Planning Mode

VIDEO | High Level Planning

At the start of the project or phase, non-schedulers identify the key items to be planned for and create a rough timeline of the plan. InEight Schedule gives you the ability to do this in a way that easily carries forward into a full schedule.

Planning mode lets users freely move around planning items. In this mode, planning packages and milestones can be added, but not activities.

Step by Step — Create a new planning package

Planning packages brought in from the outline during project creation are automatically populated.

  1. To create a new planning package from scratch, click the Schedule icon in the far left corner and select Planning Schedule mode.

  2. Scroll down to select Schedule and Save at the bottom far right on the Schedule Settings window.

    New planning packages are created as subordinates under the open or selected parent package.

    If the Actions icon is not available, you can bring it into view using the Customize Gantt View icon at top.

  1. Click in the Description column to rename your new planning package.
  2. Organize planning packages by clicking and dragging the rows.

    3. When dragging rows in the Gantt chart, either a white dot or a blue line shows where in the hierarchy the row is being moved. Or, a row is boxed in blue, signifying the planning package being dragged will become a subordinate to the boxed work package.

  3. You can continue adjusting planning packages using the bars in the Gantt chart.

    4. You can adjust a planning package’s duration in the Rem Dur column. This will adjust its duration while holding the current start date.

    • Step by Step — Bulk creation of planning packages

    Add planning packages individually or in bulk with the Detail Out function.

    1. Select the Actions icon on an existing planning package.
    2. From the drop-down menu, select Detail Out.

      • From here you can select how you want to add your new planning packages

    Field Description
    Sequence Sets the new planning packages to occur in succession or parallel.
    Duration (Automatic) Schedule will distribute the superior duration evenly across the subordinate planning packages.
    Duration (Manual) Manually set a custom base duration.
    Quantity

    Number of subordinate planning packages are being created.
    Use Logic (On) Logic is tied from one package to the next.
    Use Logic (Off) Logic is not assigned. Additionally, the option to set a scope gap is provided.

    The values set here are for the default/initial creation of packages and can be changed as needed later .

    1. Set the quantity.
    2. Click Build.

    At the bottom of the Detail Out window is a summary of what will be added to the schedule.

    1. Your new WBS planning package is created, and you can rename your planning packages accordingly.