Most projects are large enough where they have multiple phases. Phases are simply a grouping of related tasks typically organized in order of which they are started. For example, a project often starts with a “planning” phase, as the planning is necessary to complete the remainder of the project. Phases typically are completed in order, but don’t always happen sequentially. Meaning you don’t always have to finish the phase prior before you can complete a task within a future phase.
For example, when designing and building websites we often work on the functionality at the same time as design even though those are two separate phases.
Phases have the following components:
- Title
- Progress Type
- Description
- Tasks
- Discussions
Title and description are self explanatory. Progress type refers to how Panorama should calculate progress relative to the phase completion. Meaning if a phase is 50% complete, how should that impact overall project progress? There are four options:
- Equal weight – each phase is equal in time / effort, so if you have four phases and one is complete the project is 25% complete
- Hours – You can enter how many hours each phase takes
- Custom weighting – You can indicate how long a phase takes relative to the other phases (this is a legacy option and is not recommended.)
- Percentage – If you select “hours” and ensure all phase hours add up to 100 – then the hours act as a percentage. i.e. 25 hours would be 25% of the project.
For more information on progress calculation, please see our calculations article.
For more information on tasks, please see our tasks article.