Project Management Templates (Practical Edition)

Collaboration Across Projects, Real-time Progress Sync, Robust Milestone Control

Shimo introduces the "Project Management Templates (Practical Edition)" to provide practical and powerful template tools for small and medium-sized enterprises during project initiation, planning, implementation, control processes, and project retrospective phases. Empower teams with a potent tool to ensure timely and high-quality project deliveries.

Business leaders can oversee the big picture, gaining insight into the progress of all projects; project teams can synchronize tasks across stages in real-time to ensure continuous progress, swift issue identification, meeting synchronization, and alignment on plans.

Template Highlights

Do More with Less Effort for Better Projects

Easy to Get Started: When a project comes in, hold a meeting, fill in a couple of sheets, and the rest is automated.

Automated Task Reminders: Efficiently track each milestone's time nodes to prevent delays effectively.

Real-time Information Sync: Enable transparent collaboration across roles, real-time synchronization of meetings, and plans.

Management Perspective Dashboard: Gain an overview of all projects in one sheet, with clear insights into each leader's and aspect's progress.

Usage Instructions

Project Arrival!

Hold a meeting and fill in a couple of sheets.

The project is here, let's have a meeting! - "Project Specification"

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When a project arrives, the responsible person convenes a project kickoff meeting. In the "Project Description Document," fill in the project name, start time, planned completion time, and other essential details. The milestone plan is also finalized with the team during this kickoff meeting, setting clear completion points for important tasks.

Background and Difficulty Assessment of the project can also be filled into the description document;

Delivery standards are clearly recorded in the document and shared with the entire team in real-time.

Names and contact information of the main project contacts can also be recorded, making it easy to access when needed during project implementation.

Creating this comprehensive plan in the project's early stages sets the foundation, and once discussions are complete, the project is officially initiated.

Second Half of the Meeting: Division of Labor, Task Allocation! — "Project Progress Board"

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The "Project Progress Board" further breaks down tasks for each stage around the key milestone events defined in the "Project Description Document." Each task's goal, description, start date, completion date, and responsible person are recorded in the board. The project manager assigns tasks, delegates execution, prioritizes, and controls the project's progress, ensuring clear task allocation and precise progress tracking.

Specific Tips for Use:

At the top of the table, current date, current task count, and ongoing task count are dynamically calculated for easy progress monitoring.

When the executor updates task completion status, the corresponding row's cell color adjusts automatically.

Executors can attach document links to corresponding cells in hyperlink format (document modifications are real-time and synchronized), making it easy for project managers to review anytime.

For adding rows due to real-world needs, fill formulas down for columns with formulas (Method: Select the cell above and drag down to fill).

All Project Information? Right Here! — "Project DashBoard"

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Basic project information has been entered in the first sheet, "Project Specification";

Task assignments have been entered in the second sheet, "Project Progress Board";

Now, the "Project DashBoard" can automatically update and showcase the progress!!!

The calendar changes in real-time daily; the time progress bar changes automatically, and the budget utilization bar updates dynamically. Tasks to start today, tasks to finish today, and overdue tasks receive real-time automatic reminders.

In the "Project DashBoard," project leaders can promptly access the latest project status and specific matters, including project basics, commonly used documents & cloud storage, project status reports, meeting minutes, calendar, and important notices.

Specific Tips for Use:

Text in blue represents linked content that can be clicked to access quickly.

Users can view project basics on the board page, such as remaining project time and budget spending.

By clicking on the project status report, users can swiftly navigate to the project status report template and generate new templates quickly using the "Create Copy" function. Each time the project status report is updated, the corresponding sheet link is synchronized to the board page for future reference.

The calendar primarily serves for note-taking; users can filter months to view calendar notes for different months. If recording notes is necessary, users can quickly jump to the corresponding calendar page by clicking the month above and record as needed.

Users can see today's tasks to be completed in real-time; clicking "Task Reminder" allows for quick navigation to view detailed information.

Even with 10 projects, it's Crystal Clear! — "Project Overview Board"

The "Project Overview Board" is designed for leadership decision-makers to get a clear view of multiple project progress. It provides an overview of all ongoing projects, including task progress, time progress, budget progress, ongoing task count, overdue tasks, and more. It enables real-time control for effective supervision and accountability.

Megaphone 📢:

With mastery of these steps, you can start using the templates,

Understanding the following sections will make your usage even better.

Don't Exceed Budgets, Don't Miss Details — "Expense Reimbursement"

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Record and track all project-related reimbursement expenses in the "Expense Reimbursement Request" template for easy tracking and accounting.

Important Meetings Shouldn't be Forgotten — "Meeting DashBoard"

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Record every meeting during project initiation and implementation in the "Meeting Board." It facilitates reviewing meeting outcomes, synchronizing solutions, and documenting meeting records for project retrospectives.

Users can input brief meeting information into the sheet and link meeting summary sheets to corresponding "Meeting Topics" for easy access by project team members.

Quick navigation to the meeting summary template is possible, and new templates can be generated swiftly using the "Create Copy" function. Each meeting summary can have different viewing permissions.

Additionally, you can introduce "Change Management" to record every change in the project. Users fill in abstract change information into the sheet and link change records to corresponding "Change Topics" for convenient access by project team members.

Quick navigation to the project change request template is possible, and corresponding approval opinions, sign-offs, dates, and more can be set with appropriate permissions. Created copies will retain these permissions.

Copying the Benefits, Summarizing Mistakes — "Project Summary Report"

This page is used for retrospectives after completing a project. Project managers can adjust whether it's necessary to conduct a project summary.

Customer Experience

Wujing (Beijing) Architectural Design Firm

China's first renowned architectural firm specializing in elderly care design

📌Q1: Why did you choose to use templates? How do Shimo's templates solve your problems?

Xiaoguang Lei: Our team uses Shimo's "Daily Task Management Template" and "Project Management Template" for three reasons:

We have multiple projects running in parallel, requiring tight control over time nodes.

Our design firm has a flat organizational structure, and work information needs to be transparent and fluid.

In our consultation work with clients, we need a collaborative platform like templates.

1.We have multiple projects progressing in parallel and need to strengthen timepoint control. "Project Management Template"

Often, many designers stay up late to work on graphics not because their inspiration bursts on the last day, but because work has not formed a proper order. When the timepoints approach, clients urge, and only then do they remember to work on it. Therefore, controlling all timepoints is crucial for a design unit.

The "Project Management Template" sets strong timepoint settings, in addition to "Today's Completed Tasks" and "Overdue Task Reminders," there's also "Today's Initiated Plans." Everyone can see which tasks need to be initiated today, and controlling these timepoints is especially critical.

2.Our design firm operates as a flat organization, and work information needs to be sufficiently transparent and fluid. "Daily Tasks Template"

Our architectural design firm is managed in a relatively flat structure, without a specific vertical tree-like structure. Team information needs to flow and be shared sufficiently. Even colleagues not responsible for a particular project can learn about it through the "Project Management Template," or see how others deal with project issues through the "Daily Tasks Template." In the future, if the same issue arises again, there will be answers to reference, based on experience and conclusions. This is something I particularly pursue, and the templates in Shimo can solve this problem.

3.In our consulting work with clients, we need a tool like template collaboration. "Custom Templates"

Besides design work, we also have a lot of consulting work that requires coordination with design teams from all over. Without an overall collaborative platform, everyone will be scattered, and all the information will end up coming to me, which increases the management cost. So, in such cases, having a collaborative platform means that you don't have to tag me. Instead, you can tag the person responsible for the task, and they can immediately give you feedback. I can see your discussion process and conclusions without directly participating. This is crucial for the team's positive work environment.

So for me, these templates are very helpful. They address my team's dispersion, the need for strong timepoint collaboration, and my consulting advisor's work. All of these can be carried out using this approach. Based on these three reasons, we started using Shimo for our work.

📌Q2: How has your experience been using Shimo's work templates?

Xiaoguang Lei: Let me give you two specific examples. First, the way we conduct meetings has changed. Previously, I would arrange someone to connect the projector on the spot, and then half an hour later, we would have a meeting in the conference room. Now, we use the "Daily Task List" to have morning meetings and plan the day's work. After using the "Daily Task List" template for a week, we completed a total of 128 tasks. I suddenly realized that many of the things we used to conduct meetings for weren't actually necessary, and the previous meeting mode was very inefficient.

he management platform built for us by Shimo has changed our work methods. This is something I really didn't expect. Everyone used to think that as designers, you just need to draw pictures to solve everything. However, I didn't expect that everyone also had a demand for office software, especially the need for Shimo's templates. They've become process management tools, which I find quite amazing.

The second example involves my partner. Initially, he was resistant to using new office products. However, after I described the features of the Shimo template, my partners found it interesting and started using it. Now, the template is almost entirely filled by my partners themselves. So, the whole story logically, I find this story quite interesting: initially resistant, but then recognizing it as quite useful. The learning curve for Shimo Document + templates is really low, and it's easy to get started.

Any work tool must fit into the context; otherwise, it's useless. Shimo's templates are particularly suited to my work environment. If you combine a product with the work context, its impact, how it impresses people, and its conversion rate will suddenly increase.

📌Q3: Do you have any recommendation for the "Project Management Template"?

Xiaoguang Lei: I really feel the power of Shimo's templates now. In a while, I'll be working in Shenzhen for a period of time. If I didn't have something like this, I can't imagine how work would be conducted. It's been less than a week since we started building the templates, and for us, it's already a tool we're very skilled at using.

This template is not only a collaborative tool for me; it's a tool that effectively solves my work context. I've transformed from an ordinary individual user into a paying enterprise customer. I not only purchased it but also actively recommend it to everyone. This isn't just because of Shimo's collaborative features, but because the templates fit my work context.

It's quite remarkable. Thank you very much.