---
title: How to start a project
url: https://tideswell.xyz/docs/projects/start-a-project
description: Create a project in a department, then set its lead, status, dates and campaign from the Overview.
---

> Documentation index: fetch https://tideswell.xyz/llms.txt to discover every page before exploring further.

# How to start a project



A project is a named body of work inside one team. Creating one takes a name and a
department; everything that makes it useful is set afterwards on its **Overview**. For what
a project is for, start at <Ref to="projects" />.

## Before you start [#before-you-start]

Creating projects is usually a lead's job rather than every member's. If **Project** is
absent from the **Create** menu, that is what it means, and
<Ref to="concepts/who-can-do-what" /> explains how to check.

Editing a project afterwards is checked in that project's own department, so a lead of
Marketing manages Marketing projects. Admins can manage any.

## How do you create one? [#how-do-you-create-one]

**Create** next to your workspace name, then **Project*&#x2A;. On a department with nothing in it
yet, the **+ Create** menu on the empty screen offers the same thing.

The **New project** dialog asks for a **Project name**, an optional description, a
**Department**, which is required, and an optional **Campaign**.

The campaign picker reads **No campaign** when it is empty, and you can create a campaign
from inside it without leaving the dialog.

A project lives in one department. Pick the team that owns the work rather than the team with
the most people in it, because that choice decides who can manage it later.

## What do you set on the Overview? [#what-do-you-set-on-the-overview]

Open the project and you land on **Overview**, which is where the project is actually
configured.

Click the big title or the summary line under it to edit them in place. Enter saves and
Escape cancels.

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 four task statuses.
* **Lead**: the person accountable. Any active member of the workspace can be picked, not
  only the department's roster, which matters when a project is run by somebody outside the
  team doing the work.
* **Start** and **Target** dates, which are what draw the project as a bar on the roadmap.
* **Campaign**, which you can also create inline from here.

## What else is on the Overview? [#what-else-is-on-the-overview]

Three cards that read rather than write.

**Milestones** lists the project's checkpoints with their dates, undated ones last. Adding
and removing them is <Ref to="projects/milestones" />.

**Progress** shows total scope, how many are complete, a percentage bar, and open-task counts
per person with unassigned last. It counts every task in the project plus their sub-tasks,
and it is computed rather than typed, so it cannot be wrong.

**Activity** shows the last eight things that happened in the project.

Below that sits the planning spine, where you lay out what goes out and when. That is
<Ref to="projects/plan-what-goes-out" />.

## How does the team work in it? [#how-does-the-team-work-in-it]

The pill tabs at the top switch between **Overview**, **List**, **Board** and **Calendar**.
Those three working views behave exactly as they do on a department, covered in
<Ref to="tasks/board-and-calendar" />.

Tasks point at a project. Sub-tasks do not: they belong to their parent task and inherit
their place from it.

## Why is the Progress card ignoring my cycle filter? [#why-is-the-progress-card-ignoring-my-cycle-filter]

Because progress is the truth about the project, and a filter is a view of it.

The cycle picker 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.

## Why is everything read-only? [#why-is-everything-read-only]

Because managing this project needs rights in its department, and you hold them somewhere
else or not at all.

The page still opens and still reads, which is deliberate: seeing a project you cannot edit is
usually more useful than a locked door. Ask an admin, or the department's lead, and see
<Ref to="concepts/who-can-do-what" /> first so you know what to ask for.