Project Workstreams is available for Advanced Plan Customers only.
What are workstreams?
By default, people assigned to a project are grouped by their project roles. Workstreams is a feature that enables you to organize project team members within a project into customized groupings, so you can report and track scheduled and actual hours based on groupings beyond project roles.
Typically, workstreams divide a project into sets of related activities or deliverables.
Project team members assigned to workstreams function like a sub-team, usually with their own goals and objectives within the project.
Think of a software development project; some workstreams may include:
Project Management
Research
Design
Development
Quality Assurance
Deployment
Amy is a Software Developer on the project. Although her assigned project role is Software Developer, she needs to contribute to both the Development and Project Management workstreams simultaneously.
By setting up workstreams in the project, you can schedule hours for Amy under the different workstreams to plan at a high level and track actual hours per workstream.
Adding Workstreams to a project
You can create workstreams that are unique to each project or use them across multiple projects.
You can create workstreams from two places in Runn:
a. Manage > Workstreams
Recommended for bulk-creating workstreams to use across your projects.
Navigate to the Manage tab in the navigation bar and click on Workstreams
Click on the + button to create a new workstream
b. Project Planner
When creating a new project from the project planner, you can scroll down to Workstreams, click the field, type in the workstream name and then save.
To add workstreams to an existing project, select the project from the planner, click on Edit Details, scroll down to Workstreams, click the field, type in the workstream name, and then save.
The workstream(s) are now created and attached to your project.
Adding people and assignments to Workstreams
New Projects
Once you've created your new project and added workstreams, you can begin allocating people and placeholders to them.
From the Project Planner, click on + Add Person or Placeholder
Select a workstream, then select all people and placeholders you want allocated to that workstream for your project:
Click +Add Selected and repeat this step for subsequent workstreams
Once you've added your people, placeholders and workstreams to the project, you can then add your assignments as normal.
You have the flexibility to assign people to more than one workstream within a project. This allows people to have multiple assignments for a project at any time.
In this example, Aimee is assigned to Workstream1 (WS1) and Workstream2 (WS2) at the same time:
Existing Projects
If you have an existing project with people already assigned to assignments, you can add/change the workstream by selecting the person, clicking the 3 dots, then selecting Change Workstream.
From the drop-down menu, select the applicable workstream and then click on Update. All assignments and actuals will now be updated to the new workstream.
Adding actual hours to workstreams in timesheets
If your organization uses timesheets, users can enter time worked against their different roles and workstreams on a project.
👉 Check out this article to learn more about how to use Runn's built-in timesheets: Timesheets & Actuals Tracking
Viewing Workstreams
On Project Planner
Once people and assignments are added to workstreams in your project, you can view project team members by workstreams within a project:
You can also view, filter, and group projects by workstream in the Project Planner.
👉 Check out here to learn more about using the Project Planner.
👉 Check out here to learn more about searching and filtering.
On Project Dashboard
You can view workstreams in the Project Team and Project Variance sections of your project dashboard:
On People Planner
When a person or placeholder is added to a workstream with scheduled or actual hours, you can view the workstream name as you expand a person on the People Planner:
You can also view, filter and group people and placeholders by workstreams on the People Planner.
👉 Check out here to learn more about using the People Planner.
👉 Check out here to learn more about searching and filtering.
In Reports
You can group project metrics in workstreams in reports to track the hours associated with each workstream in a project:
If your organization has consistent workstreams across multiple projects, you can group projects by workstreams to view workstream hours at a high level as well.
👉 Check out here to learn more about how to use reports.
FAQs
What’s the difference between workstreams and phases?
What’s the difference between workstreams and phases?
Think of phases as big steps of the project - phases oversee the projects overall progression, and workstreams are the different categories of work within each phase.
How can I remove a workstream from a project?
How can I remove a workstream from a project?
You will first need to remove all assignments, actuals and people associated with the workstream in the project. Then, you can go to the Edit Details page of the project and remove the workstream.
How can I edit, archive or delete workstreams from the account?
How can I edit, archive or delete workstreams from the account?
You cannot delete workstreams from the account, but you can archive or edit workstreams by clicking on the 3 dots next to the workstream name and then select Edit or Archive:
Is there a limit to the number of workstreams I can create?
Is there a limit to the number of workstreams I can create?
No, you can create as many workstreams as needed.
Can I use workstreams for task management?
Can I use workstreams for task management?
If you have a consistent, high-level categorization of tasks, you may consider using workstreams to track time scheduled/logged on high-level tasks. However, since Runn is a high-level planning tool, the function does not support the typical needs of task management like other task-management-focused platforms.