Project Management¶
Projects are the primary way to manage planned, multi-step work within the GRC-ITSM platform. Whether it's an infrastructure upgrade, a compliance remediation effort, a scheduled audit preparation cycle, or an internal process improvement, projects provide the structure to break the work into tasks, assign owners, set timelines, and track progress through to completion.
Projects and Project Tasks¶
A project is the parent container that defines the overall scope and timeline. The actual work is broken down into project tasks - individual child tickets that each represent a discrete unit of work.
| Concept | Role |
|---|---|
| Project | The parent ticket that defines the goal, scope, start date, and target completion date. Provides the high-level view of progress |
| Project Task | A child ticket under the project. Each task has its own assignee, start date, target date, and status. Completing all tasks drives the project toward completion |
This parent-child structure gives teams both the big picture (how is the project progressing overall?) and the granular view (what specific tasks remain, who owns them, and when are they due?).
For details on the Project and Project Task ticket types, see the Ticket Types reference.
Creating a Project¶
To create a new project:
- Navigate to the Projects area (see the Projects area overview for orientation)
- Create a new ticket with the Project ticket type
- Set the Start Date and Target Date for the overall project timeline
- Add a summary and description covering the scope of the work
- Assign the project to the responsible agent or team lead
Adding Project Tasks¶
Once the project exists, add child tasks to break the work into manageable units:
- Open the project ticket
- Create new project task tickets as children of the project
- For each task, set an assignee, start date, and target date
- Order the tasks logically to reflect the sequence of work
Each task can be worked and closed independently. As tasks are completed, the project's overall progress reflects the status of its children.
Set Dates on Everything
Always set start and target dates on both the project and every project task. The platform's Overdue and Due Soon tracking relies on these dates to surface work that needs attention. Without them, tasks can silently slip past their deadlines.
Using Project Templates¶
For work that follows a repeatable pattern, project templates eliminate the need to build the same project structure from scratch each time. A project template defines the project itself along with a set of pre-configured child tasks, so creating a new instance of that work is as simple as applying the template.
How It Works¶
- When creating a new project, select the option to apply a project template
- The template populates the project with its pre-defined structure: the parent project ticket and all child task tickets, each with their own descriptions, assignments, and relative timelines
- Adjust dates, assignees, or details as needed for the specific instance
Common Use Cases¶
| Template | What It Provides |
|---|---|
| Monthly ConMon cycle | A recurring project with tasks for vulnerability review, deviation processing, remediation escalation, and monthly reporting |
| Quarterly access review | Tasks for pulling user access reports, reviewing permissions, documenting findings, and remediating excess access |
| Annual assessment preparation | A structured checklist of evidence gathering, documentation review, control testing, and assessment readiness tasks |
| New system onboarding | Tasks for boundary documentation, control implementation, security configuration, and testing |
| Incident post-mortem | Tasks for root cause analysis, lessons learned documentation, corrective action tracking, and process updates |
Administrators
Project templates are configured in the administrative settings. See Ticket Templates for details on creating and managing templates.
Tracking Progress¶
The Projects area provides several views for monitoring project health across the organization:
- Overdue - projects and tasks that have passed their target completion date
- Due Soon - projects and tasks approaching their target date within the next 7 days
- Unassigned Projects - projects without an assigned agent
- Unassigned Project Tasks - tasks that need an owner
- Open Projects / Open Project Tasks - all active work
- Closed Projects / Closed Project Tasks - completed work for reference
These views make it easy to spot work that is falling behind, tasks that haven't been picked up, and projects that are approaching their deadlines.
Best Practices¶
Keep tasks granular. A project task should represent a single, clearly defined piece of work that one person can complete. If a task is too broad ("implement all security controls"), break it into smaller tasks that can each be assigned, tracked, and closed independently.
Use consistent naming. When creating tasks manually or building templates, use clear and consistent naming so agents can quickly understand what each task involves without opening it.
Close tasks as you go. Don't batch task closures at the end of a project. Close each task as it's completed so the project's progress view stays accurate and the team has visibility into what's done versus what remains.
Review stale projects regularly. Use the Overdue and Due Soon views in the Projects area to catch work that has fallen behind. A project with multiple overdue tasks is a signal that the scope, timeline, or resourcing needs to be re-evaluated.