Project Timeline

Create a high-level Timeline to keep all project stakeholders on task and aware of upcoming activities.

Timeline Presentation View

When you navigate to the Timeline page within a project, the Presentation view will have a timeline, an Items Due chart, and a list view of your scheduled activities.

Timeline Activities

Types of Activities

There are three main types of activities in the Join Project Timeline:

1. Phases - A span of time during the project where other activities occur. Phases, Milestones, and Events can all be nested into a Phase. Phases can have Items assigned to them.
   1. Examples include: Schematic Design, Procurement, Preconstruction, Construction, etc.
2. Milestones - A significant point in time that occurs during the project, typically coinciding with a new issuance of contract documents or estimates. Milestones can be nested into a Phase, and can have Items assigned to them. Milestones cannot have children activities nested under them.
   1. Examples include: 50% Schematic Design, Design Development, Construction Documents, GMP, etc.
3. Events - A significant event in the project schedule that is important to be aware of or track. Events occur on a single day, they can be nested into a Phase, and can have Items assigned to them.
   1. Examples include: Proposal Due, Notice to Proceed, OAC Meeting, Turnover etc.

Item Distribution Chart

Between the Timeline and list view, there is a chart that shows the count of Items with a due date in each time period. This is a great way to track which Items are past due (red), which ones are upcoming (yellow), and which ones have already had a decision made (grey). Hovering over a bar will give you a summary of the Items in that time period, and clicking the hyperlink will take you to the Items List filtered for that time period.

Timeline Workspace

The Workspace is where you build out your project plan. All changes made in this view automatically appear in the Presentation view for your team to see. Use simple scheduling logic, such as predecessors and successors, to structure your project. Only users who have Admin permissions for Timeline will have access to the Workspace view.

Creating Activities

To create a new activity on your project, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Timeline page and select the Workspace view
2. Click the + New Activity button
   1. A new line appears at the bottom of your workspace view
3. Rename the New Activity.
4. Fill out the following  fields to schedule your activity:
   1. Duration - Duration of the activity in workdays
   2. Start Date - Start date of the activity
   3. End Date - End date of the activity (only applies to Phases)
   4. Predecessor - Select an activity that must finish before this task can start
   5. Successor - Select an activity that can’t start until this task finishes

Creating Milestones 

To create a new milestone  on your project from the Timeline, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the Timeline page and select the Workspace view
2. Click the + New Milestone button
3. Fill out all of the fields below
   1. Name - Name of the Milestone
   2. Start Date - Start date of the Milestone
   3. Milestone Design Phase - Select the corresponding design phase for the Milestone
4. Click the Create and Publish button

Creating Parent Phases

To  group a set of activities under the same heading, utilize the following functionality:

• Nesting & Unnesting - To create parent phases

• Drag & Drop Activities to reorder or nest them 

Scheduling Activities or Milestones

Edit your timeline activities like a traditional schedule. Timeline supports simple dependencies, such as Finish-to-Start. To schedule your activities:

• Set predecessors or successors in the grid view by selecting from the cell drop down.
• Or, link activities within the gantt chart by connecting each end.

Scheduling Cycles

If invalid dependencies are defined within the Workspace view, a “Scheduling Cycle” will be identified. To resolve the cycle, select a path that best suits your intended action.

Manually Scheduled Phases

Manually scheduled phases are not affected by the automatic scheduling process. Their start and end dates are meant to be set manually and do not calculate based on nested activities or predecessors and successors.