You can display projects in a Gantt chart. In the project - click on the Gantt link and the chart displays. The functionality is only available in the "Plus" version and require Salesforce Enterprise or Unlimited edition.


You can view multiple projects or projects where resource (groups) are involved. This allows fine-tuning of resource allocations across projects and managing resource utilization.


Gantt Header


The header contains

  • Name of the project - or the list of projects
  • Search button
  • list of Project Phases - if any
  • Find button(s)
  • list of Project Resources
  • Start Date of the diagram with navigation buttons (first - previous - next - today)
  • Help button
  • Settings button

On the left side are the list of Project Phases/Lines/Resources. The view of Phases can be collapsed.


By default, the information is displayed by Day - you can change Zoom level to Hour, Week or Month in Settings.


The Gantt diagram is on the right side. Today is depicted as a blue vertical line.




The base elements are explained in the Information overview Tour. The tour is started automatically or by clicking on the Project icon. If you click anywhere, the Information window disappears. In the Settings, you can prevent the initial display of the information Hints.


Detail Information


If you click on the Project Header, any link, tasks, or resources in the diagram a pop-up window with more details. You can close the window also by clicking anywhere outside the window.


Modes: by Project - by Resource


You can view a project or multiple projects (select via Search) in two modes:


by Project



  • The project phases/lines are sorted by WBS (Work Breakdown Structure).
  • The bar depicts all planned (in light-green sub-bar) and actual (in light-blue sub-bar) activities of all resources.


by Resource



  • The project lines are sorted by resource and WBS.
  • A project line may be displayed multiple times, if multiple resources work on it.
  • The Bar then depicts only planned and actual activities of the particular resource.


Find


The Find functionality shows/hides information already loaded. In the header the list of Project Phases is displayed (if any) and the list of Resources.



Select one or multiple Project Phases and/or Resources and click the Find button. This reduces the display to the selection. You can select different Phases/Resources or click in the Remove Find (-) button.


Search


Search will query your Salesforce organization based on your selection:

  • Single Project
  • Multiple Projects from the list of active projects - click on the execute button
  • Single Resource
  • Multiple Resources from a list of your resources - click on the execute button
  • Resource Group (defined in the Resource record)

When querying resources, the selection can be restricted by date range. You can also omit loading of Project Phase information.


Help


Clicking on the Help button gives you the link to updated documentation and allows to enter support requests directly.


Gantt Bar


There are three types of a Gantt Bars:


  1. Summary - a project phase containing multiple project lines - depicted as a thick line - starting at the date of the earliest contained project line and ending at the end of the last contained project line.
  2. Milestone - a project line without planned effort and/or planned start and end date - depicted as tilted square or diamond - starting at the planned start date - or today's date if none.
  3. Normal (planned) project line - depicted as a rectangle - starting on the planned start date and ending at the end date



In addition to the start/end date, a Gantt Bar visualizes:

  • Planned (scheduled/calculated) effort - as a light-green sub-bar in the top part
  • Percent Complete - as a white sub-bar in the middle
  • Actual effort - as a light-blue sub-bar at the bottom
  • The actual to plan ratio as background on a gray to red scale (if actual below plan on a gray scale changing to a red-scale, if the actual effort is above the planned effort)

Note: all the colors can be changed in Settings.


If a task is marked by (see example P1_LineA above), the warning details are displayed in the detail dialog - just click in the Project Line link or the bar)


Resource Info


The Resource information is displayed based on the Zoom level - by Hour, Day (default), Week, or Month. For the time period it shows the actual time in hours - or the planned hours, if there is no actual time for that period.


Note: Also of the project UOM is set to Days, the system concerts the effort to hours.


The height and color of the bar changes based on the daily capacity of the resource. This utilization rate is green below the capacity, golden at capacity and on a red scale above capacity. You can change the levels of the utilization and the colors in Settings.


You can view the different resource "commitments"

  • A resource can be allocated to a project line using a percentage of the capacity.
  • The planned assigned time (done by scheduling)
  • The actual time - from Time records (T&E Lines)

The actual time displayed here does not need to be reported or approved (i.e. near "real-time")


Project Info


In the "by Project" mode, the following information is displayed at the bottom of the diagram (per project):

  • Planned Effort as light-green Bar (for the day/week/month based on the Zoom level)
  • Actual Effort as light-green Bar
  • Cumulated Planned Effort as green line
  • Cumulated Actual Effort as blue line

The height of the bars is based on the highest planned/actual effort (for the day/week/month). The position of the cumulative lines is based on the maximum total planned/actual effort for the project.


This can be thought of as a "reverse" Burn Down Chart starting at 0 and ending at the maximum - actual or planned.


If you click on the chart, the underlying detail information is displayed.


Note: You will see this only if "Show Planned Values" is de-selected in Settings and in "by Project" mode. You can adjust all the colors in Settings.


Earned Value Management


Earned Value Management information based on EIA-748 is displayed, if you

  • provide Resource cost (per hour on the Resource record)
  • maintain the Percent Complete information (on the Project Line record)

The information displays includes:

  • Planned Effort as light-green Bar (for the day/week/month based on the Zoom level)
  • Planned Value as light-golden Bar
  • Cumulated Planned Effort as green line
  • Cumulated Planned Value as golden line
  • Actual T&E Amounts as magenta line
  • Actual Planned Costs as cyan line
  • Earned Value as brown line

If you click on the chart, the underlying detail information is displayed.


Note: you will see this only if "Show Planned Values" is selected in Settings and in "by Project" mode. You can adjust all the colors in Settings.


Scheduling


There are two modes/options for creating planned/scheduled information. You may start with "full" scheduling and the refine it later with predefined start/end dates.


Alternatively, you can enter no plan information and just view the actuals.


Predefined Start/End date


If you provide

  • Planned Effort and Start/End date per Project Line
  • Allocate Resources per Project Line (via Project Line "Sharing" - enter the Percent allocation of the capacity to the task.

we calculate the planned assignments (planned effort) per resource/day.


The resource availability is determined by existing assignments to other projects and a general resource calendar (currently not supported for Salesforce)


Pert / Critical Path


If you provide

  • Planned Effort per Project Line
  • Allocate Resources per Project Line (via Project Line "Sharing" - enter the Percent allocation of the capacity to the task.
  • Optionally Project Line Priority
  • Optionally Constraints (Start/End Prerequisites) - currently not supported for Salesforce

our PERT / Critical Path algorithm can calculate the Planned Start/End dates as well as the planned assignments (planned effort) per resource/day. The resource availability is determined by existing assignments to other projects and a general resource calendar (currently not supported for Salesforce)


Settings


Click on the Settings button on the right:



In the settings, you can define

  • Zoom level - Hour - Day - Week - Month
  • Width/Height of the Grid Cells
  • If you want to show Grid Lines
  • If you want to show Resources, Values, Constraints
  • Any color in the diagram
  • The color based on value ranges of Resource Utilization and Actual/Plan Ratio

You can save (apply) the Settings, reload or reset them to the default values. The settings are personal and are stored in your local browser.



This is an example of color setting by value. You can add new values - just enter them and click the + Change the colors by entering a valid HTML color (or use the RGB notation #rrggbb) or use the color picker.