Timeline view

Use the Grid Timeline view to track and analyze the release progress and quality.

Overview

The Grid Timeline view displays features and epics in a Gantt chart.

Available in ValueEdge and from ValueEdge and ALM Octane 16.1.100: The Grid Timeline view is also available for other backlog items.

Visual representation of the item phases helps you analyze the current release by identifying:

  • Long phases that may imply delays or bottlenecks.
  • Phase slowdown in relation to its average cycle time.
  • Repeated phases that may imply rework.
  • Waste time that may imply waiting, unnecessary motions, overprocessing, or any other waste defined by your process team.

To view the timeline in a Gantt chart, on the Features, Epics, or Backlog items tabs, select Grid Timeline View . For details, see View types.

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Timeline bars

In the Grid Timeline view, the bars represent items in different phases between the New and Done metaphases. This means that an item's timeline starts when the item reaches the In Progress metaphase, and ends when the item reaches metaphase Done. The New and Done metaphases are not represented in the timeline.

Tip: Hover over a section of the bar, marked with a certain color, to view an item's details, such as a phase the color represents, the phase start and end date, waste time, as well as the item's cycle time for that phase.

Timeline bars are constructed as follows:

Bars Details
Color

The bar colors represent an item's different phases between the New and Done metaphases. The colors reflect phases configured for the item workflow, and may be different depending on an item type.

If an item's phase is repeated, the phase bar is marked with diagonal stripes additionally to the phase color.

Tip: Check the legend in the lower-right corner for phase-specific color representations.
Red line for waste

Available in: ValueEdge and from ALM Octane 16.0.400

If waste tracking for an item type is configured, the waste time is represented by a red line under the item bars whose phases are associated with waste. For details, see Measure waste.
Slow phase

Available in: ValueEdge

The Slow phase  icon on the timeline bar indicates that an item's phase has lasted more than expected.

The phase slowdown value is based on the average phase time for work items that were done in previous releases. For example, if an item remains in the same phase for more than 100% of the phase average time, ValueEdge and ALM Octane will display a Slow phase icon in the timeline.

Note:

  • Your admin can change the default threshold by modifying the PHASE_SLOW_DOWN_THRESHOLD_PERCENT parameter. For details, see Configuration parameters.

  • The phase slowdown is not calculated if the analytics does not have enough data to provide the insights.

  • The phase slowdown is not available for backlog items.

Hover over the section of the bar marked as Slow phase to view the percentage of phase slowdown above the average item's phase time.
Position and length

The bars' position represents the following:

Start point: The date on which an item moved into a starting phase of the In Progress metaphase, for example phase Functional Design.

End point: The date on which an item moved into a starting phase of the Done metaphase.

The bar's length is determined by the time an item spent in all the phases between the New and Done metaphases.

Note: The timeline displays the calendar start and end dates, while the Cycle time and Waste fields exclude the non-working days.

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The legend

The timeline legend provides colors that represent an item's phases between the New and Done metaphases, and includes the red line that represents waste.

The legend colors reflect phases configured for the item workflow, and may be different depending on an item type.

Note:  

  • In the features timeline, the legend relates to features only. If features are grouped by epics, hover over an epic's bar in the timeline to view the epic's phase or other details. You can also expand an epic to view the bars for its features in the timeline.
  • In the backlog items' timeline, the legend provides phase colors for each item type separately.

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Milestones and the current date

Milestones and the current date are displayed as vertical lines along the timeline.

Vertical line type Represents
Vertical blue line The current date.
Dotted vertical line

Milestone.

The milestone types are distinguished by the diamonds at the top of the lines:

  • A solid diamond represents a release milestone.
  • Overlapping solid diamonds represent multiple milestones with the same date.
  • An outlined diamond represents a shared milestone.

Hover over the lines to display the milestone details.

Note: By default, the timeline displays only items that are related to a specific release. In the features grid, you can display all the items by clicking Show also indirect features at the bottom right of the pane. To revert to the original view, click Show only direct features. For details, see Relations and dependencies.

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Timeline actions

You can perform the following actions in the timeline area:

Action Method
Zoom in or out of timescale

Timescale slider or Ctrl + mouse wheel
Display item details, such as phase, start and end date, cycle time, and waste (if configured) Hover over the timeline bar
Display milestone details Hover over a milestone line

If you are using a touchpad:

Action Method
Zoom in or out of timescale Ctrl + two-finger scroll
Scroll along the timeline Shift + two-finger scroll

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Next steps: