How to create a project template in the ONLYOFFICE Project Management tool

How to create a project template in the ONLYOFFICE Project Management tool

You can use ONLYOFFICE as a project management tool. Here’s how to set up a template so you can easily access the work on your projects. Jack Wallen shows you how.

Image: ONLYOFFICE

Project management is something every business must consider at some point. Your company might have started out small, but as it grows so too will the number of projects you undertake. As those projects continue to grow, you’ll need the means to not only better manage them, but make the creation of similar projects easier.

SEE: Linux turns 30: Celebrating the open source operating system (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

If you’ve given ONLYOFFICE a try, you know it includes a project management component. You might not know, however, that the project management tool features project templates. With these templates, you are better empowered to create project templates that include a project structure (milestones) and even pre-configured tasks. With each milestone in a template, you can give it a name then set a duration.

For example, let’s say you frequently have to create new development projects, each of which includes the following milestones (with varying durations):

  • Requirements gathering.
  • Validate your requirement expectations.
  • Predevelopment planning.
  • Quality assurance testing.
  • User acceptance testing.
  • Deployment.
  • Support

You might also need to include tasks such as:

  • Assign developers.
  • Cost estimates.
  • Documentation

Now that we have our milestones and our tasks pieced together, we can create a template that includes all of those items. Let’s make that happen.

What you’ll need

To create a project template, you’ll need a running instance of OTRS (find out how to deploy OTRS in How to install the OTRS community edition help desktop platform on Ubuntu Server 20.04).

How to create a project template

Log into your instance of ONLYOFFICE and click Projects from the main window (Figure A).

Figure A

Accessing the Project Management tool in ONLYOFFICE.
Accessing the Project Management tool in ONLYOFFICE.

In the resulting window, click Project Templates from the sidebar (Figure B).

Figure B

The Project Management tool in ONLYOFFICE is quite easy to use.
The Project Management tool in ONLYOFFICE is quite easy to use.

Click Project Templates and then, in the next window, click Create the First Template (Figure C).

Figure C

Creating your first project template in ONLYOFFICE Projects.
Creating your first project template in ONLYOFFICE Projects.

In the resulting window (Figure D), give the template a name and then click Add milestone.

Figure D

Configuring a project management template that you'll use over and over.
Configuring a project management template that you’ll use over and over.

Continue adding your milestones (and associating a duration until they’re all entered). Next, click Add Task and add all of the necessary tasks (Figure E).

Figure E

Adding a shortlist of tasks to our template.
Adding a shortlist of tasks to our template.

If you need to assign a specific task to a specific milestone, click the drop-down arrow associated with the milestone and then click Add Task. You can add as many tasks to a milestone as you need (Figure F).

Figure F

Adding specific tasks to specific milestones.
Adding specific tasks to specific milestones.

Once you’ve completed the template, click Save to complete the template. Once you’ve done that, you’ll be taken to the list of project templates. Select your template and then click Create Project and you’ll be taken to the Create new project page with all of the milestones and tasks from the template. All you have to do is give the project a name, a description, assign a team and click Save (Figure G).

Figure G

Creating a new project from our template.
Creating a new project from our template.

And that’s all there is to create a project template for ONLYOFFICE Projects. This is a great option for anyone just getting started with project management and needs an in-house solution that doesn’t skimp on features.

Subscribe to TechRepublic’s How To Make Tech Work on YouTube for all the latest tech advice for business pros from Jack Wallen.

Source of Article