Project Management and Gantt Charts

Create and work with a Gantt chart

admin — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 23:56:29 +0000

Create and work with a Gantt chart

When you switch your sheet or report to Gantt View, tasks appear as bars in a timeline. You see the duration, the start date, and the finish date of your project tasks as project sheet columns.

Apart from that, you can also track the following:

View Dependencies and track the relationship between tasks.
View your project's Critical Path.
Display the % Complete of your tasks.
Use Hierarchy to create summary rows for further organization of your projects.

Add a Gantt chart

Before you add a Gantt chart

Make sure your sheet or report has at least two Date columns.

The columns you add must represent the start date and the end date of your tasks. The length of a task bar represents the span of time between those dates. This is why you need at least two Date columns; otherwise, you cannot switch to Gantt View.

The Gantt View does not recognize Date columns with a Column Formula applied. If you need your dates to autofill rows, use the Cell Formula and Autofill features instead. You could also set up column formulas and use a report to display your Gantt chart.

To add a Gantt chart

In the toolbar, select Gantt View to switch your view.

The chart appears to the right of your columns. There is also a divider that separates the grid columns from the Gantt chart.

To widen the display of either section:

Hover your pointer over the divider.
When you see the column resize pointer , drag the divider to the right or left.

Edit your Gantt chart

In the upper right area of the sheet, select Edit Project Settings.
Modify the Project Settings in each tab according to your project needs:
- Dependency Settings
- Timeline Display
- Resource Management

Adjust the timeline display

In the Project Settings dialog, you can modify the units of time you see in the Gantt chart.

An easier way to do that is by using the Zoom In and Zoom Out buttons in the toolbar.

Organize your project tasks

Use row hierarchies in Gantt charts to organize rows into sections or phases.

When you use row hierarchies, child rows display as individual task bars in the Gantt chart based on their start and end dates. If you turn on Dependencies on the sheet, parent rows reflect a summary of their child rows.

The parent row values are calculated automatically in the following columns:

Duration
Start Date and End date
% Complete

You cannot modify parent values. If dependencies are off, you can change the parent row information as needed.

Other tips in editing your Gantt chart

Configure a % Complete column in the Project Settings dialog. Any time you enter a value in this column, you see it indicated in the task bar.
Apply color to the task bars.

admin Mon, 10/01/2012 - 16:56

Permissions

The sheet's Owner and Admins can modify the sheet Project Settings.

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Maximize the Gantt View when reviewing or working on your project management tasks in a sheet or report.

Adjust the Gantt chart timeline

admin — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 19:02:02 +0000

Adjust the Gantt chart timeline

The Gantt chart has four timeline zoom levels: quarter, month, week and day.

Use the Zoom In or Zoom Out icons to adjust the view to what you need.

In the Gantt chart of a Report, you can save changes to the Gantt chart timeline, and these changes appear when exported. Only Viewers do not have access to this option.

If you are a sheet Owner or Admin access, you can further configure and customize the Gantt chart's Primary and Secondary headers by modifying the Timeline Display directly in the sheet's Project Settings.

admin Mon, 08/06/2012 - 12:02

Permissions

Anyone can use Gantt View. Viewers and Editors can make changes, but they do not affect other collaborators or display when exported.

Only the sheet's Owner and Admins can make changes to the exported timeline.

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With the Zoom In or Zoom Out icons in the Gantt chart header, you can quickly change the timeline zoom level.

Modify Project Settings

admin — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 01:03:44 +0000

Modify Project Settings

Access Project Settings for a sheet

Right-click any column header while in the Grid and Gantt views of your sheet and select Edit Project Settings.

You only see the Timeline Display settings after switching your sheet to Gantt View.

Edit dependency settings and working days

Date range display

Start Date and End Date columns: When using multiple date columns, you can select which columns to use for tracking the Start Date and End Date. You need date columns to add a Gantt chart to a sheet or to use the dependency functionality.

Options

% Complete Column: To overlay a % Complete indicator within the task bars in the Gantt chart and see automated % Complete calculations occur in the parent rows, select the % Complete column.

The automatic % Complete calculations in parent rows are based on your manually added % Complete and Duration of child rows.

Dependencies

Enabled: Checking the box for Dependencies Enabled adds automated dependency functionality to the sheet. You can use the Predecessor and Duration columns to exclude non-working days from your schedule and to change the length (in hours) of working days.

It also creates an automated summary in the parent rows of the Duration, Start Date, End Date, and % Complete columns.

Predecessor column: Select the column to use as the Predecessor column. Use the selected column to create dependencies between tasks in the schedule.

Duration column: Use the Duration column and Working Days feature to automate the scheduling of a task's start and end dates.

Working days

Working days and non-working days: After enabling dependencies, click Edit to select which days are non-working days for the purpose of the project.

Length of day (hours): Set the length, in hours, of working days in the project sheet. By default, Smartsheet considers each working day to include 8 hours. The system considers the length of each working day when calculating dates of tasks.

Customize the Gantt chart display and behavior

In the Timeline Display section of the Project Settings, you can change the Gantt timeline intervals and display formatting, start of the fiscal year, and what column information appears to the right of the Gantt bars in the chart. For example, set a Contact List column as the display label to see a list of the people assigned to tasks next to each Gantt bar.

Open to today's date

Use Open to today's date to view current tasks in your project more quickly when you open the sheet.
The Open to today's date setting is only available to the sheet's Owner and Admins. It is unchecked by default, and it does not transfer to any copies of the sheet.
Additionally, the view is only applied as your preference and does not affect how other collaborators view the sheet.
If somebody with Editor or Viewer permissions needs to open the Gantt chart to today's date, you can create a report from your sheet in Gantt view and share them to the report.

admin Mon, 10/01/2012 - 18:03

Permissions

You must be the sheet's Owner or Admin to modify the sheet project settings.

The Resource Management section is only available with Business or Enterprise plans.

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With Project Settings, you can customize aspects of the sheet such as working and non-working time, Gantt display settings, and resource management.

Define working days, non-working days, and holidays on a project sheet

admin — Tue, 01 May 2012 21:11:27 +0000

Define working days, non-working days, and holidays on a project sheet

Here are a few things to keep in mind about non-working days and holidays in Smartsheet:

If you are viewing your Gantt chart in days, non-working days appear highlighted in grey and holidays in pink.
You can manually schedule tasks and milestones to start on a non-working or holiday, but their end dates cannot occur on these types of days.
Non-working days and holidays are not included in duration calculations.

Working days, non-working days, and holidays at the sheet level

Use the Project Settings form to set the length of working days (in hours), designate days of the week as non-working, and specify dates of holidays.

You must enable Dependencies on the sheet to configure these settings.

Click the Project Settings icon in the Gantt chart header or right-click on any column header
Select Edit Project Settings.
Go to Working Days > Edit.
Select the checkbox for each day of the week your team will work on the project.
Enter a value representing the number of hours per working day in the Length of Day (hours) field if your team works more or less than 8 hours per day.
Enter any specific dates of non-working or holidays in the Non-Working Days (holidays, exceptions) section.
Click OK.

Working days, non-working days, and holidays at the account level

If you are a sheet's System Admin, you should keep the following tips in mind when setting account-level working days, non-working days, and holidays:

New sheets with dependencies enabled inherit any settings you set.

New sheets created from templates always inherit the working days of the template regardless of the settings for account-level working days.

in the upper left corner, click Account > Account Admin.
On the left side of the Account Administration form, click Account Settings.
Under Working Days, click Edit.
Select the checkbox for each day of the week your team will work on the project.
Enter a value representing the number of hours per working day in the Length of Day (hours) field if your team works more or less than 8 hours per day.
Enter any specific dates of non-working or holidays in the Non-Working Days (holidays, exceptions) section.
Click OK.

admin Tue, 05/01/2012 - 14:11

Permissions

The sheet's Owner and Admins can configure non-working days and holidays for the project, as well as the length of working days (in hours).

A System Admin of a Business or Enterprise plan can also configure working, non-working and holidays at the account-level.

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Use the Project Settings to define working days, non-working days, and holidays at the sheet and account levels.

Set baselines on a project sheet

max.furukawa — Fri, 30 Oct 2020 20:00:23 +0000

Set baselines on a project sheet

When you enable baselines, you can view the project baseline summary to see the overall project status. Three non-editable columns appear on the sheet:

Baseline Start: The date in your Start Date column.
Baseline Finish: The date in your End Date column.
Variance: The difference between Actual End Date and Baseline End Date.

Additionally, you can see visual Gantt bars for baseline dates and actual dates. If you change your preferences to display or hide baseline bars in the Gantt view, the change appears for your user only, and it does not affect other users.

Baselines appear as read-only cell data. Because of this, baselines surface in reports, dashboards, and other Smartsheet items, but you cannot modify them.

Keep the following notes in mind:

You can only add one baseline to a project sheet. If there are multiple Start Date and End Date columns, you can only associate one set of Start Date and End Date columns with baselines.
You can't add a baseline to a row that doesn't have a start and end date or to a row with a start date after the end date. The cell data must also be in an acceptable date format. For example, text values, such as TBD or July don't work.
The activity log does not track historical baseline modifications, but they are available in the cell history.
Baselines do not appear when you print your Gantt view.

Set up your project sheet to use baselines

To enable baselines on your project sheet:

Add Start Date and End Date columns to start creating baselines.
Switch to Gantt View, then select the Baselines button in the toolbar. You can see the current, earliest, and latest days in the sheet’s start and end dates.
To enable, select the Set button.

You have now enabled baselines.

View the baselines summary

Once enabled on your project sheet, you can use the baselines summary to view, edit, and remove baselines information.

To open the baselines summary, switch to Gantt view, then select the Baselines button in the toolbar.

In the baseline summary view, you can see:

Show baseline in Gantt: Toggle for enabling baseline in Gantt view.
Actual: The earliest actual start and latest end dates in your columns.
Baseline: The earliest and latest baseline start and end dates in your columns, established at the time when you enabled the baseline originally.
Variance: The difference between Actual End Date and Baseline End Date calculated in decimal days according to the working schedule defined for your project. Variance displays the overall status of your project as Days behind, Days ahead, or On schedule.
Reset: Establish a new baseline start and end date.
Remove: Remove the baseline from your sheet.

Edit or remove baselines from your sheet

To view, edit, or remove baselines, switch to Gantt view and select the Baselines icon.

As dates change, the variance values update automatically. You can view the complete variance with the baselines summary view.

You can't modify baseline start and end dates. Updating actual project dates triggers Variance column recalculation.

If you want to remove the baseline bars from Gantt, you can toggle them on and off. While the Variance, Baseline Start, and Baseline Finish columns are visible in a report, baseline bars from Gantt view don't appear in reports or dashboard widget reports.

You can remove the baselines by selecting Remove and confirming your selection. This removes the baselines, but doesn't delete the custom baseline columns.

You can also convert these columns to date (Baseline Start and Baseline Finish) and text/number (Variance) columns, and the cell data remains unchanged.

To reset your baseline, select Reset. This resets the variances to 0 and sets the values in the baseline columns to the current values in the Start Date and End Date columns. This creates a new snapshot of project dates, and the Variance displays as On schedule.

max.furukawa Fri, 10/30/2020 - 13:00

Permissions

Only licensed users can create baselines. Anyone with access to the sheet can view baselines.

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With baselines, you can establish the start, finish, and variance of dates for individual tasks and rows on your project sheet.

Enable Dependencies and use Predecessors

admin — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 00:36:40 +0000

Enable Dependencies and use Predecessors

Once you enable Dependencies, your sheet has the following functionality:

Altering the start or end date on the predecessor immediately adjusts the dates of any dependents.
Entering any two values for the Start Date, End Date, and Duration columns automatically calculates the third value.
Start Date, End Date, Duration, and % Complete roll up to parent rows as summary calculations.
Parent row values are read-only, as they’re calculated automatically based on values in the child rows.
You can highlight the critical path in the Gantt chart to visualize what drives the overall project duration.

Enable or disable Dependencies in a project

To enable dependencies in your sheet, follow these steps

Select the dropdown arrow under any column header and select Edit Project Settings.
In the Project Settings form, under Dependencies, select the Dependencies Enabled checkbox.

New options appear in the Project Settings form.
Select which columns to use as the Predecessor column and the Duration column.
If you don't have columns set up for this, Smartsheet inserts columns named Predecessors and Duration for you when you enable dependencies.

To stop using dependencies and remove the automation from the sheet:

Select the dropdown arrow under any column header and select Edit Project Settings.
Uncheck the Dependencies Enabled box, and then select OK to apply the changes.

Work with Duration and Predecessors

When you enter a duration or predecessor value in a row, the Start Date and End Date populate automatically based on the working days schedule established in the Project Settings

Duration

Duration is the amount of working time between the start and end dates. The system can automatically calculate Duration based on a start and end date, or you can manually enter it in the Duration column.

When you calculate Duration automatically using start and end dates, your duration is returned in days. For other units, enter Duration manually.

The following table includes examples of how to format values in the Duration column.

Duration	Format
Weeks	2w
Whole working days	4d
Partial working days	3.5d
Hours	7h
Minutes	60m
Seconds	500s
Combination	4h 30m

Elapsed time can be used in the Duration column to ignore non-working time (including non-working days and holidays). Lead with an “e” to indicate duration in elapsed time (e3d, e5h).

Predecessors

Use Predecessors to create dependencies between items.

Create a Dependency by specifying a predecessor

Find the row for which you want to create a predecessor.
In the Predecessor column, type the row number for the item that must occur first.

Keep the following tips in mind:

Make dependencies on multiple predecessors by entering the row numbers into the cell and separating them by a comma (as in row 7 in the image).
Smartsheet takes all predecessors into account when determining the dates of the dependent. For example: On Finish-to-Start relationships, Smartsheet schedules the dependent's start date after the latest occurring end date of all predecessors.
Adding predecessors to a parent row in hierarchy applies the predecessor to all of its child rows due to the parent roll up functionality.
This predecessor relationship prevents direct changes in the dates in child rows. For example, if a Finish-to-Start predecessor is set in a parent row, all of the child tasks start on the same date regardless of the predecessors set at the child row level. To work around this, set predecessors at the lowest-level child rows whenever possible.

Change the attributes for a predecessor relationship

By default, when you specify a predecessor, a Finish-to-Start relationship is established between items.

To make changes to the relationships between dependents and their predecessors, select Edit Predecessors (click any cell in the Predecessors column). From the Edit Predecessors form, you can change the relationship type or add lag time.

You can choose from the following dependency types:

Finish-to-Start (FS): Start after the predecessor finishes.
Finish-to-Finish (FF): Finish at the same time the predecessor finishes.
Start-to-Start (SS): Start at the same time the predecessor starts.
Start-to-Finish (SF): Finish before the predecessor starts.

Lag Time and Lead Time

To represent a period of inactivity or overlap between the predecessor and dependent, you can use Lag Time. For instance, entering 1d into the Lag (days) field for a Finish-to-Start dependency causes the dependents to start an additional working day after its predecessor finishes.

To schedule the dependents to start before the predecessor finishes, use a negative number (for example, -1d) to create Lead Time

You can enter Lag and Lead Time in increments of weeks, whole working days, partial working days, hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds, or a combination (in similar fashion to the Duration examples).

admin Mon, 10/01/2012 - 17:36

Permissions

The sheet's Owner and Admins can modify the sheet Project Settings.

PLANS

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You can use the Dependencies functionality in Smartsheet to automatically calculate and adjust dates as values for Duration and Predecessors (what must happen first) change.

Project sheet columns: Start Date, End Date, Duration, % Complete and Predecessors

admin — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 00:47:20 +0000

Project sheet columns: Start Date, End Date, Duration, % Complete and Predecessors

Enable dependencies

If you enable dependencies in the Start Date, End Date, Duration, % Complete, and Predecessors columns, you can't use formulas.

Right-click any column header and select Project Settings to enable dependencies and map your columns to the automated functionality.

With dependencies enabled, each parent row reflects a summary overview of the child rows (subtasks) indented underneath. The system calculates the values automatically, you can't modify them.

Start Date and End Date

Keep the following in mind when setting up Start Date and End Date columns:

Each scheduled task requires a start date and end date with month, day, and year. Use the date-picker icon to ensure the date is in the correct format.
Right-click any cell and select View History to see previous date values saved. This helps you see where the timeline differs from your original schedule.
Rows with a given Duration and Predecessor values automatically calculate start and end dates.
Using the default Finish-to-Start (FS) or Start-to-Start (SS) predecessor relationship automatically sets the start date based on the dates of the Predecessor task.
To calculate the end date, the system automatically adds the given duration to the start date.
If a predecessor drives a task's start or end date, you can change it manually by clicking the cell and selecting a new date. Doing so overrides the association with the predecessor and removes the value from the row.
If a parent row has a predecessor value listed, this dependency relationship drives the start dates for each child row. Deleting the predecessor value on the parent row makes child rows editable for you to change dates manually.

With dependencies enabled, the start and end dates of subtasks dependent on a predecessor are not editable from a report, a row update request, or any of the mobile apps. You can manually update the Start Date or Duration of a task to automatically update the End Date for you.

In Gantt View, click and drag on the center of a taskbar to move the task to new start and end dates. Doing so may change the duration value, break any previously established dependencies, and remove the predecessor values. Dragging from either end of the taskbar extends the duration to new start or end dates.

Duration

The Duration column shows the duration in days only. For other times units, enter the duration manually.

Duration represents how long a task may take. Select the Duration cell of a subtask and type in the length of time.

You can use different formats:

Weeks (2w)
Whole working days (4d)
Partial working days (3.5d)
Hours (7h)
Minutes (60m)
Seconds (500s) and milliseconds (50000ms)
A combination of hours, minutes, seconds, and milliseconds (4h 30m)
Elapsed time (lead with an e) indicates elapsed time duration (e3d, e5h, e3.5d)

A task with a duration in elapsed time ignores non-working time. The task starts and ends in the amount of time specified regardless of working day length and non-working days in the sheet.

Keep the following in mind when working with the Duration column:

Parent rows always reflect duration in partial working days.
If your task takes longer than anticipated, you can increase the duration to push out the end date. This also pushes out the end dates of any dependent tasks automatically. A duration of zero creates a diamond shape on the Gantt chart to indicate that it is a milestone marking a significant event or checkpoint.
When you provide a duration and a start date, the dependency functionality calculates the end date automatically by adding the number in the Duration cell to the start date, excluding any non-working days.
If using partial working days, Smartsheet considers the length of working days when calculating the end date.
You can manually schedule a task to start on a non-working day. When doing so, the start date is included in the duration, but it excludes subsequent non-working days.
By default, the number of hours per working day is eight, but you can change this in the Project Settings of your sheet.

% Complete

On each child row, you can use the % Complete column to manually fill in the percentage of work completed for that task. This overlays a gray bar on each task in the Gantt chart to visualize the progress. In parent rows, Smartsheet automatically calculates the % Complete based on both the Duration and % Complete values of the child rows.

To format values in this column as percentages, select the column header at the top, then select the % icon in the left toolbar.

The % Complete automation in parent rows is optional. Open the Project Settings and set the % Complete column drop-down list to None to disable automation. You can use formulas in the parent rows or set the parent row values manually to remove the progress indicator from the Gantt bars.

Predecessors

You can make a task dependent on another task by typing another row's number in its Predecessor column. The dates for the task automatically adjust as the predecessor task dates change.

The task dependencies you create using the Predecessors column also drive the project's critical path. With task dependencies in place, Smartsheet can determine the sequence of tasks that drive the duration of the overall project. You can display this sequence in the Gantt chart via the critical path feature.

admin Mon, 10/01/2012 - 17:47

Permissions

The sheet's Owner and Admins can modify the sheet Project Settings.

PLANS

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Enable automated dependency functionality in the Start Date, End Date, Duration, % Complete, and Predecessors on your project sheet.

Create a milestone to mark a significant event in your project

admin — Tue, 01 May 2012 21:13:46 +0000

Create a milestone to mark a significant event in your project

A milestones is represented by a grey diamond image in the Gantt chart, centered on the provided start time.

To create a milestone:

To change your view or to add a Gantt chart to your sheet, click Grid View > Gantt View.
Enable dependencies on your sheet (click Edit Project Settings in the top right corner of the Gantt chart and check the Dependencies Enabled checkbox).
To create the milestone, enter a task duration of zero and a start date.

To create an extended milestone, enter a task duration of ~0 and a start date. An extended milestone requires one full working day to complete, but you can still see its diamond shape in the Gantt chart.

Parent rollup functionality is not compatible with milestones. You cannot % Complete rollups in tasks containing sub-tasks with milestones with a duration of zero (0).

admin Tue, 05/01/2012 - 14:13

Permissions

The sheet's Owner and Admins can modify the sheet Project Settings.

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A milestone is an action or event marking a significant change or stage in your project. A milestone has the same date set for its finish date and its start date.

Parent rollup functionality

admin — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 00:57:12 +0000

Parent rollup functionality

Start Date, End Date, Duration, and % Complete for parent rows

The Start Date for a parent is the earliest start date from all of its child rows. Similarly, the End Date is the last end date from all its child rows.

The Duration on the parent reflects the number of working days between the Start Date and End Date in that row. It provides a full time span, from the earliest subtask to the latest, as opposed to a sum of their durations.

The % Complete on the parent row calculates a weighted percentage based on both the Duration and % Complete entered on each child row. In this way, completing child rows with shorter durations does not affect the parent row % Complete as much as completing a longer duration child row.

The parent row rollup includes only subtasks with a given Duration and a % Complete value.

Parent rollup functionality tips

You cannot edit parent rows with enabled dependencies in the Start Date, End Date, Duration, and % Complete columns. To use your own calculations, you can disable the Dependency functionality on the sheet or create your desired formula in a columns not used in the dependency functionality.
You cannot use custom formulas to change the display or bars in the Gantt chart.
Parent rows in dependency-enabled sheets always have a grey background color in the Gantt and Calendar views.
Parent rows always reflect duration in partial working days, even if you use other formats to show duration for the child rows.
Parent rows do not calculate % Complete rollups when any of their child rows contains milestones (duration = 0).

admin Mon, 10/01/2012 - 17:57

Permissions

The sheet's Owner and Admins can modify the sheet Project Settings.

PLANS

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When Dependencies are enabled on a project sheet, Parent Rows automatically roll-up information in several of the Project Sheet Columns. Parent rows are created by indenting other rows beneath them. Learn more in our article on Hierarchy: Indenting & Outdenting Rows.

Track the critical path in a project

admin — Wed, 13 May 2015 17:31:27 +0000

Track the critical path in a project

What is critical path?

Your Critical Path is the longest distance between the start and the finish dates of your project, including all the tasks and their duration, which gives you a clear picture of the project’s actual schedule.

After you set up the critical path, you can apply a filter to only display tasks in the critical path.

Set up a sheet to display the critical path

To use critical path, your sheet must be in Gantt View.

Enable dependencies on the sheet by right-clicking any column header and selecting Edit Project Settings.
Set up tasks in the sheet with dates and duration values that represent the shortest amount of time the task may take.
For the critical path to be useful, use the Predecessors column to define relationships between tasks (finish-to-start works best with critical path).
Click the critical path icon in the upper-right of the sheet.

All tasks and milestones that make up the project's critical path appear highlighted in red in the Gantt chart.

admin Wed, 05/13/2015 - 10:31

Permissions

The sheet's Owner and Admins can enable dependencies to display the critical path.

Anyone shared to the sheet with Editor or higher-level permissions can choose to display or hide the critical path.

PLANS

Smartsheet
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Track key tasks in your project by setting it up to display the critical path. As task dates or predecessor relationships change, this can impact the project's critical path. Smartsheet automatically updates and highlights the tasks on the current critical path.