What are the benefits of project timelines?
Every project has a planned start and finish date. A project timeline visualizes how tasks have been assigned to your team and any dependencies that will impact the target completion dates. As a project manager, a project timeline helps you:
Give direction to your team and keep everyone focused on the common goal
Visualize major milestones and assign the right tasks to hit those targets
Track any obstacles that disrupt the plan so you can proactively adjust workflows
A visualized project timeline is also useful for your team. By viewing the Gantt chart, team members can clearly see:
How their tasks impact the broader scope of the project
Gaps in the proposed timeline, allowing them to offer input and improve the project’s flow
Ways they can collaborate with other teammates on higher priority tasks
Project timelines are a useful project management tool because they allow every stakeholder to view the master plan for the project. Using the project timeline template, you create more alignment between your stakeholders and keep the project on track.
When to use the project timeline template
The project timeline template gives you a visual overview of:
Project tasks and target completion dates
How your teams are spending their time, so you can delegate the right tasks
Opportunities to create more efficient task completion workflows
Suppose you work for a public government department, and you’ve been tasked with enhancing community services to improve public safety. You need to align stakeholders around the plan, including the public and the government’s legal and compliance managers.
As the project manager, your job is to map out the timeline to complete the proposal.. Using the project timeline template, you can:
Define project priorities and map all stakeholder approval meetings
Set deadlines to draft public consultation and regulatory compliance proposals
Assign timelines to submit public funding requests
Create tasks to construct the public communication strategy
Organize community engagement and stakeholder update sessions
Review public feedback and operating budgets so you can prepare final reports
By using the project timeline template, you can create tasks for your team to hit each one of these milestones. Every task is then mapped into a visual Gantt tracker using the template’s built-in Timeline. Simply open a task, choose a start and end date, and the task is automatically added to the Gantt tracker.
Your project timeline template breaks down the larger deliverable into smaller tasks that can be easily managed within the Gantt tracker. It’s a visual and easy way to view the entire project and keep moving forward to the deadline.
The template can easily be adapted to suit your unique project goals and workflow, whether you’re working in the public sector, banking, healthcare – or any other industry with large, complex projects.
How to use the project timeline template?
The project timeline template helps you plan, schedule and visualize all project tasks using an intuitive Gantt tracker. It provides a calendar-based overview of the project, making it easy and efficient to schedule and coordinate team tasks. List out all tasks and assign the right deadlines to turn your vision into an actionable project plan.
Step 1: Map out the project workflow
Begin by creating the vertical sections in your template and map out the project workflow. By organizing your project board into sequential phases, from Planning and Preparation to Implementation and Review, you can easily see which tasks belong in each phase. This gives you a top-level overview of task dependencies and the order tasks will be worked on.
You can assign whatever labels to the sections best suit your unique needs, but keep in mind that the goal of the template is to map out the scope of the project timeline.
Step 2: Break down the workload into tasks
Once you have your sections, you’re ready to create tasks that you can assign to each section. Using the previous example of a public safety initiative, your tasks should list out all the stakeholder meetings, public consultations, compliance reviews, and engagement activities. Assign each task to the appropriate section based on its place in the timeline.
You can create a new task by clicking the + in any board section. Be sure to add a detailed description of the expectations and assign a tag so that the assignee understands the task scope. You can also create checklists for each task to include all the deliverables for the assigned team member.
Step 3: Assign task start and end dates
Once your tasks are listed out on the template, you need to assign dates of delivery so that you can complete the project timeline. It’s crucial to consider task dependencies here. For example, in the Template, the task “Draft public consultation plan” can’t begin until after the task for “Stakeholder mapping” has begun.Now, you’re ready for the defining feature of the project timeline template. Click the Timeline icon in the top navigation bar and select “Show project timeline.” You can see the start and end dates for each task, creating a horizontal Gantt tracker that visualizes the project timeline. You can also see which tasks are dependent on others and assign resources as needed to keep the project on track for the final deadline.
Step 4: Monitor project performance
As tasks are completed, team members can move them to “Done” on the board. You can review the project timeline throughout your project to ensure that tasks and milestones are being completed as expected. The Reports feature in MeisterTask provides an overview of completion dates and task deliverables at a glance. Use these insights to proactively make adjustments to your project timeline as needed.
