Organizing People and Work with Microsoft SharePoint 2010

In this section:

• Creating a Project Schedule with the Project Tasks List

• Scheduling Events with the Calendar List

• Using the Issues List

• Enhancing Communication with the Discussion List

• Synchronizing Project Tasks with Microsoft Project

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 provides a number of list templates that can help you track and manage people and work. A contacts list can help you track contact information for customers or partners. An issues list can help in tracking project risks, support incidents, or change requests for a product or service.

Many of these lists include special features specific to the type of list. A project tasks list can track dependencies between tasks and includes a Gantt view of task schedules. An events list includes a calendar view that can be used to track single or recurring meetings and can even provision a Meeting Workspace automatically.

SharePoint 2010 also has the capability to synchronize project tasks between a plan in Microsoft Project and a project tasks list, making it easier for project managers to get a bird’s eye view of an entire project, while team members can focus on just the tasks assigned to them.

In this section we show you how to create and configure SharePoint lists that you can use for tracking people and work. To create lists in SharePoint you need elevated permissions on a site. For the tasks in this section, we assume that you have created or have access to a SharePoint site with the appropriate permissions to create and manage lists. For information about creating sites, see Creating a SharePoint Site Based on a Template.

Creating a Project Schedule with the Project Tasks List

Two core responsibilities of any project manager are to manage a project schedule and coordinate and track tasks across a project team. One of the most popular and universal approaches to handling this work is to use a Gantt chart, which combines a list of tasks with a calendar view.

SharePoint 2010 provides a special type of list called Project Tasks that combines the capabilities of a standard task list with a Gantt chart that displays task start and end dates and shows task progress based on the percentage-complete value of the task.

Create a Project Task List

1. Click More Options on the Site Actions menu.

   

2. In the Create dialog box, do either of the following:

   • Click List and/or Tracking in the Filter By list.

   • Type Project Tasks in the search box, and click the search icon.

3. Click Project Tasks.

4. Type a name for your list.

5. Click Create.

   

Add a Project Task

1. Browse to the Project Tasks list. (See Create a Project Task List.)

2. Click the Items tab under List Tools on the ribbon.

3. Choose Task from the New Item menu.

   

4. Enter task information.

5. Click Save.

   

Update Multiple Tasks with the Datasheet

1. Click the List tab under List Tools on the ribbon.

2. Click Datasheet View.

3. Click a cell to edit the value. Repeat this step to change the values of additional cells. Changes are saved automatically when you finish editing a cell.

   

Zoom the Gantt View

1. Click the List tab under List Tools on the ribbon.

2. Select a task row by clicking the row header column.

3. Click Scroll To Task.

4. Select either of the following to adjust the Gantt chart’s scale:

   • Zoom In to show a smaller time increment on the scale

   • Zoom Out to show a larger time increment on the scale

   

Configure Task Columns

1. Choose Configure Columns from any column menu

   

2. In the Configure Columns dialog box, you can perform any of the following steps:

   • Hide or display a column by selecting or clearing the check box next to the column name.

   • Move a column up or down in the display order by selecting the column and clicking Move Up or Move Down.

   • Change the display width of a column by updating the column width value

3. Click OK to save and apply your changes.