This article provides an overview of the Sheets feature. Think of Sheets as a centralized store for your structured data. It allows you to manage and manipulate data right inside Rocketlane, ensuring critical information is instantly integrated with your project context. You'll learn about the various scenarios where Sheets can be particularly useful, from tracking risks to gathering data during your onboarding/implementation journey.
When to Use Sheets:
This feature is ideal for situations where you need to manage more data than is practical with standard tasks or forms. Common use cases include:
Requirement Gathering: Collecting detailed requirements for projects involving multiple products or licenses.
For example, during the discovery phase of a large client implementation, that occurs in modules; you use distinct sheets to capture and track functional specifications, dependencies, and sign-offs for each module in one central repository.
User Data Management: Organizing user information, such as names, emails, and roles, for onboarding processes.
For example you collect a list of 500 end-users across 15 different client departments, logging their names, required user licenses, and training completion status directly in a sheet – your source of truth to invite users into the platform.
RAID Logs: Maintaining a comprehensive log of risks, assumptions, issues, and decisions throughout the project lifecycle.
For instance, your weekly project review could involve opening the RAID sheet, where every team member is assigned a column to log and update the status of potential risks, ensuring all critical obstacles are tracked, assigned an owner, and prioritized for mitigation.
User Acceptance Testing (UAT): Tracking bugs, escalations, and testing feedback in a centralized location.
The testers log all reported bugs directly into the sheet, including the steps to reproduce, severity rating, and screenshots. This sheet then serves as the source of truth for the team to manage and prioritize their fixes.
Complex Data Tracking: Managing intricate datasets, such as those in logistics, that involve multiple partners, customers, and transport mediums.
Consider a project that requires tracking the deployment of hardware across 20 global sites. You use this sheet to log the unique serial number of each device, its current transit partner, expected delivery date, and the final customer location, providing real-time visibility into the entire logistical process.
Key Features:
Lightweight Data Fabric: Sheets act as a simple data store in your project allowing you to configure, store, sync, and collaborate on data without needing external tools.
Project-Scoped: Sheets are project-scoped, meaning the information you log is specific to that project. This ensures you always know exactly where to find the data without unnecessary hunting
Customer Access: Sheets can be added to the customer portal, allowing your customers to actively use them to view and log data that is specific to their needs, easing awareness and access.
Creating Sheet Templates
To Create a sheet template:
Navigate to the Templates section.
Select Sheet Templates from the menu.
Click on Create a sheet template to open a new, untitled sheet.
Give your template a descriptive name (e.g., 'RAID Log').
You can proceed to add multiple tabs to your sheet to organize different sets of data.
Add and Configure Columns
In your sheet template, click the + icon to add a new column.
Short text : Allows users to input a brief, single line of text (e.g., a name, ID, or short title).
Multiline text : Allows users to input longer text blocks that span multiple lines (e.g., detailed notes, descriptions, or lengthy explanations).
Multi select : Allows users to choose one or more predefined options from a dropdown list (e.g., selecting multiple impacted teams).
Single select : Allows users to choose only one predefined option from a dropdown list (e.g., selecting a status like To Do, In Progress, Done).
Date : Requires a specific calendar date input (e.g., a due date or creation date).
Date Range : Requires two specific date inputs, defining a start date and an end date (e.g., a project duration or testing window).
Assignee : Allows selection of assignees you may want to make responsible for the row item (e.g., the owner of a requirement or risk).
Number : Requires a whole number or decimal input (e.g., quantity, count, etc).
Percentage : Requires a numerical input that is automatically formatted and displayed as a percentage (e.g., completion percentage).
Currency : Requires a numerical input that is automatically formatted with a selected currency symbol (e.g., budget allocation or expense amount).
Email : Requires an input in a standard email format (e.g., contact email for a client).
URL : Requires an input in a standard web address format (e.g., a link to a resource or external document).
Attachment : Allows users to upload and attach files (e.g., screenshots, receipts, or external documents).
Task link : Allows users to input a URL to a task that exists within the current project.
Document link : Allows users to input a URL to a document or file that exists within your project's document repository.
Single user : Allows selection of a single user from the system, typically used for tracking roles or ownership (similar to Assignee, but can be any user).
Multiple user : Allows selection of multiple users from the system (e.g., listing all stakeholders involved).
Boolean : Requires a simple true/false input, usually displayed as a checkbox or toggle (e.g., Completed or Billable).
Rating : Allows users to input a rating, often visualized using stars or a numerical scale (e.g., severity of a bug).
Configure the column by giving it a name, adding a description, and setting any specific options for that column type (e.g., adding choices for a single/multi select).
Click Add column to add it to your template.