Planning a project with Gantt, budget, and risks
A project brings scope, schedule, budget, and risk together in one plan.
When to use
Use this page when you start a new piece of work that needs an owner, dates, a budget, and a task plan. It is also the place to come back to when a plan changes: dates move, scope grows, or a new risk appears.
Before you start
- You need
projects:readto see projects andprojects:writeto create or edit them. Deleting a project needsprojects:delete. - Dragging task dates on the Gantt chart also needs
tasks:write. - Your company can make some fields mandatory when a project is created. These settings are in Settings (
/projects/settings) and are all off by default for existing companies:projects.owner_required_on_create,projects.dates_required_on_create,projects.budget_required_on_create. projects.block_close_with_open_tasks(off by default) stops you closing a project while tasks are still open.
Steps
Create the project
Go to Projects → Projects (/projects/projects) and create a new project (/projects/projects/new). Set the dates, owner, and budget. You can also start from a template or from a marketing campaign (see Project templates and statuses). The project code is generated automatically.
Build the schedule
Open the project’s Tasks tab to add tasks and sub-tasks, then open its Gantt tab to lay them out on a timeline. Drag a task to change its dates. Use Gantt Chart (/projects/projects/gantt) to see every project on one timeline.
Define deliverables
Open the Deliverables tab to add milestones and deliverables. Milestones that are marked achieved can later be invoiced on fixed-price projects (see Project finance and invoicing).
Set the budget
Use the project’s Budget tab for the budget against actuals, or Budget & Expenses (/projects/budget) for all projects. For formal, approved budgets see Project budget and cost control.
Track risks and issues
Log threats in Project Risks (/projects/risks) or in the project’s Risks tab. The same register (RAID) also holds issues, so problems that have already happened are tracked next to risks that might.
Statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Planning | The project is being set up. This is the starting point of the lifecycle. |
| In progress | Work is running. If projects.budget_approval_required is on, a project cannot move here until it has an approved budget. |
| On hold | Paused. If projects.block_work_on_hold is on, new work cannot be logged against it. |
| Closed | Finished. If projects.closure_approval_required is on, closing needs approval. |
The list of statuses you can filter by in Projects may include more values than shown here.
Tips & common mistakes
- Set the owner and dates at creation. Without them the project cannot show schedule health on the portfolio.
- Task progress on project pages ignores cancelled tasks, so cancel a task instead of deleting it if you want the history to stay.
- A quotation that was accepted does not create a project by itself in the interface. Create the project directly, from a template, or from a campaign.
- Projects that belong to a service contract in Service Management are a different thing. They live in that app, not here.
- Review risks regularly. A risk with no owner is the most common reason a problem is noticed late.