A project plan is an eRoom item that lets you create a simple, structured project schedule containing tasks that describe the lifetime of your project. Project plans encapsulate a set of project-planning-specific features that help you manage and track your projects with great flexibility and precision. For example, you can
synchronize project plan tasks with Outlook
report actual progress
Project plans and project tasks can have spaces for comments and votes, and attachment boxes, just like other eRoom pages. You can also export and import project plans.
Each user's local time zone is used to calculate the current day and all dependent values, such as how much progress is planned for each project task, whether progress reports are overdue, and whether tasks are overdue.
You begin to create or edit a project plan just like you
do other items. When creating a project plan, click (or
the icon your eRoom uses for project plans) on the Create page to open
the Create Project Plan page. When editing a project plan, the Edit Project
Plan page opens, which has the same fields as the Create Project Plan
page.
Type or edit the project plan's name.
Choose a start date. This sets the official beginning of the project and provides an initial start date for tasks. You can edit the start date at any time later, but note this can affect the start date of tasks.
Specify whether you want weeks in your schedule to begin on Sunday or Monday (the default). When the Gantt chart's scale is in weeks, a "week begin" indicator (small tick mark) appears in the column for either Monday or Sunday in the Gantt column's header, next to the corresponding date. The "weeks begin on" setting also controls which day of the week appears in the first column of date pickers in the project plan.
Optionally, describe your project plan.
Decide whether members can add comments and take votes on the summary page of the project plan.
Decide whether to include an attachment box on the summary page.
Decide whether to keep change logs for individual tasks. If Keep change logs is on, each project task has a change log shown only on the Task page.
Decide whether to enable progress reports. If enabled, affordances for entering and measuring progress and status appear throughout the project (in the details view, ToolTips in the Gantt view, the Task page, the Create/Edit Task page, and the Edit Progress page). If progress reports are disabled, affordances for entering and showing a "done" state are shown instead.
If you enable progress reports, specify
reporting frequency -- The frequency with which progress reports are expected is controlled by the "due" field. The field controls when a progress report is considered overdue, which affects how a project task's status is calculated, the way in which the report's date is shown, and the kind of notifications that are sent. The default value is 7 days. Any positive integer is acceptable.
late vs. tardy threshold -- Each task has a status based on a comparison between actual and expected progress. A task whose progress is behind schedule is shown as either merely "tardy" or fully "late," depending on this threshold. For example, a "late vs. tardy threshold" of 15 means a task whose actual progress is behind the expected progress by 15% or more is designated late. You can either use the site-wide default threshold, or specify a different one for this project plan.
Disabling progress reports permanently translates states of done into either " yes" or " no". Re-enabling progress reports translates any tasks that were already done into 100% complete, and the rest into 0% complete.
Pick the working days and holidays for your project. Use either default days in effect in the current community (set at the site or community level), or customize them by picking Use custom days unique to "Project Plan". If you use the default working days and holidays, you cannot change them at the project level. In this case, any updates at the community level also updates the project's working days and holidays.
To use custom days:
For working days, select the check boxes for the days of the week you want to designate for working.
To add a holiday, click "add a Project
Plan holiday" to open the Create Holiday page. Pick the date and
(optionally) provide a description. Click "OK". The holiday
now appears in the holiday list. Once custom holidays are listed, you
can edit them (
) or delete them (
).
Specify any Categories into which you can group project tasks, for example, by type of work (engineering, testing, marketing, etc.), or by project stages (requirements, design, prototype, etc.).
To add a category,
click "add a category" to open the Create Category page. Type
a unique (to this project) category name and click "OK". The
category now appears in the list. You can edit () or delete
() categories in the list.
If you edit a category, any project tasks assigned to it remain assigned to it; if you delete a category, any project tasks assigned to it become unassigned.
When project tasks are grouped by category, the groups are sorted according to the order of categories in the list.
Click "access control" to set access control for your project plan. Initially, anyone who can get to the project plan can Open it, and its creator (and, therefore, its owner) is the only member who can Edit it (change its properties). Like database entries, project tasks have no access control settings of their own -- ownership settings for the project plan determine who can create and modify project tasks.
Specify whether the project plan is read-only, hidden, or reserved for editing.
Pick who can edit project tasks:
The member who created it
The member who created it and the project owners
Everyone who can open the project (default choice)
To grant task resources permission to file progress reports, select the check box labeled "A member who is assigned as a task resource may file progress reports" (it is selected by default). When you do so, links to the Report Progress page are shown to such members in details view and on the Task page.
Click "OK" to put the project's access control settings into effect.
To use any custom commands in your project plan, click "custom commands". (For details about custom commands, see the Server Extension Programmer's Guide within the eRoom API Help.)
Each entry in a project plan is a task. To view a task, click its icon (or its name in the Task column) on the project's summary page. Or, click an entry in the tasks list of the eRoom map. The Task page opens.
To create a new task, click 
at
the top of the summary page of your project plan. Or, click "new
task" in the command bar. The Create Task page opens.
To edit a task, do one of the following:
Click next to the task's
icon (
).
Right-click the icon and choose "Edit" from the pop-up menu.
On the Task page,
click 
at the top.
The Edit Task page opens.
Type or edit a Title for your task. (Task ID is set automatically and is read-only).
If performing
this task is dependent on any other tasks in the project plan, specify
its Predecessors by clicking 
to open the Choose Predecessors page and select the task's
dependencies.
The Choose Predecessors page lists all the tasks in the project plan.
If a task is already chosen as a predecessor, its check box is selected. If a task is dependent on the current task, it has no check box.
When you click "OK" on the Choose Predecessors page, you return to the Create/Edit Task page, and eRoom recalculates any fields that show "available after refresh," but does not commit any changes until you click "OK" to update the task.
For Duration, specify how many working days you expect the task will take to complete. Enter "0" for a milestone date.
If you change a task's Duration, click "Recalculate" to adjust the read-only Finish date.
Because the duration of a predecessor can be a non-whole number of days, or even zero (a milestone), a task may be scheduled to start either the same day as a predecessor's finish date or the day after. For the same reason, eRoom takes into account how much of a task's first day is available when calculating expected progress and status.
For Earliest
start, click 
to pick the soonest date by which
the task can begin. Any date is acceptable, but dates earlier than the
project plan's start date have
no effect.
If you change a task's Earliest start date, click "Recalculate" to adjust Start and Finish dates.
Note:
"Recalculate" only recalculates the dates displayed, you must
click "OK" to apply the new values.
If progress reports can be filed for the task when you finish creating it, you can choose to Omit duration, progress, and status from summaries. If progress reports are disabled, you can Omit duration and state of completion from summaries. This setting enables you to specify tasks that you don't want factored into the project's overall schedule -- that is, you might want to highlight calendar-related information (such as dates of a trade show or a promotional period) that has no effect on actual scheduled work.
The read-only Start and Finish fields show eRoom-calculated dates, in DD MMM YY format. The dates change dynamically as Duration, Earliest start, and Predecessors are changed. The default values for both fields are the project plan's start date.
eRoom sets the start date for a task to the earliest date upon which all of the following conditions are true:
the project plan's start date has arrived
the "earliest start" date has arrived
the predecessors' finish dates have arrived (may be the day of or the day after)
Start dates are unaffected by reported progress of predecessors. If a predecessor is reported to be 100% complete earlier than its scheduled finish date, the scheduled start dates of its dependent tasks are unaffected.
When a start date arrives, and no progress report has yet been filed:
the status automatically changes from "not started" to "on time"
the latest report date changes from blank to none
Pick a Category for the task, if appropriate. A drop-down menu lists "none" followed by the project plan's categories in order they were created.
Pick the task's resource(s)
by clicking 
to pick members.
Optionally, specify any Notes or a Description for the task.
Decide whether members can add comments and take votes, or add attachments on the task's View Task page.
Click "OK" to create the task, or click "Add Another" to create the task and display a new Create Task page (empty).
When progress reporting is enabled for a project plan, the Report Progress page permits task owners and (when authorized) task resources to file a progress report and see a report history.
Open the Report Progress page by clicking one of the following:
the progress 
button on the
task's Create/Edit Task page (unless task is a milestone)
the task's actual progress link in the "Progress" row when viewing the task page (not a link if task is a milestone)
the task's actual progress link in the "Actual/Plan" column when viewing the project summary page in details view (not shown if task is a milestone)
Specify the following:
actual percentage done
actual days done
actual days left
comment
As you enter changes in one progress field, eRoom dynamically updates the values in the other two progress fields accordingly, factoring into account the task's start and duration, and the project plan's working days and holidays. A status icon and read-only field are also updated dynamically. For a comment, you can enter up to 128 characters.
When actual progress is 100% or matches work (in days), the task is considered "finished." This determines whether the task appears in the summary when the "unfinished tasks" filter is on, whether its report date is exempt from turning red if older than the "reports are due" limit, whether its finish date is exempt from turning red when that date has passed, whether it appears on the Task page, and whether any corresponding tasks in Microsoft Outlook are marked complete upon the next synch.
Click "OK" to file the report.
In the progress reporting history (see below), a row is added for the current date and eRoom calculates the status of the task.
The progress reporting history shows all existing progress reports for the task, with all the above values and the date of the report. If no progress reports have been filed, the message "No reports have been saved" appears in the progress reporting history.
The progress reporting history is separate from the change log, if any, and is always provided as long as progress reports are enabled. If the task's start date has not arrived, a report may still be entered. However, the percentage ahead/behind is shown as "100%" in the progress reporting history, while the status is simply shown as "not started" everywhere else.
If the task has zero duration (a milestone), only the progress reporting history is shown. If reports were entered before the task was designated a milestone, the actual percentages all read "100%" and the planned values all show 0 (zero). A prompt explains that progress may not be entered for milestones.
eRoom calculates the status of the task by comparing actual progress and expected progress. It is not a comparison between actual progress and total duration. Actual progress comes from the latest progress report, or (if none) is assumed to be zero. Expected progress is either the progress expected for the end of the current day, if a report is overdue, or otherwise the progress expected for the end of the day of the latest report.
For example, if a recent progress report states that actual progress was 3 days and the plan was 2 days, the status is "ahead by 1 out of 2 days." However, if after 5 more working days a fresh report is overdue, the old actual progress (3) is compared to expected progress for today (2 + 5 more = 7). The status is now "behind by 4 out of 7 days."
Status is composed of a percentage ahead/behind, days ahead/behind, and one of three icons corresponding to whether the percentage is late, tardy, or on time/ahead. The difference between late and tardy is specified by a plan-specific or site-wide threshold.
Status appears formatted according to the following rules, where P is the percentage ahead/behind and D is the days ahead/behind:
progress ahead of schedule: 
,
"P%
(D days) ahead"
progress on schedule: , "on
time"
progress 100%: , "finished"
progress tardy: 
, "P%
(D days) behind"
progress late: 
, "P%
(D days) behind"
These special cases can occur, in order of priority:
duration zero: 
, "milestone"
duration positive, start date in future: , "not started"
duration field empty or invalid: , field empty
Once a task's start date arrives, if the first progress report becomes overdue:
the status automatically changes to "100% behind"
the latest report date ("none") turns red
the actual/plan value changes to "0d of Xd" where X is the expected progress
See also: Summary
rows in details view for information on how status is calculated for
a summary of tasks.
Project plans have two kinds of views: Gantt (the default) and details.
To switch between them, click 
for the Gantt view (example);
click 
to view details (example).
Note: Project
plan tasks shown in the map mirror
the filtering, grouping,
and sorting in effect.
Features of Gantt view include:
legend -- A legend at the top of the table explains the Gantt symbols. The labels change according to the grouping that is in effect.
filtering -- Use the filtering drop-down list to filter the Gantt table to show "all tasks", "all unfinished tasks", "my tasks", or "my unfinished tasks". Initially, eRoom shows all tasks.
grouping -- Use the grouping drop-down list to group the Gantt table "by resource" or "by category". Tasks without a category or a resource appear in an "unassigned" group. Initially, tasks are ungrouped.
sorting -- Click the column headers to sort the Gantt table, first for ascending order and then for descending order (except for the Gantt column, which can be sorted only in ascending order). Initially, eRoom sorts the table by Gantt column. When sorted this way, eRoom first organizes the tasks into "chains" in which tasks follow their predecessors. (Tasks with multiple predecessors follow the one with the latest finish date.) If necessary to give each chain and each task a unique position, eRoom applies other sort orders: start date; duration; name; ID.
Sorting by the Gantt column works with a filter in effect (though some tasks may be hidden). You cannot sort by the Gantt column, however, with a grouping in effect. In this case, eRoom sorts tasks as if by start dates.
When you sort a project plan by a column other than Gantt, the only secondary sorting is the same as for eRoom databases (by order of task creation).
Sorting does not affect the order of groups. Instead
category groups are ordered according to the category list on the Create/Edit Project Plan page
resource groups are ordered alphabetically by name; the "unassigned" group always comes last
dates and scale
-- Set the start date of the Gantt chart (
) using the text
box or date picker. View dates forward and back using these buttons: 
.
eRoom also provides buttons for "today" and "go". The default start date is the project plan's start date. When you specify a different start date, the chart redraws to show that date as the first column.
Set the date scale (in week, in months, in quarters) of the Gantt chart using the scale drop-down list.
The Gantt chart shows a column for each day. The width of the column varies according to the scale in effect. When the scale permits, durations or progress that are non-whole numbers are represented accordingly.
The background of the Gantt chart makes working days visually distinct from non-working days and holidays, and identifies the current day.
task rows and columns -- Task rows in the Gantt table have columns for the Title of the task (which is a link to the Task page), its ID, its Duration, and a Gantt chart. Rows for tasks with "omit" turned on appear distinct from normal rows.
In the Gantt chart
the duration of each task is represented by a bar. If progress reports are enabled, each task's actual progress is portrayed by a distinct color that fills the bar from left to right; if progress reports are disabled, the color fills the entire bar when a task is marked "done". Hovering over a task's Gantt bar displays a ToolTip with detailed task information (how much detail depends on whether progress reports are enabled).
Milestones are represented by a milestone
symbol (
) instead of a bar. A milestone's ToolTip states
"milestone" for duration, and has no status or latest report
or actual vs. plan.
An omitted task's Gantt bar looks different than normal tasks, and never shows progress. An omitted task's ToolTip states "(omitted from summaries)" next to its duration, status, latest report, and actual vs. plan value.
summary rows -- The first row of the Gantt table is a summary of the tasks matching the filter, for example, "All tasks" or "My unfinished tasks". Additional summary rows are shown when grouping is turned on. Every summary row shows a tally of the number of summarized tasks, their duration, and a summary Gantt bar.
The Gantt bar in a summary row extends from the start of the earliest summarized task through the finish of the latest.
If progress reports are enabled, the Gantt bar in a summary row shows the overall percentage done for the summarized tasks as either "xx% done" (when the bar is wide enough) or just "xx%".
If progress reports are disabled, the Gantt bar in a summary row is either completely colored, if all summarized tasks are done, or not colored at all.
Hovering over a summary Gantt bar shows a ToolTip with the following details:
the filter or group (for example, "My tasks", "resource: Steven Rogers", or "category: Design")
duration (followed by "(% done)", if reports enabled; "omitted" for omitted tasks)
status (if progress reports are enabled; "omitted" for omitted tasks)
latest reports (if progress reports are enabled; "omitted " for omitted tasks)
actual vs. plan (if progress reports are enabled; "omitted " for omitted tasks)
done (if progress reports are disabled; "yes" or "no")
start
finish
These calculations exclude the following tasks:
Calculation |
Excluded tasks |
|
duration |
tasks with "omit" turned on |
|
status |
|
|
latest report |
|
|
actual vs. planned |
|
|
done |
|
If no tasks qualify to be summarized, the word "none" appears, except as below.
The status field states "not started" if all tasks have start dates in the future, or "milestones" if all tasks are milestones.
The latest report field has different formats depending on the latest reports being summarized:
no tasks qualify because all tasks finished: today's date
coinciding dates: "03 Jan 02"
dates spanning a range: "03 Jan 02 to 22 Jan 02"
date that are "none": substitute with task start date
all dates blank: leave blank
If any date shown is overdue, it appears with a "one or more overdue" comment.
Note: When you
print a project plan in Gantt view, you can improve the printout's readability
by setting page orientation to landscape, and making background colors
visible via your browser's printing options. Closing the map before printing
also helps in this regard.
Features of details view include:
Task title (link to Task page)
Duration ("0" appears for milestones)
ID
Status (if progress reports are enabled) -- Displays icons and the percentages by which the tasks are ahead/behind schedule, derived from the progress reported in the actual vs. planned column.
Latest report (if progress reports are enabled) -- Left blank for omitted tasks, milestones, and tasks whose start has not arrived.
Actual/plan (if progress reports are enabled) -- Shows actual and planned progress, in days, in the format "2d of 2d." The source of these values is specified in "Status." If you are authorized to report progress for a task, its actual progress value is shown as a link to the Report Progress page, with a "report progress" ToolTip. No actual/plan is shown for milestones.
Done (if progress reports are disabled) -- Shows "yes" for all completed tasks except milestones, for which no value appears.
Start
Finish -- If the finish day has passed and the task's actual progress is not 100%, the finish date appears in red with a "task overdue" ToolTip. Finish dates for milestones and omitted tasks are exempt.
Predecessors -- Shows the IDs of predecessor tasks, separated by commas, in numeric order. Each ID is a link to the corresponding task. Hovering over the ID shows a ToolTip with the ID and name of the task.
Category (hidden when grouped by category)
Resource (hidden when grouped by resource)
Notes
omitted tasks -- Like in the Gantt table, rows for omitted tasks appear distinct from normal rows. Status, latest report, and actual vs. planned progress are hidden.
sorting -- Follows the same sorting rules as the Gantt table. By default the rows are sorted as if by Gantt column, even though that column is not shown in the details table. If you choose a different sort order, the only way to return to the Gantt sort order is by switching to Gantt view and clicking the Gantt column's header.
Sorting by status sorts the rows in the following order (or in reverse, if sorted "descending"):
behind (from most to least)
on time
ahead (from least to most)
finished
not started
milestones
Sorting by predecessor sorts the rows according to the ID of the first predecessor in each row; sorting by resource sorts the rows according to the first resource in each row.
summary rows -- Like in the Gantt table, the first row is a summary of all tasks matching the filter, and additional summary rows are shown when grouping is turned on. Summary rows show a tally of how many tasks are being summarized, along with a tally for each column except ID, predecessor, resource, category, and notes. Like in the Gantt chart's ToolTips, certain tasks are excluded from certain calculations.
A blank field is shown if no tasks qualify to be summarized.
The formatting of the latest report field is the same as in the Gantt chart's ToolTips, except if the date is overdue, it appears in red with a "one or more reports are overdue" ToolTip. If the date is a range, and either one is overdue, both appear in red with the ToolTip.
When you create a project plan by pasting a copy, eRoom copies everything (including attachments and discussions) except for change logs, reporting histories, and actual progress.
When you create a task by pasting a copy into the same or different project plan, eRoom assigns the task a new ID, and copies everything (including attachments and discussions) except for the change log, reporting history, and actual progress.
Copying a task has no effect on its dependents, but cutting or deleting a task causes the dependents to lose their dependency on it. If a deleted task is restored from the recycle bin, any dependent tasks regain their dependency on it.
If the source and destination project plans have different settings for progress reporting (enabled or disabled), eRoom either translates tasks with a percent done as either "yes" or "no", or translates any finished tasks as 100% complete, and the rest 0% complete.
The properties of project plan tasks that cut, copy, paste, and 'restore from recycle bin' actions can affect are:
task predecessors -- either kept or cleared
change logs -- either kept or cleared
progress reporting histories -- either kept or cleared
reports of actual progress -- either kept or cleared
task IDs -- (read-only) either kept, or a new ID assigned
These affects are summarized as follows:
Item |
Action |
Keep |
Clear |
New ID? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Project plan |
Cut & paste |
All |
|
No |
|
|
Copy & paste |
Task predecessors |
|
No |
|
|
Restore from recycle bin |
All |
|
No |
|
Individual task |
Copy & paste into same project plan |
Task predecessors |
|
Yes |
|
|
Copy & paste into another project plan |
|
All |
Yes
|
|
|
Restore from recycle bin into same project |
All |
|
No |
|
Chain of tasks |
Copy & paste into same project plan |
Task predecessors (dependencies within chain and first task's dependencies beyond chain) |
|
Yes |
|
|
Copy & paste into another project plan |
Task predecessors (dependencies within chain) |
|
Yes |
|
|
Restore from recycle bin into same project |
All |
|
No |
Like databases, you can export and import project plans as .csv (comma-delimited) files.
The Export Project Plan page opens.
Decide whether to Export rich text as HTML.
Decide whether to save the file in Unicode format.
Click "OK".
The Export Complete page opens, which contains a link to a .csv file.
Click the link to download the exported file.
Click "OK" or "Cancel" to close the Export Complete page and return to the project plan summary.
All tasks are exported, regardless of whether grouping or filtering is in use, and regardless of whether tasks are done or not. Summary values are not exported.
In the .csv file, the first row shows the names of the exported fields, as follows:
ID (number; never exported as first column, in order to avoid SYLK error)
Task_Name (plain text)
Duration (number)
Start_Date (date)
Constraint_Date (date, or "NA" if none)
Constraint_Type ("Start No Earlier Than", or "As Soon As Possible" if none)
Predecessors (task IDs, separated by commas)
Finish_Date (date)
Category (plain text)
Percent_Complete (number up to two decimal places; based on "done" if progress reports are disabled)
Progress report date (date; blank if progress reports are disabled)
Status (percentage number, or 0; all 0 if progress reports are disabled)
Omit from summaries (0 for false, 1 for true)
Resource_Names (member display names, separated by commas)
Notes (plain text)
Description (plain or HTML text)
Dates are exported in YYYY-MM-DD format. Resource names are exported in "first middle last" format. Attachments, discussions, and change logs are not exported. Any fields containing commas or quotes are 'escaped' using quotes. Graphics in HTML are lost.
The Import Project Plan page opens.
Browse to locate the .csv file you want to import.
Specify whether Incoming formatted text is HTML.
Click "OK" to open the Import <file name.csv> page, which lists the field names eRoom found in the file. If you proceed with the import, the rows following the header are imported as tasks, as in this table (opens in a new window).
The first row is expected to contain field names, which can be in any sequence and can include unknown names or blanks; eRoom parses the row for matches to the names it recognizes, case-insensitive, and ignores the rest. The only required field name is Task_Name.
If the number of tasks in the project plan reaches the maximum (500) during the import, and more rows remain to be imported, the import is cancelled. An error page opens and suggests you remove some existing tasks or eliminate some rows from the import file and try again.
When you save Microsoft Project files in .csv format, you can filter out the summary rows before importing the .csv file to eRoom. Otherwise, eRoom project plans interpret summaries as tasks, thus mixing elapsed time (summary rows) with work duration (task rows). The following steps suggest a framework for importing .csv files from Project into eRoom project plans.
Start by creating an eRoom-specific map for exporting Project files. The easiest way to do this is to export any eRoom project plan as a .csv file and then start opening the exported .csv file in Project. When project lets you select an import/export map, choose New Map instead. For data to import/export, pick "Tasks", and select "Export header row/Import includes headers". Accept the default field mappings. (Some eRoom fields will be listed as "not mapped" because they have no counterpart in Project.) Before finishing the dialog box or wizard, give your new map a name, such as "eRoom project plan". In the Import Mapping or Save Map dialog, click Organizer and check that your map was added to Project’s "global.mpt" template, so you can use it later. If necessary, use the Organizer to copy it there. You can then cancel opening the eRoom file.
Next, in Microsoft Project, create a filter that omits Summary tasks. Do this by picking from the Project menu Filtered for...: task description > More Filters. Create a new task filter (named, for example, "No summaries") that specifies Field Name "Summary" equals "No". Select the "show in menu" check box, and save your filter. Back in the More Filters dialog box, click Organizer and check that your filter was added to Project’s "global.mpt" template, so it remains available later. If necessary, use the Organizer to copy it there. You do not need to apply the filter.
Finally, when you export a Microsoft Project file (using Save As .csv), use your "eRoom project plan" map with the "No summaries" filter.