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Scheduling

Construction Viz Task Manager 2.0 – Gantt Charts Coming to Task Management

Project Management, Project Management Tools, Scheduling |

The Construction Viz Task Manager app for Microsoft 365 delivers a simple yet powerful way to track and report on project tasks. It is a stand-alone application in Construction Viz but can be integrated into any other application, such as RFIs, Submittals, or Meeting Minutes. With the latest update, we’ve moved the needle significantly on project task management to include scheduling, checklists, and sub-tasks!

Read on to find out more about how our updated Task Manager app can help you organize and track tasks for your projects.

What is New in Construction Viz Task Manager 2.0

We built the Task Manager so that team members have a 360-degree view of project tasks. The Task Manager includes the following views:

  • Dashboard – Displays charts of key metrics with drill-down capability.
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  • List – Provides a log of all tasks with filtering, grouping, and search.
  • Board – Displays a Kanban view for updating the status of tasks.
  • Calendar – Plots tasks on a familiar calendar with today, day, week, month, and agenda views.

With the latest Task Manager release, we are extending the functionality to include lightweight scheduling. So, if you are looking for a three-week look ahead project schedule tool or prefer a Gantt chart-style view of your tasks, we’ve got you covered.

This release includes the following updates to the Task Manager app:

  • Schedule View – A new view that displays all tasks in a familiar Gantt chart schedule. The schedule includes scheduling controls to filter and change displays.
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  • Task Schedule component – We added a scheduling component to the task form for managing start and finish dates, times, all-day events, and durations.
  • Task Checklist component – We added a checklist component to the task form to track items needed to complete the overall task. The checklist allows for drag-and-drop ordering, auto-assign completed by, and completed dates.
  • Sub-task component – We added a component to the task form to add sub-tasks to a task. Sub-tasks include fields for the required by date, forecasted completion date, status, and percent complete.
  • Visual alerts – We updated the mouse-over tooltips and added color indicators across views to display late and incomplete tasks. These visual alerts will help project teams stay on track.
Picture3

While these updates are significant, we are just getting started. We plan on further extending the scheduling capabilities of the Construction Viz Task Manager app, including dependencies and resource management. Stay tuned as we continue to deliver a leading-edge task management solution with Construction Viz for Microsoft 365!

Sign up today for a no-obligation demo to learn how Construction Viz can help your organization manage your construction projects more efficiently.

 

Simplifying Schedule Updates with Construction Viz Scheduler

Scheduling |

The Construction Viz Scheduler app is a simple yet powerful construction project scheduling tool. Scheduler lets you easily handle scheduling, including managing and assigning resources, right in Microsoft 365 and SharePoint. Read on to learn how Scheduler can simplify your schedule update workflow.

The typical scheduling software can be cumbersome to use, especially if all you want to do as a project manager is get activity updates from team members. A big reason for this is that most scheduling software imposes rigid workflow processes.

For example, with many software tools, the schedule update process typically goes something like this:

  1. The project manager reaches out to the scheduler to get the activity IDs.
  2. The scheduler creates and runs a PDF report of the requested activities.
  3. The scheduler emails the PDF report to the project manager.
  4. The project manager sends the PDF report to their team members, asking for schedule updates.
  5. Team members make their updates by marking up the PDF report and emailing it back to the project manager.
  6. The project manager reviews and compiles the collective updates from the team before sending them back to the scheduler
  7. Finally, the scheduler actualizes the schedule with the latest input provided by the team.

Unfortunately, by the time the schedule is actualized, it’s already out-of-date.

How Construction Viz Scheduler improves scheduling updates 

We wanted to ensure that each activity could be easily accessed and quickly shared, removing the frustration and barriers that delay schedule updates. We built our Construction Viz Scheduler app so that every activity has a unique URL that can be copied and shared through email or instant messenger with team members. To further simplify this process, we added a button within the activity details to copy the activity link, making it easy for users to share the URL.

Construction Viz Scheduler makes it easy to copy an activity link
Construction Viz Scheduler makes it easy to copy an activity link
Now team members can update their specific activities with one click
Now team members can update their specific activities with one click

The above is already a significant time-saver, but it gets even better. The Construction Viz Scheduler app lets teams access and share activity information in even more ways:

Scheduler Progress App Component.  This configurable component can be added to any app providing the ability to make updates to the Scheduler directly. For example, in a Daily Report app, a construction coordinator could update activity progress percent complete from within the form without opening up the Scheduler.

Daily Report app with Scheduler Progress Component
Daily Report app with Scheduler Progress Component

Forms. Forms, such as a Change Request, can incorporate activity URLs linked directly to a scheduled activity.

Workflow.  Power Automate workflows can include unique activity URLs for team member assignments and updates.

Reporting. Reports and dashboards can include hyperlinks to each activity ID to view additional information within the scheduler.

Scheduler plan vs. actual report with linked IDs
Scheduler plan vs. actual report with linked IDs

Concerned about access? Any activity in the Scheduler app can also be permission- and version-controlled, allowing you to manage access and updates securely.

We KNOW your project and processes are unique. And we firmly believe that no project management software should force you to re-invent the way you work. Instead, the software should fit into how you do the work. That’s why we built Construction Viz to be the most flexible project management tool available.

Find out more about Construction Viz and how it can help you save time and money on your next project with a no-obligation demo and consultation.

Construction Viz Integration with Oracle Primavera P6

Scheduling |

Many of you have probably used Oracle Primavera P6, the industry leader in project scheduling.  Anyone that has been in Project Controls, most likely has used P6 to manage their projects. It’s the backbone of construction planning, monitoring and reporting.

People at every level of a project need to see different details from P6 for their individual tasks. That means you need to make P6 data available in your Project Management Information System (PMIS) in a way that all your stakeholders can use and understand it.

Easier said than done. However, Lydon Solutions has been integrating P6 scheduling information into SharePoint for years. We evaluated how and where users need to access P6 data, and then built responsive apps and components that integrate P6 throughout the Construction Viz platform.

Here are some details.

Construction Viz P6 App

Our Construction Viz P6 app returns data in a configurable grid with powerful query and search capabilities. Users can easily slice and dice schedule information and even export it to Excel, if needed.

primavera p6 data

P6 Component 

Our P6 component can return schedule data based on queries within a form. Since many construction forms rely on P6 data, Construction Viz users can enable this component in any of our existing form apps—from field daily inspection reports to submittals—as well as in any custom-designed forms. The P6 component even allows users to add data to schedules, such as percent completed, quantities complete and expected completion dates. This information can be stored in Construction Viz for further reporting.

primavera p6

Construction Viz Scheduler

The easy-to-use Construction Viz Scheduler app integrates with P6. This means users can view summary and detailed P6 schedules, which can be shared with the entire project team.

Our P6 solutions are just one of many apps and components in Construction Viz that can turn SharePoint and Office 365 software into a robust construction project management solution. 

To learn more about how to integrate P6 information into your construction management process, contact us. We also invite you to sign up for our monthly newsletter in the footer below to get our latest blog updates, tips on using Microsoft SharePoint, and other useful info delivered directly to your inbox.