Following 4 steps, we'll explain how you can set up a schedule in vPlan:
- What do you want to schedule?
- Who do you want to schedule?
- How do you want to schedule?
- How do you view the schedule?
What do you want to schedule?
To start scheduling, it's important to determine what you want to schedule. Are they your project activities per week? Are they customer appointments at specific times? Or are they deals at various stages of your pipeline? Determine what the 'schedulable object' will be by defining the corresponding characteristics. What data does the object need to be scheduled correctly? For example, if you're planning an assembly job, you'll want to know at least the job number, tasks, and location. For project activities, you might work with deadlines, and for a sales deal, the deal value is crucial.
In vPlan, we call the 'schedulable object' a card. The card has several standard fields where you can enter general information. It's possible that integration with your ERP or accounting software will automatically create cards for your schedule with the correct information.
You can link activities to a card. These are standard tasks your company performs. For example, a furniture maker might have activities such as cutting, sanding, milling, and assembling. A marketing agency, on the other hand, might have activities like strategy, design, DTP, and SEO optimization.
If you find that specific information is missing from the card, you can use custom fields to include it. In vPlan, this information is always visible on the card. You can search for it and display it in our list view. Custom fields can also be used to capture additional information during card execution.
A client of ours trains guide dogs for the blind. A card is created for each dog. The card (i.e., a dog) contains all relevant information, such as name, age, and breed. The card then progresses through the training process, so they precisely know the dog's level of advancement.
What do you want to plan?
Everything that is planned must also be executed. It's important for your planning to know who is responsible for the execution. For instance, are you dealing with the capacity of your employees, or perhaps it's your machines that need to do the work? Capacity ensures that you have insight into whether the work can be completed with the available resources you have.
It might also be the case that you don't work with capacity, but you still want to link your team members to plan objects. This way, you can see who is responsible for the execution.
It's also important to know whether employees support the work throughout the entire process or if they only perform a part of the total assignment. Does your team work at a fixed location, or do they travel with vans throughout the Netherlands? It could also be the case that you're dealing with competencies within your business processes. For example, Frank might be good at welding, but Gerrit cannot weld. On the other hand, Gerrit might excel at carpentry.
In essence, it's crucial to gain a clear understanding of who is responsible for executing tasks before you begin planning. Gather all this information beforehand.
In vPlan, we refer to the executors of tasks as "resources." It's possible to associate a schedule with a resource, thereby creating capacity. Your resources are often your colleagues but could also include machines or delivery vans. In vPlan, you have the flexibility to create your resources. You can also group resources, making it easier to filter them in your planning.
How do you want to plan?
Now that we know what and who we want to plan, we can establish structure. To create structure, it's important to understand how tasks progress through the process. Are you dealing with project phases? Do your tasks have sequential statuses? Are activities dependent on each other?
Everything comes together in a planning board within vPlan. The activities, the resources, and the process steps. To showcase this effectively, we'll use an example. The marketing agency Design wants to plan project activities on the employees of the company. We start by creating a planning board.
Firstly, standards are established within the planning. What are the standard working days, which labels can be added, and which specific fields should be available in tasks, and who has access?
After this, we'll look at phases. Projects at Design often go through the same process, namely Strategy, Design, and Development. These will also be the phases within the board. For each phase, we determine which activities take place in it.
Next, we set up the statuses. Project tasks start with the status Open. Then, they are taken In Progress, and afterward, Completed. A task might experience delays due to waiting for a client response; therefore, there's also a status called Waiting for Client.
Choose your own overview
vPlan offers three different views: list view, calendar view, and timeline view. A well-organized plan must be easily readable, so we provide you the option to choose the view yourself. You can toggle all the information displayed in the view on or off. Additionally, you can apply filters to many different components. For Design, the timeline is the best choice to create an overview in the planning.
Add all the tasks to your planning board
The framework for your planning is set! To utilize your planning effectively, all data must be added to your planning board through cards. vPlan integrates with many systems, allowing for the automatic creation of cards. Check here if your system is among them. By using integrations, you reduce manual work. It's even possible to create your own integration using Zapier.
You can create activities yet to be planned in the backlog. These tasks still need to be scheduled. It's also possible to place these tasks directly into the planning.
Keep planning, analyzing, and optimizing
The planning is ready! Now it's important to keep track of the planning and adjust it if necessary. It's crucial to keep tweaking and optimizing. Based on past results, you can make better decisions for the future.
Due to the numerous functionalities in vPlan, we can map your planning exactly as you wish. Check out all functionalities here.