Introduction
Project Management & Timesheet is a sample SharePoint-based business solution, implementing project management and work hour reporting functionality. The site template uses a combination of built-in SharePoint capabilities, extended through the use of a set of Infowise components.
The template allows you:
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Manage multiple projects, including date, status, health and budget parameters.
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Assign multiple tasks to each project and allocate the project’s monetary and hour budget to the tasks.
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Report work hours for each task and track progress.
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Manage project issues.
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Use the dashboard to visualize the overall status of all projects.
The site uses regular SharePoint lists to store and manage data. No external data storage or custom interface is implemented. This allows you to easily modify the way the site functions, using just your browser.
Using The Site
Managing Customers
The Customers list contains information regarding your customers. Each customer might have one or more projects assigned. The data in this list is used in a lookup column Customer in Projects list.
Managing Projects
The Projects list contains the information regarding your projects. It contains all the projects, regardless of status: new, upcoming, active and closed. The list contains the following columns:
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Project Name – free text name of the project (up to 255 characters).
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Customer – lookup to list of customers. You can add new customers on-the-fly.
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Start Date – start date of the project.
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Due Date – estimated end date of the project, must be equal or greater than Start Date.
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End Date – actual end date of the project, must be equal or greater than Start Date.
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Status – color-coded status of the project
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Not approved
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Not started
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In progress – only projects in progress can have work hour reports.
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Finished
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On hold
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Tasks – lists tasks assigned to the project.
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Issues – lists issues assigned to the project.
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Assigned Employees – one or more employees allowed reporting work hours for the project.
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Health – icon indicating subjective project “health”, set manually by project manager
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Healthy
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Warning
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Problematic
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Budget Hours – number of work hours assigned to the project.
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Assigned Hours – total or hours allocated to tasks, should not exceed the number of budget hours.
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Hour Assignment – visual indicator (progress bar) of allocating hours to tasks.
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Budget Cost – monetary budget of the project
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Assigned Cost – total cost allocated to tasks, should not exceed budget cost.
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Cost Assignment – visual indicator (progress bar) of allocating budget cost to tasks
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Hours – related work hour report entries.
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Actual Hours – calculated summary of reported work hours.
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Percentage – calculated percentage of reported work hours vs. budget.
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Overrun – calculated total of work hours above budget (zero if none).
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Hour Status – color-coded state of work hour reporting
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Normal – up to 80% of budget hours reported
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Warning – between 80% and 100% of budget hours reported
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Over budget – over 100% of budget hours reported
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Hour Progress – visual indicator (progress bar) of work hour reporting vs. budget
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Reported Cost – total cost reported in work hours
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Cost Progress – visual indicator (progress bar) of budget cost utilization
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Cost Status– color-coded status of cost reporting
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Normal – up to 80% of budget cost reported
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Warning – between 80% and 100% of budget cost reported
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Over budget – over 100% of budget cost reported
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Documents – lists documents related to the project.
Start by entering the basic information of the project. Change the status from Not approved, though Not started to In progress. Track the project progress and status using the indicator and color-coded columns.
Managing Project Tasks
Each project can have one or more tasks. You have to add tasks to a project to be able to report work hours. The cost and hour budget of the project is supposed to be divided between the tasks, without exceeding the project budget.
The Tasks list contains the following columns:
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Title – name of the task (up to 255 characters)
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Project – lookup to Projects, required
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Predecessors – optionally specify tasks preceding the current task
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Priority – task priority: Low, Normal or High
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Task Status – color-coded status of the task
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Not Started
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In Progress – work hours can be reported on for tasks in progress
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Completed
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Deferred
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Waiting on someone else
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% Completed
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Assigned To – person responsible for the task (not necessarily the only one who can report work hours)
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Description – free text description of the task
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Start Date – current or future start date of the task
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Due Date – estimated completion date
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Budget Hours – project hours allocated to the task
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Hour Cost – monetary cost of one hour
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Budget Cost – total budget cost of the task (budget hours multiplied by hour cost)
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Hours – related work hour report entries
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Reported Hours – total reported work hours
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Reported Cost – reported hours multiplied by hour cost
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Hour Progress – visual indicator (progress bar) of budget hour utilization
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State – color-coded state of work hour reporting
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Normal – up to 80% of budget hours reported
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Warning – between 80% and 100% of budget hours reported
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Over budget – over 100% of budget hours reported
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Managing Project Issues
You can use Project Issues list to manage various issues related to your projects. The list is not involved in budget calculations and tracking.
Managing Work Hours
Use this list to report work hours. Each work hour report must be assigned to a customer, project and project task. Only active projects and tasks can be reported on (the status must be set to In Progress).
The list contains the following columns:
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Customer – lookup to list of customers
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Project – filtered lookup of projects for the selected customer
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Task – filtered lookup of tasks belonging to the selected project
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Description – short description (up to 255 characters) of the performed work
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Date – date the work was performed
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Hours – number of hours reported
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Manager – manager of the reporting user. The value is retrieved from Active Directory and cannot be changed manually.
Managing Project Documents
Use can upload and manage document related to any project, directly from within the project.
Using Dashboard
The project dashboard presents an up-to-date view of project progress and allows you to easily identify current and potential problems.
By default, the following pie charts are displayed:
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Breakdown of projects by Health
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Breakdown of projects by Cost State
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Breakdown of project Hour State
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Breakdown of tasks by status
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Breakdown of tasks by state
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Breakdown of issues by status
You can also use the filter control to view the status information for specific projects and their related tasks. By default, the following columns are shown:
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Project Name
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Status
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Health
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Hour Progress
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Cost Progress
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Hour Assignment
