Project Execution and Monitoring - success.clarizen.com · Project Execution and Monitoring ... Quickly and easily, adjust your project plan. Simply drag and drop or stretch bars

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Project Execution and MonitoringIntroduction to Managing and Tracking Active Projects in Clarizen


Kicking off a ProjectBest Practice When you are ready to activate your project, first save the Baseline. To do so, navigate to the Utilities (or Misc.) menu of the project Ribbon and click “Save as Baseline” – your planned values will be saved so that you can compare against actuals as the project is executed.

Activate ProjectBy default, Projects are created in “Draft” state. Once the project WBS and schedule are finalized and you are ready to begin executing, use the “Mark As” dropdown to Activate the project. Once activated, the project team will be able to begin their work and project Status calculations will begin.

*Note the other project States that are available. These can be used to fine tune which Work Items are being actively executed vs. those that are elsewhere in their lifecycle


Managing an Active Project: Add Files

1. Highlight the Project level in the Work Plan

2. Click on the “Add Related” option in the ribbon

3. Click on Files4. Add New or Link existing file

a. Upload New File to be stored in Clarizen

b. Add a “shortcut” to a file location on a file server

c. Add or Create New File stored in Google Docs or Box

d. Add a link to a webpage where the document can be found


Managing an Active Project: Find Upcoming Tasks

Monitor work that is about to start by utilizing a filter on your Work Plan

Open the Filter window by clicking the icon.

Filter for:• State = “Active”• Start Date = “In the Following 7 days”


Managing an Active Project: Communicating with the Team

Utilize Discussions to communicate with the project team or resources working on specific tasks.

To initiate the discussion, select the appropriate Work Item by highlighting its row (Task A in this case) and choose “Add” from the Discussions Panel.

All Resources, Managers, and Followers of that Work Item will receive the message. If you would like to include others, you can “@ Mention” them and they will be notified.


Monitor Project Health: Find Tasks Impacting Project Status

Option 1 – Retain Hierarchy1. Select “Retain Hierarchy” (using gear icon)2. Filter on Status of Off Track or At Risk.

• The items left on the list after filtering have a task under their hierarchy that is either Off Track or At Risk

Option 2 – Show Matches Only1. Select “Show Matches Only” (using gear

icon)2. Filter on Status of Off Track or At Risk.

• The items left on the list after filtering are any items that meet the criteria. Note: A summary/Parent task could be listed along with the actual task.

• Drill down into the list and find the items that are Off Track or At Risk

• Follow up with Resource via discussion in Clarizen or direct contact. Then adjust dates or status as appropriate.


Plan and Monitor Projects: Roadmap

The Roadmap is a great way to observe project status and progress from a bird’s-eye view.

It provides an interactive color-coded timeline chart with start/finish dates reflecting real-time visibility to deliverables.

By default, the roadmap provides Milestone-level detail, but tasks can be selected for visibility if you desire.


Plan and Monitor Projects: Keeping Track of Milestones

Expand the Roadmap and select the option to view the Baseline view via the gear icon.

Check to see if there are differences from baseline to current planned.

Create an issue if there’s not already one explaining any variance and make sure the issue is associated with the milestone


Plan and Monitor Projects: Interactive Gantt Chart

Clarizen’s Gantt view gives a real-time interactive graphical illustration of your project’s performance, timeline and resource scheduling to help you make smarter and timely business decisions, make adjustments and keep everyone informed of the project progress.

The Gantt view is ideal for resource scheduling and project management.


Access, Configure, and Interact with the Gantt1. Access the Gantt ViewYou can access the Gantt view by clicking the gear icon for a work plan. You can also set it as the default view in the project view editor.

2. Configuring Display Settings for the Gantt ViewClarizen’s Gantt view display options are highly configurable to meet your project planning needs. Choose from different view options, including a baseline view, critical path view and more. Optionally, add display labels around the bar, and percentage complete in the bar itself. Finally, add color coding to the display to help you focus important data.

3. Interact with the Gantt ViewQuickly and easily, adjust your project plan. Simply drag and drop or stretch bars to change start and due dates, reorder work items, or create dependences. All changes are instantly reflected in the grid view.Note: The ability to interact and modify the Gantt view depends on user’s privileges for the work item they are trying to update..

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Using the Interactive Gantt

The Gantt view is fully interactive where changes made in the Work Plan Grid affect the Gantt and vice versa. This allows you to manage your projects and tasks with ease.

Hovering over an item on the Gantt will display a quick peek Gantt bubble showing the relevant fields based on the Gantt display option which is configurable by profile settings for each user.

Based on your individual user permission and role on the project, you can edit the fields shown in the bubble as well as utilize drag and drop capabilities.

To move items in the Gantt: 1. Hover over the center of the item's bar until the cursor

changes to a 4-way (move) arrow 2. Click and drag the bar to the location you wish to move it to3. Release the mouse button

To change the item's Duration:1. Move your cursor to the beginning or the end of the work

item's Bar until the cursor changes to a horizontal 2-way (stretch) arrow

2. Click and drag the bar back or forward to change the Start date or Due date of the work item

3. Release the Mouse button4. Alternatively, hover over the work item bar until the quick peek

bubble appears and manually change the relevant filed.

To create dependencies: 1. Move the item as described above2. Release the mouse button while the cursor is directly on top of

another work item's bar3. A dependency is created between the two items


Sharing and Printing the Gantt

Printing the Gantt1. In the Gantt view open the Utilities tab2. Click

The Print preview window opens3. Define the Gantt print options:

a. Full Gantt - prints the entire b. Gantt Current view - prints only the view

currently displayedc. Specific period - allows you to define a specific

time frame to display

4. Move the page column separator between the list (grid) and the Gantt view to determine what columns will be printed

5. Use the zoom slider to adjust the desired zoom for the Gantt

6. Define the print options, page size and orientation

7. Click

Sharing the Gantt1. From the Ribbon,

select “Share” and choose Widget

2. Set any desired options such as expiration date and password

3. Choose recipients and personalize an email message if you wish. Recipients will receive a live read-only view of your project’s Gantt.


Roadmap Views and Navigation

The Roadmap can be viewed from several perspectives (accessible from the Gear Icon

• Standard - Displays all of the selected projects in a standard view

• Flat - Mainly used for portfolios, this display option creates a flat view for all of the projects within

• Baseline - Displays an additional block showing the Project's baseline

• Plan vs. Actual - Displays an additional block showing planned vs. actual information on the project's timeline

The ribbon allows for the addition of new Milestones making the Roadmap a great way to quickly build high-level project timelines before detailed planning takes place.

Clicking an icon on the Roadmap will bring up a mini-properties card revealing summary information and allowing you to make quick updates or drill into greater detail.


Monitor Project State, Status, and Conflicts

DraftActiveCompleteCanceledOn Hold

On Track

At Risk

Off Track

Schedule Impacted

Schedule Impacting Other

Status

State

Conflicts

All Work Items can be tracked according to Status (health), State (lifecycle), and Conflicts (schedule or resource issues that require resolution).

By adding these fields as columns to a view, you can quickly monitor work or filter to isolate areas of concern.

Finally, by creating views that filter on exceptions, you can easily maintain “watch lists” that must be actively managed.


Status and Conflict Definitions

StatusCompares reported progress against expected progress

If the Actual Percent Completed is 10% or more below the Expected Percent Completed

The due date of the task has passed and the Actual Percent Completed is less than 100%

ConflictsConflicts indicates a contradiction between due dates of at least two project work items.

The following are several examples of a Conflict:

• A hammock (parent item) has a manually set Due date but one (or more) of its sub-items finishes after that date

• Task X has a manually set Due date and Duration. Task X depends on task Y that has a Due date that prevents X from being finished on time.

• Task X has a manually set Start date. Task X is dependent on task Y whose Start or Due date is earlier than the Start date of task X.

Note: In case of conflict situations, the system does not automatically move planned Start or Due dates accordingly, but rather raises an indication of a conflict in the form of an Alert.

On Track

At Risk

Off Track

If the Actual Percent Completed is under 10% less than the Expected Percent Completed or Actual Percent Completed is greater than the Expected Percent Completed


Calculation of % Complete

General Rules

The following rules are the basis of the calculation:

1. Hammock completeness is influenced by its direct children (sub-projects/sub-tasks).

2. When weight (via Progress Impact) is defined for an item, the item's relative effort is not used for parent completeness calculations.

3. When a hammock's children do not have Progress Impact weight defined, the calculation of the hammock's %Completed is according to their effort.

4. When all children of a hammock have defined Progress Impact weights, the %Completeness of the parent is calculated according to those weights.

5. When a hammock has children of which some have weights and others don’t have weights, the children with weights defined is calculated by their weights, whereas the children without weight defined are calculated according to their effort and the relative weight.


Special Situation: Progress Uncertainty

Relationship Between Actual Effort, Work and % Complete

Actual Effort reported by resources can sometimes result in a situation where Actual Effort exceeds the estimated work of the task.

In this case the work item is internally flagged as 'Overworked' to indicate that the work item is 'over-budget' for its defined work.

When Actual Effort is updated via reported Timesheet hours, the 'Overwork' situation can cause ambiguity (uncertainty) of the %Completeness.

Work items with this status are not transferred automatically to Completed state.

When % Completeness is Uncertain:1. % Complete displays a '?' character (example: 100 (?))2. Remaining Effort, if it’s not manually set, is displayed in red with a '?'character


Monitor Project Health: Generate Project Status ReportIf installed*, Clarizen provides PMs with 2 “one-click” options for Status Reporting

Delivered via Email. Select options below and it will be mailed after clicking “Ok”

Leverages “Document Publisher” to produce a Word

Doc (can be saved as pdf) presenting status information

according to a defined template.

Project Highlight Report PPR (Periodic Project Report)

*These reports are available on the Apps Marketplace. If you do not have them available in your instance, please work with your admin to install


Advanced Topic: Weighted Tasks

Utilizing WeightsWhen calculating the %Complete of a hammock, the %Complete is also influenced by the weight of the sub items. The weight is the amount of effort defined per work item • Weight default value = 100• Weight manually set value will not be limited• Calculated weight = weight value / total of all weights

Children Group Types Under a HammockThere are Three(3) children group types under the hammock:• Priority 1 – Work items that have weight

Distribution in the group is according to the weight of the individual work item = SUM(all work items weight) / work item weight

• Priority 2 – Work items that have workDistribution in the group is according to the work of the individual work item = SUM(all work items work)/ work item work

• Priority 3 – All others work itemsDistribution in the group is linear = 1/COUNT(all work items work)

The distribution between the groups is based on the calculation of the number of children for each group.


Advanced Topic: Calculating Progress of Weighted TasksHammock CalculationCompleteness % of hammock = sum (completeness of child * its relative weight/ total weight)Completeness of child can be its direct completeness (user defined for task or calculated on hammocks) or actual effort/total effort (user defined for tasks)Relative weight has the three following scenarios:• Weight is manually defined: Calculation disregards effort and only calculates according to weight• No weight defined and task has effort defined: weight of task = default weight *(task effort/total effort of tasks with no

weight defined)• No weight defined and task does not have effort defined: Calculation done using default weight (100)

Example:Hammock has six children:• Child 1 - Completeness = 30, weight 50, (effort doesn’t matter)• Child 2 - Completeness = 20, weight 150, (effort doesn’t matter)• Child 3 - Completeness = 70, no weight, effort =5• Child 4 - Completeness = 80, no weight, effort =10• Child 5 - Completeness = 40, no weight, effort =15• Child 6 - Completeness = 60, no weight, effort = 0The Relative weight of children = • Child 1 = 50/600 = 1/12 • Child 2 = 150/600 = 1/4 • Child 3 = 300/600 (relative weight of all tasks with no weight defined) *5/30(relative effort of all tasks with no weight defined) = 1/12 • Child 4 = 300/600 (relative weight of all tasks with no weight defined)*10/30(relative effort of all tasks with no weight defined) = 1/6 • Child 5 = 300/600 (relative weight of all tasks with no weight defined)*15/30(relative effort of all tasks with no weight defined) = 1/4 • Child 6 = 100/600 (default weight/total weight) = 1/6% Completeness = (30*1/12) + (20*1/4) + (70*1/12) + (80*1/6) + (40*1/4) + (60*1/6) = 46.67


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Project Execution and Monitoring - success.clarizen.com · Project Execution and Monitoring ... Quickly and easily, adjust your project plan. Simply drag and drop or stretch bars