Construction Projects

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22

Hey MFC,

Shoot me a dm, we may have some work for you in regards to setting up a project management workflow in Asana.

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23

Hi Nathan,
What do you mean by dm?

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24

I am researching residential design/build applications with Asana. We use MSFT Project for macro scheduling, but need a tool at more ‘micro’ level for project/task mgt. I see there’s extensive conversation on the topic, and would like to see any templates/prototype resources that are available.
In gratitude,
Judy

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25

Hi,
Can you give a bit more information what you need? meaning, what kind is more micro, I have a calendar set up on it each crew and completing a task on it once invoiced.

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26

We just joined Asana and I could use some help with getting a workflow going for construction projects. Do you have any templates you could share with me?

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27

Hi @Daniel_Gomez1, I am also trying to make asana work for residential and commercial construction management. Was @MFC able to help you? Any feedback or help would be awesome. Thanks!

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28

@MFC, I’m also in construction and have similar needs to @Daniel_Gomez1. We are trying to setup asana to manage our workflows/tasks/gant charts. Any help or tips would be amazing. Thanks!

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29

Hi,
You need to be more specific, and also it is not that you need a standard template, you want to have it the right way you want it. But if you explain more I might be able to help you!

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30

@MFC Good Evening,

Could we chat about the templates you’ve been using for your Construction Projects.
I’d like to get some assistance with this.

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31

Good morning everyone!

Glad to know I’m not alone in trying to figure out how to best track a construction project in Asana (to which I’m brand new). Landlord/Property Manager here so construction project in this case entails:

Design
Budget
Permit
Bid
Award (to multiple subs becase we’re essentially GCing)
Manage construction
Market to tenants
Get tenants settled in

After watching a number of tutorials, here’s what I’ve come up with:

  • The whole thing should be one “project”
  • The items in the list above are each a “Section”
  • Create tasks in each section for each activity necessary to complete the work of the Section; assign these to various team members as necessary
  • Rely heavily on dependencies so I can use the timeline view to see/know the critical path items and see the impact of one deadline shift/delay on the rest of the project schedule
  • Don’t use subtasks unless they’re really little items that the assignee needs help remembering or should be done by a team member other than the assignee. (Reason: sounds more trouble than worth to have to assign the subtask to the project (so that it shows up in Calender and Timeline) and to add dependencies to it)

Here’s where I’m hung up (very long ago MS Project user…)

I want to plot the whole project out (presumably in the timeline), noting how long I anticipate each task (or section) will take and see when I’d be able to deliver if, say, I started the project tomorrow. Likewise, I want to understand the critical path items so I can most quickly figure out how to delivery the project, for example, 1 month earlier. (In this case, I either need to get the project done by April 1 or I need to push it to start December 15 and then know when it would be complete, and know when to refocus on it in the fall so I don’t miss the start date.

Is this a good time to call on the Asana help desk (whatever it’s called?) I’ve got 20 days left in the free trial period, although happy to pay for a month in order to figure out sooner rather than later if Asana is going to be able to help me do what I need to do.

Any/all suggestions/help/guidance welcome.
Cardie

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32

I’m interested in how you set it up for construction. Are you able to share your template with me?

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33

Hi Naomi,
I haven’t created anything yet because I’m still trying to figure out if Asana is the right tool for us.
Good luck,
Cardie

| Naomi_Harmon
8 December |

  • | - |

I’m interested in how you set it up for construction. Are you able to share your template with me?

1 Like
34

Hey All,

Interesting thread. I manage building launch programs (including construction/fit out). The one call out I have is Asanas ability to have dynamic date updates when a project gets delayed.

Its fantastic for task tracking, templates and rules but if a task is delayed by 1 week, there no easy way to have all tasks that are dependent on the delayed task update to show the new completion date.

If any body has found a work around for this please let me know.

Thanks Dan

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35

With all these questions/requests about construction and /or house building, you would think Asana would come up with a template!!!

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36

Good morning.

Can we discuss everything about your templates for construction, etc?

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37

Hi,
Sure we could, what’s on your mind?

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38

Running a const co on here isn’t too challenging… I do so, Painting & Carpentry…

Projects: 1.2.3. Shared with all, work orders assigned to forman.

  1. Clients: Template w/ work order sub-tasks within( WO’s added both work order & quickbooks projects)
  2. Quickbooks: ( hot, deposits received, invoice sent, waiting, received, thank you sent)
  3. Work Orders: All of your scheduling can be done through their gantt chart(i suggest instagantt 3rd party).

CRM can be tracked separately, and when booked, dragged into a client template so you don’t lose anything, ever.

Add the crm to the template, detail the work orders, asign/track job, unassign from forman/remove from work orders, and move through quickbooks… Once paid, remove from QB and the client sits in clients until they call for another work order, etc…

1 Like
39

Hi !

I’ve worked with several clients helping them automate management of structural engineering process.

Our app was implemented to fix their incoming bids/RFI/Submittals queue where we’ve built an automated processing and data extraction to tasks so that the Project manager could have a “well-made” task queue to dispatch between engineers and projects.

In general, I saw two ways in organising things:

  • per customer → One big Asana Project per customer, each section is a new project of a customer, task appear, people come in to the project
  • per process item → each process item(Bid Queue-> Calculations → Delivery → …) is a project and the task is moved between those until it reaches the end. Variation of that was the task is a project + sub-tasks are actual items (this way people could you templated task when the new bid comes in and we extract information, they could assign the template automatically with all sub-tasks defined).

Hope it helps!

40

@MFC we are a general contacting firm looking for a construction template as well. Would you be able to PM me as well?

Thanks,

41

Did.
Tx.