Once you have accessed the Projects Dashboard, you’ll see the main “grid” layout where all projects available to you will be visible. Similar to other Prism grids, you can filter the list, save new layouts, select individual items and view the details of each Project in your system. Users may filter the project list by category, budget, completion status
In addition to the main grid (default) view, projects offers two new ways to view your project list: calendar and Gantt timeline. Toggle between the views by selecting the small icons on the right-hand side of the page, as follows
Figure 2: Calendar, Gantt, & Grid toggles on Project Dashboard. Grid view is selected
Grid View of Projects
Figure 3: The Projects Dashboard: grid view
Viewing your project list in a tabular view, makes it easy to display comprehensive information in a very compact format. It is perhaps the most efficient view for sorting and filtering your list. You can also quickly customize it by drag-and-dropping the columns, saving different layouts of visible columns, and sorting based on the column headers.
The Grid view offers several useful features for project managers
- Create a new Project from the “+ New Project” button
- Search for projects by keyword or phrase
- Sort Columns using the column header arrows
- Use the “Show Filters” button to filter projects by Properties, Status, and more
- “Actions” menu (drop down)
- Export All Columns to a csv (spreadsheet)
- Export All Visible Columns to a csv (spreadsheet)
- Import Projects (via a template csv file)
- Select a Project by clicking on the “Project ID” hyperlink for each project
- Save a layout to customize what columns and information you want to see in the grid
Calendar View of Projects
Figure 4: Calendar view of projects list (by Month)
The Projects calendar provides a high-level weekly or monthly view of all your projects within the selected timeframe. It is best for tracking parallel, long-term projects to see where there might be overlap, too many open projects, and gaps. You may select any project to view a summary and/or drill down directly to the project you want to investigate.
Gantt Timeline View of Projects
Figure 5: Gantt timeline view of projects list with one project expanded to reveal tasks
Gantt charts are frequently used by project managers to visualize a project schedule, track tasks on a timeline, and manage the sequence in which tasks are ordered. This way of viewing projects makes it easy to see how long each project and each subordinate task will take in terms of days, weeks, and months.
In this view, Projects users may:
- Select a project either in the timeline or on the left-hand side project list
- Expand a project to see its associated tasks by clicking the blue chevron icon
- Drill down to the project details from the pop-ups (for Projects and tasks)
- Drill down to the project task details of individual tasks