Planning Calendar

The Planning Calendar is a visual scheduling tool for project managers and resource planners that want to plan work orders on resources. It provides an interactive timeline view that shows at a glance which resources are assigned to which work orders and when their work is scheduled.

The primary purpose of the calendar is to manage resource utilization, identify bottlenecks, account for absences, and schedule work efficiently.

Overview

The calendar view is divided into several interactive areas that allow for intuitive drag-and-drop planning.

Timeline

The main area of the calendar is a list of resources on the left and the timeline on the right.

Each row represents a single Resource. In addition to the resource's name, the list includes columns for the Resource Group (e.g., "Consultants", "Developers"), Skills, and planned Effort / Capacity to aid planners in making assignments. The columns on the timeline represent time, typically in hours for a selected day, depending on the zoom level.

The timeline visualizes three types of entries:

• Work Order Events: These are the colored blocks representing a specific Work Order assigned to a resource for a defined period. These events are the exact same ones that are created and managed in the PLANNING tab of the Work Order Card.

• Unavailable Time: Blocks with a grey background pattern indicate when a resource is unavailable. This includes scheduled Breaks (according to the work hour template) as well as Absences (e.g., due to vacation or illness) which come directly from the Absence module of DYCE Time Tracking.

• Exchange Events: Appointments from users' Outlook calendars are optionally displayed to provide additional context for planning and help avoid scheduling conflicts.

Exchange integration

Exchange events become available if the feature is enabled by an administrator and the necessary permissions to the Exchange calendars have been granted. Refer to the setup instructions in the Setting up DYCE Connect documentation for more details.

Work Order Panel

On the right side of the screen, the Work Orders panel can be expanded or collapsed by clicking on the blue arrow button. This list functions as the backlog, typically containing a filtered list of all unscheduled work orders (depending on the active user-configurable filters).

The panel’s purpose is to display a list of work orders that the planner can assign to resources in the timeline.

Filtering works in the same way as in the Work Order List and can be customized by each user. The list can be searched and sorted by various criteria, such as Customer, Project, Resource Group, or Status.

Show only unscheduled work orders

Set a filter on the field Scheduled to No to display only unscheduled work orders in the list. This helps planners focus on the tasks that still need to be assigned.

Filtering and Navigation

The Controls at the top of the calendar customize the view:

• Date Navigation: Arrows to move forward and backward, as well as a "Today" button to jump to the current day.

• Zoom level: Controls the timeline's scale (e.g., showing more or fewer hours or days).

• Resource Filters: Powerful filters to narrow down the display to a specific resource group (e.g., "Developers," "Consultants") or resources with specific skills.

• Show Exchange Events Toggle: A switch that allows planners to show or hide the Outlook appointments for all displayed resources. This helps to declutter the view when not needed.

Interactions and Workflows

The calendar is designed for dynamic planning. The most common actions are:

• Scheduling a Work Order: A planner drags a work order from the backlog via drag and drop directly onto the timeline of an available resource. This creates a new event for this work order, establishing the link between the resource, work package, and time.

• Adjusting Plans:

  • Rescheduling: An existing event can be easily moved along the timeline to change its timing or dragged to another resource's row to change the assignment.

  • Adjusting Duration: The length of the event block can be intuitively changed by dragging its start or end to extend or shorten the planned duration.

• Viewing Details: A double-click on an event in the calendar opens the detailed Work Order Card, where all information can be viewed and edited.

• Conflict Detection: The system provides visual support during planning. If a planner attempts to place an event in a period where the resource is already blocked by an Absence, Break, or Exchange Event, this is indicated by an orange color highlighting.

Integration into the DYCE Workflow

The Planning Calendar is seamlessly integrated into the DYCE application landscape:

• Connection to the Work Order Card: All "Events" created or modified in the calendar are reflected in real-time in the PLANNING tab of the corresponding Work Order Card, and vice versa.

• Connection to DYCE Time Tracking: The events scheduled here appear as entries on the respective employee's personal Tasks and Calendar page in DYCE Time Tracking. This communicates the actionable tasks to the executing employee.

Exchange Events: Pre-requisites and Troubleshooting

For Exchange events to be displayed on the Planning Calendar, a connection must be established between a DYCE resource and a user's Exchange mailbox.

The mapping between resources and Exchange mailboxes is configured in the DYCE User Setup page within the administration area. An administrator links a DYCE user to a specific resource, which establishes the link to an Exchange account. Refer to the setup instructions in the Setting up DYCE Connect documentation for more details.

Error Handling: If the system fails to load Exchange events for a specific resource, a small red warning icon will appear next to the resource's name in the timeline. Hovering over this icon will display a tooltip explaining the cause of the problem. Common issues include:

• The resource has no corresponding user assigned in the User Setup.
• The user's Exchange mailbox is not accessible (e.g., due to missing permissions).