Multiple projects

P.Mann

Hello there,

We have around 20 website builds that we are working on and they are all separate projects.  There are 4 stages to each build. Sales, Design, Development, Testing and each of these stages have their separate workflows. Can help with these questions:

1. Do we create each of the 20 projects in one workspace or will there be too much information on one workspace? What is the best thing to use? 
2. What it the best way to use Smartsheet so that we can report on all the of the 20 projects together?  
3. The same designers and developers will be working on these projects, so in the workspace they will be assigned to certain projects but how can we prioritise them and also can we add this is a Gantt sheet?

Thanks!

Paul Newcome

1. I would suggest 1 workspace with a folder for each build in it.

 

2. You could then create a summary sheet that pulls all of the info for each build together with a column dedicated to the stage. Once that is done, pull reports for each stage and display them on a workspace dashboard as a quick view. (You can also create individual dashboards for each build as well as for each designer/developer/team for tracking.)

 

3. There are a lot of options for prioritizing tasks within Smartsheet. Your specific needs and criteria for prioritization would dictate your best option.

 

You can create a Gantt sheet; the level of detail/automation/dependencies, would be entirely up to you.

 

I personally automate as much as possible. That way whenever a team member needs to access it, it is more user friendly for them. It requires more work on my part setting everything up, but when things flow smoothly and are easy to use, everyone stays happy (including the bosses).

 

One of the nice things about Smartsheet is that they have a lot of different tools  to really personalize how each individual/team uses Smartsheet. It provides for a lot of flexibility and plenty of options for tracking and displaying what each user wants/needs in a manner specific to that user.

 

My best recommendation at this point... Get in and play around with it. Move stuff around. Add, delete, etc. Smartsheet overall is pretty flexible when it comes to project management.

Michael Van Itallie

Paul,

Re creating folders within the workspaces, would this limit your reporting ability to pick up new project sheets? The Smartsheet documentation identifies only new sheets in a workspace will be updated on reporting.

It is possable I have miss interperted, in that if a folder is within a workspace, then the rollup reporting will be able to identify new projects.

Paul Newcome

@Michael Van Itallie If the report is set to pull from all sheets within a workspace, then new folders within the workspace will be automatically included in the report.