Adding more rows or columns

Hello,

I have 25 rows for different initiatives. Each initiative is shared with multiple depts (up to 10), and each dept needs to document a few outcomes for their initiative.

In your experience, shall I add 10 depts X 3 outcomes so 30 columns to each row? or copy the initiative into 10 rows and assign one dept per each row?

Thanks,

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Accepted answers

Paul Newcome

As long as you have it set up so that (for example) the first three columns are dedicated to Dept A, the next set of three columns is dedicated to Dept B, so on and so forth, I feel like that should be a pretty good way to go for both gathering data as well as reporting on it.

All comments

Paul Newcome

Really it depends on the end goal for the data and whether or not you need to display certain metrics or anything. Both have their advantages and disadvantages depending on a number of variables.

maltaee

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/387230#Comment_387230

Each dept will update its initiatives. I will display the outcomes in a dashboard via the Metric widget. I can't figure out what limitations I will get into after implementing it.

Paul Newcome

What do you mean by "outcomes" though? Counts, averages, etc. are some of the variables that will make a difference.

maltaee

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/387240#Comment_387240

few updates to each initiative by the department. Status, free text, another free text

Paul Newcome

So you are wanting to show what is in the cells and not necessarily worry about counts or anything like that? How are you wanting to display it on your dashboard (structure)? Would you be able to provide a rough mock-up of a dashboard?

maltaee

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/387279#Comment_387279

I don't see counts but a column for status so if I add more rows, it will just more work to change the status for 10 rows with the same status.

Paul Newcome

It looks like you are reporting on initiatives. Will there be any departmental breakdown? Right now I am leaning towards making each initiative its own row.

maltaee

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/387356#Comment_387356

Thanks for the challenging questions.

Yes, each initiative has a few depts tagged to it. Max of 10 depts per initiative.

Each dept will update the initiative in the 3 columns assigned to them - the image I shared. It could be either "Update Request" or DyanmicView.

What do you mean by departmental breakdown?

Paul Newcome

I meant on the dashboard. It looks (to me) like you snippet is more referencing the status of the initiative itself as opposed to saying "Department A said this specifically on initiative 1 and that on initiative 2".

maltaee

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/comment/387422#Comment_387422

Good observation. It will dept A, dept B, etc. but I'm trying to finalize that I will go with 3 columns per dept instead of duplicating each initiative for the depts that are assigned to.

Paul Newcome

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