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Using Project Plans to Monitor A Project’s Timeline

Updated

Project Plans make it easy for you to build Project schedules in Loopio, so all of your important Project information is in one centralized place. Project Plans provide your Project team with greater visibility into timelines and allow you to monitor your Project progress, all without having to leave the Loopio Platform.

What is a Project Plan?

A Project Plan is a list of Milestones that establish key dates for your Project, are owned by specific users, and enable automatic reminder emails before the Milestone due dates to remind Owners of upcoming deadlines.

All participants in a Project are able to see a high-level overview of the Project Milestones and their respective deadlines from the Project’s Status Bar at the top of the page.

Project_Plan_on_the_Project_Status_Bar.png

Project Milestones represent key events and their internal deadlines that need to be completed in order to ensure a Project is on track.

Project Plans can be viewed in full in the Timeline tab (Keyboard Shortcut: 3) of the Project Sidebar. Milestones can be edited including Status, emailreminders, Milestone Owners, and Due Date by clicking the Milestone's name. Clicking the Key_Dates_Toggle.png icon will toggle between showing all dates and only dates that contain Milestones.

 Timelime_Tab_-_Project_Sidebar.png 

As a Project Admin, How Do I Create Project Plans

 

Permissions Required: Loopio-wide Project, Level 3 (Full Access) or higher, or Project-specific "Project Admin" permissions are required to create or edit Project Plans, or to edit the status of Project Milestones.

Read more: Loopio-wide versus Project-specific permissions

As a Project Admin, you can create and edit Project Plan Templates, add new Project Milestones to a Project, and edit the status of each Milestone as you progress through your Project.

There are two ways to create a Project Plan to your Project: Project Plan Templates, or manually creating a Project Plan.

Project Plan Templates

Creating a Project Plan Template

Project Plan Templates are reusable Project Plans that can be used across multiple Projects. Project Plan Templates can be configured on the Admin > Project Plan Templates.

When adding a Project Plan, you can select a Project Plan Template to pre-populate the Project’s Milestones and schedule. This is useful if your organization uses a repeatable process on many Projects.

 

Permissions Required: The General Admin: Manage Project Plan Templates permission is required to create Project Plan Templates.

  1. From the top bar, click Admin
  2. Select “Project Plan Templates”
    Project_Plan_Templates_page_with_tab_name_circled_for_emphasis.png
  3. Click + Create Template
  4. Enter your Template Name
  5. Create your first Project Milestone, entering the Name, Description, and relative Due Date of the Milestone
  6. Click + Add Milestone to create additional Milestones
    Add_Project_Plan_Template_modal_showing_Milestone_creation.png
  7. Click Save 

Applying a Project Plan Template

Once a Template has been created, your Templates will be accessible in the Timeline tab of a Project's Sidebar by clicking the Plus_Button.png button.

Add_Project_Plan_Menu.png

If you have not yet created any Project Plan Templates, clicking the Plus_Button.png button will prompt you to manually create a new Project Milestone.

Add_Milestone_Popup.png

Manually Creating a Project Plan

For Projects that require a specific timeline, you can manually create a Project Plan. 

    1. Within your Project, Head to the Template tab of the Project Sidebar
      Timeline_Tab.png
    2. If you have not yet created any Project Plan Templates, clicking the Plus_Button.png button will prompt you to manually create a new Project Milestone (If you currently have a Project Template configured, click Create New Milestone)
      New_Milestone_popup.png
    3. Enter your Milestone’s Name, Description, Select a Status and decide on a Due Date
    4. Optional: Assign Milestone Owner(s) 
       

      Note: A Milestone Owner is a User (or set of Users) that will be in charge of completing the task associated with that Milestone. Milestone Owners must have Loopio-wide Projects, Level 3 (Full Access) permissions or Project-specific Project Admin permissions in order to edit Milestones, including changing the status.

    5. Optional: Configure email reminders to be sent to your Milestone Owner(s) in advance of the Milestone’s due date

Project Milestone Statuses

As you progress through your Project’s Milestones, you can adjust the status of each Milestone to provide a visual of the work done to date. 

 

Permissions Required: Loopio-wide Project, Level 3 (Full Access) or higher, or Project-specific "Project Admin" permissions are required to edit Project Milestones, including changing the Status.

Read more: Loopio-wide versus Project-specific permissions

Project Milestones have three available statuses, each with a corresponding color reflected in the Project Plan and on the Project Status bar:

  • Not Started (White)
  • In Progress (Orange)
  • Complete (Green)
     

    Note: By default, all Milestones start as “Not Started”.

Milestones_of_all_statuses_in_Timeline_tab.png     Milestone_of_all_statuses_in_the_timeline.png

Changing Your Project Milestone’s Status

As a Project Admin, you can change the status of your Project Milestones from the Timeline tab.

Timeline_Tab_highlighted_-_Sidebar.png

  1. Click the Milestone in the Timeline tab
    Milestone_highlighted.png
  2. Adjust the Milestone Status Dropdown field
    Milestone_Popup_-_Status_dropdown.png
  3. Click Save

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