.. Slow..Step by step and doesn't skip important steps
Excellent tutorial -very helpful thanks very much
Kandis
Kandis, I found this video extremely helpful. Particularly the introduction concerning the 'how' of going about your project management plan. Thank you so much for this. I could not find another video in your collection regarding projects with hard deadlines rather than relative deadlines. Can you suggest a resource for creating such a project plan?
Hi Robert! I can highlight a feature on MS Project called 'Finish No Later Than' constraint that locks in a due date. Here is an overview via an article (note: I have no affiliation with this company): tensix.com/microsoft-project-and-finish-no-later-than-constraints/#:~:text=Finish%20No%20Later%20Than%20constraint%20%28FNLT%29%20are%20helpful,of%20the%20project%20schedule%20a%20constraint%20is%20appropriate.
Thank you for the video however I have a question. You skipped the part where you indented 1.2 1.3 and 1.4..For example when I tried to indent 1.2 it became a sub of project complete instead of building a house. Please direct me on how to do it right
Hi Chinyere! Sometimes the indent and outdents can get a little tricky. This is a great article on the functionality: help.smartsheet.com/articles/504734-hierarchy-indenting-outdenting-rows
Here is another good article: help.smartsheet.com/articles/765753-parent-rollup-functionality
I just came across your video. Really liking it since I needed a step by step intro.
Thanks for watching!
This was very helpful Kandis. I have several tasks with the same start date that are assigned to the same person. One person can't do two things at the same time. Do you know a way that the project timeline gets adjusted if the same resource is working on two or more tasks? Right now I'm getting a very unrealistic schedule that is single task-centric instead of realistic project timeline.
Hello! Current resource leveling is available in an add on called 10,000 FT. Do you know if you have access to this through your organization?
More info: www.smartsheet.com/content-center/best-practices/engage-content/better-together-smartsheet-10000ft-story
www.10000ft.com/
More info: www.smartsheet.com/content-center/news/smartsheet-acquires-10000ft-enhance-resource-management-capabilities
Speaking more broadly, with the integration of 10,000ft, Smartsheet customers will benefit from the ability to plan and allocate resources across their projects, optimize resource allocation by function or skill set, track time against forecast, and gain real-time portfolio level visibility into the status of budgets and deliverables.
Hi Amir! I just published a new video on resource allocation in Smartsheet - it doesn’t automatically adjust timelines for you, but it does give you a lot of great information to make resourcing decisions. Cheers!
This is so helpful, thank you, Kandis! I need to learn this tool for work and your tutorial is very complete.
Very grateful you put this out here for us all. Many thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
very detailed yet concise and easy to understand. thank you kandis!
So happy this was useful and easy to understand! 👍🏻
This was WONDERFUL Kandis! Thank you! Thumbs up!
Thank you, Tea Time!