Project Management Template: Link Multiple tables in a Single Field?

[Gabé]

Hey all! 

Im currently using the Project Management template airtable has provided to track our engineering projects. Id like to remain using this template as it has some functions built in to show progress of each project, and using the predefined fields they display nicely in Gantt view. This is done by linking records from the Tasks table (each record is a task).

The template has a table for Projects, and a secondary table with all the Tasks.

In our case, every engineering project has the exact same set of tasks, so it wouldn't make sense to keep adding redundant tasks over and over to the Tasks table in order to set up the differing deadlines. I would rather create a new table listing all the tasks for one project, and duplicate the said table and rename for other projects.  

The problem with this is that in the Projects table, I can only link to records from one other table, hence the connected formula fields can only show progress of one project. 

Im not sure how I would be able to merge all the projects and show all of their tasks and individual status's together. From what I understand it's not possible to link to multiple tables from a single field, so I guess this issue is more a question of how to organize my tables.

Essentially, I need a way to show tasks that need to be completed for each project (tasks are the same between projects), and be able to update the status of said tasks, put in deadlines and assignees, and group similar tasks, so I can view and share as a Gantt Chart.

Then I'd like a separate sheet combining all of the active projects so I can overview the % progress of the projects together.

Hope I wasn't too wordy, thank you for taking the time to read.

Regards,

Gabriel

[Sachin_191]

Hey Gabriel!

Airtable setup to handle project tracking more efficiently. You can use the existing Project Management template and enhance it by creating a single "Task Templates" table. Here's a practical approach,

*  Create a table listing all standard tasks for a single project. This table will serve as the master template for tasks.

* Set up automation in Airtable to duplicate tasks from the "Task Templates" table into the "Tasks" table whenever a new project is created. This way, each project will automatically have its set of tasks linked to it.

*  Ensure that tasks in the "Tasks" table are linked to their respective projects in the "Projects" table. This can be automated to streamline the process

*  Use Airtable's rollup and linked record fields to consolidate task progress into the "Projects" table. This will allow you to view overall project progress, deadlines, assignees, and task grouping in one place.

*  Utilize the predefined fields and new linked records to display tasks and projects in Gantt view, giving you a comprehensive overview of each project's status.

[TheTimeSavingCo]

You can't link multiple tables in a single linked field I'm afraid.  May I know what issues you faced using views for this?  Creating one table per project works, but it feels like it's easier to use views in a single table instead and so I'd love to try to solve this issue for you another way

If the record creation was the issue, perhaps you could look into Record Templates?  That way you could set it up once and just apply the template for each new project?

[Gabé]

Maybe my understanding of views is lacking, but as with how my tables are setup, if I shared a single table for all my projects, I would not be able to assign individual due dates and assignees for each of the tasks independent of the project, and I need this in order to generate Gantt chart views.

Ive attached some screenshots of the tables themselves.

Was not aware of the Record Template option, I will take a look.

[TheTimeSavingCo · Accepted solution]

Ah, sorry, I wasn't clear.  You'd have one "Projects" table and one "Tasks" table.  Assuming each project has Task 1 and Task 2 as required tasks, and you have two projects, "Project A" and "Project B", then you'd end up with:

And you'd use views to look at specific projects:

[Gabé]

Ah, I wasn't grasping the concept at first but I got it now. Essentially I'm still creating copies of the tasks,  but assigning to different projects and sorting that way? Just tried this out and its solved the issue. Thanks!