Smartsheet for Project & Portfolio Management 3in1 - 10 PDUs

In this lecture, I cover:

• High-level pricing and which plan represents the best value for money

• How to create and activate your account

In this lecture, I cover:

• Overview of the main interface

• Overview of the main tool menu

• The most important icon in Smartsheet

In this lecture, I cover:

• The difference between Workspaces and Folders

• I will show you how to create your first workspace

• I will cover sharing options

In this lecture, I cover:

• How to create your first Sheet in Smartsheet

• File formats supported in Smartsheet

• Create an action item log in Smartsheet using the basic Grid file

• Overview of the Sheet Interface and Menu

• The importance of columns in Smartsheet

• The habit of manually saving your work

In this lecture, I cover:

• The primary column in Smartsheet

• Various types of columns - drop-down, text/ number, contact, dates

• Text wrapping in columns

• Date format setting

• Autosave feature setting

  
  

In this lecture, I cover:

1. All types of columns in Smartsheet with their use cases

2. Various ways to create and delete a column

3. Individual column settings per type of column

4. Add column descriptions

In this lecture, I cover:

• Indenting rows (nesting)

• Text formatting menu

• Highlight changes functionality

• How to maximise the size of the screen

• Formula, Currency and Date menu

In this lecture, I cover:

• Use cases for conditional formatting

• Enable/ Disable/ Clone a rule to save time

• Use Case: Highlight a row if "Due Date" is "in the past" AND "Status" is not "Done."

In this lecture, I cover:

• How to create a Form in Smartsheet

• How to configure the Form

• Individual Form element settings

• Practical tips & tricks from my practice

In this lecture, I cover:

• How to Find and Replace Text

• Use Case: Replace the name of a team member

In this lecture, I cover:

• The two main ways to engage a filter

• How to Name and Save a Filter in Smartsheet

• Multiple filter criteria/ logic

In this lecture, I cover:

• How to create a template in Smartsheet

• How to deploy a template in Smartsheet

In this lecture, I cover:

• How to manipulate information from multiple sheets in Smartsheet by using Reports

• How to create a report

• How to configure report variables

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Take this short and fun quiz to check your understanding and review what you've learned in this section. It's a great way to track your progress!

The skill to prepare a reliable Project Schedule is fragmented. It consists of 3 main components:

1. Project Management Knowledge

2. Project Management Tool

3. Real-life Experience

In this lecture, I cover key terms related to project scheduling:

• Scheduling Method - Gantt

• Scheduling Tool

• Schedule Model

• Project Schedule

• Project Information

• Project Plan vs. Project Schedule

In this lecture, I cover the 6 processes involved in Project Schedule Management:

1. Plan Schedule Management

2. Define Activities

3. Sequence Activities

4. Estimate Activity Durations

5. Develop Schedule

6. Control Schedule

According to PMBOK 6 by PMI

In this lecture, I cover:

• What is a Gantt Chart? (A love affair between a Task List and a Calendar)

• To study Gantt Charts more in-depth, check Wikipedia as a starter. (link attached)

In this lecture, I cover the 4 Task Dependencies.

1. Must know: Finish-To-Start (FS)

2. Good to know: Start-To-Start (SS) & Finish-To-Finish (FF)

3. No need to know: Start-To-Finish (SF)

4. I also cover the concept of Leads and Lags

In this lecture, I cover:

• The concept of project Lifecycle as per PMI

  • Initiate

  • Plan

  • Execute

  • Monitoring & Control

  • Close

• The concept of Milestone vs. Gate

In this lecture, I cover:

• The concept of WBS (Work Breakdown Structure)

• The decomposition principle MECE (Mutually Exclusive Collectively Exhaustive)

In this lecture, I cover:

• The concept of Critical Path.

• Tasks that are on the critical path.

In this lecture, I cover ways to compress project timeline by exploring:

• Fast Tracking vs. Crashing

• When should you use each for the best results

This is another short quiz to check your understanding and review what you've learned in this section. Knowledge learned in this section is a solid foundation for what we will do in the next section.

In this section, I will teach you how to create your first project schedule in Smartsheet from scratch.

In this lecture, I cover:

• How to import an Excel file full of tasks in Smartsheet. (The source file is attached)

• The relationship between WBS, Gates and Lifecycle that was discussed in the previous section.

In this lecture, I cover:

• How to enable the Gantt View

• How to zoom in and out the calendar portion of the Gantt

In this lecture, I cover:

• How to enable dependencies in Smartsheet

• How to configure and manage dependencies

In this lecture, I cover how to add and configure the percentage complete column, which will help you monitor the project completion percentage.

In this lecture, I cover adding other essential columns to our Action items log, such as Health, Owner, and Comment.

In this lecture, I enter all dates and dependencies of the entire schedule. This is an essential step to determine the critical path.

Once I enter all dates and dependencies, the percentage complete column correctly calculates the project complete %.

In this lecture, I cover:

• What is a Schedule Baseline

• How to enable Schedule Baseline Feature

• How to turn it on and off and how to re-baseline a schedule

In this lecture, I cover how to export your professional schedule in a .pdf

In this lecture, I cover how to create a basic project dashboard and walk you through the widgets available in Smartsheet that can be added to a dashboard.

This is the introductory lecture where I introduce the case study for the Section.

Case Study

• ZenBuild is a construction startup

• Their Head of PMO has been fired for non-performance

• You are hired as the new PMO Head

Challenges:

• You have to use Smartsheet and implement their portfolio management process

• There is perceived lack of transparency and chaos

• Resources are not used intelligently

• Nobody seems to know who is working on what and what is the current project status

• You have to use one tool for project and portfolio management

Key portfolio management terms/ concepts

• Project Management vs. Portfolio Management

• Initiative types - Task, Assignment, Project

• Project Health - Red, Amber, Green (RAG)

• Project Methodology - Lifecycle, Roles & Responsibilities, Governance

• PM Methodology is more important than a project tool

In this lecture, I cover the key differences between a Project Management Software/ Tool and Portfolio Management Software/ Tool.

In this lecture, I cover:

• How to create a Portfolio Workspace in Smartsheet?

• How to Start the creation of your first Portfolio Database in Smartsheet?

In this lecture, we continue building our project portfolio. I will show you how to add:

• Project Health (RAG) column

• Project Type

• Unique ID

In this lecture, we continue building our project portfolio. You will learn how to add:

• Project Trend

• Project Stage

• Weekly Project Status (Narrative)

In this lecture, we continue building our project portfolio. You will learn how to add:

• Project Manager

• Project Sponsor

In this lecture, we continue building our project portfolio. You will learn how to add:

• Project Start Date

• Project Finish Date

• Project Duration (automatically calculated)

• Enable Gantt View

In this lecture, we continue building our project portfolio. You will learn how to add:

• Project Category

• Project Folder

In this lecture, we continue building our project portfolio. You will learn how to add:

• Project Display column - This will control the transparency of your portfolio towards your stakeholders

• Last Modified Column - This will help you quickly assess if a certain project needs an update

In this lecture, I will teach you how to add a project portfolio header to a "standard" project schedule which will enable cell linking between sheets in Smartsheet and make automatic updates possible.

Automatic portfolio updates ensure that any changes made by project managers to their project schedules are instantly reflected in the portfolio dashboard. This capability will significantly reduce the preparation time required for our Head of Portfolio Management at ZenBuild.

In this lecture, you will link the Portfolio to your first "hacked" project schedule and unleash the power of automatic updates.

In this lecture, I simulate adding more projects to the portfolio to get a better idea of how it would look like in a real-life use case.

In this lecture, I will show you how to master the Project Portfolio Report and share my personal tips and tricks that will save you a ton of time.

In this lecture, you will create a Smartsheet Portfolio Dashboard using everything that you learned so far.

In this lecture, I will teach you how to create a Project Portfolio Backlog. Sometimes this is referred to as:

• Demand Management

• Funnel Management

• Project Pipeline

Essentially, in real life, you have more project ideas that you can implement right away, and you need a place to store and evaluate them before they are authorised for execution.

In this lecture, I will teach you how to create a repository for your completed projects.

In this lecture, I will demonstrate how to establish a centralized Lessons Learned Database for your project portfolio. This database serves as a platform where project managers can share insights gleaned from completed projects.

In this lecture, I will guide you through setting up templates to streamline portfolio management, save time, and ensure a consistent approach across all projects.