SG Project Pro User Guide

Transcription

1 SG Project Pro User Guide (Mac OS X Version) Simple Genius Software November 2012 Document Version 4.0.1

2 Table of Contents Learn About SG Project Pro...4 Meet SG Project Pro...4 The Simple Genius Apps Suite...4 In-App Upgrade...5 Understand the Main Window Layout...5 Understand Where Data is Stored...7 Back Up and Restore Data...7 Share Projects Across Devices...8 Work With a Team...9 Key Concepts...9 Projects...9 People, Owners, and Contributors Focus on Projects or People Task-Based Planning Action Items Risks Manage People and Projects...12 Manage Projects...12 Add, Edit, Delete, and Archive Projects Sort, Group, Categorize, Filter, and Select Projects Create Reusable Project Templates Make a Copy of an Existing Project Manage Multiple Projects Find Out What is Behind Schedule See Everything Going On Inform Stakeholders of Status and Progress Manage People...17 Add, Edit, and Delete People Sort, Group, Categorize, Filter, and Select People Find Out What is Behind Schedule See Everything Going On Keep the Team Up-To-Date Manage Tasks, Action Items, and Risks...21 Manage a Task Plan...21 Use Task Table, Gantt and Detail Views Manage the Work Schedule Create, Edit, and Delete Tasks Track Project Cost Track Project Completeness Organize Tasks into a Hierarchy Re-order Tasks Use the Gantt View Manage Task Dependencies Manage Task Accountability Manage Action Items...28 Decide Whether Something is a Task or Action Item Create, Edit, and Delete Action Items Associate Action Items with a Task Manage Risks...29 Create, Edit, and Delete Risks Associate Risks with a Task Solve Problems...31 Focus, Focus, Focus Printing Interpret the 180-Day Chart Page 2 of 32

3 Get More Support...32 Page 3 of 32

4 Learn About SG Project Pro This chapter provides an understanding of SG Project Pro's capabilities and key concepts at a high level with these overview sections. Meet SG Project Pro This section will give you a solid overview of SG Project Pro, where it fits into the Simple Genius Apps Suite, how to protect and share your project data, and how to work with other Project Managers and Team Members. The Simple Genius Apps Suite SG Project Pro is the flagship of the Simple Genius Apps Suite designed to support practical project management. SG Project is a subset of SG Project Pro, and can be upgraded to the full feature set of SG Project Pro with an in-app purchase. Here are some other apps in the suite that may assist your workflow: SG Project OnePage (Mac and ipad) This app uses a novel design to present the status of an entire project on a single page and is great for managing simple projects or reporting an overview to executives or other stakeholders for any size project. SG Project Pro (ipad) The ipad version of SG Project Pro has nearly all the capabilities as the Mac version and lets you work on projects while away from your desk. SG Project Go (iphone) This iphone app allows for viewing and editing your task plans on your iphone. The SG apps all share the same data format and import/export formats, making it easy to share your data across devices. And the apps integrate with Dropbox so if you use that service, sharing is even easier. Page 4 of 32

5 In-App Upgrade SG Project can be upgraded to the full feature set of SG Project Pro using an In-App Purchase. See pricing and purchase options by selecting Upgrade Options... from the SG Project menu. SG Project retains its app name and orange icon but makes all the features of Pro available. Here is a summary: Manage multiple Projects or People at once Generate powerful reports with more sections and options Manage people by viewing items for a person or team Manage Action Items and Risks for projects See what is happening across all your projects Organize your projects and people into categories Update stakeholders on multiple projects with one report Understand the Main Window Layout It is important to gain a clear understanding of the main window in order to use SG Project Pro efficiently. The window is carefully designed for productivity and organizes all your project data in one view. 1. Project List Page 5 of 32

6 This is your list of projects. With one click you can create a project, or delete one, or sort your projects. Once you have more than a few, the Custom option allows for categorizing, grouping, and filtering out projects. For example you could group projects into "portfolios" and filter out "completed" projects. Click to select one or multiple projects to control the scope of what is shown in the Main Content View. 2. Person List This is your list of people - your project team members. Again, with one click you can create a person, or delete one, or sort the list. Once you have more than a few, the Custom option allows for categorizing, grouping, and filtering out people. For example you could group people by "skill set" or by "location" and filter out "contractors". Click to select one or more people to control the scope of what is shown in the Main Content View. 3. Main Toolbar The main toolbar has just a few, but very important controls. The Focus buttons toggle the focus between Projects and People. Learn more about Focus here. There are Import and Share buttons, an overall status view in the center, and buttons to independently hide or show the Project and Person lists on either side of the window, giving more real estate to the Main Content View. 4. Main Content View This view in the center of the window is where most of the action happens. Using the set of tabs along the top you can select the data you want to display. The tab options are slightly different depending on whether the Focus is on Projects or People. Just below the tabs most of the subviews have a toolbar that applies just to that view. The toolbar typically has buttons on the left to add an item or delete the selected item(s), and buttons on the right for Help, and for hiding/showing the Item Detail View. 5. Item Detail View Most subviews within the Main Content View display a list of items, for example Tasks, Action Items, or Risks. Such views have a toolbar item for hiding/showing the Item Detail View along the bottom of the window. The Item Detail View shows the detail for a single item, when just one item is selected in the Main Content View. Appropriate detail is displayed according to the type of item selected. For example Risks have different detail than Tasks. Each detail view has a set of tabs along the top to further organize the detail. Tip: To completely maximize the Main Content View, click in the upper right to enter full screen mode, click the buttons to hide the Projects, People, and Detail views, and right click on the menu bar and select Hide Toolbar. Page 6 of 32

7 Understand Where Data is Stored Each of the SG apps stores data in a database on the device on which it is running. So in the case of SG Project Pro, all of your project, people, and other data are stored on your Mac in this file: /Users/YourUserName/Library/SG_Project_Pro/SG_Project_Pro.storedata The Library folder is hidden in order to help safeguard you from making inadvertent changes to application files. So you may not be able to easily find this file, but typically you won't need to anyway. Tip: SG Project Pro does not have a File/Save menu because there is no need. All changes are saved in the database as soon as you make them. Back Up and Restore Data There are several ways to back up your valuable SG Project Pro data for safe keeping. Time Machine Since the database is stored locally on your Mac's Disk, your data is automatically backed up if you are using Time Machine. Backing up this one file will back up all of your data: /Users/YourUserName/Library/SG_Project_Pro/SG_Project_Pro.storedata Other Disk Backup Tools If you use some other tool for backup of your system either to another disk or to an internet-based service, it will back up the SG Project Pro database as long as SG_Project_Pro.storedata is included in the scope of the backup. Dropbox Since the SG suite integrates with Dropbox, many users have Dropbox accounts. If you have a Dropbox account, you can use that to back up data offsite. For each project that you want to back up: 1. Select the Project from the Project List along the left of the main window. 2. Click the Share button on the main toolbar. 3. Select SGP format and click Export. 4. When prompted for a location to save the file, navigate to your Dropbox folder and select a location within it. 5. Dropbox will then take care of copying the file offsite for backup or sharing. Page 7 of 32

8 Other backup tools With any backup tool that you may be using, simply ensure that SG_Project_Pro.storedata is included in the scope of what is backed up. Restoring Individual SGP Project Files If you backed up your data by saving off each project in SGP format, simply retrieve the SGP files and use the Import button on the main toolbar to import each file. Restoring the Full Database If you backed up your data using an approach that saves off SG_Project_Pro.storedata, then you can restore the full contents of your SG Project Pro database by restoring that one file to its original location. Share Projects Across Devices SG Project Pro does not yet support icloud. In order to share projects with your other devices (e.g. SG Project Pro for ipad and/or SG Project Go for iphone), individual projects can be exported and imported using a special format called SGP. The SGP format contains all data for a project so that it can be easily moved between devices. Export a Project in SGP format 1. Make sure the app is in Project Focus. 2. Select the Project from the Project List along the left of the main window. 3. Click the Share button on the main toolbar. 4. Click on the SGP button to select SGP format. 5. Click Export, select a location and file name, and click Save. Move SGP Files Between Devices Options for moving an SGP file between your ipad, iphone, and Mac: 1. Dropbox: The SG integration with Dropbox on ipad and iphone makes it very simple to move data - just save the file to the Dropbox folder on your Mac and then use SG on your ipad or iphone to download and import the project by tapping Share, then Dropbox, then selecting the file and tapping Download Send yourself an with the SGP file as an attachment, then read the on your ipad or iphone, tap and hold on the attachment, and select Open with SG Project (or SG Project Pro or SG Project Go). 3. itunes File Sharing: Connect your ipad or iphone to your Mac, then select the device within itunes. Click the Apps tab and then scroll down to File Sharing. Select the SG app in the list on the left, then drag SGP files into or out of the list on the right. Import a Project in SGP format To import an SGP file, click Import on the main toolbar, navigate to the file, select it, and click Open. If the project within the file has the same Project Name as a project Page 8 of 32

9 already in SG Project Pro on your Mac, you will be prompted whether you want to replace it or import the project in the file as a copy. Tip: The Project Name is stored within the file and is editable in SG Project Pro, but may not be the same as the File Name. SG uses the Project Name to uniquely identify projects rather than the File Name. Work With a Team You can share a project with others by sharing as SGP or PDF. Use SGP if you want the other person to be able to load the project into SG Project Pro. Create and share a report in PDF using the Reports tab if you want to share a read-only version. Dropbox Dropbox is the simplest way to share project data with others. SG does not merge changes made by multiple people, so the simplest and recommended approach is to have one central Project Manager who is responsible for maintaining the plan. If you need to allow multiple people to edit a project, a bit of protocol is in order, for example: 1. Pull down the most recent version from the shared Dropbox. 2. Make the changes. 3. Export in SGP and upload the new version back to Dropbox. 4. Let everyone know that the project was updated so they can pick up the new version. If you don't use Dropbox, a similar protocol will work no matter how you share the SGP files. Key Concepts This section will help you understand the key terms and concepts used by SG Project Pro. Projects SG Project Pro helps you manage projects. You can create any number of projects. Projects have tasks that define a time schedule, action items, and risks. Typically the project data is entered directly into SG Project Pro. It can also be imported from a file in specific XML formats. SG Project Pro provides powerful views for analyzing and understanding the status of a project or a group of projects, and provides several PDF reports that can be shared with the team or stakeholders. The Project List along the left side of the main window displays your projects. Selecting one or more projects, while in Project Focus, controls the scope of what is shown in the Page 9 of 32

10 main view in the center of the main window. Most views in SG Project Pro are designed to work with multiple projects as well as a single project. The exception being the Project Info view, which is used to edit the attributes of one project. People, Owners, and Contributors People People in SG Project Pro typically represent a person on your project team. The People List along the right side of the main window displays all the people you have entered into SG Project Pro. At this time the people in SG are not connected to the Contacts on your Mac. The list of people is shared across all projects and all views. Owners In SG Project Pro, the term Owner refers to a person, typically a team member on your project team. The term owner is used to emphasize accountability. Each Task, Action Item, and Risk in SG Project Pro can have an owner assigned so the Project Manager knows who is accountable. Contributors Each Task can have just one Owner, but may have additional people assigned, called Contributors. The Owner is always listed first. Tip: A Person in SG does not have to necessarily represent a real-world person. At times it may be helpful to create a "Person" that represents a team, a contracting firm, or some other resource. Focus on Projects or People Focus is a key concept in SG Project Pro as it controls what data is being viewed. Typically you will use Project Focus, which means that the data displayed in the main view is determined by the project(s) selected in the Project List. If you need to study the status of one person (for example in a meeting with that person), or a group of people (for example all the "Electricians"), you will switch to People Focus. Buttons are available on the main toolbar for quickly switching between Project and People focus. Tip: If at any time while using SG Project Pro you get the sense that you are not seeing the data you expected, check to make sure your Focus is correct. For example if you are in People Focus and don't realize it, you may be confused as to why all your project data is not showing, since it is being filtered to just the selected person or people. Page 10 of 32

11 Task-Based Planning Task-Based Planning is a central focus of SG Project Pro. Many resources are available for learning about project planning so if you are not familiar with the concept you may want to find some material on project planning and study. However the SG suite is designed with the intent of being easy to use even for inexperienced project managers, and experience is a great teacher, so don't be afraid to jump in. Here are the key concepts for task-based project planning in SG Project Pro: Tasks Tasks in SG have a name, start date, end date, cost, and other attributes. They can also have subtasks, forming a parent-child hierarchy, created by indenting tasks underneath other tasks. In this case the costs and duration "roll up" the parent hierarchy. If you were building a house you may have tasks such as "Construct Foundation", "Framing", "Electrical". Within "Electrical" you may have subtasks for "Install Main Breaker Box" and "Wire First Floor Lighting". By breaking your project into tasks you can better track progress, estimate durations, and in general understand and manage your project better. Your tasks form the Project Schedule for your project. Dependency Links Tasks in SG can have dependency links to one or more other tasks, also known as Predecessors and Successors. Typically this forms a linkage of tasks such that one task may not start until its predecessors have completed. SG has a concept of locked versus unlocked predecessor links. Locked links are drawn as a solid line and the successor must start immediately after the end of the predecessor. Unlocked links are drawn as dashed lines and allow the successor to start further into the future if desired, just not before the end of the predecessor. The exception is that links may also have a "lag time" set in days, either positive or negative, that control when the successor can start relative to the end of the precessor. Table and Gantt Views SG Project Pro displays your task plans using standard views. This includes a table view where each task is on one line. It also includes a Gantt Chart view, also known as a Bar Chart view. Task data can be edited using the table cells, the gantt view (which also has some handy right-click context menus), and also in the Task Detail view along the bottom of the main window. Action Items SG Project Pro helps you manage action items associated with your projects. Each project can have any number of action items. Actively managing project action items increases the chances of success for your project. Action Items are different from Tasks in that they typically are not drivers of the project schedule. SG Project Pro provides all Page 11 of 32

12 the basic features needed for effective action item management. Additionally, in SG Project Pro, Action Items can optionally be associated with a Task. Often Action Items are the result of capturing the results of a project team meeting, but that is just one source to consider. Risks SG Project Pro helps you manage risks associated with your projects. Each project can have any number of risks. Although only a subset of project managers perform risk management, actively managing project risks increases the chances of success for your project. Even a lightweight approach to risk management can make a big difference. SG Project Pro provides all the basic features needed for simple risk management. In SG Project Pro, Risks can optionally be associated with a Task. Manage People and Projects SG Project Pro helps you organize and actively manage your projects and people, with an emphasis on practicality and ease of use. Learn how SG Project Pro helps with these two key aspects of managing work. Manage Projects SG Project Pro is all about managing projects. These sections explains how to take a project through its lifecycle in SG Project Pro from creation to archival, how to re-use projects, how to manage multiple projects efficiently, and how to view and report the status of your projects. This is the high level view of managing projects. The next chapter Manage Tasks, Action Items, and Risks discusses the next level of detail: how to add content to your projects. Add, Edit, Delete, and Archive Projects Managing your project list in SG Project Pro is easy. The project list is located along the left side of the main window. If it isn't visible, click the button on the main toolbar to reveal it, or select Show Project List from the View menu. Add a Project To add a new project, click the + button at the bottom of the Project List, or select Add New Project from the File menu. Edit a Project To edit the attributes of a project first make sure you are in Project Focus, click the Info tab, and select the project from the Project List. Alternatively, select a project from the Project List, right click, and select "Edit Info". Delete or Archive a Project Page 12 of 32

13 To delete a project, select it in the Project List and click the - button at the bottom of the Project List, or select Delete from the Edit menu. Alternatively, just hit the Delete key on your keyboard. You will be prompted whether you want to delete the project or archive it. Either way it will be removed from your project list. Delete the project to permanently remove it. Archive it to keep it in the database in case you ever need it in the future. Sort, Group, Categorize, Filter, and Select Projects The Project List can be configured to list projects in a way that makes sense for you. Sort the Project List Above the Project List you will see buttons to quickly sort the list By Name (alphabetically), by Recent (most recently touched projects at the top), or Custom (see below for details). Group, Categorize, and Filter Projects Group your projects using Categories for additional organization. This is a little tricky but worth the effort if you have more than a few projects. 1. Open the Project Category Manager by clicking the arrow button to the right of the Custom button and then click Configure. Optionally, click Configure from the Project Info view. 2. Click the + button below the Category List to add a new Category and click the name to edit it. For example "Location" if you want to group your projects by location. 3. With the Category selected, click the + button below the Values for Selected Category list. Click it a few times to add multiple values for the category. Click each value name to rename it, for example "New York", "London", and "Paris". 4. Dismiss the Project Category Manager window. 5. Ensure you are in Project Focus, select the Info tab, and select your projects on at a time. 6. On the Info tab for each project, in the Project Grouping section, select a Category from the Category list and then select the corresponding Value for that project. If you have more than one category you can select each Category in turn and set its Value. 7. Once the category values are set for each project, return to the Project List and click the arrow button next to Custom. You may now select a Category to be used for grouping your projects in the project list. Note that you can also enter tags for each project on the Project Info tab, and use those tags to exclude projects from the Project List. Tags are single words and can be any words you want. For example you can type "pointless" into the tags field for some Page 13 of 32

14 of your projects and then use the Custom Project List Options to filter out "pointless" projects. Also note the option to Include Archived Projects. This is the way to view your archived projects, as they are typically filtered out of the Project List. Select Projects Select one or multiple projects from the Project List using the standard click, shift-click, and command-click actions for lists on OS X. As long as you are in Project Focus, this will control what data is shown in the main view in the center of the main window. Create Reusable Project Templates If you have a series of projects that tend to follow the same basic schedule, it may be a good idea to create a template for the project and copy the template each time you need to start a new project. A template is not a special construct in SG, but simply a term to describe a Project that is designed to be used as the basis for other projects. So to create a "template", simply create a project. You may want to tag your templates with the word "template" and filter those from your Project List until you need them. When creating a template it is helpful to create one milestone (zero-duration) task at the start of the plan, and make the rest of the template tasks dependent on that task. That way when the project is cloned, you will just need to move the starting milestone to the appropriate start date. Once you have a template set up and need to start an instance of the project, simply make a copy of it as you would any other project (see next section). Make a Copy of an Existing Project You can clone any project by selecting it from the list and using Copy, then Paste from the Edit menu. It is really that simple. The entire project (tasks, action items, risks, etc) will be copied. You can then click on the project name to rename it as appropriate. Tip: cloning an existing project in SG Project Pro is so easy that it may be helpful periodically to clone a project to try "what if" scenarios without impacting the official copy. Manage Multiple Projects SG Project Pro excels when you have multiple Projects underway. The Project List shows all projects along the left side of the main view so that they are always available when you need them. And the list helps you remember what is underway. Organize your projects using categories if you have more than a few projects. Page 14 of 32

15 In the Project List you can select one project, or any combination of projects, and each tab within the main view will display the data for the selected project(s). So you can view Task plans, Action Items, Risks, or all of those items at the same time (with the Right Now view). And you can create Reports that include multiple projects too. Each project is self contained, so one thing you can't do is have a task in one plan dependent on another plan. In the Task, Action Item, and Risk views you can move an item from one project to another by dragging it within the view, or you can hold down the command key to make a copy of the item in another project. You can also copy any group of selected tasks from one project to another. Select the tasks, select Edit/Copy, then select a row to indicate a location with new project. Finally, select Edit/Paste. Tip: Note that within the Reports tab, under Report Options... you can select whether to sort each report by Project or by some other criteria. Find Out What is Behind Schedule As a Project Manager you will frequently ask "what is behind schedule?" and SG Project Pro provides a few ways to answer that question. Use the Gantt Chart If you are only concerned with what Tasks are behind schedule (as opposed to Tasks, Action Items, and Risks), then you can use the Gantt View of a project to visually see what is behind or ahead of schedule. Make sure you are in Project Focus and select the project(s) you are interested in analyzing. Click the Task Plan tab and make sure the Gantt column is visible. If not, use the menu View / Show Columns / Gantt to reveal it. Click and drag on the blue timeline header to move side to side until the vertical red "now line" is visible. Use the Zoom Timeline control to zoom the tasks into view. The % Done for each task is indicated by a darker color inside the bars. Comparing the now line to the % Done for each task visually reveals what is behind or ahead. Use the Right Now View To see everything that is behind, make sure you are in Project Focus and select the project(s) you are interested in analyzing. Click the Right Now tab. Select Today from the Quick Set popdown, then set the From date to a date in the distant past (any date before the start of your project). You can then study the Done column to see what Tasks, Action Items, and Risks are not completed. Page 15 of 32

16 Tip: If you can't see the Done column it may be off to the right - simply scroll sideways to reveal it. Also, if your screen is cramped you can use the main toolbar to hide Project and/or People lists along the side, to give more real estate to the main view. Use Reports The third way to understand what is overdue is to click the Reports tab and study the various sections of the report. The report has a compact chart at the top that shows the overall status of each selected project. See Everything Going On The Right Now view is designed to help you study what is going on right now, or in the past, or in the future. When in Project Focus, it displays data for the selected project(s). Items between the From and To dates are included in the view. Action Items and Risks are included if their Due Date is within the from-to range, and child Tasks are included if any part of the task is within the range. Quick Set Use the Quick Set options to set the From and To dates to common cases like "Today" or "This Month". More Options... Click this button for more control over the Right Now view. You can set a more specific date range. For example to see everything in the future, set From to today's date, and set To to some date far in the future. And you can optionally include or excluded certain types of items. Item Detail From the Right Now toolbar you can show or hide the Item Detail view along the bottom of the main window. The Item Detail view shows the details of the currently selected item, whether it is a Task, Action Item, or Risk. You can edit data within the Detail View, or within the Table view directly. Tip: There are no toolbar items to add or delete an item on the Right Now view. Switch to the Task Plan, Action Items, or Risks tab to add a new item. Inform Stakeholders of Status and Progress While in Project Focus, use the Report tab to generate reports for your project stakeholders. Tip: Before generating a report, switch to the Project Info view and ensure that your Objectives, Status, and Stoplight values are up to date. Note that you can select multiple projects from the Project List if you want the report to include multiple projects. Page 16 of 32

17 Click Page Setup... to set your paper size and orientation. SG Project Pro generates a PDF report and displays it within the view. So you can experiment with various papers sizes and orientations and see the results right in the view before printing or sharing the report. Click Report Options... to control what sections are included in the report. For example if your project has no Risks entered, you should uncheck the Open Risks and Project Risk Detail sections. You can also select a date range if desired, and select a Sort By order that will be used in sections where it makes sense. You can also opt to leave costs out of the report. Tip: Projects are typically complex and difficult to understand, so look carefully at each section of the report to ensure that it is adding value for the audience. Reducing clutter will help then understand the important information. Once the report is configured as you want, click File/Print... to print it, or click Share to export or the PDF file. If you opt to the report, the app auto-selects recipients based on the current context, but you can manually add or remove recipients. After clicking Send , you will have the opportunity to edit the actual contents before sending. Manage People SG Project Pro provides innovative insight into managing your team members by providing simple, novel views not found in any other project management tool. These sections provide a top level understanding of how to manage people and accountability using SG Project Pro. Add, Edit, and Delete People Managing your people list in SG Project Pro is easy. The people list is located along the right side of the main window. If it isn't visible, click the button on the main toolbar to reveal it, or select Show People List from the View menu. Add a Person To add a new person, click the + button at the bottom of the Person List, or select Add New Person from the File menu. Edit a Person To edit the attributes of a person first make sure you are in People Focus, click the Info tab, and select the person from the People List. Alternatively, select a person from the People List, right click, and select "Edit Info". Page 17 of 32

18 Delete a Person To delete a person from SG Project Pro, select the name in the People List and click the minus button at the bottom of the People List, or select Delete from the Edit menu. Alternatively, just hit the Delete key on your keyboard. Deleting a person will of course remove that person from any assigned Tasks, Action Items, and Risks. Sort, Group, Categorize, Filter, and Select People The People List can be configured to list projects in a way that makes sense for you. Sort the People List Above the People List you will see buttons to quickly sort the list By Name (alphabetically), by Recent (most recently touched projects at the top), or Custom (see below for details). Group, Categorize, and Filter People Group your people using Categories for additional organization. This is a little tricky but worth the effort if you have more than a few people. 1. Open the People Category Manager by clicking the arrow button to the right of the Custom button and then click Configure. Optionally, click Configure from the Person Info view. 2. Click the + button below the Category List to add a new Category and click the name to edit it. For example "Skill" if you want to group your people by skill type. 3. With the Category selected, click the + button below the Values for Selected Category list. Click it a few times to add multiple values for the category. Click each value name to rename it, for example "Framer", "Plumber", and "Roofer". 4. Dismiss the People Category Manager window. 5. Ensure you are in People Focus, select the Info tab, and select your people on at a time. 6. On the Info tab for each person, in the People Grouping section, select a Category from the Category list and then select the corresponding Value for that person. If you have more than one category you can select each Category in turn and set its Value. 7. Once the category values are set for each person, return to the People List and click the arrow button next to Custom. You may now select a Category to be used for grouping your people in the people list. Note that you can also enter tags for each person on the Person Info tab, and use those tags to exclude people from the People List. Tags are single words and can be any words you want. For example you can type "retired" into the tags field for some of your people and then use the Custom People List Options to filter out "retired" people. Page 18 of 32

19 Select People Select one or multiple people from the Person List using the standard click, shift-click, and command-click actions for lists on OS X. If you are in Person Focus, this will control what data is shown in the main view in the center of the main window. Find Out What is Behind Schedule As a Project Manager you will frequently ask "what is behind schedule?" for a project. And at times you may need to study what is behind for a specific person or subteam. One scenario is that you have a regular meeting with a particular team member and want to review his or her status. SG Project Pro provides a few ways to help. Use the Gantt Chart If you are only concerned with what Tasks are behind schedule (as opposed to Tasks, Action Items, and Risks), then you can use the Gantt View of a project to visually see what is behind or ahead of schedule. Make sure you are in People Focus and select the person or people you are interested in analyzing. Click the Task Plan tab and make sure the Gantt column is visible. If not, use the menu View / Show Columns / Gantt to reveal it. Click and drag on the blue timeline header to move side to side until the vertical red "now line" is visible. Use the Zoom Timeline control to zoom the tasks into view. The % Done for each task is indicated by a darker color inside the bars. Comparing the now line to the % Done for each task visually reveals what is behind or ahead. Use the Right Now View To see everything that is behind, make sure you are in People Focus and select the person or people you are interested in analyzing. Click the Right Now tab. Select Today from the Quick Set popdown, then set the From date to a date in the distant past (any date before the start of all your projects). You can then study the Done column to see what Tasks, Action Items, and Risks are not completed. Tip: If you can't see the Done column it may be off to the right - simply scroll sideways to reveal it. Also, if your screen is cramped you can use the main toolbar to hide Project and/or People lists along the side, to give more real estate to the main view. Use Reports The third way to understand what is overdue is to click the Reports tab and study the various sections of the report. The report has a compact chart at the top that shows the overall status of each selected person, and the header section also includes some statistics for overall work ahead and behind schedule. Page 19 of 32

20 See Everything Going On The Right Now view is designed to help you study what is going on right now, or in the past, or in the future. When in People Focus, it displays data for the selected person or people. Items between the From and To dates are included in the view. Action Items and Risks are included if their Due Date is within the from-to range, and child Tasks are included if any part of the task is within the range. Quick Set Ranges Use the Quick Set options to set the From and To dates to common cases like "Today" or "This Month". More Options... Click this button for more control over the Right Now view. You can set a more specific date range. For example to see everything in the future, set From to today's date, and set To to some date far in the future. And you can optionally include or excluded certain types of items. Item Detail From the Right Now toolbar you can show or hide the Item Detail view along the bottom of the main window. The Item Detail view shows the details of the currently selected item, whether it is a Task, Action Item, or Risk. You can edit data within the Detail View, or within the Table view directly. Tip: There are no toolbar items to add or delete an item on the Right Now view. Switch to the Task Plan, Action Items, or Risks tab to add a new item. Keep the Team Up-To-Date While in Project Focus, use the Report tab to generate reports for your project team. Ensuring that the team has visibility into the plan, including changes over time, will go a long way toward your success in managing a project. Tip: Before generating a report, switch to the Project Info view and ensure that your Objectives, Status, and Stoplight values are up to date. Note that you can select multiple projects from the Project List if you want the report to include multiple projects. Click Page Setup... to set your paper size and orientation. SG Project Pro generates a PDF report and displays it within the view. So you can experiment with various papers sizes and orientations and see the results right in the view before printing or sharing the report. Page 20 of 32

21 Click Report Options... to control what sections are included in the report. For example if your project has no Risks entered, you should uncheck the Open Risks and Project Risk Detail sections. You can also select a date range if desired, and select a Sort By order that will be used in sections where it makes sense. You can also opt to leave costs out of the report. Tip: Projects are typically complex and difficult to understand, so look carefully at each section of the report to ensure that it is adding value for the audience. Reducing clutter will help then understand the important information. Once the report is configured as you want, click File/Print... to print it, or click Share to export or the PDF file. If you opt to the report, the app auto-selects recipients based on the current context, but you can manually add or remove recipients. After clicking Send , you will have the opportunity to edit the actual contents before sending. Tip: Listen carefully to your team's reaction to the plan. If concerns are raised about the reasonableness of the plan, you may need to create Risks to track, adjust the plan, assign more resources, etc. Manage Tasks, Action Items, and Risks The elemental concepts for projects in SG Project Pro are Tasks, Action Items, and Risks. Tasks are perhaps the most important and definitely the most complex. Learn about what you can do with each type of item to manage your projects, monitor their status, and clarify accountability for your team. Manage a Task Plan Building and maintaining a task plan is the central function of project management using SG Project Pro. These sections describe what tasks are, how to build a schedule, how to track costs, and more. Use Task Table, Gantt and Detail Views Select Project Focus and select the Project you want to work with in the Project List. Select the Task Plan tab to work with the task plan for that project. Moving from the top down, the Task Plan view has a toolbar along the top, a table header, a table of tasks, and a Task Detail view along the bottom. The Task Detail view can be shown or hidden using a button on the toolbar near the right side. The table of tasks displays one task per row and has alternating colors to help you stay oriented horizontally. There are a number of columns available to you and most can be turned on or off. Most columns can also be rearranged and resized if needed. Page 21 of 32

22 The toolbar has a set of buttons called Quick Select Columns. These offer 4 pre-set configurations of columns. The third option includes all columns. Note that the Gantt view is displayed within a column and can be resized like other columns. In addition to Quick Select Columns you can show or hide individual columns using the View / Show Columns menu, or by right-clicking on the table header. Tip: If the screen is not wide enough to display all the selected columns, you can scroll horizontally to see the rest of the columns. Use the clock icon on the toolbar to toggle between "hours" and "days". Use the arrow buttons on the toolbar to indent or outdent the currently selected task(s). Manage the Work Schedule SG Project Pro has 3 built-in work schedules ("SG Weekdays", "SG All Days", and "SG All Time"), and you can also build your own work schedules. Each Project must have a work schedule specified (the default is "SG Weekdays") that controls the duration of tasks. You can also override the work schedule at the task level. For example if most of your project works well with "SG Weekdays" but your deployment tasks are over a weekend, you can build a work schedule that includes weekend hours and apply that to the deployment tasks. Use the "Edit Work Schedules" menu option on the "View" menu to open the Work Schedule Editor. Select a work schedule from the list to see which hours are valid work hours and Holidays apply for that schedule. To create your own custom schedule, select one that is similar to what you want and click Duplicate Schedule. You can then give your schedule a name and click on the grid to specify the work hours. You can also add Holidays to your work schedule to specify special non-working days. When you are done, click Close Work Schedule Editor. While in Project Focus, select a project and click on the Info tab, and you will see a control within the Project Info section for setting the work schedule for the project. To override the work schedule on a specific task, select the task and reveal the Task Detail View along the bottom of the screen. You can specify the work schedule on the General Info tab. As soon as you change the work schedule for a project or task, the project is automatically recalculated. Page 22 of 32

23 Create, Edit, and Delete Tasks Within the Task Plan tab you can quickly create, edit, and delete tasks. Create a Task To add a task to your plan, click the round + button on the toolbar above the table. The new task will be inserted at the location where a row in the table is selected, or at the bottom of the plan if no task is selected. All tasks are given the name New Task initially. Edit a Task Task values can be edited either within the table, or in the Task Detail view. Use the tab key to move quickly across the table view. Tip: Use the Quick Select Columns toolbar buttons to reveal the values that you want to edit. When a task is created all fields have default values, so you only need to set the ones you are interested in. To build a parent/child task hierarchy, select one or more tasks and use the arrow buttons on the toolbar to indent or outdent the currently selected task(s). Then you can use the triangle icons to collapse or expand parts of the plan in order to focus on a subset of the plan. Delete a Task To delete a task from the a plan, select the task(s) and click the round - button on the toolbar above the table. Alternatively select the task(s) and hit the Delete key on your keyboard. Track Project Cost The base SG Project app allows you to enter a single cost for each task in a project, and rolls the costs up the task parent hierarchy. SG Project Pro has a more powerful project cost model described in this section. In both cases the currency for tasks is determined by the default currency for your Mac. The cost for a project is the sum of the costs of its tasks. Tip: Only Tasks have cost in SG. Action Items and Risks do not have associated costs. The cost of a task is the sum of two parts: labor and "other costs" (you can think of these as "materials"). For the labor part you can either enter a specific cost for each task, or let the app auto-calculate the cost based on the hourly rate specified for each assigned Person, their percentage assignments to the task, and the amount of work for the task. For the Other Costs part you simply add line items for each additional cost, specifying a unit cost and quantity. Page 23 of 32

24 So for example if a Task has 10 hours of work and James is assigned at 50% and has an hourly rate of 60, the auto-calculated labor rate would be (10 hours * 50% * 30/hr), or 300. If the task also specified an "other cost" of 5 blocks of cheese at 10 each, the total cost would be 350. Tip: Other Costs can be negative, effectively allowing you to apply a "credit" to a task. Task costs are automatically rolled up the parent hierarchy. So if a parent task has two subtasks that each cost 350, the parent will automatically cost 700. The labor cost for a parent task can't be edited directly and people assignments at the parent level do not contribute to the overall cost. However, parents can have "other costs". Tip: Since costs automatically roll up the hierarchy, if you have one parent task at the top of your plan that spans all tasks in the plan (the rest of the tasks are descendents of it), that one task will reveal the full cost of the plan. On the Report tab, the Project Summary report section has an overview of costs for the project: Total Cost, Cost To Date, and Cost To Go. The Cost To Date is automatically calculated based on the costs of each task in the plan. You can also use the Project Cost report section that shows the costs in full detail. Important: SG uses the assumption that the cost of the task is evenly spread from the start of the task to the end. Because of this assumption, the costs reported may not be consistent with other financial tracking you do for your project. Tip: Within the Report Options... there is an option to exclude costs completely from your report, but if you want to remove costs completely be sure to turn off the Project Costs section. Track Project Completeness As with task costs, the % Done for tasks rolls up the hierarchy. So if a parent task has two subtasks that are each 50% Done, the parent will automatically be 50% Done. The % Done for a parent task can't be edited directly. Tip: Since % Done automatically rolls up the hierarchy, if you have one parent task at the top of your plan that spans all tasks in the plan (the rest of the tasks are descendents of it), that one task will reveal the overall % Done for the plan. On the Report tab, the Project Summary report section has a field showing the overall % Done for the project. Tip: Only Tasks have a % Done in SG. Action Items and Risks do not have % Done but are simply either open or closed. Page 24 of 32

25 Organize Tasks into a Hierarchy In the Task Plan view, select one or more tasks and use the arrow buttons on the toolbar above the table to indent or outdent tasks. Alternatively select one or more tasks and use Command-RightArrow or Command-LeftArrow. You can also modify the task hierarchy by selecting tasks and dragging them to a new location in the table. Tip: If you accidentally rearrange your plan, you can get back to the previous state by using Edit/Undo. Tasks can be indented to any depth. A toolbar item allows you to quickly expand/collapse tasks to the desired depth. Any task with children can be collapsed or expanded in the Task Plan view using the triangle icons in front of the task names. Tip: Deciding how to break your plan into tasks and organize them into a hierarchy is best learned by experience and is highly dependent on the specific situation. You may want to develop a rule of thumb to help, such as "no task in my plan will be more than one week long". Re-order Tasks Tasks can be reordered within a project plan. The simplest way is to select one or more tasks and use drag/drop to move them to a new location. Moving a task may change its parent task. If the result is not what you want, you can select the task and indent or outdent it after moving. Tip: Although you can't drag/drop tasks from one plan to another, you can Copy them, Paste them into the new plan, then Delete them from the original plan. Use the Gantt View The Gantt view can be seen within the Task Plan tab and provides a graphical display of the task schedule. It also affords a number of ways to edit the plan. Zooming and Scrolling Use the +/- buttons at the far left of the blue timescale, or the slider in the toolbar, to adjust the horizontal zoom level of the Gantt view. The view will maintain its leftmost date and scale relative to that. The timescale adjusts its display automatically based on the zoom level. Tip: Alternatively, use Command-Plus and Command-Minus to zoom in or out. Page 25 of 32