Managing Projects in Rhythm

Recommended best practices for using Rhythm to manage projects

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Why Use Rhythm to Manage Projects

Many people use some combination of clunky spreadsheets, calendars, email, whiteboards, and sticky notes in their offices to run projects. Rhythm is designed to help you streamline basic project management and increase your productivity.

Here are some benefits to managing your projects in Rhythm:

• All your work is in one system. You don't have to track tasks for your projects separately from tasks on your Priorities in Rhythm. Your to-do list is all in one place where it is easier to manage. Get out of those spreadsheets!
• You have a holistic view of your workload so it is easier to prevent being overloaded. If your projects are in Rhythm, you (and your manager) have a clear idea of everything you are working on for the quarter.
• Collaboration is easy. Rather than sending a long string of emails or having frequent status meetings to know how others are progressing on their part of your project, Rhythm makes it easy to see all the work on the project in one place, even work being done by different people or different teams. And, you can comment directly on the project in Rhythm to keep your communication about the project in the same place where you are managing the work.

How to know if Rhythm is the right tool for your project:

We've found that Rhythm is effective for about 80% of projects that our clients are managing. However, if you have more complex projects that require resource leveling, task dependencies, budgets, etc., you can integrate your current project management tool with Rhythm by using the Attachments feature to link the two systems.

How to Set Up Project Priorities

Entering a project as a priority is a great way to manage projects in Rhythm.

• Enter your project as a priority in Rhythm. If you want the project to show up on your Team's Energy Map as one of the top 3-5 priorities for your team this quarter, check the box under Team. If not, you can leave this box unchecked.
• You can customize the start and end dates for the actual dates when you'll be working on the project; you aren't bound to the default quarter start and end dates. So, if you have a project that will take multiple quarters to complete, you can manage all the work under one priority.
• You should enter Red-Yellow-Green success criteria for your project, just like you would any priority in Rhythm. If you have a project that spans multiple quarters, you can set the Red-Yellow-Green success criteria for each quarter based on what you want to accomplish by the end of that quarter. Or, you can set the success criteria for the project as a whole.
• You can create sub-projects and tasks under this main priority by linking Child Priorities and/or Tasks. Anyone who is working on the project can link their own priorities to your main priority, even if they are on different teams. This is a great way to manage cross-functional work.
• Use the Comments tab to collaborate with your team on the project, and use Attachments to add files or links to other systems or sites.

How to Use the Project View

Once your Priority is set up with linked Child Priorities and Tasks, the best way to keep track of everything is using the Project View tab on the Priority.

• You can see all the work being done on this project in one place, even linked priorities and Tasks from past or future quarters.
• You can easily see Tasks. The shortcut in the list will show all Tasks for the linked Child Goals. You can quickly visualize what's coming up and whether the Tasks are overdue or not.
• You can easily see the status and Tasks for any linked Child Priorities in this view. And, you can quickly click into those priorities to see more details or add Comments, Tasks, and Attachments.