Working with Workstreams
Workstreams are a powerful way to group milestones together and keep things easy to understand. They provide structure and help delegate responsibility for different areas of your project.
What are Workstreams?
Workstreams are a powerful way to group milestones together. In a plan with many milestones, spreading them across workstreams keeps things easy to understand and manage. You can also add a description for the workstream and assign an owner to it.
Uses for Workstreams
Areas of Work
Group milestones by functional area like Marketing, Development, or Operations.
Specific Objectives
Organize milestones around project goals like "Product Launch" or "Customer Onboarding".
Sub-teams
Align workstreams with your team structure to match how work is actually organized.
Custom Groupings
Create any logical grouping that helps your team understand and navigate the plan.
Workstream Features
Descriptions
Add detailed descriptions to workstreams to provide context and clarity about the scope and purpose of each area of work.
Ownership
Assign owners to workstreams to delegate responsibility. This is especially useful for larger projects where different people manage different areas.
Access Control
Workstreams provide a way to delegate responsibility for areas of a project, especially where team members only have 'view' access to the overall plan.
Managing Milestones in Workstreams
Moving Between Workstreams
Clicking and dragging milestones up and down enables you to easily move them between workstreams. This makes it simple to reorganize your plan as priorities and team structures change.
Visual Organization
Workstreams provide visual separation on your timeline, making it easy to see which milestones belong together and who is responsible for different areas of the project.
Best Practices
Keep workstreams focused: Each workstream should have a clear, distinct purpose
Assign clear ownership: Having a workstream owner helps with accountability and coordination
Use meaningful names: Choose workstream names that immediately convey their purpose
Balance granularity: Too many workstreams can be overwhelming; too few lose the organizational benefit
Example Workstream Structure
Product Launch Project
- Development - All technical milestones and feature development
- Marketing - Campaign planning, content creation, and promotion
- Sales - Sales enablement, training, and pipeline preparation
- Operations - Infrastructure, support processes, and documentation