5 Improvements that Simplify Online Project Management

An ever growing number of people are realizing the massive benefits associated with managing projects, documents, and related discussions online. Many people want the key features from Microsoft Project (hierarchy, dependencies, and Gantt) in an easy to use, fast web-based application.  While some vendors intentionally downplay the importance of Gantt charts (typically a position held by providers who don't offer them), Gantts deliver what calendar views can't - a combined visual for project phasing, milestones, and dependencies.

Few project management applications have hit the sweet spot. Some overwhelm you with hundreds of features and complex rules while others are so simplistic or cumbersome to update they leave you feeling less productive.

Based on the positive reaction we received to our v1 Gantt release in February, we decided to further invest and melded our ideas with customer feedback.  The outcome: an online project management tool that delivers the essentials without confusing the project lead or the participants. The following enhancements became available on July 15, 2010:

• Interactive Gantt task bars - It is now possible to change tasks dates by dragging an entire task bar horizontally or by shifting one of its edges
• Dependency support - Smartsheet now supports four types of predecessor relationships and with drag and drop between task bars, it's a snap to create them. Entering lag days (positive or negative) is also possible using a predecessor cell's edit form.
• Auto-calculated summary rows - Parent rows (those with sub-tasks) now auto-calculate and display roll up information for dates, duration, and percent complete. 
• Milestones - By entering zero ('0') into a task's duration field, a diamond milestone icon is displayed in the Gantt chart.
• Date and duration calculations - Date management is simplified through automation of start, finish, and duration calculations and the option to exclude weekends.

To learn how to enable dependencies on an existing Smartsheet, please reference the Smartsheet Gantt quick reference page or watch this overview video:

We look forward to delivering many additional enhancements in the second half of 2010.

-Mark