New Plan View Experience

Plan View presents a Gantt-style timeline for managing projects and tasks. This view provides insight into the overall project structure, task schedules, and dependency relationships among tasks. Not only is this view useful for seeing the full picture of the project plan, but it also provides the tools for managing more granular task-level details.

In this article, we provide an overview of the main functionality of Plan View and showcase how users can incorporate the view into their daily workflows.

Plan View | Functionality Review

Organization

Overview & Project Visualization

Plan View provides a comprehensive view of project structure by visualizing the project plan on a Gantt-style timeline. Every task, task group, and project is represented by a bar on the timeline, where the left edges align with the records' start dates and the right edges align with their estimated end dates. The widths of the bars represent durations. 

The bars on the timeline also provide a quick reference on progress. Project and task group bars display progress values, allowing you to have a quick point of reference when reviewing how the work is moving toward completion. Bars for completed tasks will display a checkmark.

You will also see arrows connecting tasks on the timeline. These are dependencies and they are used to prescribe the sequence in which the tasks should be worked on in a project. 

In this view, you can also leverage columns to view detailed task information and manage updates right from the board. Columns provide a frictionless approach to manage quick task updates using familiar universal keyboard shortcuts, including using Tab or arrow keys to navigate between cells and copy/pasting data across supported fields (learn more about Plan View columns here).

You can toggle between showing and hiding columns to set up the view to fit your workflow. Keep the columns visible when working through task-level details, and hide them when you need to shift focus onto the timeline.

Additionally, for certain standard TaskRay fields, you will see rollup information at the project and task group level. Rollups are available for the following fields: Ongoing Task Progress (shows Progress for projects and task groups), Dates, Estimated Duration, Actual Duration, Estimated Time, and Actual Time.

Navigation & Controls

For a more focused view, you can expand or collapse sections of tasks in the left sidebar at the project or task group level using the chevrons. Alternatively, you can use the Expand All/Collapse All to control the visibility of all project and task group levels at once.

You can also change the scale of the timeline using the zoom controls found in the bottom right corner of the Gantt (the zoom controls will appear when your cursor is anywhere on the timeline portion of the view). 

There are also a couple of controls that allow quickly navigating to certain points on the timeline. If you scroll the timeline farther into the past or future, you will see a Today button appear when you hover over the timeline header. Use this to quickly jump back to the current day.

Similarly, if you need to navigate to a specific task on the timeline, right-click on that task in the left sidebar and select the Scroll to Task option. If a task is not scheduled, you will see the Schedule Today option in that task's right-click menu instead.

Filtering

Plan View incorporates a robust filtering mechanism, allowing you to stay organized and quickly refine visible projects and tasks. The filtering mechanism can help streamline your workflow by providing efficient ways to locate your work or view needed subsets of projects and tasks.

Project Build & Management

Create Task Groups and Tasks

If you need to add a new task group or task to an existing project or need to build out an entire custom project plan, Plan View is the place to do so. Plan View visualizes both the project structure and the task schedules, making it easy to place new task groups and tasks exactly where they need to go within the project.

Follow the steps below to create a task group in Plan View:

1. With the applicable project selected in Plan View, click on the plus icon next to the project name in the Plan View sidebar. 
2. Select Add New Task Group.
3. In the row that appears, type in the new task group name and hit Enter on your keyboard.

When creating a task, you can either add it directly to the project as an ungrouped task or place it within a task group. Note that if a project incorporates task groups as part of its structure, the option to create ungrouped tasks will not be available. Follow the steps below to create a new task in Plan View:

1. With the applicable project selected in Plan View:
   • If the project does not include task groups, click on the plus icon next to the project name in the Plan View sidebar and select Add New Task.
   • If the project includes task groups, locate the task group where you want to create the task and click on the plus icon next to that task group name.
2. In the row that appears, type in the new task name and hit Enter on your keyboard. The new task will be created as unscheduled. Review the sections below if you need to schedule it or set up dependencies with other tasks.

Manage Task Schedules

The Plan View interface is timeline-driven, making it the perfect place to manage task schedules. 

One of the ways to schedule a new / unscheduled task is through the right-click menu. To do this, simply right-click on the unscheduled task in the Plan View sidebar and select the Schedule Today option. This will set the task's start and end date to the current day, and you will be able to adjust the schedule further as needed.

Another way to manage task schedules, including for scheduled and unscheduled tasks, is using the Dates column. To do this, first make sure the Dates column is visible on your board (learn more about adding and working with columns here). Next, locate the task for which you would like to manage the schedule and navigate to the Dates cell for it. To update its schedule, you can either type in the new dates in the cell or click on the calendar icon to use the date picker.

Lastly, for tasks that are scheduled, dates can also be updated through the Gantt. Scroll to the task that needs to be rescheduled on the timeline and hover over its bar, which should reveal its dates to the right of the bar. To update the task schedule, either click on the date input and type in the new dates or click on the calendar icon to use the date picker.

It is important to note that tasks cannot be scheduled to start or end on non-working days (e.g. weekends or holidays, if configured). If a task falls on a non-working day, it will automatically adjust to the nearest working day. Non-working days appear shaded on the timeline. For more information on this, see the Project Schedules article.

Manage Task Dependencies

Dependencies are used to prescribe the order in which the tasks should be worked on within a project. Typically, dependencies are set up at the time of creating projects, but there could be instances where you will need to create new relationships among tasks, such as when a new task is added to the project. 

To create a dependency, hover over the first (predecessor) task on the Gantt timeline and click on the dot on either side of its bar to enter dependency create mode. Next, locate the other task that you would like to connect the dependency to and click on either dot next to that task's bar on the timeline. 

Dependencies also play a role in task scheduling. More specifically, if you reschedule a task that is part of a dependency chain, all related successor tasks will get rescheduled along with it.

Advanced Scheduler

If you are on the Premium Edition of TaskRay, you also have access to the Advanced Scheduler feature. The Advanced Scheduler is designed for managing scheduling changes in bulk. It allows shifting the entire project schedule, compressing and expanding timelines, and making changes in draft mode before applying them to live projects. For more information, see the Advanced Scheduler article.

Work Management

Plan View Columns

Plan View presents a way to view and edit task details right from the board by surfacing columns. 

TaskRay provides a default set of columns that includes the following task details: Owner, Dates, Checklists, and Status. The default columns are intended to surface key task details, such as when the task is scheduled or what the checklist completion progress is. 

You have the ability to customize the columns on your board. Columns allow surfacing fields from tasks, so you can choose the fields that are most important to your workflow, whether it is to reference key details at a glance or manage updates directly from the board. 

To customize columns:

1. If you do not have any columns configured, you will see the Add Columns button in the Plan View sidebar. If some columns are already configured, first make sure that your columns are visible using the Show Columns button in the Plan View sidebar, and then click on the column configuration icon to the right of the rightmost column.
   
2. This will take you to the Column Configuration pane. From here, you can select the necessary fields from the Available Fields section and move them over to the Selected Fields section. 
3. If you need to change the order in which the columns are shown in Plan View, select the applicable fields in the Selected Fields section and use the up/down arrows to set the order.
4. Want to go back to the default set? Use the Reset Columns to Default option in the pane.
5. To save changes, click Apply.

Manage / Complete Tasks

Plan View makes it easy to manage task updates in a spreadsheet-like manner. Once the necessary columns are added to the board, simply click into the cells to edit details. When editing, you can use keyboard shortcuts to quickly jump between tasks and fields. Additionally, you can copy and paste information across cells. 

To complete tasks, make sure the Status column is added to your board and update the value to the one that represents the final stage (e.g. completed).

Plan View | In-App & Lightning Component

Plan View is available as an in-app view and as a Lightning component. The Lightning component can be added to record pages in Salesforce, such as on Accounts and Opportunities. The component will function within the context of the record where it is viewed, displaying projects and tasks related to the record.