Global planning
The Global planning screen is the consolidated Gantt of a project portfolio: it shows all the projects in the portfolio on a single timeline, with their tasks, milestones, dependencies and baselines. It's the go-to view to steer a set of projects at a glance.
You reach it from the Portfolios → Global planning menu.
- Planning — the Gantt of a single project (project manager's view).
- Global planning — the Gantt of all projects in a portfolio, consolidated.
Anatomy of the screen
- The project tree, on the left — the list of the portfolio's projects. Programs appear in orange. A value in parentheses indicates an ongoing simulated shift (see Shift simulation).
- The consolidated Gantt, on the right — each project is shown as its own row / bar, with its milestones.
- The toolbar, at the top — selection, zoom, filters, simulation, settings and exports.
The toolbar
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Mode | For agile projects linked to Jira: switch the display by Sprint or by Epic |
| Zoom | Timeline scale: Year / Quarter / Month / Week / Day |
| Select all / Clear selection | Selects or deselects all the portfolio's projects |
| Filter the displayed period | Restricts the visualized time window |
| Shift simulation of projects | Simulates shifting the projects (see below) |
| Profile | Filters the display by resource profile |
| ⚙️ Settings | Opens the settings panel (see below) |
| Columns manager | Chooses the columns shown in the left grid |
| More | Secondary actions and exports (PNG, PDF, Excel, CSV…) |
Shift simulation of projects
The shift simulation lets you test the impact of postponing projects without altering the real data. The shift applied to each project is shown in parentheses in the tree. You preview the new planning, then:
- Validate — actually applies the shifts
- Close — discards the simulation
Settings (⚙️ Settings)
The Settings button opens a panel gathering all the display options of the consolidated planning.
Colors
Sets the coloring mode of the bars:
- Classic — default color
- By status (tasks and milestones) — colors by the status of tasks and milestones
- By status (projects, tasks and milestones) — also colors projects by their status
Group by
Groups the portfolio's projects by an attribute (project field), to structure the planning by category.
Default project sort
Project display order:
- Project name (alphabetical)
- Earliest start date
- Latest end date
- Manual order (drag & drop) — appears once you have reordered projects by hand; a Reset button returns to the default sort and clears the manual order
Rollup (level of detail)
Controls the depth displayed in the consolidated Gantt:
- Project — a single bar per project (most synthetic view)
- Task (Level 1) — expands first-level tasks
- Task (Level 2) — expands down to the second level
The rollup change is only applied when the panel is validated, to avoid the planning moving while you adjust options.
Overlaid displays
Four toggles enable / disable information layers:
| Toggle | Effect |
|---|---|
| Baselines | Shows the baselines (initial planning) to compare with actuals |
| Actual | Overlays the real progress on the bars |
| Critical path | Highlights the sequence that drives the projects' end |
| Week number | Adds the week number on the timeline |
Project priority
Two options based on the project's Priority field (levels 1 to 5, set in the project definition).
Show the project priority as a badge next to its name adds a colored pill to the right of the project name — in the planning tree as well as in the resource grid at the bottom of the screen.
| Badge | Priority |
|---|---|
| 🔴 1 | Highest |
| 🟠 2 | High |
| 🟡 3 | Medium |
| 🟢 4 | Low |
| 🟩 5 | Lowest |
Projects with no priority set carry no badge.
Diagram display drives the resource workload histogram (bottom part):
- Workload and overload — the usual display;
- Breakdown by project priority — the bar is split into colored segments, one per priority, each proportional to the workload coming from the projects at that priority. Segments stack from the bottom (priority 1 first), a dashed line marks capacity — anything above it is overload — and the tooltip details the workload priority by priority.
The "Other projects" rows gather projects of mixed priorities: they keep the workload / overload display.
Priority is also available as a criterion in Group by and in the project hierarchy management: projects are then gathered under one node per priority level.
Spacing
Adjusts the row height of the planning (display density).
Milestone label position
Sets the orientation of the milestone label:
- Horizontal
- Horizontal right
- Diagonal
- Invisible (hides the label)
A separate setting, Milestone label position for the first project, applies a different orientation to the first project in the list (useful when its milestone is near the edge).
Grid columns
The Columns manager lets you show the desired attributes in the left grid (name, dates, progress, owner, custom fields…). The layout can be saved in a favorite.
Exporting
The More menu offers exporting the consolidated planning (PNG, PDF, Excel, CSV) to share it in portfolio or steering committees.
See also
- Managing a project portfolio — create and organize a portfolio
- Program management — group projects into a program
- Planning — planning at the project level
Start in Project rollup for an overview, then switch to Task (Level 1) on critical projects. Set a baseline before each committee to objectively measure slippage from one portfolio review to the next.