1. FAQ

FAQ

I don't fully understand the meaning of one term. Where can I get a description of it?

 Full descriptions of the main terms used in Epicflow can be found on this page ‘Glossary

What are Graphs for?

Graphs are an essential part of the Epicflow system. They provide a project manager with analytics based on the data retrieved from Jira or MS Project. Currently, Epicflow has the following four types of graphs:

  • Historical load graph presents group performance, capacity, load, and output over time.
  • Future load graph assists in taking control of resource planning and predicting the impact of additional projects on the resource load.
  • Burnup chart shows how much work has been completed by the teams, and the total amount of work. ‘The remaining weeks’ graph shows the amount of work left for each resource group
Why do I see two assignments in the tasklist?

If you can see two assignments in Tasklist, one of which is marked as deleted and blocked in the Task Card, it means you’ve downloaded new project data through the plugin, where the task has changed its resource assignment.

What is Resource Management page for?

It’s used to manage and visualize the resource capacity, availability, future load, group/multigroup/user creation/editing/deletion and mapping external resources with internal ones.

I can't delete an empty group and get a message 'Cannot remove group with tasks assigned'

Even if you can’t see the assignments in the system associated with this group, check out the Modular Library. The groups located there, are considered active in the system so you can’t delete them.

How does Epicflow set priority between projects?

We examine what’s happening at the project level. The priority system takes care that the tasks in the critical path get the highest priority. You can imagine that you have a lot of different paths and one of them is in a critical situation at the moment, so it gets a specific number. This number informs you about the current state of things. If the number of the critical path is 100, it means you don’t have any extra time left, so you can’t afford any delay. But if the number is 80, it means you have 20% buffer time against the delivery date. On the other hand, let’s say the number is 107. Then you’ll be seven days late no matter how hard you work. The critical path has a seven-day delay. This is how the system works. We’re sure that knowing the status of the project is extremely important for everybody involved in project delivery.

I forgot my login/password, what should I do?

To reset a password, select “Forgot Password” option on the login page and specify your email (or any other user’s email) then.

If a resource’s email is not available, submit a request to the Functional Application Manager. Then the email address will be changed and you’ll get a letter providing an opportunity to restore the password.

What’s the best sequence of resource allocation in the context of a multi-project environment?

If you work in a multi-project environment, let the priority calculation mechanism establish the order of work. Epicflow can set these priorities for you and provide the best possible sequence in the Task List. In the priority list, you’ll also get a number called ‘pressure’. If it’s high, then be careful when changing the sequence. But if the pressure is low, it means that you still have some buffer time and can use it. The number of the priority is not absolute, it’s relative, and you can play with it. But it’s better to follow the priority mechanism.

Can I assign multiple people to a task from multiple groups if we have task type that goes to a multifunctional group simultaneously?

Yes, you can. You should define it in MS Project. Note that similar to MS Project you cannot have one resource assigned twice with the same group to one task. So if you have one task and two engineers from the group “Engineering” are required, you should specify two different engineers

How can I know if I have enough resources to finish my projects on time?

Project priority is a means to deliver your projects on time. Always keep it below 99%. If it’s higher than 100%, you should manage the situation by using all Project Management arsenal such as resource reallocation, rescheduling, other projects replanning, etc.

Keep team’s load on 90% and control to avoid overload with the help of Future Load graph
Do I need to hire or train resources?

It depends on many parameters such as resource capacity, load, financial information, etc. Nevertheless, you always need to control such parameters for all your resources to have optimal Project flow.

What task sequence has the highest pressure?

The sequence of the tasks with the highest priority will create the highest pressure. That’s why each engineer should perform the tasks with the highest priority from his(her) task list.

How to prepare my files for uploading correctly?

You must have: Adding resources or resource groups to tasks with work estimation (it’s the only way to calculate load). Every task or their summary task should have a successor/predecessor (it’s required to calculate the right task priority.)

How do I add tasks?

You can create tasks in MS Project and upload them to Epicflow or create an internal project in Epicflow directly.

How do I move resources from one task to another?

Go to the Task List/Choose a resource for a specific task/Click with the right button on the resource/Change Resource for this task (assign to the resource or multiple groups)

How do users view their own task lists?

1. In the web application, you can create a user and send an invitation to log in to the system. Then this user can filter the tasks assigned to him(her)/ assigned by the project/ by the group. 2. In the Mobile Application, users can see only the Tasks assigned to them specifically and upload the information about the remaining/total hours which will be synchronized on the spot with Epicflow and MS Project.

Do you get notified when a task is assigned to you?

The Epicflow system provides each resource with the list of the tasks sorted by their priority. So you always have an up-to-date list of tasks ordered by priority without having urgent ones.

A lot of our design tasks must be executed by one person from the initiation to the completion, so the overall capacity doesn’t necessarily reflect our ability to execute due to individual availability.

1. You can assign Resource group to the task, then the load/priority will be calculated based on the group availability. 2. You can create a task in MS project with 2 specific resources assigned (multiple assignment), and the load/priority will be calculated per each person. Epicflow will show it in Task list and they will upload Remaining hours separately.

Does the tool assign resources based on no. of bodies available, or by a person?

Epicflow calculates and displaces Resource overload/underload according to the Resource Capacity and the number of assigned tasks according to the calendar. This info is represented in the Future Load Graph by a resource/a group/total.

What is Output view for?

For the Baseline trend analysis, a Project Manager (PM) can use the Historical Load graph. With the corresponding permissions, a user will have an “Output view” toggle. It shows the difference between the spent and the originally planned hours .

Who enters the hours into the task.. the assignee? Does it automatically mark as complete when hrs are reached? Can we go over-budget on hours and keep it as incomplete?

It depends on your process. The task can be estimated by a PM/team/resource, but the assigned resource should upload the information about the remaining/total hours.

From what I understand, multiple tasks are grouped up under the milestone deliverables… Do the tasks have dependencies between them? How do I link tasks, and how do I know the resource dependencies? Or is it only grouped by a milestone?

There are different dependencies in MS Project between tasks such as predecessor, successor etc., which Epicflow imports and displaces accordingly.

Can I have subgroups of resources?

Yes, you can create these 2 Resource groups in the Resource management section and divide their availability.

I delete the projects and users but still can't delete some groups but I can rename them, why?

To be able to delete a group, you need to free it from all assignments of tasks.

What is the resource assignee to the group?

Each resource can be assigned to multiple groups simultaneously. As a result, such an attachment of the resource to the specific group is defined by resource assignee to the group. Which is an additional separation level of resource by groups to which it’s attached.

What is Max% in user menu?

Maximum% indicates the degree of involvement of the resource in the group tasks.

Where can I find MS Project Templates (Epicflow Project Template & Epicflow resource pool template)?

If you need a Template, please contact the sales or support department.

If I delete an inactive project in the pipeline overview, can I still add that project to Epicflow later?

Yes, you can. Removing a project from the environment doesn’t affect the original data source. In the future, you will simply need to re-add the project to the import page manually.

What to do to avoid user unmapping in Epicflow on the resource name change in Resource Pool?

To avoid it, you need to specify an Email Address for the newly created resource in Resource Pool. It will help Epicflow later, in case of resource’s name change, to use Email Address as the identifier and automatically link this resource with the previously uploaded one in Epicflow.

I can't see my add-in in MS Project

If the the add-in is installed but hidden, go to menu File->Options-> Add-ins and check it out.

Difference on search result by Resources Group / Name column

  • If data is filtered by a text key, then the tasks assigned to the groups whose name corresponds to the filter key will be shown.
  • If filtering is done with the selection of the group from the appeared context menu, “cross-group assigned” tasks will be shown as well.

If we report tasks as done in the 'Inactive area', does it then affect the historical load?

Yes, the output on the task will be recorded in the Historical Load graph.

What is the difference between 'Only view projects' and 'View and manage projects' permissions?

Despite the fact that both roles grant permission to view projects, the second one also provides the opportunity to manage them. This provides a flexible approach to defining two groups of projects:

  • the projects that can be viewed but can’t be managed
  • the projects that can be both viewed and managed.

How can I reset UCLT tasks to zero spent hours?

Unlike other assignments, you are not allowed to decrease Spent hours for UCLT. However,  there’s a three-step workaround: perform reassignment to another group, make required changes, and reassign it back to UCLT.

How milestones can be used in combination with Jira?

Since Jira doesn’t support directly defined Milestones (ML), use Epicflow to omit this restriction. You can create them right in the project on the Pipeline page. They will exist only in Epicflow, without backward synchronization to JIRA.

For additional information please refer to the following link.

Got ERROR message that Remaining time was already changed

It’s a message to notify you that the task had been changed while you were editing it by a different user. Save your changes into the separate location and refresh the page. After that, you’ll be able to proceed with editing the task.

Is it correct that if you change the project end milestone in manual planning the changed date is kept in the infinite planning?

Yes, it is correct. Changing any milestone in the manual mode will result in the displacement of its dependent elements.

I've got an error message 'Synchronization conflict is detected. Multiple project start milestones detected

You need to check your MSP file for duplicate start milestones.

This is also the case of end milestones with a corresponding error message appearing when trying to export.

Which browsers are supported?

We aim to support the most commonly used browsers based on statistics. According to the statistics, there are three major browsers: Chrome (63.51%), Safari (20.43%), and Edge (4.96%).

Please note that anything outside of this scope is not supported. We strongly advise using one of the browsers mentioned above.

What is the difference between the output and spent indicators in the historical load graph?

The difference between the output and spent indicators in the historical load graph is that ‘spent’ is related to the number of hours worked, while ‘output’ refers to employee availability and the number of working hours for employee. If the value is low it means that employees are working less than their availability. More about this can be read in the article that covers graphs.

Why do I see gray bars in the pipeline?

Gray bars are visible when there are no tasks between milestones.