Project Planning

1. Understanding the Planning Panel

The Planning panel is available on each project card for Project Manager and Admin users. It provides a task-based view of your project timeline alongside an interactive Gantt chart.

The panel is divided into two columns:

Task list (left) — your activities organized by phase, with an expand/collapse toggle to show or hide detail columns
Gantt chart (right) — a visual timeline that updates automatically as you add, edit or delete activities

At the top of the task list is a phase key showing the four project phases (Plan, Develop, Implement, Close), each color-coded. A toggle button (▶/◀) at the right of the phase key lets you resize the balance between the task list and Gantt chart.

Collapsed view shows each activity’s name and a T (task) or M (milestone) bubble in its phase color.

Expanded view adds Description, Start–End dates, and Duration columns. Duration is calculated automatically as calendar days (inclusive).

2. Adding and Editing Activities

To add an activity, click the “+” row under the relevant phase (Plan, Develop, Implement, or Close). A floating form slides out from the right of the row.

The form includes:

Activity name (required)
Description (optional)
Type — Task or Milestone. Selecting Milestone hides the End date field (a milestone is a single-day marker)
Start date and End date
Assignments — if the project has assigned resources, a multi-select list appears (ctrl-click / cmd-click to select multiple)

Click Save to create the activity. The task list and Gantt chart update immediately without a page reload.

To edit an activity, click its row in the task list. The same form opens, pre-populated with the activity’s current values. A Delete button also appears. Changes are saved to the same row — no duplicates are created.

The form positions itself above or below the clicked row depending on where you are on the screen, and it always renders above the page footer.

3. Working with Milestones

A milestone represents a key date or checkpoint rather than a span of work. When you set an activity’s type to Milestone:

The End date field is hidden — a milestone occupies a single day
On the Gantt chart, the milestone appears as a circle rather than a bar
In the task list, it shows an M bubble in the relevant phase colour
Duration is blank in expanded view

Milestones participate in dependencies just like tasks — they can be predecessors or dependents. When a milestone is a dependent, its start date snaps to the day after its predecessor ends.

4. Activity Phases (Plan, Develop, Implement, Close)

Every activity belongs to one of four phases, each with a distinct color set:

Plan – gold
Develop – green
Implement – orange
Close – blue

Phases serve two purposes:

Visual grouping — activities are grouped by phase in the task list, with a colored left border on each row. The Gantt chart bars and milestone circles use matching colors.
Project date sync — activities in the Implement phase drive the project’s Implementation Start and End dates. When you add or edit an Implement-phase activity that extends beyond the current project envelope, you’ll be asked to confirm the date change. See How Planning Dates Sync with Project Dates for details.

The phase is set automatically based on which “+” row you use to create the activity.

5. Creating Activity Dependencies

Dependencies link two activities so that one (the dependent) is scheduled after the other (the predecessor). When a predecessor’s dates change, the dependent’s start date automatically adjusts.

To create a dependency:

Press and hold on an activity row (or start dragging it after a brief hold)
All other rows display a dashed outline, indicating they are valid drop targets
A tooltip follows your cursor to confirm you’re in dependency mode
Drop onto the target row

The dragged row becomes the dependent; the drop target becomes the predecessor. On drop:

The dependent’s start date snaps to the day after the predecessor’s end date
If the dependent is a task, its duration is preserved (the end date shifts by the same amount)
If the dependent is a milestone, its single date moves to the day after the predecessor ends

Dependent activities display an arrow indicator in the task list. Hovering over a dependent activity shows “(dependent)” in the tooltip.

To remove a dependency, hover over the arrow connecting two bars on the Gantt chart. The arrow highlights in blue and shows a delete cursor. Click it, and the dependency is removed. The dependent activity’s dates remain where they are — they are not rolled back.

Guards: The system prevents duplicate dependencies and circular references (e.g. A depends on B while B depends on A).

6. Assigning Resources to Activities

If a project has resources assigned to it (via the project’s resource assignments), you can assign those same resources to individual activities.

To assign resources:

Click an activity row to open the edit form (or use the “+” row to add a new activity)
If the project has assigned resources, an Assignments multi-select list appears
Ctrl-click (Windows) or Cmd-click (Mac) to select multiple resources
Save the activity

Assigned activities display a person icon in the task list. Hovering over the activity shows the assigned resource names in the tooltip.

If the project has no assigned resources, the Assignments field is hidden. Assign resources to the project first (see Assigning Resources to a Project).

When an activity is deleted, its resource assignments are also removed. When resources are re-saved, the previous assignments are replaced with the new selection — deselecting all resources clears the assignments.

7. Using the Gantt Chart

The Gantt chart renders automatically from your activity data. It is read-only — you edit activities via the task list, and the chart updates.

Reading the chart:

Bars represent tasks, coloured by phase
Circles represent milestones
Arrows show dependencies between activities
Red bars with “! No Start Date !” indicate activities missing valid dates — edit them to add dates
The chart displays in Month view by default and can be zoomed-in/-out

Resizing: Use the ▶/◀ toggle on the phase key row to give the Gantt chart more or less space relative to the task list (switches between 1:4 and 1:1 ratio).

Scrolling: The chart supports horizontal scrolling for timelines that extend beyond the visible area. Vertical scrolling follows the page.

The Gantt chart refreshes automatically when you add, edit, or delete an activity, or when a dependency is created or removed.

8. How Planning Dates Sync with Project Dates

Activities in the Implement phase are linked to the project’s Implementation Start and Implementation End dates (visible on the Summary tab). The system keeps these in sync:

When adding or editing an Implement-phase activity:

If the project has no Implementation dates yet, the first Implement activity’s dates are set as the project dates automatically (no confirmation needed)
If the activity’s start is earlier than the current project start, a confirmation modal asks whether to extend the project start date
If the activity’s end is later than the current project end, a confirmation modal asks whether to extend the project end date
Both prompts can appear in sequence if the activity extends both boundaries

When deleting an Implement-phase activity:

The system recalculates the project’s Implementation dates from the remaining Implement activities
If no Implement activities remain, both project dates are cleared
If the deleted activity was defining a boundary (earliest start or latest end), the dates contract to the next activity’s boundary
A confirmation modal appears if the deletion would change the project dates

On the Summary tab:

If you manually change the project’s Implementation Start or End date to a value that conflicts with existing Implement-phase activities (e.g., setting the project end date earlier than an activity’s end date), the save is blocked with an error message

This two-way sync ensures the project-level dates always reflect the actual span of implementation work.