Team Tracking and Project Management

Smartsheet

Smartsheet has been a Lab supported product for several years and the product continues to evolve with a focus on project management. Smartsheet has always done Gantt charts and "traditional project management" but it also supports Kanban views - a favorite of agile teams. In fact, you can see the same data in Grid, Gantt, Card, and Calendar views all in the same tool. Smartsheet is an IT Supported product, but Lab staff must purchase a license to create Smartsheets at software.lbl.gov

Google Tables

Google launched a new beta product called Tables in September 2020. Google describes Tables as:

"Tables is a collaborative database that lets teams track and automate work, without any coding required.

You can store various types of rich information -- people, attachments, dates, locations -- and visualize the data in powerful layouts that make it easier to track your work: kanban boards, ticketing queue, and more. You can also add input forms to collect data, and bots to automate actions in your table."

Tables can be used for a number of purposes, but it is well suited to project/team work management. It supports Kanban views and collaborative task editing, among many other features. Start with a sample Table and you'll be up and running in no time. You may find this blogpost/video helpful as well.

Tables is not currently part of G Suite and is not covered by the UC/Google negotiated license. However, it is free for most purposes and we anticipate seeing deeper integration to G Suite as the product evolves.