Who can use this feature? PLM premium and PLM professional
1. What is time tracking
Time tracking is a feature you can use to plan and monitor the progress of your techpacks/products. You can set up your planned start and end dates for every stage of a techpack/product and it can be done for one or multiple techpacks/products, This way you can easily monitor product developments with your team.
You can also manually enter the completion progress in percentages (%) to keep your team members up to date on the state of the techpack(s)/product(s).
You will also have a trackable log of the changes made to these planned start and end dates. The activity log will record which team-member added or amended the planned dates, the time and the date the change was made.
Below you will find the information you will need to enter and monitor with this feature:
- Planned start and end dates for each stage of the techpack(s)/product(s)
- Actual start and end dates for each techpack stage/product stage
- Progress of each stage in percentage
- Activity Log
2. How to set planned dates
Make sure to add Stages before setting up the dates. Here's our chapter on how to use stages.
The planned start and end dates can be set at two levels:
2a. Bulk techpacks/products - set dates and timeline for multiple techpacks/products
2b. Individual techpack/product- set dates and timeline for a single techpack/product
2a. How to set planned dates for bulk techpacks/products
You can set planned dates and timeline to multiple techpacks/products inside a particular folder. Here's how it works -
Step 1: Select the techpack(s)/product(s) you want to set planned start/end dates.
Step 2: Click open the option menu located on the top navigation bar and select
Set planned start/end dates option.
Or when in Stage view.
Step 3: Time tracking planning window will pop-up to set dates for all techpack/product stages.
Step 4: Click on a stage to set the planned start/end dates. In the example below, we selected the Sampling stage.
Step 5: Click on this
dropdown icon located next to planned start and planned end fields to set your dates.
Step 6: Click on the Update button.
2b. How to set planned dates for individual techpack/product
Step 1: Select a techpack/product and click on this gear icon to open techpack/product settings.
Step 2: Click open time tracking tab in your techpack/product settings.
Step 3: Click on this + plus icon located next to each stage and set your planned dates.
Step 4: Click on this
dropdown icon adjacent to planned row and set your start and end dates.
Step 5: Click the save button.
Note: You can also add these dates directly from the stage overview window by clicking on any planned start or end dates fields.
3. How to update actual dates
The actual start/end dates are auto-updated once you move a tech pack from one stage to another. This means you don't have to enter them manually.
As soon as you change your techpack/product stage, Techpacker auto-assigns that particular date to
- the actual end date of the previous stage
- the actual start date of the new stage
However, you also have the option to manually update the actual start and end dates.
Plus you can also leave notes for your team while making those updates. Here's how it works -
Step 1: Select a techpack/product where you wish to manually update. Click on the gear icon to open techpack/product settings and open the time tracking tab.
Step 2: Click on the actual start/actual end and select the dates from the calendar.
Step 3: Click on the Save button at the bottom to save the changes.
4. How to manage stages completion progress
To track and get an overview of your product's development progress, you can add completion progress in percentages (%) format for each techpack/product stage. Here's how this works -
Step 1: Select a techpack/product and click onthe gear icon for techpack/product settings. Open the time tracking tab there.
Step 2: Click on the + plus icon located next to your stages.
Step 3: Type the percentage completed in the completion(%) field in the new window that opens up.
Step 4: Click on the Save button at the bottom to save the changes.
5. How to track the logs
All changes and updates made in the time tracking feature are registered in a log to avoid any confusion. In this log you can track -
- What changes were made
- When the changes were done
- Who made the changes
To access your time-tracking log follows these steps:
Step 1: Select a techpack/product and click onthe gear icon for techpack/product settings. Open the time tracking tab there.
Step 2: Click on this log icon located next to each stage,
You can see the complete log with:
When the changes were made
What changes made
Who made those change