Creating and Managing Programme and Portfolio Timelines in Gantt Chart

TL;DR

Create a programme or portfolio timeline in Gantt Chart to plan and manage multiple projects together in one place. Set up project dependencies to see how projects relate to each other, view milestones at a glance on the project bar, turn on Show milestones only to focus on key dates, and use options like Critical path and Hide empty folders to refine the timeline as work moves forward.

• Overview
• How to Setup Dependencies
• How to Use Show Only Milestones
• Refining the Timeline
• Working with Project Dependencies
• What’s Next?

Overview

A programme timeline gives you a high-level view of multiple projects in a single Gantt chart. You can set up project dependencies to visualize relationships between projects and use Show Milestones only to focus on key dates across the timeline. You can also customize the Gantt Chart to display the information most relevant to your planning and monitoring needs.

How to Set up a Programme/ Portfolio with Project Dependencies

Create a Gantt chart at the space level or from a top-level folder that contains the projects you want to track together.

1. Navigate to a folder, project, or space in the sidebar.
2. Click on the + Add view 1 from the toolbar.
3. Select Gantt Chart 2 from the drop-down that appears.
   

To enable Project Dependencies: 

1. Click the three-dot menu 1 on the Gantt Chart timeline.
2. Turn on Project dependencies 2.
   

Wrike supports four types of project dependencies:

• Finish to Start: The successor project starts after the predecessor project finishes.
• Start to Start: The successor project starts after the predecessor project starts.
• Finish to Finish: The successor project finishes after the predecessor project finishes.
• Start to Finish: The successor project finishes after the predecessor project starts.

For more information, see Task and Projects Dependencies.

How to Use Show Only Milestones

Click Show Milestones only when you want to focus on key dates across your portfolio or programme without displaying every task.

1. Click the three-dot menu on the Gantt Chart toolbar 1.
2. Turn on Show Milestones only 2.
   

This collapses the tasks on the timeline and shows the milestones within each project directly on the project bar.

Refining the Timeline

You can use additional Gantt Chart options to focus the timeline on the information that's most relevant to your portfolio or programme.

• Critical path: Turn on Critical path to identify work that can affect the overall completion date.
• Hide empty folders: Turn on Hide empty folders to remove folders that don't contain tasks from the timeline.

These options are optional and can be used alongside the portfolio-level view.

Working with Project Dependencies

When you change the dates of a project that's a predecessor in a dependency chain and when you reschedule a project with dependencies, Wrike shows the potential impact on dependent projects rather than automatically moving them.

• Dependent projects: Downstream projects aren't automatically rescheduled, allowing you to review and adjust their dates as needed.
• Nested subprojects: If the project contains nested subprojects, you're prompted to choose whether to shift those subprojects along with the parent project.

For more information, see Project Dependencies on the Gantt Chart.

What's Next?

• Project Dependencies on the Gantt Chart.