How to start a project

A project is a named body of work inside one team. You create one from Create new (+), and it then lives under Work › Departments, inside the department it belongs to.

Creating one takes a name and a department; the rest is set on its Overview. For what a project is for, start at What are projects and campaigns?.

Before you start

Creating a project needs the Create projects row on Settings › Permissions, which leads have by default. If Project is missing from the Create new menu, that is the reason, and How to work out who can do what in your workspace explains how to check.

Changing a project afterwards needs the Edit, archive and delete projects row, checked in that project's own department. A lead of Marketing manages Marketing projects, and admins can manage any.

How do you create one?

Press Create new (+) under the workspace monogram, then choose Project. On a phone, use the Create pill in the Open menu drawer. A department with no tasks yet also shows a Create button whose menu offers Project.

The New project dialog asks for:

• Project name, which is required.
• A description, in the box reading "Add description…", which is optional.
• A department, from the pill reading Select department. It is required.
• A campaign, from the pill reading No campaign. It lists the campaigns that already exist and is optional.
• A layout, from the pill reading Timeline layout, List layout or Board layout. Timeline is the default.

Press Create project to save it. A project lives in one department, so pick the team that owns the work rather than the team with the most people in it. That choice decides who can manage the project later.

Which layout should you pick?

Pick Timeline when the project is about dates, such as a launch calendar of emails and posts. Pick List when order matters more than dates, such as a checklist the team works down from the top. Pick Board when each item moves through stages, such as ideas that go to filming, then editing, then posted.

The layout decides how the project's planned items show on its Overview. Timeline lays them out on a date spine, List shows them as one column in the team's own order, and Board shows one column per stage.

All three are covered in How to plan what goes out and when. The iPhone app's new project screen offers Timeline and List.

How do you open a project?

Open Work › Departments in the menu, then the department, then the project under it. A department with projects has a chevron that folds its projects open.

You land on the project's Overview, which is where the project is set up.

What do you set on the Overview?

Click the big title, or the summary line under it, to edit them in place. Enter saves and Escape cancels. An empty summary reads "Add a short summary…".

The Properties card holds the rest, and each control saves the moment you pick:

• Status: Backlog, Planned, In progress or Done. These belong to the project and are separate from the task statuses.
• Lead: the person accountable, or No lead. Any active member of the workspace can be picked, not only the department's roster, which helps when somebody outside the team runs the project.
• Dates: a Start and a Target. These are what draw the project as a bar on the roadmap.
• Campaign: a campaign from the list, or No campaign. New campaign at the foot of the list creates one and picks it, for people with the Create and edit campaigns and cycles row (admins by default).
• Layout: Timeline, List or Board. The layout belongs to the project, so changing it changes the page for everyone.

Your workspace may use its own word for a campaign; Settings › Terminology shows both. For how campaigns tie projects together, see How to set up a campaign.

What else is on the Overview?

The main column, under the title and summary, is the planning section. Its heading is your team's word for a planned item (by default Items), and it is where you lay out what goes out and when. That is How to plan what goes out and when.

The cards sit to the right on a wide screen, and below on a narrow one:

• Properties, described above.
• Milestones lists the project's checkpoints with their dates, or "No date". Its + adds one. To delete one, press its bin icon, then Confirm. See How to add and reschedule milestones.
• Progress shows Scope, Completed, a percentage bar, and open tasks per person with Unassigned last. It counts every task in the project plus their subtasks.
• Activity shows the last eight things that happened in the project.

How does the team work in it?

The tabs at the top switch between Overview, List, Board and Calendar. The three working views behave as they do on a department, covered in How to work a list, a board and a calendar.

The Board tab shows the project's tasks. A Board layout shows its planned items on the Overview, which is a different thing.

Tasks point at a project. Subtasks do not: they belong to their parent task and follow it.

Why is the Progress card ignoring my cycle filter?

Because progress describes the whole project, and the filter is only a view of it.

The All cycles dropdown in the header narrows the List and Board tabs. Progress keeps counting every task in the project, which is what you want when somebody asks how far along the whole thing is. Cycles are covered in How to set up and work in cycles.

Why can't you change the title or the Properties card?

Because changing this project needs the Edit, archive and delete projects row in its department, and you hold it somewhere else or not at all.

The page still opens and reads, so you can follow a project you do not run. Planned items have rows of their own, covered in How to plan what goes out and when. Ask an admin or the department's lead, and read How to work out who can do what in your workspace first so you know what to ask for.

How do you put a finished project away?

Archive it from its menu, or delete it if it was made by mistake. Both are covered in How to archive, restore or delete a project.