How do you represent cancelled projects on your portfolio roadmap or timeline?

Angie Hatfield

I'm tracking all of the initiatives we have going on with a report to show a timeline of everything.

I'm wondering how best to show a project as cancelled.

I have sheet with projects linked and also a similar report.

I use the ghantt or timeline so we can visually see what's going on.

When a project is started and cancelled before the end, I want to keep it on the timeline to show what was being done at that time and to show that it was not completed.

How are you doing this? For now I've just removed it completely, but it's now a bare spot that looks like we were twiddling our thumbs for 100 days.

I would to show the progress it ended at. I don't think I am interested in showing the baseline end date, however I do see value to keeping it.

Andrée Starå

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/129476/how-do-you-represent-cancelled-projects-on-your-portfolio-roadmap-or-timeline

Hi,

I hope you're well and safe!

Two ideas! Change the color with Conditional Formatting or use formulas to change the project's name and what is shown. Something like: Project Name (CANCELLED)

Would that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic day!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Angie Hatfield

@Andrée Starå

Thanks for the ideas. I think I am surprised that no one else is impacted by this. Do people generally just drop a cancelled project from the roadmap/timeline? How do they account for the time spent? How do they identify a cancelled project? Or do they have static field that is manually updated rather than using a report to consolidate the information?

Angie Hatfield

So here's what I've done.

I created shell copies of the cancelled projects. Removed all columns and data except those I report on. I then made the end date the cancelled date, changed status to cancelled and added Cancelled to the end of the project name.

In my reporting, I changed the row color to easily identify them as cancelled.

I was able to change the color of the project in the ghantt view and since the title shows cancelled, it is very easily identified.

This will allow me to maintain history and visibility on what was worked on during that time frame rather than a large blank spot. That would raise questions on why we didn't do anything.

I don't know if I'm the only person that thinks this is helpful.

Thanks @Andrée Starå