Create a Project Roadmap

Quick reference

• 00:03 Project roadmaps are a great way of being able to keep
• 00:08 your eye on specific tasks across multiple projects.
• 00:12 So if you're a project manager or maybe even if you're a team leader and you have,
• 00:17 maybe three or four projects currently on the go, you might want to make sure that
• 00:21 you're on top of the key tasks that relate to those projects.
• 00:25 So, what we can do is, we can create what we call a Project Roadmap,
• 00:30 which allows us to pick specific tasks across all of the projects that
• 00:34 we have access to and monitor those tasks.
• 00:37 We can also do things like add in key milestones to keep us on track.
• 00:43 So let's take a look at how we create a Project Roadmap,
• 00:46 how we add tasks, and some of the features within the Project Roadmap.
• 00:50 Now, I'm back at Project Home,
• 00:52 where we can see all of the last projects that we've created.
• 00:56 And, as I said, in this Source column underneath Recent files,
• 00:59 you can see that pretty much everything in here I created in Project for the Web.
• 01:04 But one of these is a Roadmap, instead.
• 01:07 So you can always tell when you're looking at Recent files,
• 01:10 which ones are your Project files, and which ones are your Roadmaps.
• 01:14 Now if we want to create a brand new roadmap, we need to jump up to the New
• 01:18 project button, and we're selecting this one just here, Roadmap.
• 01:23 And this is basically going to present us with kind of like a Timeline view, again.
• 01:27 We have very similar options at the top here to what we have in Timeline view.
• 01:31 We have a Zoom slider, so we can adjust what we're looking at.
• 01:35 We have a Go to date button, a Filter, Group members, so on and so forth.
• 01:40 Now, the first thing I'm going to want to do here is, rename my roadmap.
• 01:44 Because, notice, by default, it just says, Untitled.
• 01:47 So let's click, and I can rename in here.
• 01:50 So I'm just going to call this My Projects.
• 01:54 It's also worth noting that if you want to delete a roadmap,
• 01:57 this is where you're going to find that option, as well.
• 01:59 Now let's close this pane down,
• 02:02 because now we need to start adding in tasks across multiple projects.
• 02:07 So, what we can do here is, we can add a row.
• 02:10 Now, each row in our roadmap represents one project.
• 02:15 So we've been working on the Kitchen Renovation project.
• 02:18 So this first row is for the Kitchen Renovation project.
• 02:22 Now, notice in the pane on the right-hand side it says, Untitled row,
• 02:27 I'm going to call this Kitchen Renovation.
• 02:31 The owner of this project, well, that is me, I created it.
• 02:34 So I'm going to select my name, and
• 02:36 now we need to connect to that particular project.
• 02:40 So I'm going to click the drop down just here,
• 02:43 we want to connect to an existing project.
• 02:46 And take a look at that,
• 02:47 it's going to show me all of the projects that I have access to.
• 02:52 So the top one here is Kitchen Renovation, let's select it.
• 02:56 So at the top here it says, Choose a project, Kitchen Renovation, that's fine.
• 02:59 It then says, Connect to project, Get updates to Roadmap from Project.
• 03:05 And then it says, Flow type: Scheduled.
• 03:07 So, what is all of this?
• 03:08 Well, effectively, when we're connecting to a project,
• 03:12 we're creating a flow in Power Automate.
• 03:14 And if you recall, right at the beginning of this course,
• 03:17 I mentioned that one of the biggest advantages of Project for
• 03:21 the Web is that it's built on the Power platform.
• 03:23 Which means we can utilize other power apps like Power Automate and Power BI.
• 03:28 And this is where we can see Power Automate in action.
• 03:31 We're effectively creating a flow, we're creating a connection.
• 03:35 Which means that if I connect to the Kitchen Renovation project, and
• 03:39 then changes are made to specific tasks in that project,
• 03:42 if I've added those tasks to my roadmap, it's going to update.
• 03:46 Now it might be that you don't know a great deal about Power Automate,
• 03:49 maybe you've never used it before.
• 03:51 All you really need to know is that Power Automate allows us to automate workflows.
• 03:56 An example of that would be, let's say that you post a YouTube video on Monday,
• 04:01 Wednesdays, and Fridays.
• 04:03 Instead of manually posting a video on those days, you could set up a flow in
• 04:07 Power Automate that automatically posts your videos for you.
• 04:12 That would be an example of a workflow.
• 04:14 Now, in relation to the Kitchen Renovation project,
• 04:17 this workflow relates to connecting to a project and keeping it updated.
• 04:22 So you can see underneath, in this Sign in area,
• 04:25 it's telling us which applications project needs access to in order to
• 04:29 keep the Kitchen Renovation project updated in the roadmap.
• 04:34 And it says, it needs access to Project Roadmap,
• 04:37 which is the actual roadmap application, and also the Dataverse.
• 04:41 And the Dataverse is where all of our project information is stored.
• 04:46 Now, if we have a green tick next to both of these,
• 04:48 it means that we've successfully connected.
• 04:52 So project is going to use your Microsoft 365 Sign in credentials to
• 04:56 attempt to sign in to all of the applications it needs access to in order
• 05:01 to create this connection.
• 05:02 If you have anything here, other than a green tick, so
• 05:06 maybe it says Sign in, or maybe it has an error message,
• 05:10 you need to deal with those first before you can connect to your project.
• 05:15 And most of the time it just means that you haven't signed in,
• 05:18 and you'll see a little Sign in link, just here,
• 05:20 which will just require you to enter in your email and password credentials.
• 05:25 Now, both of mine are green, so I can simply click on Connect, at the bottom,
• 05:29 to connect to the Kitchen Renovation project.
• 05:32 Now, as soon as I get connected, it's basically going to present to me,
• 05:35 in this pane on the right-hand side,
• 05:37 all of the tasks that are part of that Kitchen Renovation project.
• 05:41 And this is where I can start going through, selecting particular tasks that
• 05:45 I'm most interested in, and adding them to my Project Roadmap.
• 05:49 So let's go through.
• 05:50 I'm really interested in Rough Blueprints and Sketches.
• 05:54 Let's select that task.
• 05:55 I'm interested in the Budget and the Timeframe.
• 05:59 I'm interested in the Demolition, the Removal of the sink, and
• 06:02 the Removal of the tiles and flooring, and I could carry on going.
• 06:06 In this example, I'm just going to add in those particular tasks.
• 06:10 Once I've selected the tasks I'm interested in monitoring, I can
• 06:14 click on Update, at the bottom, and it's going to import those particular tasks.
• 06:19 And you can see now if I click away, there are my tasks listed just here.
• 06:23 Now if I zoom all the way out, and I'm going to Go to date,
• 06:29 there are those tasks that I selected.
• 06:33 If I hover over them, I can see what that task is, set budget and timeframe.
• 06:38 This one over here is the demolition of walls and cabinets.
• 06:41 And if I click on these tasks,
• 06:42 it's going to open up a little bit more information.
• 06:45 I can see the Title, I can see the Start date, and the End date.
• 06:49 And in this particular Roadmap, I can choose to set a Status.
• 06:53 Now, it's worth noting that this doesn't have any reflection, or
• 06:57 it doesn't filter back to the actual project plan,
• 07:00 this is just really when you're working in Roadmap.
• 07:03 So I could say that this task is On track to be completed.
• 07:08 And I can carry on going through color coding, the status of each of these tasks.
• 07:14 So it's a nice quick way of being able to see, in your Roadmap, the key tasks which
• 07:18 really influence your project's completion date, and being able to see if they're
• 07:22 on track, if they're at risk, if they're at high risk, so on and so forth.
• 07:26 If I want to, I can add another project simply by adding a row.
• 07:31 And this time we're going to add the Onboarding Project.
• 07:35 The owner is me.
• 07:38 We're going to Connect to a project, and then I can choose it from here.
• 07:42 So let's say, Employee Onboarding.
• 07:45 Again, it needs to connect to Project Roadmap and
• 07:47 the Dataverse to grab the data.
• 07:48 Which is fine, I've got green ticks.
• 07:50 Click on Connect, and
• 07:52 then it's going to open up all of the tasks that are part of this project, and
• 07:56 I can go through and select the ones that I want to keep an eye on.
• 08:00 So I'm just going to choose a few of these.
• 08:02 Let's just select a fair few, and
• 08:05 then click on Update to pull them across to the Roadmap.
• 08:10 So now I can effectively view my projects side-by-side.
• 08:14 And it might be that you need to scroll around a little bit because some of your
• 08:17 projects might be on completely different timelines, and
• 08:19 take place at completely different points in the year.
• 08:22 So just bear that in mind when you're working in this view.
• 08:25 Another thing we can do from here is Add key dates, and
• 08:28 these would be most similar to Milestones in Project Desktop.
• 08:32 So I'm going to click on the Kitchen Renovation project, and
• 08:35 I'm going to say that I want to add a Key date.
• 08:37 So maybe a Key date is when the Demolition starts.
• 08:41 I'm going to select exactly when that is.
• 08:43 So, again, this is just going to be a rough guesstimate.
• 08:46 So let's say the 15th of February.
• 08:48 I can set a Status, we'll say, On track, and
• 08:51 I can add the Key date to this particular project plan.
• 08:55 And you can see it's represented with this little pin icon at the top, just here.
• 08:59 So roadmaps are a great way for project managers and
• 09:03 team leaders to keep on top of multiple different projects, and keep an eye
• 09:08 on key tasks which could have an effect on the overall completion date of a project.

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