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 |
| 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 |
| Export (download icon) | Exports (PNG, PDF, Excel, CSV, PowerPoint roadmap) |
| More | Secondary actions (expand all / collapse all) |
Period longer than 3 years
The calendar to the right of the New Portfolio button, at the very top of the screen, filters the displayed period. The same filter applies to the Dashboard, the Global planning and, for resources, the Dashboard and the Workload. It is saved for you and for this portfolio. The end date can stay empty: the filter then shows "No end".
The start date is always set: by default, the first day of the month, 3 years back, and the end date stays on "No end". If you enter an older date, FoxPlan explains why and sets it back to this limit. An administrator sets this limit in the workspace settings, in the Maximum look-back of the displayed period field. If the first task is more recent than this date, the Global planning and Workload views start at that task's month, without changing the filter.
Cards do not count: they carry no resource assignment.
Narrowing the period speeds up these screens, because FoxPlan calculates each resource's capacity for every year displayed. The filter covers capacity and date ranges: the portfolio's task list does not change.
Shift simulation of projects
The shift simulation lets you test the impact of postponing (or bringing forward) projects without altering the real data: it belongs to each user and to the current favorite, and the projects' plannings stay unchanged. The shift is expressed in calendar days. The Gantt and the resource load at the bottom of the screen are recalculated as if the project started on its new date — this is where you spot overloads created or resolved.
Directly in the Gantt (drag and drop)
- Click a project name to open its action menu, then Simulate a shift (↔ icon).
- The project bar gets a pulsing orange outline and a banner reminds you of the gesture.
- Drag the bar to the right (postpone) or the left (bring forward): all the project's bars follow the mouse day by day, a tag shows the shift (“+12 d”) and the new dates, and the starting position stays visible as a hatched outline.
- Release to apply the simulation. Esc or a click elsewhere cancels without changing anything.
Hold Alt (⌥ Option on Mac) and drag any bar of a project — its own, a phase or an expanded task: the whole project shifts, without going through the action menu.
Once the shift is applied:
- the project's actual position stays displayed as a hatched ghost, with an arrow towards the simulated position (expanded tasks have their own ghost too); hover it to read the actual dates;
- a “+12 d” badge above the bar recalls the shift — click it to cancel;
- the project's hover tooltip shows the shift and the actual dates, and recalls the Alt + drag shortcut;
- the toolbar shows the number of shifted projects, with a cross to reset them all;
- the project's action menu recalls the current shift and offers Cancel.
By entering a number of days
In the Scenario panel, the Shift simulation of projects button opens the list of the portfolio's projects: enter a number of days (negative to bring forward) next to each project, then Validate. Each project's shift is then shown in parentheses in the tree.
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).
Project actions
Clicking a project name opens an action menu. The three vertical dots in the leftmost column open the same menu.
| Action | Effect |
|---|---|
| ✏️ General project attributes | Opens a quick edit panel: name, dates, status, priority and the other fields of the General tab of the project definition. The 💾 button saves, ✕ closes without saving. A read-only project opens in consultation mode, with no save button |
| 🗓️ Open the project in a new tab | Opens the project schedule in a separate browser tab, without leaving the current view |
| 💶 Open the project budget in a new tab | Opens the project budget summary in a separate tab |
| 🎫 Open the project cards in a new tab | Opens the project cards (tickets) in a separate tab |
The menu exists at project level only: the phases, tasks and milestones of an expanded project do not carry it.
The project name is also clickable in the Scenario panel on the left.
Below the actions, the Included in the scenario checkbox removes the project from the view (or brings it back) without going through the Scenario panel: it is the same setting as the project's checkbox in that panel, which updates at the same time.
In the resource grid at the bottom of the screen, allocation rows also carry the menu on the project name. When the priority badge is shown there, the project colour dot disappears: the badge already carries its own colour and the two side by side were hard to read.
The Esc key closes the menu, then the edit panel.
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.
The grid is read-only: cells never switch to edit mode. Double-clicking a row opens the task detail panel, also in consultation mode; changes are made from the project planning.
If stage gates are enabled in the workspace, the Stage gate column shows the last approved gate of each project.
Exporting
The download icon offers exporting the consolidated planning (PNG, PDF, Excel, CSV) to share it in portfolio or steering committees.
Roadmap export (PowerPoint)
Roadmap export (.pptx) builds a PowerPoint presentation in the style of a timeline tool: one row per level 1 item of the Gantt (in practice, one project), in the order and with the filters shown on screen.
- Timescale: years in the header, then months or quarters depending on the span covered; a dashed orange Today marker.
- Each row: name and dates (in your profile's day/month order), a bar in the Gantt colour with the completed part darker, milestones as named diamonds, deadlines as arrow badges (red when overdue).
- Pagination: beyond ten rows, the roadmap continues on further slides, with the timescale repeated.
Every shape is native PowerPoint (no image): you can move a milestone, recolour a bar or edit a label directly in PowerPoint, Keynote or Google Slides.
Workload export (PowerPoint)
In the resource grid (lower part of the screen), the header's More menu offers Workload export (.pptx). It builds a PowerPoint presentation of the resource grid, as editable native tables: one row per resource, one column per period of the displayed scale, plus the total. Each cell mirrors the on-screen display — "workload/capacity", workload only or percentage, depending on the cell display options — on a red background when overloaded (planned > capacity) and blue when the planned workload fits within capacity; a legend explains the colours. Beyond 20 resources or 12 periods, the table continues on further slides. The figures are the same as in the Excel export.
Resource grid totals
In the resource grid, each consolidation level — project, resource and grouping axis (team or any other added attribute) — shows the sum of the allocations it contains, for every numeric column (Planned, Actuals, ETC, Δ ETC…). “Other projects” rows are excluded from the totals.
Links between projects
Dependencies between tasks of different projects (see Links with other projects) stand out in the global planning:
- the link is drawn in orange, and in red when its constraint is not met;
- a 🔗 icon precedes the name of every task linked to another project; its tooltip lists the linked tasks with their project (← predecessor, → successor). A task from a project outside the portfolio is flagged Outside the portfolio;
- the same icon appears on the project row as soon as it depends on another project or another project depends on it; the tooltip of the project bar details these dependencies.
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.