Offline copies

Offline copies are files made from your plan, called exports in the app. Use them when someone needs a file to print, attach to a submission or keep under document control. For everyone else, sharing the live plan is better: it's interactive and always up to date (see Sharing and guest links).

Each export is made for a different reader:

Generating an export

Open Exports from the project menu, under the project name at the top (or search for it with ⌘K, Ctrl+K on Windows), and choose an export from Generate. The Estimation Report asks for a format and the Poster asks for a size. The Role Pack and Effort CSV are generated from their tabs instead (see below).

Exports are made in the background, so you can keep working. The Exports page updates by itself while an export is in progress, and you'll get a notification when the file is ready. If an export fails, the page shows the reason.

Each finished export stays on the Exports page, with its size, who generated it and when. Download saves the file, and View opens a PDF in your browser. The project's author and organisation admins can delete exports.

Anyone who can open the project can generate exports. Guests and public links can't. Exports aren't included on every plan: if yours doesn't include them, the buttons show a lock and the Exports page explains how to upgrade.

Exports use your project's Theme colour and its project and client logos (in the project's settings), so set those first. Effort hours in every export are the project's estimate, which is PERT in three-point projects (see Estimating).

PDF Export

The PDF Export is the complete plan as a reference document, on A4. After a cover page and contents, it covers:

• Overview, introduction and scope
• Lifecycle: phases with their dates, and the milestones in each
• Roles and responsibilities, grouped by party, with external parties marked
• Activities and products
• Milestone criteria, and the products expected at each milestone
• The RACI matrix and planning matrix, phase by phase
• Governance bodies, tools, and which products each phase produces

Management Plan

The Management Plan is a Word document of the plan, ready to edit, add your own wording to and issue under your document control. The paper size is your project's Paper size setting (A4 or Letter).

It has a cover page, a contents list, then the introduction and scope, lifecycle (phases and milestones with their approval authority), roles and responsibilities with a RACI matrix, activities, milestone criteria, milestones and products, governance and tools.

Poster

The poster puts the whole project on one landscape page, ready for the project office wall or the front of a submission. Choose a size when you generate it: A3, A2, A1 or A0. Every size shows the same poster, just bigger, so a larger size reads from further away.

The poster shows:

• Header: the project name, client, logos, the opening of your introduction, and key facts (duration, phases, gates, products, hours of effort). Effort hours throughout are the project's estimate, which is PERT in three-point projects.
• Lifecycle: your phases, sized by how long they last, with each milestone marked where it falls. Gates are diamonds and plain milestones are circles, and each marker is numbered. Under each phase you'll see its effort, who leads it (the role Accountable for most of its activities) and the products it delivers, meaning those finished in that phase.
• Organisation: your roles and groups as an org chart, two levels below the top. Deeper levels are summarised as "+n more", and external parties have a dashed outline.
• Milestones and gates: each milestone, numbered to match the lifecycle, with its phase, who approves it (for gates), its status once reached or assessed, and what it must achieve.
• Who owns what: for each role shown in Responsibilities, the products it's Accountable for, how many activities it does (R) and answers for (A), and its hours. Roles hidden in Responsibilities are counted under the role above them.
• Governance: each governance body with its chair, its members and the gates it approves.

Sections the project has nothing for are left out. A very large project shrinks slightly to fit the page, and long lists end with "+n more".

Estimation Report

The Estimation Report sets out the project's effort in hours: how much there is, where it falls and who carries it. Choose a format when you generate it:

• Word and PDF: the full report, with your logos, theme colour, a contents list and page numbers. The paper size is your project's Paper size setting (A4 or Letter).
• Excel: one sheet per breakdown (Summary, Phases, Parties, Party × Phase and Activities), ready for your own analysis.
• CSV: the activities ledger only, one row per role on each activity.

The report shows:

• Summary: the estimate, and in three-point projects the sum of most likely hours and the uncertainty range (σ, P80 and P90). Once actual hours are recorded, it also shows actual against estimate.
• Effort by phase: each phase's hours, who leads it (the role Accountable for most of its activities), the roles carrying most of its hours, and the milestones that fall in it.
• Effort by party: every role and group in your organisation as a tree, matching the Effort tab. Each row includes everything beneath it.
• Party × phase: the same tree with hours in each phase.
• Activities: each phase's activities with their roles, RACI and hours. Three-point projects show optimistic, most likely, pessimistic, PERT and σ for each role.

The estimate is the same figure the app uses everywhere: PERT in three-point projects wherever optimistic, most likely and pessimistic hours are all set, and your single-point hours elsewhere. P80 is the total you have an 80% chance of not exceeding.

Variance compares actual hours only with the estimate of the work that has actuals, so work nobody has logged yet doesn't look like a saving. A positive variance, in red, means over the estimate. Coverage is how much of the estimate has actuals recorded.

The report shows hours only, not costs or rates.

Role Pack

A Role Pack is a PDF for one role, to brief the person taking it on. Open the Staff Guide tab, select the role and choose Role Pack. The finished pack appears on the Exports page.

It shows the role's description and who fills it, its effort in each phase, its activities phase by phase (with their dates, triggers, RACI and hours) and the products it's involved in, including the milestones those products are expected at.

Effort CSV

On the Effort tab, CSV downloads the hours straight away, without going through the Exports page. There's one row for each role with hours of its own, showing the person, the group, the hours in each phase and the total. For the full breakdown, use the Estimation Report instead.