Schedule: People View Walkthrough

Schedule is the place to plan out, and allocate your people to projects. We've had two main focus points in mind regarding the User Interface (UI) of the Schedule view. Our goal is to give you a visually scalable overview of your schedule.

Main takeaways

• Set up your company-wide Resource Management preferences to accommodate for how you want to manage your resources and how you want the heatmap to react e.g. Allocation based or Task-Based. 
• The schedule is comprised of two parts; the People view which displays your team's workload and availability & the Project view; which reflect your portfolio of projects. 
• Use the Show/Hide option and set up the schedule to fit your specific needs. 
• Use the People view to manage your team's workload and plan for future work. 
• Allocate team members to Internal Time (Adhoc items) or Time Off (Vacation)
• Unassigned Tasks
• Expedited editing of tasks or allocations using the Right Click function. 

Remember to use Chrome for best performance

Schedule Setting: Resource Management

The Resource Management preference setting, which is located in the Admin Panel under the Details section, is the first set in setting up your resources properly. 

From here, you will have two options to select from: 

1. Project Allocation: use Allocations to book your team members time across projects. Allocations are more flexible and are ideal for companies that are unable to plan/scope out projects in advance - however know that they need a handful of resources for a particular amount of time on projects. Great for Agile teams.  

2. Task Allocation:  use Tasks that have been planned out in the scope of a project and assign those to your team members. Tasks are more defined and are ideal for companies that are able to plan/scope out projects in advance. Great for Waterfall teams.  

There are two additional options to select from when using Task Allocation. 

• • Task Estimates (Plan): The heatmap will reflect the estimated/planned time on a task onto your team members heatmap. 
  • Time Registered & Remaining (Actuals): The heatmap will reflect your team members registered time in the past (blue) and any remaining time in the present & future will define your team members workload / availability (under, over or perfectly allocated).
    • Great for teams that register time at least on a weekly basis.
    • Ideal for teams that register time on a daily basis.   

Schedule People: Layout & Navigation

From the People View, you'll find the Heatmap, from where you can easily asses the Utilization of your team members - whether they are over, under, or perfectly allocated.

1. Team Members: On the left-hand side of the People View you'll find a full list of your Team members - this will also include any Virtual users you may have set up.
2. Heatmap: On the centre of the page you’ll find the heatmap,  this reflects workload or availability. 

Navigation Preferences 

Just above the heatmap, you will also find the following: 

1. Show / Hide Button: choose to reflect as much or as little information as you'd like.
2. Timeline Navigation: scroll forwards or backwards in time or zoom to display days, weeks or months. 
3. Search & Filter: allows you to search for specific team members. 
4. Unassigned Tasks: houses the collection of all tasks, grouped by role, that have not yet been assigned to a team member.  
5. Total Resource Utilization: reflects the sum total of your team members utilization represented in percentages. As you start allocating your team members, this bar will reflect the rate of utilization within a given period, and as you adjust the zoom level of the heat map the percentage will adjust accordingly. This percentage bar gives you an immediate overview of your team's utilization rate.

People View: Heatmap

The heatmap is the representation of your team's workload whether; under, over, or fully allocated. 

• A team member that is over-allocated is visually identified by a Red tab - along with the total number of hours they are over-allocated - on their heatmap.

 

• A team member that is perfectly-allocated is visually identified by a green tab with a checkmark - on their heatmap.

• Finally, a team member that is under allocated is visually identified by a white (or empty) tab - along with the total number of hours they are under allocated. As you allocate your team member(s) their allocation tab will start to fill up in green.

Heatmap: Display Options

Using the Show / Hide button is a great way to design the Heatmap to your liking. Click on the Show / Hide button (Eye) to display the following options: 

Once the options have unfolded, you will have the ability to choose which elements, numbers and other information you want to display in the heatmap so that you can focus on managing your resources in the most efficient way. Design the heatmap the way you want and concentrate on what is important to you.

Managing Team Members

Heatmap: Utilization

Click on a team members heatmap tab to view the Resource Utilization rate of a team member. 

The heatmpa displays workload/availability across three levels: day, week and month - depending on which level you find yourself on - will display the respective utilization. 

Utilization Breakdown

When accessing a team members utilization you will be able to see the following breakdown:

1. Total assigned time & utilization percentage: this represents the total amount of time that a team member has been assigned to work. 
2. Task allocation: Reflects a list of the specific projects a team member is assigned to, along with their respective aggregate times. 
3. Crate a Task: Click to create and assign a Task to a team member. You can also allocate internal time & time off when clicking this option. 
4. Hour/Percentage: The time/percentage planned to work across a specific period. 

View Team Members Workload

You can view all of the projects and tasks a team member is currently working on by clicking the expand icon next to the person’s name.

When expanded, the heatmap will unfold to display the specific tasks or allocations assigned to a specific team member.

 

Zoom, Scroll & Hover Function

To get a more detailed understanding of what your team members are working on, you can zoom in/out to the desired level, then scroll to the desired period and hover your cursor over a team members task or allocation to get an overview or quick glimpse of the task/allocation information. 

Manage Tasks & Allocations

You can manage a team members tasks or allocations in many ways, such as by dragging, adding or adjusting.

Task:  Tasks are predefined deliverables that belong to a project. Tasks have estimates as well as a start & end date. They can be distinguished by a cut corner and reflect the specifics of the work. 

A task, when clicked, will open to display the specified detail of the work as defined in the scope of the project. 

Allocations: Are bookings or allotment of time that has been Allocated to a team member to spend on a specific project. Allocations have distributions, as well as a start & end date. They can be distinguished by their oval shape and do not reflect the specific work like tasks do. 

An allocation, when clicked, will open to display the detail of the allocation and the distribution of time to be spent on said allocation across a given period. 

 

Creating Tasks & Allocations

Creating/ Adding Task or Allocations: you can create a tasks /allocations by clicking and dragging your cursor over an empty time slot on the heatmap. A task/allocation modal will pop up prompting you to further specify and confirm the necessary criteria for the task or allocation.

 

Adjusting Allocations/Tasks: You can adjust Allocations/Tasks by clicking directly on it and drag it across the timeline and the heatmap will adapt accordingly. You can also click on either end of the allocation/task to adjust the start and/or end date.

 

Tasks Time Distribution: tasks are predefined deliverables that have been planned out in the scope. Each task has an estimated amount of time and deadline in which it has to be delivered.  This estimation is what defines your team member workload. 

1. Days of the week: Camila Zhang is perfectly allocated. Out of her 40h of available time (8h a day) to work, she has been assigned to a task.  

2. Assigned Task: The assigned task "Setup Database" has a 40h estimate and is running from Monday the 17th until Friday the 21st (5 days). 

                                        40h Task / 5 days = 8h of assigned work per day 

Non-Project Time

Any user with the permission type Admin, has the ability to create Non-Project related items. There are two types: Internal Time & Time off, which are defined in the Non-project time section in the admin panel.

Internal Time: represents more ad hoc items like meetings, training sessions, and other non-project time that counts towards your team members workload. You can add a non-project allocation the same way you add a task - by clicking and dragging.

Time Off: represents items like vacation, sick leave or personal days. This time does not count towards your team members workload/utilization. You can add a non-project allocation the same way you add a task - by clicking and dragging.

 

Completed Tasks & Registered Time

Tasks that have been completed (where time has been registered and marked done) will be visually represented in Green in the scheduling view.

 

Unassigned Tasks

On the top left hand side, below People & Project, you'll find the Unassigned Task Tab. In this tab you'll find all of the tasks you have not assigned to your team when you initially scope out your project(s).

 

Click to expand on the Unassigned Task Tab and display all of your unassigned tasks, which will be grouped by role.

 

Unassigned tasks are grouped and housed within these purple tabs (see below). Each one represents the total sum of time needed to complete the tasks.

Expanding on a desired role will display all of the unassigned tasks that pertain to that role.

Unassigned Tasks Assignment  

Drag & Drop to Assign

These unassigned tasks can be assigned directly to a team member by either dragging the task to a team member below.

Open Task to Assign

Unassigned Tasks can also be assigned to a team member by clicking directly on the task to open it. Both options allow you to efficiently allocate all of your remaining task form this single view.

 

Unassigned Task Split Screen: For better navigation, we've split the screen into two separate windows the top for Unassigned tasks and bottom for your people. Meaning, that you can expand or change the size of each window per your preference, but of course being able to see both.

Right Click Functionality

Right Click on Tasks

By right clicking on any task will prompt the right click functionality options. Specifically for tasks those are: 

• Mark or define a task as a bug. 
• Mark or define a task as a high priority item. 
• Duplicate, which will generate a new task with all of the same items defined in the original tasks - only this new task will include the word "Copy" in the title. Please keep in mind that this task will be added to the scope of the project and will be applied to the "price" of the project. 
• Move the task to another project. 
• Block the task. It will still be visible but it will indicate it should not be worked on.
  
  

Right Click on Allocations

By right clicking on any allocation will prompt the right click functionality options. Specifically for allocations those are: 

• Split: this will divide the allocation in two pieces, allocing you to rearrange the allocation to accommodate for work. 
• Edit: Readjust the distribution of the time spent for a team member, add notes, or reassign. 
• Duplicate: this will generate a new allocation with all of the same items defined in the original allocation. 
• Delete. 

Next Step

Continue the tutorial - Schedule Project View

If you have any further questions please remember that our customer support is available to answer your questions.