Workdays and calendars

Time-related calculations, such as velocity and release burn down, are based on work days and calendars.

Overview

You can define which days of the week are workdays. You can define workdays at the workspace level or at the team level. Team-level definitions override workspace-level definitions.

The default work days are Monday - Friday.

With calendars, you can create events during which users are not available to work on their backlogs. Examples of events could be holidays, departmental fun days, and off-site project kickoffs.

Calendar event durations are used to calculate the number of days remaining to complete work, the team velocity, and more.

Workdays and calendars are reflected in the following places:

  • Time-related graphs, such as burn up and burn down graphs, and the Control Chart

  • Story Board: in the WIP limit and card time limit

  • Planning tab of features and backlog items

Note: Changes to workdays are effective from the time you make the change and forward, not retroactively.

For example: A team member's capacity in a release will not be updated when you change the workdays. You will see the effect of the change either when a new member is added to the team, or when the team is associated to a new release.

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Defining workdays for a workspace

This section describes how to define workdays for a workspace.

To define workdays for a workspace:

  1. In Settings > Spaces, select a workspace in the tree, and click Edit Workspace .

  2. In the Workspace Detail dialog box, select the workdays and clear the non-work days.

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Defining workdays for a team

This section describes how to define workdays for a team.

To define work days for a team:

  1. In Settings > Spaces, select the workspace in the tree.

  2. In the Teams tab, click the team ID link to open the team you want to edit.

  3. Under Work Days, select the workdays and clear the non-workdays.

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Predefined calendars

ALM Octane provides the following predefined calendars for spaces and workspaces:

Calendar Description
Main space calendar

Predefined calendar for the current space.

Use this calendar to define events that relate to all spaces, all workspaces, and all teams. Examples include local holidays for your country, or company-wide events.

You cannot add other calendars on this level.

The space admin can add events to these calendars.

This calendar is read-only on the workspace and team levels.
Main workspace calendar

Predefined calendar on the workspace level.

Use this calendar to define events for a workspace and all its teams. Examples include division-wide events, such as a product kickoff or convention.

Admins for workspaces can add events to this calendar and create additional workspace calendars.

Workspace calendars are read-only on the team level.
Main team calendar

Predefined calendar on the team level.

Use this calendar to define events for the current team only. Examples include team fun days or group volunteering days.

Admins with permissions to create or edit team can add events to this calendar and add additional team calendars.

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Sharing calendars between spaces

Calendars are available for spaces, workspaces, and teams. This section describes how to work with shared and non-shared calendars.

This table summarizes the actions admins can perform when defining calendars in shared spaces, workspaces, and teams.

User Main space calendar Main workspace calendar Other workspace calendars Main team calendar Other team calendars
Shared space admin Manage events Manage events

Manage events

Manage workspace calendars
Admin for a workspace Manage events

Manage events

Manage workspace calendars
Admins with team Edit permissions Apply workspace calendars Manage events

Manage events

Manage team calendars

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Create a calendar

This section describes how to create a workspace calendar.

To create a calendar:

  1. In Settings > Spaces, select a workspace.

  2. Click Calendars, and then click + in the Calendar pane on the left.

  3. Name the calendar and click Add.

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Modify a calendar

You can modify predefined calendars that are provided with ALM Octane.

To modify a calendar: 

  1. Workspace calendar: In Settings > Spaces, select a workspace.

    Team calendar: In Settings > <workspace> > Teams, select a team.

  2. Click Calendars.

  3. Workspace calendar: Click the calendar you want to modify.

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Apply a user-defined workspace calendar to a team

You can apply user-defined workspace calendars to calendars to teams. This means that time-related calculations for the team will take into account any applied workspace calendars.

To apply a workspace calendar to a team: 

  1. In Settings > <workspace> > Teams, select a team.

  2. Click Calendars.

  3. Click Apply Calendar.

  4. In the Apply from Workspace dialog box, click the calendar you want to apply.

  5. Click Apply.

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See also: