Viewing Project Time View

Project Time View provides a comprehensive, visual overview to view and manage a project using time, durations and dates of all the work necessary to complete a project. You can view and manage work organized by process, status, function or team member ownership.

The Project Time View is presented as a project page.

By default, this project page is turned off. To enable it:

1. From the Process menu, select Models and create a gated, non-gated, or an idea model, or select the model to edit.
2. Click the Pages tab and navigate to the Pages & Layouts section. The current list of available project page layouts is displayed.
3. Locate Time View, and click on the respective check-box under the Visible column.

Important! If you utilized the old Time View, it will be replaced by the new Time View page with upgrade to Accolade 16.0. Your data remains as is, and you can locate the Time View in its usual spot with the same icon; only your user interface is updated. If you had the old Time View layout with other pods, you will have the new Time View page and the old layout, but the Time View pod is deprecated with upgrade to Accolade 16.0.

Elements of Project Time View Page

The Time View page is divided into three sections – the Time View Toolbar, the Time View Grid, and the Time View Chart. The Toolbar, at the top of the page, contains icons and buttons for controlling the data below. The Grid, on the left, has important details about each stage, gate, deliverable, activity, and ad-hoc activity in the project. The Chart, on the right, provides a visual representation of the project’s timeline. Each section is described in more detail in the corresponding section below.

Time View Toolbar

The Time View toolbar contains icons and buttons for controlling what data to display.

• Collapse All – Hides all the deliverables and activities, displaying only project, stage, and gate information.
• Expand All – Displays all the deliverable and activities, displaying information about the entire project.
• Individual stages and deliverables can be expanded and collapsed with the +/- icons to their left.
• Move Left – Shifts along time view chart to the left.
• Move Right – Shifts along time view chart to the right.
• Zoom In – Increases the zoom level.
• Zoom Out – Decreases the zoom level.
• Zoom To Fit – Selects the zoom level that best fits the project.
• View
  • Critical Path - Alternately enables and disables the display of the critical path. Tasks on the critical path display in red in the project time view when this is enabled. Critical path is the defined sequence of tasks that can't be delayed, otherwise the whole project would be delayed. The critical path also determines the shortest time the project can take.
• Actions
• Enforce Dependencies – Automatically schedules tasks based on predefined dependencies, adjusting the dependencies so that they all are in sync across the project.
• Reschedule Project Start and End Dates – Sets the project start date to the earliest start date of a project task, and sets the project end date to the latest finish date on a task.
• Export to PDF – Exports Time View grid to a PDF document.

  Note:  Ensure you have set up the PDF Export functionality to be able to do this. For more, see Accolade Installation Guide > Chapter 3: Installing the Accolade Application > Setting Up PDF Export Functionality for Accolade Time View.

• Filter – Filter items based on any columns on your Time View.

  To filter out items that are Not Required, filter based on the Status field.

Time View Grid

The Time View grid has important details about each stage, gate, deliverable, activity, ad-hoc deliverable, and ad-hoc activity in the project. The following columns are displayed in the grid by default. Double clicking on the deliverable or activity name within this grid will open the related project task details.

• Name – The name of the task.
• Function – The function associated with the task.
• Owner – The team member who owns the task.
• Status – The current status of the task.
• Start – The date on which the task will begin.
• Planned Finish – The date by which the task is planned to be finished.
• Deadline – The date by which the task must be finished.
• Duration – The number of physical days between the start date and finish date for the task. This calculation includes weekend and non-working days within the date range.
• Columns – Right-click on any column header to view this option. Select to add or remove columns as needed from this list.
• Hide Column – Right-click on any column header to view this option, and select to hide the respective column.
• Sort Ascending / Descending – Right-click on any column header to view this option, and select to sort the grid accordingly.
• Multi-Sort – Right-click on any column header to view this option, and select to add an ascending or descending sorter.
• In Trouble - To set an activity or deliverable to In Trouble, right-click on an activity or deliverable and select In Trouble.
• Add - Right-click on an activity or deliverable to view this menu.
• Deliverable Above / Below – When a user has permission to add an ad-hoc deliverable to a stage, this option will appear in this menu. Click to insert a new row representing the new ad-hoc deliverable. Deliverables can be repositioned by dragging and dropping across the Time View grid as needed.
• Activity – When a user has permission to add an ad-hoc activity to a deliverable, this option will appear in this menu. Click to insert a new row representing the new ad-hoc activity. Activities can be repositioned by dragging and dropping them across the Time View grid as needed.
• The user must give the activity a name before saving.
• The user cannot add a dependency to an ad-hoc activity until the activity has been saved.
• Delete Activity / Deliverable – If a user has permission to delete an activity or deliverable, right-click on it, and select Delete.

Time View Chart

The Time View chart illustrates the project’s schedule using several different elements. With the chart, the team can visually see how long each task should take, when each task begins and ends, and the relationships among tasks.

• Stages – Stages are represented by a horizontal bar at the top of each set of related deliverables and activities. The stage start date is determined by the earliest date assigned to the stage's tasks, and its finish date is determined by the latest date assigned to the stage's tasks. These dates update automatically if deliverable and/or activity dates are changed.
• Gates – Symbol turns red if the gate date is before the tasks are scheduled to finish.
• Gate at Risk – A gate is at risk if the gate date is set before all tasks are scheduled to finish. An exclamation icon will appear on the gate icon when the gate date is at risk. If reason codes are defined, the reason code will appear in place of the exclamation, until a reason code is entered.
• Deliverables and Activities – Each deliverable and activity is represented by a horizontal bar drawn from its start date to its planned finish date. If the task only has one of the two dates defined, it will display as a solid line on the chart at the defined date. If a task does not have any assigned dates, it will not display on the chart.
• The dates on the task can be changed by dragging either end of each horizontal bar, or by sliding the entire task bar in either direction.
• If the project has any dependencies between deliverables or activities, those dependencies will be represented as arrows drawn between the related tasks.
• Double clicking on the deliverable or activity task bar will open the related project task details.

Dependencies in Time View Page

When a new project is created, it will inherit all of the stage task dependencies defined on the process model and display them on the Time View. See Adding Dependencies to Models for more. Dependencies for a single project can also be added and deleted from Time View.

• To add a new dependency in Time View - When the user hovers the mouse over a task's bar on the page, a small circle representing the task's start and finish will appear on either side of the bar. Click on the circle representing the source of the dependency and drag the cursor to the target of the dependency. The page will then draw an arrow representing the new dependency.
• To edit or delete an existing dependency in Time View - Double click on the dependency.
  • Edit - Change the dependency type via the Type drop-down, and click on Save.
  • Delete - Click on Delete.

Note:  When a user sets a date that violates a dependency, the dependency line will turn red and an exclamation icon will display next to the stages and tasks that have invalid dates. Hovering the mouse over a red dependency line will display a tool-tip to indicate to the user which dates are in violation. The user is still able to save Time View when a project has invalid dependencies, but the warnings and red dependency lines will remain until the user changes the relevant dates to fix the dependency.