This article outlines all the key terms that you will encounter for TaskRay. Additionally, this article includes general guidance on how to structure project plans.
Terminology
Template Terminology
- Principal Template: A top-level, or main template, which can have many related versions.
- Principal Version: A record that holds the version information (e.g., version number) for a single related template.
- Project Template: A template is used to outline the steps of a repeatable process (e.g. customer onboarding). It is used to create projects with all predefined steps and structure applied to manage each instance of the repeatable process. Each template has a version and principal record above it in the relational object hierarchy.
- Template Hub: Template Hub is a user interface specifically designed for managing all aspects of a template.
- Template Builder: A user interface in Template Hub that takes users through a step-by-step process for creating and modifying templates.
Project Terminology
- Project: An organized plan aimed to deliver desired goals and outcomes. Projects are structured using tasks, task groups, and milestones.
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Project Hierarchy: A layered approach to structuring complex project plans using parent and sub-projects. TaskRay supports 5 levels of relational hierarchy.
- Parent Project: A top-level, or main project, which can have many related sub-projects.
- Sub-Project: A child record, under a parent project. Often used as when smaller (sub) project initiatives roll up to a single, larger (parent) project initiative.
- Task Group: Used to organize tasks within a project, such as into phases or themes.
- Task: Used to define specific portions of work part of the project plan. Tasks are assigned to users and are used for managing the progress of work, logging time, and tracking due dates.
- Milestone: A single-day task used to designate major events, goals, or key deliverables within a project. Visually depicted with a diamond icon.
- Checklist: A container for organizing Checklist Items on tasks.
- Checklist Item: Used to track granular details and to-do's on tasks.
- Project Team: A group of TaskRay users who are responsible for managing or overseeing work on a project. In a private sharing model, the project team also controls user access to a project.
Resource Management Terminology
- Resource: An individual that owns and completes work in TaskRay such as Projects and Tasks.
- Role: Describes the job function or position of a Resource. Roles are assigned to Resources, and can also serve as a placeholder owner of work in TaskRay. Roles allow for easy bulk reassignment of items after a template is cloned.
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Capacity: The total amount of work a Resource can take on; made up of Availability and Utilization.
- Availability: The amount of remaining Capacity that has yet to be utilized.
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Utilization: The amount of Capacity that has been utilized (a.k.a. assigned actual and estimated work).
- Estimated Utilization: The expected amount of Capacity to be utilized (based on Estimated Time).
- Actual Utilization: The actual amount of Capacity that was utilized (based on Actual Time).
- Over Capacity: When a Resource is allocated too much work. In other words, when Utilization is greater than overall Capacity.
- Under Capacity: When a Resource has Availability to take on work.
Automation Terminology
- Stitch: Stitcher is an automation feature that builds a project by combining templates or parts of templates, using logic-based automation, or manual selection. Projects can be built by joining together multiple template projects and task groups. This feature can be used for both initial project setup, and for in-flight projects that need additional tasks or task groups added.
- Clone: An automation feature that creates exact replicas of the record being cloned – templates, projects, task groups, or tasks. This feature can be used in logic-based automation, or manual entry.
Project Structure Basics
As you begin working in TaskRay, it is important to understand the basics of how you can structure and organize your work. TaskRay provides a lot of flexibility for structuring project plans, supporting both complex and simple project plan requirements.
This article provides an overview of how each of the elements can be used to structure project plans.
Templates
Templates are used to outline the steps of repeatable business processes, such as customer onboarding. They help streamline the project creation process. Projects created from template copy over all tasks, details, and structure as defined on templates. There are two main ways to create projects from templates: cloning and stitching. The cloning approach will create projects that are true representations of templates. Stitching allows combining different templates and portions of templates to dynamically create projects.
If you are using TaskRay to manage repeatable processes, it is recommended to leverage templates.
For more information, see Templates.
Projects
Projects are used to hold a series of tasks that need to be completed to meet a specific outcome or to achieve a larger business goal. For repeatable processes, a project is used to manage an individual instance of the repeatable process (e.g. managing the onboarding process for a specific customer).
Projects are structured using tasks to track specific bits of work and activities that make up the larger plan. Additionally, projects can include milestones to denote key events and objectives.
Task Groups
While not required, Task Groups are a great way to define the structure of projects and keep tasks organized, improving visibility and manageability. Task Groups can be used to keep related tasks together by representing phases, sprints, themes, or any other attributes relevant to the project.
When building a project, you can start by defining its structural foundation by adding task groups and then adding tasks to those task groups.
Tasks
Tasks are the core object in TaskRay and are the main object most users interact with. You can think of tasks as pieces of work that need to be completed to reach the larger project goal.
Tasks are used to outline and delegate responsibilities among team members. When adding tasks to a project, you can schedule them to define due dates, set dependencies to prescribe the order in which they should be worked on, and create checklists to outline granular details.
As users work on their assigned tasks, they can update their statuses and check off related checklist items to track their progress of work.
Milestones
You also have the option to designate certain tasks as milestones. Milestones are single-day events used to designate major events and deliverables on projects. They are visually represented with diamond icons throughout the TaskRay app. They play a big role in reporting and can help measure overall project performance and provide insight into how the projects progress toward completion.
Checklists
Checklist Items are used to outline granular details and to-do's on tasks. As users work on tasks, they can cross off checklist items to track their progress, ensuring that every small detail is accounted for.