Project Views and Navigation
VPM Works Cloud uses multiple views because different decisions need different visual scales. The important point is that the views are not separate plans. They all read the same task data.
View Purposes
| View | Best for | Shows |
|---|---|---|
| VPM View | Stand-ups, flow, handoffs, gate-level steering | L1 Gates, L2 Deliverables, L2 Milestones |
| Gantt View | Detail entry, L3 action management, tabular editing | L1, L2, and L3 |
| Fever Chart | Buffered schedule health | Buffer burn against elapsed phase time |
| Skyline | Portfolio health and workload patterns | L3 action status slices across projects |
| Reports | Focused review lists | Risks, finance, messages, and other read-only projections |
VPM intentionally omits L3 Actions from the canvas. That omission keeps the cross-functional flow readable. Gantt keeps the detailed work visible and editable.
Moving Between VPM and Gantt
When a task is selected in one view and the user switches to the other, the target view should land on the same working context:
- If an L1 or L2 is selected, the other view selects it and scrolls it into view.
- If an L3 Action is selected in Gantt, VPM selects its parent L2 because the VPM canvas does not draw L3 rows.
- If nothing is selected, the target view preserves the centered calendar date so the same slice of time stays visible.
This prevents the common "I switched views and lost my place" problem.
Selection Breadcrumbs
VPM supports breadcrumb navigation for task-to-task jumps. When a user follows chevrons through dependencies, the breadcrumb control keeps the selection trail so the user can go back, forward, or jump to an earlier selected task.
Use breadcrumbs when you are tracing a handoff chain and need to return to the task that started the investigation.
Context Menus
Right-clicking a task opens the shared task context menu. The same menu pattern is used in VPM and Gantt, so the available actions stay consistent.
Common actions include:
- Delete selected task or tasks.
- Wire Predecessor or Wire Successor.
- Add Message.
- Mark as Starting, On Time, or Finished.
- Assign or remove Critical Path membership.
The menu operates on the current selection. If the user right-clicks an unselected task, that task becomes the selection first.
Dependency Wiring
Dependencies are governance relationships between L1 and L2 items. L3 Actions are contained inside an L2; they do not own predecessor or successor links.
In VPM, cross-lane dependencies appear as compact chevrons rather than long crossing lines. This keeps handoffs visible without recreating Gantt-style dependency spaghetti. Same-lane sequences can appear as adjacent chains when the dates line up naturally.
Use graphical wiring when the relationship is easier to create visually:
- Right-click the source task.
- Choose Wire Predecessor or Wire Successor.
- Click the target task.
- Resolve any validation warning if the relationship creates a backward pass.
Critical Path Indicators
Tasks can belong to one or more named critical paths. In both VPM and Gantt, critical path membership is rendered as colored dashed stripes inside the task bar. The same colors also appear in the Critical Path submenu.
The stripe is a secondary signal. The progress runner remains the primary schedule-health signal.