Executing Projects successfully and with ease requires a solid Project Plan. Project Plans are typically built around defining clear-cut Project Tasks and scheduling them well ahead of time. Reducing your efforts on Project Tasks helps you spend more time in other areas of the Project or on other Projects.
On D-Tools, a Task Template provides a blueprint of the Project Tasks that you readily add to a Project. With the Task Groups, Tasks, and Checklists inherited from the template, you only have to make minor modifications to the Tasks, and they’re ready to be scheduled to your team members for completion.
Why Should you use Task Templates?
Here are some of the benefits of using Task Templates.
Speed – Applying a Task Template in a Project automatically populates the Task Groups, Tasks, Checklists, Products, and Attachments in the Project’s Task List. You can edit every detail of the inherited Task in the Project’s Task view. So, speed does not reduce the flexibility in defining Tasks.
Consistency – Task Templates bring great consistency to how all Project Managers execute their Projects. With a standardized Checklist, the Tasks are always completed to the expected degree of customer satisfaction.
Analytics – Using well-defined Task Groups and Tasks for all Projects helps us present better Analytics data on the Dashboard. Also, using Task Templates early on can help you leverage other Analytics data we may add to the Dashboard in the future.
How to Create Task Templates
Task Templates can be added in the initial stages of adopting D-Tools Cloud. Templates can also stem from completed Projects when you decide to declare an effective Task list as a Task Template you want to use for future Projects.
Add Task Templates from Settings
To add Task Templates, go to Settings, and click Task Templates under Projects. Click "New task template," and you will see the modal to add the Task Groups and Tasks.
Create the Task Groups and Tasks using these guidelines:
Name the Template.
Create the Task Groups. For simplicity, name the Task Group with the name of the Project Phase. If you need multiple Task Groups in a Phase, name them accordingly. If a Phase has no tasks, you do not need to add a Task Group for the Phase.
For visual ease, assign a distinct color to a Task Group from the Color Palette.
Click the “Plus icon” for a Task Group to add a Task. Do not worry about the Task details now. You can add them when the Task Groups and Tasks are final.
Once you are done adding Tasks in all Groups, check the overall Task list for any missing tasks and add them. Drag and drop the tasks to reorder them within and across Groups.
Click the Ellipsis menu (three-dot menu) next to a Task and click Edit. Here, you can add the Checklist and other details to make this a well-defined Task. Do this for all Tasks. Check out this article on defining Project Tasks.
Click “Create” when you are ready to add the Task Template to the template library.
When applying the Template to a Project, you can add project-specific details for every Task inherited from the Template.
Learn more about defining Project Tasks
Save a Task List as a Template
If creating Task Templates is too cumbersome for you, you can permanently save a Task list from a completed or ongoing Project as a Template. This approach is beneficial when you work on unique projects and do not know the effective Task list until you complete a few projects.
Go to the Project view, click Plan > Tasks, click the Ellipsis menu (three-dot menu) and click “Save as task template.”