how to tie up % conclusion with actual date

Guilherme Ribeiro

Is there any way to generate a "temporal analysis of the evolution of % conclusion" on a project.?

I would need a way which every time the update of a task occurred, the smartsheet fixed the actual date so at the end of that task I'll have the evolution timeline for that.

Thanks,

J. Craig Williams

I can interpret your request in two ways.

The first is row by row completion with the date captured for each row as something happens ([% Complete]=100%, [Done] check, [Status] set to 'Complete', and such)

Check out my post here:

http://ronin-global.com/2016/12/11/smartsheet-fixed-date-upon-completion/

The second is changes in the [% Complete] for each task (or each milestone).

In that case, the API can access the cell history and be used to create a "project log". I've done simple ones using Zapier (www.zapier.com) and have it on my roadmap for the API.

I suspect you mean the first, but I had to read your post twice to make up my mind.

Craig

Guilherme Ribeiro

Thanks Craig.

 

Actually what I really need SS already have under View Cell History option. I just need to figure out how to collect that information or how to relate that information on a dashboard. 

J. Craig Williams

The only way to extract the information from the cell history is via the API. 

The Activity Log has promised, but does not deliver on this use case.

All of the third-party tools I use (and there are several) don't expose the hidden information in a cell, only the displayed value.

Would being able to export the cell history to another tool (Excel, OpenOffice Calc) suffice?

I'm trying to picture what the end result would look like. I have some ideas, but don't want to bias your thoughts.

Craig

Guilherme Ribeiro

Hi

Would being able to export the cell history to another tool (Excel, OpenOffice Calc) suffice?

Yeah I could, but mainly idea is to have smartsheet dashboards as the referenced tool, once I can keep everyone updated on time

I'm trying to picture what the end result would look like. I have some ideas, but don't want to bias your thoughts.

I would like to track the tasks evolutions untill they get´s completed. something like the pic below

 

 

J. Craig Williams

I was thinking something more visual.

You could use something like Zapier to trigger on changes to the row and capture Task and % Complete on a different sheet (as an activity log of your own making) but you have to be careful to make sure you only capture what you want to capture (which is a change in % Complete). Minimum 2 Zaps and you'll want to determine how many log entries you will have per month, because of Zap limits.

Craig

Guilherme Ribeiro

I was thinking something more visual.

Please tell me more about that. 

J. Craig Williams

I don't have a solution, but am capturing user stories and have some proof-of-concept in the works. I come from a background in power plant simulation and that's where this idea comes from.

I can't give away too much, but imagine a chart with the horizontal access being time and the vertical access being % Complete. Below the graphic is a list of the last few items (or perhaps everything that can be displayed on the graph)

The graph is rolling by time, showing a fixed amount of time, say two weeks.

Ideally, the chart would be forward looking (past today based on projections/planning)

Activities began, they would appear on the graph and % Complete would climb to 100% (step wise since that's how we capture the data). Events that are either not-done or done would enter as 100%. 

The user would be able to scroll left and right on the horizontal axis to show different periods.

Craig