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Streamline Your Entire Project Lifecycle with monday.com

Overview: From Project Approval to Program Management

This webinar demonstrates how to build a complete project lifecycle workflow using monday.com. The workflow connects five key board types: Project Approval, Program High-Level, Project WBS (Work Breakdown Structure), Risk Register, and Dashboards. Automations link these boards to reflect real-world project management processes, saving time and improving visibility. For a fundamental introduction to the platform's capabilities, refer to our Complete Monday.com Tutorial For Beginners (Work Management Guide).

1. Project Approval Board: The Single Source of Truth

All project ideas, whether from internal teams or sales departments, should arrive in one central board for evaluation and decision-making.

  • Structure: Use a board with groups for "New Requests," "Under Consideration," "Approved," and "Rejected."
  • Form View: Create a form from your board columns to capture project proposals. This form can be shared via a link or embedded on a website. When submitted, new items automatically land in the "New Requests" group.
  • Business Case Template: Link to a separate template board where proposers can detail anticipated outcomes, milestones, and cost-benefit analysis.
  • Approval Automation: When the committee approves a project (and assigns a PM and budget), an automation moves the item to the "Approved" group.
  • Cross-Board Automation (Key Feature): When status changes to "Approved," a second automation creates an item in the Program High-Level Board, mapping columns like Project Name, PM, and Budget. This creates the project record instantly.

2. Program High-Level Board: The Strategic Overview

This board contains all approved, active, and completed projects, acting as a portfolio view to track progress toward larger business objectives.

  • High-Level View: Each project is a single row (item). This is not for detailed task management.
  • Project Lifecycle: Use a status column to track phases like "Upcoming," "Planning," "In Progress," "Launch," and "Closed."
  • Initiating the WBS: A critical automation triggers when a project's phase changes from "Upcoming" to "Planning." This automation:
    1. Creates a new board based on a pre-built Project WBS Template.
    2. Names the board using the project name.
    3. Notifies the assigned project manager.
  • Creating the Template: To create a reusable template, set up your WBS board with all desired columns and groups, then go to Board Menu > More Actions > Save as Template.

3. Project WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) Board: Detailed Execution

This is where you manage day-to-day project activities. The board structure mirrors a WBS:

  • Groups = Work Packages (e.g., Planning, Execution, Launch, Closure)
  • Items = Activities or Tasks
  • Subitems = Sub-activities (new feature)

Schedule Management

  • Baseline Timeline: A Timeline column representing your best estimate for each activity's duration.
  • Dependencies: Use the dedicated Dependencies column (created via automation) to link predecessor and successor tasks. Changing a timeline will automatically shift dependent tasks.
  • Milestones: Create a separate group for milestones. Link them back to their respective work packages using a Link to Item column for filtering.
  • Timeline View: Pivot your board to a Timeline view, grouped by work package. This provides a Gantt chart-like view. You can share this view as a public link (even for non-monday.com users) to keep stakeholders updated. For deeper guidance on structuring these boards, see Building Workflows in monday.com: Best Practices for Board Structure.

Planned vs. Actual Tracking

  1. Automation: When status changes to "Done," an automation sets an "Actual Date of Completion" column to the current date.
  2. Formula Column: Use a Formula column to calculate the difference in days: DAYS({Baseline End}, {Actual Date of Completion}). A positive number means late; a negative number means early.
  3. Status Formula: A second formula can categorize results: IF({Days Diff}>0, "Overdue", "On Time").

Effort Management & Workload View

  • Columns: Add Planned Effort (Number, e.g., hours) and Owner (Person) columns.
  • Workload View: This board view (also available as a dashboard widget) requires:
    • Owner column (Person)
    • Timeline or Date column (Baseline)
    • Effort column (Number or Items count)
  • Capacity Setting: Set a weekly capacity (e.g., 20 hours). The view will visually show when a team member is over-allocated, allowing you to reassign tasks.

Cost Management

  • Tracking: Add a Number column for expenses and a Dropdown column (or Status) for cost type.
  • Dashboards: Create charts to visualize spending:
    • Bar chart: X-axis = Work Package, Y-axis = Expenses Sum.
    • Cumulative line chart: X-axis = Date (e.g., Actual Date of Completion), Y-axis = Cumulative Expenses. Add a benchmark line for your approved project budget.

4. Risk Management: The Program Risk Register

Manage risks for all projects in a single board to improve knowledge sharing and decision-making.

  • Structure: Each group represents a different project.
  • Identification to Analysis Workflow: Columns are used from left to right:
    1. Identify: Date Identified (auto-populated), Risk Owner, Status, Category.
    2. Analyze: Probability (Low/Med/High) and Impact (Low/Med/High) status columns.
    3. Risk Level (RAG): Use multiple automations (10 in this demo) to set a Risk Level status column (Green/Amber/Red) based on the combination of Probability and Impact.
    4. Quantify: Use a Formula column to calculate Risk Rate (Probability score * Impact score) and Expected Loss (Risk Rate * Full Potential Loss).
    5. Plan Response: Enter Response Cost manually. A Formula column provides a recommendation: "Mitigate/Eliminate" if Response Cost is less than Expected Loss; "Track" otherwise.

5. Dashboards: Monitoring & Control

Create a single dashboard to monitor project health and progress.

  • Text Widget: Label sections (e.g., "Schedule Management").
  • Overview Widget: Shows project status (On Track/At Risk), % Done, and overall timeline dates.
  • Number Widget: Filter to show metrics on completed activities only (e.g., "Lead/Lag Average Days" and "% on Time").
  • Timeline Widget: Display a Gantt chart of multiple or all work packages.
  • Workload Widget: View resource allocation from the project board.
  • Chart Widgets: Cumulative expense chart, budget by activity type.
  • Risk Dashboard: A separate dashboard for risk insights:
    • Battery widget summarizing risk levels (Green/Amber/Red).
    • Average risk rate for high-level risks.
    • Analysis of potential loss vs. expected loss vs. response cost. For a step-by-step introduction to building these dashboards and boards, check out the Monday.com Project Management Tutorial for Beginners 2023.

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