The project management office template set provides a streamlined way for organizations to approve, track, and spin up new projects while aggregating key metrics across all projects in real time
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Plan Requirements: This template set has been designed to utilize the full suite of functionality available in Smartsheet. If you are on a limited plan you can still use the template set however not all premium functionality will be available. Click here to see a list of discontinued plans and identify your plan and user type here.
Capabilities, Benefits, and Overview
Use this template set for:
- Submit projects to key stakeholders for approval
- Automatically be notified when new projects are submitted and/or approved
- Plan, track and report on multiple projects in one, single source of truth
- Own a portfolio level view of all projects and metrics in real time
- Spin up any number of new projects with ease and process consistency
Read on for a step by step guide on how to get started, and navigate to the Learning Center if you have questions along the way!
How Does It Work?
What's Included?
Setup & Customize
1. Create a New Workspace
A. Open Browse. From the browse tab, hover over Workspaces with your cursor, right click, and press Create New Workspace. In the menu that appears, name your Workspace and press OK.
B. Select the template set folder in your Sheets folder. Drag and drop the folder in to the workspace you just created.
Note: Using a workspace is a best practice when building a collaborative process. Workspaces allow you to centralize your work and control sharing with different stakeholders.
2. The Project Intake Sheet Form
The Project Intake Sheet is where new projects are added and existing projects are tracked. New projects can be added manually, via a move/copy row automation from another sheet, or via the Project Intake form on this sheet.
The Form is already setup using the provided information in the sheet. If there are custom fields you would like to track, or edits are required, you can edit the Form in the Form menu on the sheet. Outside of Project specific information and any custom fields added, there are 6 fields that need to be collected to begin the workflow:
- Site Name
- Project Category
- Project Sponsor
- Project Manager
- Target Start Date
- Target End Date
Learn More: How to Use Forms
3. Copy the Project Template Folder
Data submitted via the form (or otherwise) will populate to the Project Intake Sheet. The sheet will automatically generate a Project ID, following the format SM-XXXX.
The first step in kicking off a new project is to make a copy of the Project Template folder, which is inside the Project Level folder. To do this, right click on the Project Template folder and select save as new. Rename to your liking.
4. Copy the Project ID
The ability to intake hundreds of requests, or projects, and spin them up in a standardized way is crucial to the success of this solution. By using lookup formulas, and a unique identifier - such as the example SM-XXX naming convention provided - you can deploy projects at scale with consistency.
A. From the Project Intake Sheet, copy the Project ID for the specified project.
B. In the new Project Plan folder, open the Project Metadata Sheet
C. Paste the Project ID over the placeholder Project ID, example SM-004.
D. Notice that the information in the Project Intake sheet now populates the cells in the Project metadata sheet
5. Cell Link from the Project Intake Sheet
Next is a crucial step in making sure your portfolio reporting information is accurate and flowing in real time. Every time you spin up a new project by copying the folder, you must reference some of the new data back in the intake sheet.
A. From the Project Intake Sheet, navigate to the row of the new project you have just created. You can easily look for this by scanning for the Project ID.
B. Highlight the following cells, which are colored yellow: Dashboard Link, Start Date, End Date, Schedule at Risk, and Project Status cells.
C. Right click on the cells, and select "Link from Cell in Other sheet." In the menu, navigate to the newest Project Metadata sheet, or search for it by name in the search box.
D. Highlight the same cells in the Project Metadata sheet, which are also colored in yellow: Dashboard Link, Start Date, End Date, Schedule at Risk, and Project Status cells. Press Create Link.
Customize Project Intake and Portfolio Level
1. Site / Project Categories
The standard categories are Category 1, Category 2, Category 3. These will not fit your exact process, so here is the process to change them:
A. In the Project Intake sheet, find the Project Category column and Double Click.
B. Edit the three drop-down options. Change them to categories that meet your requirements. In the GIFs below, "Example" is used in place of "Category"
C. Referencing your category edits, replace the column headers and the corresponding cells in Row 1 in the Portfolio Metrics Sheet. Doing so will enable the metrics to pull correctly for each category. Be sure to use exact spelling.
2. The Project Intake Form
A. In the Project Intake Sheet click on Forms
B. Edit the different text elements in the form to align with your project requirements
NOTE: Do not remove any fields as they are used at different levels of this template, however, if you wish to add fields you can with no implications. Learn more about forms here.
3. New Project Approval Request
An automated Approval Request will be sent to a designated person when a new row (project) has been added.
A. Modify the approval by going to Automation and selecting Manage Workflows in the dropdown menu. Then double-click on the workflow to open the editor window.
B. Verify that the Approval should go to the Project Sponsor (Collected in the Intake Form)
C. Customize the Subject and Message at the Request Level and for the Alert Levels
D. In the Advanced Options select the appropriate Column Data that should be included in each Alert
Learn More: Alerts and Reminders
4. Project Portfolio Rollup Dashboard
The Project Portfolio Dashboard is the information hub for all of the Projects you are tracking
Dashboards are made of different widgets that pull in real-time information from your sheets and reports.
A. Click Edit Dashboard (pencil icon) in the upper right-hand corner of the dashboard to begin customizing. Hover your mouse over any widget and double click to start modifying the widget and its contents.
B. Project Title is a Title widget. Double click on it and edit if desired
C. The Logo Placeholder is an Image widget and can be replaced with your company logo
D. The form at the bottom is a web content widget. Edit the widget to point to the Project Intake Form.
E. Active Projects is a Report widget, which display live reports in your dashboard.
Customize Project Level
1. Modify the Project Plan Sheet
Use the Project Plan sheet to track and maintain critical data about a project. Project sheets in Smartsheet have dependencies enabled and includes columns such as Duration, Predecessors, and % Complete. The project plan will automate your project timeline from the start date and will provide an estimated end date based on project tasks. It’s best to enable dependencies for projects with deadlines to ensure every milestone in your project is tracked, on time, and ultimately meets your deadline.
A. In the Task Name column, name the project phases in the parent (gray) rows.
B. Use the indented grandchild (white) rows in your hierarchy, to enter tasks in the Task Name column.
C. Starting on row 3, enter dates in the Start Date and End Date, Target Start Date, and Target End Date columns. This template uses the difference between the Actual End date and the Target End date along with Duration to determine the health of the schedule. At the beginning of your project they should be the same for each row.
D. The other data on your ancestor and parent rows, including Start Date, End Date, % Complete, and Duration are auto calculated by the tasks below the parent row.
E. Attach documents or links to webpages to the row in the Attachment (paperclip icon) column to keep all of your project information and resources in one place.
F. Track the progress of your project by viewing the interactive Gantt timeline to see which tasks are complete (green), which are late (red), which are in progress (blue), and which are on hold (orange). Conditional formatting rules apply formatting automatically to rows or cells based on the values they contain.
2. Sheet Bonus: Use Baselines to track project status
Licensed sheet owners and admins can enable a baseline on this sheet. A baseline is a fixed reference point in time to measure and compare a project’s progress to completion. Capturing and comparing variances between the current actual schedule and the originally planned schedule is essential for tracking any deviations and allows project teams to quickly reprioritize to get projects back on track and delivered on time.
A. From the Project Plan Sheet, click the Baselines button on the right side of the toolbar.
B. Click Set in the summary modal to enable the baseline.
C. Three new non-editable columns will get added to your sheet: Baseline Start, Baseline Finish, and Variance, and you’ll see the baseline visualized as a grey line underneath the Gantt bars.
D. Click the Baselines button again to bring up the summary modal. From here, the sheet owner or admin can toggle the baseline on/off, Reset, or Remove the baseline altogether.
E. As dates shift around, the Variance in the summary modal will give you a quick visual snapshot of overall project status displayed as Days behind, Days ahead, or On schedule.
Learn More: Baselines
3. Adjust Durations & Predecessors
“Duration” and “Predecessor” are two unique column types that exist in project sheets.
A. Set the duration of each task in the “Duration” column.
B. Set predecessors, or relationships between tasks, in the “Predecessors” column
4. Assign Tasks to Team Members
Assign tasks to individuals by adding their email addresses in the Assigned To column. A contact includes both the name and email address, which drives delivery of automated actions, alerts, reports, and more.
A. Add contacts in the Assigned To column by individually creating a new contact, or adding an existing contact from your Contact List.
5. Adjust Alert
An automatic alert workflow is a great way to let your team know they have new tasks to fulfill as soon as they are assigned. An alert has been set on the project sheets to notify anyone shared to the sheet right away when a new task has been assigned to them.
A. To edit the alert workflow, click on Automation and select Manage Workflows in the dropdown menu.
B. Then double-click on the workflow itself in order to edit the criteria.
6. Sheet Summary: View or Edit Your Project Summary Data
This template set utilizes the sheet summary feature. The Project Plan sheet includes a pre-populated sheet summary that provides a standard, robust way to organize and report on project information in your sheet. Here you can see a quick recap of the status of tasks and the count of those at risk. Open the sheet summary on the right panel to view or edit your project summary fields. You can use formulas and reference another summary fields.
A. Click the sheet summary icon to expand the sheet summary. You can expand and collapse the right panel to stay in the context of your sheet or maximize your sheet real estate when you don’t need to view it.
B. To add fields, click + New Field.
C. Name your field and select the field type: Text/Number, Contact list, Date, Dropdown list, Checkbox, or Symbols.
D. To edit the field properties, hover over the right side of the field and click on the vertical ellipsis (⋮) to open the field options dropdown menu.
7. Update Status and Filters
After the task has been assigned, the task owner can update the status by selecting an option from a custom dropdown list in the Status column. If there are multiple owners, filters are an ideal way to help people cut through the noise. On the Site Launch Plan sheet, we created a shared filter called Tasks Assigned to Me. Anyone viewing the sheet can select that filter and see only their assigned items.
A. Click on the Filter button and select Tasks
Assigned to Me to see tasks assigned to the
current user viewing the sheet. You can also
select any of the other filter options to perform other tasks.B. Select the Filter Off button in the toolbar to create, use, or modify filters.
Learn More: Dropdown List, Filters, Shared Filter
8. Use the Overdue Report
A task is automatically flagged as Overdue if the status is not Complete or Canceled and the End Date is in the past. This report surfaces all Overdue tasks in one view, and also displays them on the Project Tracking and Rollup dashboard.
9. Schedule Health Column
The Schedule Health column on the Project plan leverages a number of columns and formulas.
A. End Date - The Actual End Date of the task
B. Target End Date - Set at the beginning of the project as the planned End Date of the task
C. Duration - The number of working days between the Start Date and End Date
D. Schedule Delta % - The percentage of days +/- to the schedule
=IFERROR([Schedule Delta (Working Days)]@row / Duration@row, "")
E. Schedule Delta (Working Days) - Number of days +/- between the End Date and the Target End Date
F. Shedule Health - Uses the following formula logic rules:
=IF([Schedule Delta (%)]@row > 0.1, "Red", IF([Schedule Delta (%)]@row > 0, "Yellow", "Green")
=IF([Schedule Delta (%)]@row > 0.1, "Red", IF([Schedule Delta (%)]@row > 0, "Yellow", "Green")Schedule Delta % is greater than 10% over Red
Schedule Delta % is greater that 0 but less than 10% over Yellow - These are tasks to watch as they could push the project to an unacceptable timeline
Schedule Delta % is less than or equal to 0 Green - On Schedule or faster
10. Monitor the Individual Project with the Site Plan Tracking and Rollup Dashboard
The Site Plan Tracking and Rollup dashboard is the keystone for each project. It pulls together all of the critical project information you need to track.
Dashboards are made of different widgets that pull in real-time information from your sheets and reports.
A. Click Edit (pencil icon) in the upper right corner of the dashboard to begin customizing. Hover your mouse over any widget and double click start modifying the widget and its contents.
B. The Project Information widget is a Metric widget that summarizes key data about the project from the Project Plan sheet.
C. Link to Resources is a Shortcut widget that you can use to link sheets, reports, and other resources that reside in or outside of Smartsheet.
D. The Project Contacts pulls in from the underlying sheets with information about the project team.
E. The rest of the information on the dashboard is populated by the aggregate of underlying sheets and reports. Each time a new project is spun up using the guidelines above, the widgets will update automatically and display information that is project and site specific.
11. Delete the Sample Data from the Project Intake Sheet
Sample data is included to help you visualize how the solution works. Before you deploy your solution at scale, you will want to delete the sample data to keep outputs on the various sheets, reports, and dashboards accurate.
In order to clear the sample data for this Template Set, delete rows 2 on the Project Intake Sheet.
12. Share Your New Solution
Sharing is the best way to collaborate with others involved in your projects. You can share your entire workspace with members of your department, or share individual items within the workspace.
Learn more: Workspace Sharing
Enhance Your Template Set
Helpful Resources
We have lots of resources to help you get started and become even more productive in Smartsheet. We also love hearing from our customers, please use the form at the bottom to submit feedback about this template set!
Last Updated: 03/29/21
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