Managing projects with Project Workspace
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Summary of Managing projects with Project Workspace
Project Workspace in ServiceNow provides a comprehensive interface to plan, manage, and collaborate on projects efficiently. It offers multiple views of projects, detailed task management, resource allocation, and tools to track progress and dependencies. The workspace supports project hierarchy with subprojects, baseline comparisons, and critical path visualization, enabling you to maintain control over complex projects.
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Key Features
- Homepage UI Components: Offers grid and list views of projects, sections for My Projects, All Projects, Projects, and Subprojects, along with project cards showing essential details like status and manager.
- Project Planning Header: Contains options to edit project details, collaborate via activities and attachments, refresh views, save changes (with auto-save toggle), and synchronize resource assignments.
- Views and Toggles: Switch between grid and Gantt views to manage tasks and dependencies visually; toggle critical path display and create baselines for schedule and financial analysis.
- Task and Resource Management: Add and organize project tasks, manage resource assignments with effort tracking (FTE, hours, person days), and adjust allocations with heatmap visualization.
- Data Grid Functionality: Enables sorting, filtering, row rearranging, multi-row actions, and in-place cell editing for tasks, supporting efficient bulk updates and detailed task management.
- Timeline View: Visualizes project timelines with adjustable timescales, dependency lines between tasks, and customizable display options for bar labels and critical paths.
- Collaboration Tools: Integrated activity feeds, file attachments, and Docs support facilitate communication and documentation among stakeholders within the workspace.
- Project Analytics and Reporting: Access project summaries, create and export status reports (including PowerPoint export), and schedule summary emails to keep teams informed.
- RIDAC Records Management: Track Risks, Issues, Decisions, Actions, and Request Changes with the ability to add, link, and convert RIDAC records directly within the project.
- Project Lifecycle Support: Create, duplicate, import/export projects, apply templates, and close projects with automatic closure of associated tasks and subprojects.
- Integration with Financials and Source-to-Pay Operations: Manage procurement asset requests linked to projects for streamlined financial and operational oversight.
Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers
- Gain a centralized, intuitive workspace to oversee all project aspects from planning to closure, ensuring alignment with organizational priorities.
- Improve task and resource management with flexible views, bulk editing, and real-time synchronization of project and resource timelines.
- Enhance collaboration through integrated communication tools and shared documentation, reducing silos and increasing transparency.
- Effectively track project risks and issues with RIDAC management for better decision-making and project outcome analysis.
- Leverage built-in analytics, baseline comparisons, and status reporting features to monitor project health and communicate progress to stakeholders efficiently.
- Streamline project administration with templates, import/export capabilities, and automated project closure processes.
Use the features of Project Workspace to plan and manage your project.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Grid view of projects ( |
Opens the project in grid view or card view. |
| List view of projects ( |
Opens the project in list view. |
| My Projects | This section displays all the projects that you own, including subprojects. |
| All Projects | This section displays all projects in the system. All projects include projects from customer projects, team spaces, and audit. |
| Projects | This section displays only projects. |
| Subprojects |
This section displays only subprojects. |
| Project cards | Each project is represented by a project card. These cards display high-level details, such as the project name, status, planned dates, and the manager that the project is assigned to. |
| Project search | Option to search for projects by name or by the user it’s assigned to. |
| Filter |
Option to apply filters on the homepage. The filter preferences that you choose are retained in the filter criteria. |
| Refresh |
Reloads the homepage. |
| New |
Option to create a project. |
Planning header
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Edit project details ( |
Opens the project details in the side panel to edit. |
| Activity ( |
Facilitates conversation between different stakeholders. |
| Attachments ( |
Enables you to add files to the project. |
| Refresh the project ( |
Reloads the planning page. |
| Save ( |
Saves your changes. This button is inactive by default to facilitate auto-save of any changes made to the project plans. Enable or disable the auto-save functionality from the Advanced tab of the Settings ( |
| Resources not synced ( |
Enables you to synchronize the project and resource assignment dates. When there’s a change in the planned or actual dates of the project tasks, this icon is enabled. When the project has classic resource plans, this icon is inactive by default. |
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Enable this toggle to display the resource assignment pane. |
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Displays data in both grid and gantt view on planning page. This button is active by default. |
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Displays data in Gantt view on planning page. Use this button to change task dates and dependencies. |
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Displays data in Grid view on planning page. Use this button to add and delete tasks, change task dates and dependencies, and assess the progress of the overall project. |
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| Baselines ( |
Enables you to create and compare schedule and financial baselines. See Create and compare project baselines in Project Workspace. |
| Critical path ( |
Toggle the button to switch on/off the display of the critical path of the project. |
| Add Task |
Adds a project task in the data grid. |
| Project actions ( |
Provides other actions to perform on the project.
Synchronize the project's date with the start dates of the associated resource plans, cost plans, benefit plans, resource assignments, project tasks, and subprojects using Move Project. |
Resource assignment pane
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Refresh the resource assignment ( |
Reloads the selected assignment and allocation. |
Displays the resource allocation in the resource assignment pane. |
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Displays the effort type as FTE, Hours, or Person days. |
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Displays the effort by week or month. This button is displayed only when the Allocation heatmap toggle is enabled. |
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Add a resource in the resource assignment pane. |
Data grid
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Column actions | Sort and filter the project tasks using the actions on the header. Point your mouse device to a column header to see the context menu icon ( Using this menu, you can perform actions such as autofit, hide, or reset. If you select the context menu ( |
| Rearrange rows ( |
Enables the dragging of the project task rows to a position of your choice on the grid. |
| Select row ( |
Choose to select multiple project task rows at once. Use the row context menu ( |
| Row context menu ( |
Provides various actions for the selected rows, such as edit task, add task above or below, delete row, add dependency, and more. You can also select multiple rows and perform an action on them at once, using the row context menu. For example, indenting or deleting multiple tasks. |
| Expanded row ( |
Indicates that a project task row is expanded to show its child tasks. Select this icon to collapse the row and hide the child tasks. |
| Collapsed row ( |
Indicates that the project task contains child tasks. Select this icon to expand the row and view the child tasks. |
| Reorder column ( |
Reorders the columns of the data grid. |
| Edit an individual cell |
Edit or copy the info of this cell by selecting the cell context menu ( Use this menu to copy and paste cell contents, add dependencies, add project tasks directly above or below this cell position, or delete the whole row. |
| Edit multiple cells |
Bulk-edit cells by selecting multiple cells and select and hold (or right-click) one of the cells. You can also use the cell context menu ( |
Selecting a project task by selecting its short description opens the task details in a side panel, enabling you to edit them. See Update a project task from the Project Workspace.
You can also increase or reduce the area occupied by the data grid by dragging the line that separates them.
Timeline view
The timeline view shows the project timeline based on its planned start and end dates, and displays the project task bars and milestones.
By using the planning settings (), you can choose to display the bar labels, dependency lines, and the critical path. See Personalize the planning page view in Project Workspace.
Project timeline
The timeline shows the planned period of the project. You can reduce or increase the visibility of the project period by changing the timescale to Year, Quarter, Month, Day, or Week. Select the timescale icon () and choose an option.
The timescale view that you choose is saved in the preferences.
Dependency lines
These lines show the dependencies between the project tasks. You can add new dependencies by drawing them on the timeline view, or select an existing dependency to edit its details in the side panel. See Add internal project task dependencies from Project Workspace. The dependencies that you choose are saved in the preferences.