This functionality is behind feature toggle Feature.EnableNewProjectGantt.This can be activated in your Fortes Change Cloud environment only by the administrator.
Gantts provide an overview of project planning and help manage the sequence of tasks, activities and their interdependencies. In doing so, it is valuable when communicating with project teams and sponsors.
At the request of our users, we have developed a new Gantt for planning in projects. This new Gantt offers expanded functionality such as:
- Critical path
- Undo and Redo
- Edit – Save: no more direct editing
- Extension of dependencies
- Add delays to dependencies
- Integration with resource planning: costs and hours
Consequences of migrating to the new Gantt
Attention!
- Per project convert the Gantt:
If you want to use the new Gantt, the schedule in the old Gantt must be migrated on a project-by-project basis. This can be done at the touch of a button per project. The migration to the new Gantt cannot be undone and is therefore irreversible. - The Resource planning tab disappears because it is now integrated into the new Gantt:
Scheduled skill and resource hours that were entered on the resource planning tab are migrated and become visible again in the new ‘skill and resource hours segment’. If skill or resource hours were split in the ‘Resource planning’ tab, they will be migrated as totals to the new segment. This is discussed in more detail later.
Features in the new Gantt
Once the schedule migration has taken place, the new functionality will be available. What is immediately noticeable is that the schedule is no longer directly mutable. This should prevent errors due to accidental dragging of plan items.
Once you press the ‘Edit’ button (right above the schedule), the schedule can be edited. The following functionalities are available for this purpose:
Features for looking at the Gantt
Zooming in and out of the timeline
You can also zoom in and out by clicking on the header of the Gantt.
- Left mouse button + drag: zoom on date range. So you can easily make the schedule fit your screen.
- Left mouse button: zoom in on date. For example, suppose you click on “Jan 2024” in the screen above, your screen will show the entire month of January. This works for years, quarters and days in the same way.
- Right-click: zoom out.
Signaling in planning
The first column of the Gantt is a status column. The following statuses are distinguished:
Features for managing plan items
Other mouse actions in planning (in edit mode):
- Left mouse button + drag: lengthen or shorten or move a planning bar.
- Right-click + drag: establish dependency between items.
- Ctrl + left-mouse-button: clicking on a plan bar clears the schedule for that plan item. If you click on a dependency then it is removed.
Dependencies in planning
In the new Gantt, the following dependencies can be made between plan items:
Finish to start (Finish-to-start)
This dependency means that a task can only start after the previous task has been completed.
Finish to finish (Finish-to-finish):
With this dependency, a task can be completed only after the previous task is also completed.
Start to finish (Start-to-finish):
This dependency means that a task can be completed only after the previous task has been started.
Start to start (Start-to-start):
With this dependency, a task can start as soon as the previous task is started, without requiring completion for the previous task.
Delay:
Double-clicking in the schedule on the dependency line displays a pop-up. In this you can enter the desired delay for the dependency. A dotted line then appears in the schedule for the delay.
Example: a plan item may not start until 10 days after the previous plan item is completed.
Add planning costs and hours to a plan item
Scheduling costs and hours is now integrated into the new Gantt. Costs and hours can be scheduled on the detail page of a plan item. As mentioned earlier, after migrating to the new Gantt, the Resource planning tab will expire.
Hours that were captured in the Resource planning tab have been migrated. They are now visible in the “Scheduled Hours” segment for skill and resource hours on the detail page of a plan item.
If skill or resource hours were split in the Resource planning tab, they will be migrated as totals to the new segment. So in the example below, 250 hours are shown with the respective skill.
Attention! This is a departure from the past. Resource capacity splitting within a plan item is no longer possible. As a result, the planned capacity is now always evenly distributed over the duration of the plan item. This while in the old situation you could vary in that; as the example shows with 100 hours at the beginning, then nothing for a while and at the end 150 hours.
The administrator of the FCC environment can add the desired segments for this in the project model on the canvas of plan items. This makes the functionality immediately available to all projects created with that project model. Explanations on configuring canvases can be found on the knowledge base here.
The following segments are distinguished:
- Planned cost segment
- Scheduled skill and resource hours segment
- Scheduled team-hours segment
Planned cost segment
In this segment, the planned costs for each product can be indicated by financial category.
When configuring this segment (by the administrator of the FCC environment), it is possible to choose which financial categories should be available. Each portfolio can have its own selection of financial categories. Depending on which portfolio a project was created from, that project then gets the financial categories of that portfolio.
The following configurations are possible:
- All Financial Categories of the Portfolio: shows in the plan item of the project all financial categories available from the portfolio from which the project started.
- Add a Financial Categories button for manual selection: the user can then add the financial categories on which costs are scheduled. You do not then need to show the financial categories on which no charges are scheduled.
- Preselected Financial Categories: you can also restrict. For example, if you want charges to be scheduled only on the financial category “Hardware,” then select only that category in the configuration. Users cannot add other financial categories themselves.
Scheduled skill and resource hours segment
When configuring this segment, the unit of entry can be chosen. Hours or man-days can be chosen. Regardless of choice, bookings are all stored in hours. The conversion of hours to man-days can be set in the portfolio on the “Capacity Planning by Skills” tab.
The end user can select skills, secondary skills and resources in the segment using the “+ Select skill and resource hours” button. Entries are as indicated by hours or man-days.
Scheduled team hours
When working with teams, hours or man-days can also be recorded per team.
When configuring this segment, the unit of entry can be chosen. Hours or man-days can be chosen. Regardless of choice, bookings are all stored in hours. The conversion of hours to man-days can be set on the “capacity planning on teams tab” in the portfolio app.
When configuring the “scheduled team hours segment,” you can choose which teams should be available in the segment. All teams of the portfolio or a selection to be added by the end user via an add button in the segment or a pre-selected set of teams defined during configuration of the segment.
Below, all new improvements to the Project Gantt are stored in a pdf file so that it can easily be downloaded.
