Transitioning from Projects to Custom Fields will take a bit of setup, but these step-by-step instructions will walk you through the process and you will be setting your team up for success by adding the structure and organization of fields. To learn more about the power of Custom Fields and the improved Shortcut structure read the blog Fields are here for better categorization, structure, and organization of work.
Step 1 - Enable Custom Fields in your workspace
The first step in transitioning is to turn on Custom Fields and then customize the values as needed. Custom Fields are enabled in the Custom Fields section on the settings page. You must be an owner or admin to enable, disable, or customize the Custom Fields values. Learn more about enabling fields in Custom Fields Overview.
Step 2 - Map Projects to Custom Fields
Now that you have turned on the Custom Fields you will be using in your workspace, take a moment to plan what Projects correspond to what Custom Fields. This can be as simple as creating a spreadsheet with all your current Projects and then mapping them to the correct field.
Step 3 - Bulk Edit
You are now ready to add Custom Fields to your existing Stories! Follow the steps below to update the Stories you want to add Custom Fields to. This will be done using the bulk editing feature.
1) Go to the Stories Page and select the correct Workflow. (You will have to repeat these steps for each relevant workflow)
2) Hover over the Projects filter and select None.
3) Then select the Project you are going to transition to a Custom Field. Keep in mind more than one Project can be mapped to one Custom Field so select all that are needed here.
4) Then select the Stories you would like to update. Tip: Keep your bulk edits to around 500 at a time to avoid errors.
5) Select Edit, scroll down and select the Custom Field you are transitioning to, then Update.
6) Repeat steps 3 & 4 until all Stories for this Project have been updated to the correct Custom Field.
7) Once you have transitioned the first Project move on to the next Project and repeat steps 1-5 for each Project until the transition is complete.
Here are a few tips to help make your transition easier.
- Share the work- Have the person that owns or uses each Project make the updates. This is what we did at Shortcut and it worked well!
- Carefully consider historical needs- If it makes sense for your organization to start with the new process using Custom Fields but there isn’t a need to update historical information this can be a time saver.
- Projects toggle - Workspace Admins can access the Project toggle in Settings which will turn off/on Projects across the Workspace to help your team with the transition.
- Use Shortcut to project manage- Use a Story in Shortcut to track your progress. Each Project that is mapped to a Custom Field can be added as a task and assigned a task owner so it’s easy to track your progress.
Step 4 - Train your team
Now that you have a new best practice for organizing ensure the entire team knows the new process. We recommend sharing the update on how your company is planning to use Custom Fields alongside the video below to give a quick overview of how fields work.
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