What to do with "When will it be done?" field for ongoing projects?

Question

I'm wondering how you guys are using the field "When will it be done?" for projects that don't have an end date. For example, we are supporting clients through a retainer or an hour bank. There is not really an end date, but as a manager, I want to get weekly updates on how it's going with this client...

Toughts?

Thanks!

Steffen Opel [Utoolity] · Answer

We are also using a monthly/quarterly/yearly project naming and resp. end dates for perpetual projects, pretty much as @Sing Chen described in more detail already, e.g.:

* Project XYZ - 2023
* Contract ABC - 2023Q3
* Maintenance 123 - 202308

The Copy project feature makes it quick to roll over a project into its next period, either on-demand, or multiple upfront for an entire year or so.

Sing Chen · Answer

Hi @Marc-André Lanciault

Our environment doesn't have these "open-ended" projects. Being a PMO we have a very traditional definition of a project (defined start, defined end, etc). However, as part of our recent Atlas pilot, we had the discussion about how we could use it for open-ended projects, if they ever became a staple of our work.

One option we considered was to use the quarterly timeframe in Target Date as a way of running a 'health check' and using the RYG status as an indicator of "how things are going" in that quarter.

It seemed to work well in the sandbox (from an operational perspective) and we even considered the monthly timeframe in Target Date if we wanted to get this "temperature check" on a monthly basis in this type of retainer/hours bank setup.

Let me know if that's something you've tried. Would love to hear how things go!

Thanks,

Sing