This article is designed for the Sharktowr Delivery Path. If you want to know how to plan in GANTT, click here. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Introduction
• Step 1 - Clusters (or Phases)
• Step 2 - Adding the detail
• Step 3 – Outcomes (or milestones)
• Step 4 - Re-baselining your plan
• Step 5 - Publishing
• Further Reading

Introduction

Step 1 - Clusters (or Phases)

We recommend thinking about your project phases at the start. This will help you figure out the bigger picture, you may not know all the detail yet but it is good practice to build out the phases of work first.

1. To create a phase use our cluster tool, click on Cluster (or press C on your keyboard).
   
   
2. Click and drag from the start date to the end date and release.
   
   
3. Enter a title, choose a colour, and click Add.

Step 2 - Adding the detail

Once we have created the phases it is now time to think about the lower-level detail. In Sharktower there are activities (these are 1 – 4 week tranches of work), and under these activities, we have work items. Work items are tasks, risks, issues, decisions, and stories. This is the lowest level of detail and should be things that need to be done to achieve the activity they’re linked to.

Let’s create some activities.

1. Start by clicking the Activity icon on the left (or pressing A on your keyboard).
   
   
2. Left-click on the start date in the planning area then move your mouse to the desired end date. The line will follow your mouse cursor.
   
   
3. Left-click again and you’ve created your first activity!
   
   
4. Click on the title (where it says “Unnamed Activity”) and you’ll be able to add your own title, assignee, and other data. 

Tip: If you have created an activity by mistake you can use the undo & redo buttons at the top. 

Showing dependencies in Sharktower is easy. 

1. Hover over the end of an activity and you’ll see a + icon (we recommend zooming in to make it easier), left-click.
   
   
2. The line will then follow your cursor and place it at the end date. Linking activities is a way to represent dependencies on the plan.

If you need to create activities that are not dependent on the one you’ve just created, simply click anywhere on the canvas and (as long as you are in activity mode – check the toolbar on the left), then the process is the same as described at the beginning of step 2.

Moving on to workstreams...

Workstreams can be used as a visual indicator of who is responsible for each activity. We typically find these useful for showing which teams or departments are working on what – and who is dependent on whom.

1. When in the activity detail window you can click on the WS beside the activity title.
   
   
2. Create a workstream, choose a name, workstream lead, and colour.

Now time to add some work items These are the lower-level detail relating to each activity – for example, if your activity was to “Conduct customer research”, your underlying work items might be things like “Identify a list of customers”, “Compose comms”, etc – i.e. the specific deliverables and actions which will enable the completion of the overall activity. Make sure you have the activity selected (you’ll see the box on the right-hand side with the details of the activity. Click the Plus icon () and choose which work item you’d like to create.   You can add the detail and then click Create.

Once you go back into the activity detail window you’ll see your linked work item

Step 3 – Outcomes (or milestones)

Now we have our phases, activities and work items added, our plan is starting to take shape. We can start thinking about adding our outcomes – think of these as milestones or key deliverables you want to track. These will appear on the Project Overview page as well as any tailored reporting coming from Sharktower.

An outcome can be added to the end of any activity on the plan. 

1. Click on Outcome on the left (or press O on your keyboard).
   
   
2. Add the outcome to the end of an activity.
   
   
3. Add a title, assignee, and type. A Business Outcome can have a value associated with it (this is great for benefits realisation) – we recommend these are used to capture the high level goal of each project, whereas Project Milestones can be used to capture the deliverables and milestones along the way.

Step 4 - Re-baselining your plan

Re-baselining or changing dates is easy in Sharktower. You can bulk select activities and move them; you’ll then get a prompt to update linked work item dates. 

1. When in edit mode ensure you have Select option on ().
   
   
2. Hold down the SHIFT key on your keyboard then click and drag, you’ll see the selection box appear. Once the activities are selected you can click and drag them around. Place them at the desired date.
   
   
3. If there are work items attached to the activities you’ll be asked if you want to update the linked work items in order to change their due dates as well.

Step 5 - Publishing

When you're ready to publish the plan you just click 'Publish Plan' at the top. This will make it visible to everyone on your team. 

Once finished the plan should show the work that needs to be completed in order to achieve the outcomes. The Sharktower plan gives stakeholders and team members a clear overview of phases, milestones, and underlying work. Everyone can easily identify work that can run in parallel and the dependencies between teams.

Further Reading

• Plan tips and tricks
• Plan FAQs