Timeline View

Note: The Timeline view is available in the Professional and Enterprise versions

The timeline feature provides a way to plan and get an overview of the work to be performed by everyone on the project team. BasicOps provides options to calculate the timeline automatically based on the data available, but you can also manipulate the timeline manually.

Overview

The following picture shows a sample timeline. The orange numbers are added for reference, please refer to the numbers below for an introduction to each element.

1. Period selector, defaults to Days. This controls the resolution of the timeline. For a large project you will probably want to use another resolution.
2. The Today button recenters the timeline so that the current date is displayed close to the left side.
3. The Status button displays the current status of your timeline. When displayed like this, no inconsistencies have been detected, otherwise the colors on the button will be inverted. Clicking the button will then show a dialog displaying all the detected inconsistencies.  See also Detecting inconsistencies.
4. Use the Save button to save your changes to the timeline. If there are no changes, this button will be disabled.
5. Use the Discard Changes button to discard your changes to the timeline. If there are no changes, this button will be disabled.
6. The Recalculate button will recalculate the timeline based on the current information for the project tasks, including the priority order of the tasks, the assignee, due dates, and task dependencies. See also Calculating the timeline.
7. Use the Settings button to change the timeline settings for this project. You can choose which algorithm to use for recalculation and you can select which consistency checks you want to have performed. See Detecting inconsistencies.
8. The Unscheduled tasks lists the tasks that are currently not scheduled in the timeline. You can schedule these tasks by dragging them into the timeline. If you use the Recalculate button, they will automatically be added to the timeline. Click the Unscheduled tasks bar to open or close the unscheduled tasks section.

Unscheduled tasks

Tasks are unscheduled by default, they are displayed in the Unscheduled tasks section at the bottom of the timeline view. You can now either place the tasks manually in the timeline view by dragging them into the timeline section, or you can use the Recalculate button, which will recalculate the timeline for all tasks in the project, including the unscheduled tasks.

If you then add new tasks, they will also be displayed in the Unscheduled tasks section until you add them manually, or use the recalculate feature. You can remove a task from the timeline by dragging it into the Unscheduled tasks section.

Manipulating tasks

A task is represented by a rectangle in the timeline, the length of which is determined by the estimate of the task. The color of the rectangle is normally an indication of the status of the task, but if inconsistencies involving the task have been detected, the task will be shown with a red color.

Inside the rectangle the assignee and the task title are displayed.

When you hover over a task you’ll see additional controls appear. See the following picture.

• Drag the + in front of the task to add a start-to-start dependency. See Task dependencies. The task you drag from will be the predecessor and the task you drag to will be the successor in the dependency.
• Drag the arrow in front of the task to change the estimate for the task and change the start date and time
• Drag the arrow behind the task to change the estimate of the task and change the end date and time
• Drag the + behind the task to add a finish-to-start dependency See Task dependencies
• Drag the entire rectangle left or right to change the start and end date and time, or drag the the rectangle up or down to change the priority of the task
• Click the task rectangle to view and edit the task details

Data determining the timeline

The timeline can be set up automatically by using the Recalculate button, but also when you’re setting up the timeline manually, we use the data of the project and tasks to detect and show inconsistencies in the timeline.

For determining the timeline we use the following data:

• Project start and due date, these can be set in the Project Information dialog, which you open by clicking the menu icon next to the project title.
• The task priorities, i.e. the order of the tasks when sorting in priority order, which is the default in the timeline view. It is assumed that the task priority matches the order in which you and your team will work on the tasks. You can change the order in the timeline view as well as the List and Table views.
• The estimate of the tasks. This defaults to 1 day for each task. You can change the estimate by dragging the arrows in front and behind the task in the timeline, or by displaying the task details and changing the estimate.
• The task due dates, which can be set in the task details.
• Task dependencies 

Task dependencies

Task dependencies are used when calculating the timeline and when detecting inconsistencies in the timeline. You can use these two types of task dependencies:

• Finish-to-start - if you add a finish-to-start dependency from task A (predecessor) to task B (successor) it means that task B cannot be started until task A is finished
• Start-to-start - if you add a start-to-start dependency from task A to task B it means that task B cannot be started until task A is started

If you define start-to-start dependencies for tasks belonging to the same user we will assume that these tasks may be worked on in parallel, in all other cases it will be considered an inconsistency if two tasks assigned to the same user overlaps.

You can create task dependencies in the timeline view by hovering over the task that is the starting point of the task dependency (predecessor) and then press and hold the mouse on the + icon after the task (finish-to-start dependency) or before the task (start-to-start dependency) and then drag and release the mouse on the target task (successor). See the following picture.

 

You can also create task dependencies in the task details of either the predecessor or successor task in the Dependencies tab. If you do not see a Dependencies tab, click the menu icon in the task details and select Add Dependency.

Click the Add Dependency button and select which type of dependency you want to add. This will open a dialog (see picture below) where you can select one or more tasks for which to add the selected type of task dependency. Note that this dialog by default lists the tasks in the current project, but you can select another project at the top of the dialog in order to add dependencies to tasks outside this project.

If you’ve added dependencies to tasks in other projects, these tasks will be represented by smaller rectangles in the timeline, see the following picture. You can hover on the external task to get more details, or you can click it to view and edit the external task.

To delete a task dependency, open the task details by clicking the task in the timeline view, select the Dependencies tab, and click the x and the end of the row displaying the dependency. See the following picture.

Calculating the timeline

You can use the Recalculate button to recalculate the timeline based on the data contained in the project and tasks. You can choose between these two algorithms in the Settings dialog:

• As Soon As Possible: tasks are scheduled as soon as possible after the project start date or the current date.
• Just In Time: tasks are scheduled as late as possible depending on the tasks due dates. In this algorithm, tasks with due dates are first scheduled so they can be completed on the due date, and other tasks are scheduled around those tasks.

For both algorithms we use these general principles to schedule tasks:

• For each assignee the tasks will be scheduled in priority order
• Tasks are scheduled so that any Task dependencies are fulfilled

Detecting inconsistencies

Both when you use the recalculate feature and when you’re setting up the timeline manually, there may be inconsistencies detected in the timeline. You can control which inconsistencies we check for in the Settings dialog.

When inconsistencies are detected for a task, the color of the task rectangle turns red, and if you hover over the task you’ll see which inconsistencies are detected for the task. See the picture below.

You can also click the Status button to view all detected inconsistencies, see picture below. The dialog shows a section for each type of inconsistency, and each task involved is listed. You can click the task in the dialog to view and edit the task details. To navigate to the task in the timeline view, click the gray arrow in front of the task, this will center the task in the timeline view and indicate the selected task.

Some of the inconsistency types include a View tasks button, e.g. the loop dependency inconsistency. If you click this button, the timeline view will be filtered on only tasks involved in that inconsistency, making it easier to determine what to do to fix the inconsistency. To see all tasks in the timeline view again, click the x in the filter button.

Saving or discarding changes to the timeline

The timeline is not updated automatically when you make changes to it except when you’re updating the estimates or the dependencies. If the timeline has been changed, the Save button will be active, click that to update the timeline. Other users will not see the changes until you do so. You can also choose to discard your changes by clicking the Discard Changes button. This way you can play around with changes before deciding whether this is the right way to go. This includes recalculation of the timeline (when you click the Recalculate button), so you can try that, and if you’re not happy with the result, you can simply discard it.

If you have made unsaved changes you will get a warning if you try to leave the timeline view, at which time you can choose to save the changes, discard the changes, or stay in the timeline view.

Sorting

You can choose between four ways to sort the tasks in the timeline view:

• Priority - default, listed by expected order of which to work on the tasks
• Assignee - makes it easy to get an overview of the tasks belonging to each user
• Section - get an overview of the execution of the tasks within each section
• Start date - view the order of which tasks will be worked on across the entire team

Note that when sorting on Assignee or Section, the tasks belonging to one assignee or section are sorted by priority, so you can easily change the priority by dragging a task up or down. Note also that if you drag a task outside the area of an assignee or section, the task will be assigned to that assignee or section - a message will be displayed in that case.