Manage Release Activities

Introduction

The ‘Activities’ feature enables you to add and manage Activities and Criteria in a Release.

An Activity is a defined action with an output. Activities are assigned against a Phase within a Project and are assigned to individuals with due dates and measurable KPIs. Whereas, Criteria are an exit or entry decision point. Criteria are assigned against a Gate within a project and are assigned to individuals with due dates and measurable KPIs.

Pre-requisite

To manage Activities/Criteria, you must have the following user permissions:

Release > Manager

Access ‘Activities’ tab

To access the Activities tab:

  1. Navigate to the ‘Release Manager’ page.
  2. Ensure that the Release toggle button is selected.
  3. Search for the Release on which you want to manage the Activities. You can use the filter options available on this page.
  4. Open the Release by clicking on the Release ID or Release Name.
  5. Click on the Activities tab.

The existing Activities/Criteria (if any) are displayed here.

Activities-1536x785.png

Activities are represented by Activity.png  and Criteria are represented byCriteria.png .

Total Activities Summary

The progress bar shows the total number of Activities/Criteria available in the Release and % of completion.

Release-Activity9-1.png

Filter Options

Hide Phase/Gate/Dependent Child

Hide or unhide Activities (Phases) and Criteria (Gates) by clicking Hide-Gates.png  and Hide-Phases.png. To hide Activities and Criteria belonging to the child Releases click Hide-Dependent-Child.png.

Filter by Status

Click on the status link to filter by status.

ManageActivity7-2.png

Filter by Assignee

Select a name from the Filter by Assignee drop-down menu to show only the Activities and Criteria assigned to that entity.

ManageActivity8.png

Filter by Phase/Gate

The Phases/Gates, that are added to the Release, are listed on top of the Activities grid. Clicking on a Phase/Gate displays Activities/Criteria that belong to the respective Phase/Gate.

Release-Activity10.png

The first Phase/Gate from Release, which is not marked as complete, will display RunningMan.png to indicate that it is in progress.

Add Activity/Criterion

To add a new Activity/Criterion:

  1. Click New-.png.
  2. Select Activity or Criterion from the drop-down.
  3. ‘Add Activity’ or ‘Add Criterion’ pop-up displays based on your selection. Fill in the template as follows:

‘Information’ Section

Fields Description
Id Enter an Id for the Activity/Criterion.
Title Mandatory; Enter a title.
Description Free text; Enter Activity/Criterion description.

‘Dependency’ Section

Add and manage dependency between the Activities/Criteria in this section. For details, see Add Dependency.

‘Additional Information’ Section

This section contains custom fields and tabs, which administrators have added using the Release Activity Custom Fields and the Release Activity Custom Lists Customizations.

These fields vary between each Release & Verify installation. Please consult your administrator for the procedure for filling in these fields.

‘Details’ Section

Fields Description
Type Select a type.
Status Select the status from the drop-down.
Release Framework Visible only in Enterprise Release Activity/Criterion;
  • Enterprise: Select if it is meant for the Enterprise Releases only. You cannot Child Push such Activity/Criterion to a child Release.

  • Child: Select if it is meant for the child Releases only. Can be pushed to child Releases.

  • Enterprise & Child: Select if it is meant for both Enterprise and Child Releases. Can be pushed to child Releases.

For further details, see Release Framework

‘People’ Section

Select a Stakeholder from the Assigned To drop-down menu. Only Stakeholders selected under the Stakeholders tab appear here.

‘Date & Time’ Section

Fields Description
Assigned to Phase/Assigned to Gate Select a Phase (for Activity) or Gate (for Criterion) from the drop-down.
Forcast Date Select a forecast date.
Start Date Select the Activity/Criterion start date.
Due Date Mandatory; Select the due date.
Completed Date Completed Date will fill automatically once the Status ‘Completed’ is selected.
Actual Completed Date Select the Actual Completed Date if it is different from the Completed Date. This field is disabled if the ‘Enable Actual Completed Date’ is not selected in Release Setup Customization.

‘Attachments’ section

You can attach URLs and/or Files. To add a new attachment:

  1. Click New.png.
  2. Select Add URL or Add File.
  3. In the case of a URL, the ‘Add URL’ pop-up displays. Enter the URL in the field and click Add-Attachment.png. In the case of a File, select an attachment file and click Open.

The selected URL or file display in the ‘Attachment’ section.

  • To view an attachment, click View-June-20-2021.png next to the attachment.
  • To delete an attachment, click X next to the attachment.
  • To download a file attachment, click Download-attachment-June-20-2021.png  next to the attachment.

After making all the entries on this pop-up, click Save-and-Add-New.png . The Activity/Criterion will be saved and available on the grid.

           

NOTE

To continue adding more Activities/Criteria, click Save-and-Add-New.png.

           

ReleaseActivity1_1.png

Release Activity Dependency

You can add dependency between the Activities/Criteria using the ‘Dependency’ feature. The Activities/Criteria can have dependencies on the other Activities/Criteria within the same or different Release that belong to the same parent Release.

Using this feature, Release & Verify restricts you from changing the status of the successor Activity/Criterion to ‘In Progress’ or ‘Completed’ unless all the preceding Activities/Criteria are resolved (i.e have a status Completed or N/A). 

In case of unresolved dependencies, the options ‘In Progress’ and ‘Completed’ in the Status drop-down will be disabled. It allows you to manage the status of the Activities/Criteria by ensuring that the preceding Activity/Criterion has been finished (with status Completed or N/A) before you start working on the succeeding Activity/Criterion.

ReleaseActivity1_2.png

Add Dependency

To add a dependency:

  1. Click and open an Activity/Criterion on the ‘Activities’ tab to display the ‘View/Edit Activity’ (or ‘View/Edit Criterion’) pop-up.
  2. Under the ‘Information’ tab scroll down to the ‘Dependency’ section and click Add.png. 
  3. The ‘Add Dependency’ pop-up displays. Fill in the fields:

 

Fields Description
Release Select a Release from the drop-down to create a dependency. Only the Releases that belong to the same parent Release will be available for selection.
Dependency Type Disabled; Only ‘Finish to Start’ dependency is available.
Phase / Gate Select a Phase/Gate to filter the relevant Activities/Criteria
Activity / Criterion Select one or more Activities/Criteria from the drop-down.
  1. Click Save-and-Add-New.png. 

AddDependency.png

The ‘View/Edit Activity’ (or ‘View/Edit Criterion’) pop-up will be back to display and the selected Activity/Criterion will be added to the ‘Dependency’ section. The count next to the ‘Dependency’ title represents the total number of dependencies added to this Activity/Criterion.

           

NOTE

If you are adding the dependency to a new Activity/Criterion, Add.png will be disabled. In that case, click Save-Orange.png on the pop-up. This will enable the button

           

ReleaseActivity1_3.png

Remove Dependency

To remove a dependency, hover and click X
next to the dependency. A pop-up displays for your confirmation. Click DeleteButton.png.

Dependency5.png

           

NOTE

You can track the added and removed dependencies in the Audit.

           

Edit Activity/Criterion

Edit the following fields directly from the grid:

Click on the Title to open the Activity/Criterion ‘View/Edit’ pop-up. Here, you can update the fields as per your requirements. Refer to the above section for details. 

For Dependent Activity/Criterion

Updating the Due Date of an Activity/Criterion, that has one or more successor Activity/Criterion, to a future date enables you to shift the Start Date, Due Date, and Forecast Date of all the successor Activities/Criteria. In this case, a pop-up displays the list of the successor Activities/Criteria. Clicking Yes.png shifts all the dates to the same period.

Dependency7.png

‘Comments’ Tab

The Comments tab allows you to add a comment and answer other users’ comments.

  • Add a comment: Type your comment into the Enter Comment Here field and click Send.png .
  • Edit a comment: Click Edit on the comment. Then edit the comment and clickUpdate.png .
  • Delete a comment: Click Delete on the comment. Then click DeleteButton (1).png on the confirmation prompt.
  • Reply to a comment: Click Reply and enter your reply comment in the Enter comment here field and click Reply.png.

After making the required changes, click Save-and-Close (1).png.

Bulk Update Activities

To bulk update Activities/Criteria:

  1. Select two or more Activities/Criteria from the grid.
  2. Click Action.png.
  3. Click Bulk Update.
  4. ‘Bulk Update’ pop-up displays. Update the fields. For details on these fields, see Add Activity/Criterion section.
  5. After updating the required information, click Save-and-Close (2).png.

ManageActivity3.png

The Activities/Criteria will appear on the grid with the updated details.

For Dependent Activities/Criteria

During Bulk Update, if the selected Activities/Criteria have a dependency and the dependent Activities/Criteria are not included as part of the Bulk Update, then on selectingSave-and-Close (3).png , Release & Verify will display a notification to confirm your actions with the details about the dependent Activities/Criteria.

In this case, the status of the Activities/Criteria with resolved dependency (or no dependency) will be updated, and the status update of those with unresolved dependency will be aborted.

Dependency6.png

Duplicate Activity/Criterion

You can create a new Activity/Criterion using the ‘Duplicate’ feature. To duplicate:

  1. Select one or more Activities/Criteria on the grid.
  2. Click Action (1).png.
  3. Click Duplicate Activities.
  4. On the ‘Duplicate Activities’ pop-up, select a location.
    • Use Current Release: Release & Verify creates the duplicated Activities/Criteria in the current Release.
    • Use Different Release/s: Select Release ID(s) or Release Name(s) from the drop-down and Release & Verify will create the Activities/Criteria there.
  5. ClickDuplicate.png .

ManageActivity9.png

The Activities/Criteria are duplicated and available on the grid.

Delete Activity/Criterion

To delete Activity/Criterion:

  1. Select one or more Activity/Criterion on the grid that you want to delete.
  2. Click Action (2).png.
  3. Click Delete.
  4. Click DeleteButton (2).png on the confirmation prompt.

ManageActivity4.png

Release & Verify will delete the Activity/Criterion and won’t be available on the grid.

Import Activity/Criterion

Import from XLS:

  1. ClickImport-Activities.png .
  2. Select Download Template.
  3. Open the template in Microsoft Excel and add Activities/Criteria to it.
  4. After updating the .xls file, again click Import-Activities.png and select Import from XLS.
  5. Select the Excel file and click Open. The template will upload.

Common error messages:

  • Title is mandatory: Title column data is missing. This error message can also occur if a cell outside the main rows contains data by mistake.
  • Assigned To not found: Check that the Stakeholders mentioned in the Assigned To column in the Excel file match Stakeholders that already exist in the Release.
  • Phase or Gate not found: Check that the Phases or Gates mentioned in the Phase or Gate column in the Excel file already exist in the Release.

Import from another Release:

  1. Click Import-Activities.png.
  2. Select Import from Release.
  3. On ‘Import Activities’ pop up, select the Release to copy Activities from by selecting Release ID or Release Name from the drop-down.
  4. Select the Import ‘Assigned To’ and ‘Phase/Gate’ values checkbox to import Assigned To Stakeholder and Phase/Gate data. To import ‘Assigned To’ and ‘Phase/Gate’ values, both  Releases must have the same Stakeholders, Phases, and Gates.
  5. Click Import.png.

Common error message:

  • Assigned To not found: Check that the Stakeholders mentioned in the Assigned To column in the Excel file match Stakeholders that already exist in the Release.

Export Activity/Criterion

To export the Activities/Criteria, Click Import-Activities.png and select Export to XLS from the drop-down menu. Your Excel file should start downloading immediately. If it doesn’t, check your pop-up blocker settings.
Save the file to your hard drive if prompted.

Child Push Activity/Criterion

Child Push functionality is available in Enterprise Release only. This functionality enables you to push (copy) the Activity/Criterion to the child Releases. If the child Release already consists of the Activity/Criterion that you want to push, its data will be updated, and you will lose the edits made.

Pre-requisite

  • To be able to push an Activity/Criterion to child Releases, you must have the Enable Enterprise Activities Child Push functionality checkbox selected in Release Setup Customization.
  • Child-Push.png button is visible only on a saved Activity/Criterion. So, once you have finished adding an Activity/Criteria, reopen it again to push (copy) to the child Releases.
  • You can do a Child Push only if the Release Framework for the Activity/Criteria is ‘Child’ or ‘Enterprise & Child’. For the ‘Enterprise’ Release Framework, Child-Push.png button is disabled.

Child Push

To do a Child Push:

  1. On the ‘Activities’ tab search and identify the Activity/Criteria you want to push.
  2. Click the Activity ID or Title to open the View/Edit pop-up.
  3. If the Release Framework for this Activity/Criteria is ‘Child’ or ‘Enterprise & Child’, Child-Push.png is enabled. Click Child-Push.png.
  4. On the ‘Are you sure’ pop-up, select the attributes you want to push to the child Releases.
  5. Click Yes (1).png.

ReleaseActivity1_4.png

A pop-up with a list of Child Push updates displays stating the updated and new content.

ManageActivity6.png

           

NOTE

NoteYou cannot push an Activity/Criteria to the child Release if the ‘Ignore Child’ checkbox is selected for the associated Phase/Gate in the ‘Phases and Gates’ panel. If you select Child-Push.png in this case, Release & Verify displays a pop-up stating the Phase/Gate has been ignored from the Enterprise level. You need to uncheck the 'Ignore Child' checkbox to be able to Child Push.

           

ChildPush.png

More Information

Release Framework – Enterprise/Child/Enterprise & Child 

  Enterprise Child Enterprise & Child
Applicable Meant for the Enterprise Releases only. Meant for the child Releases only. Meant for the Enterprise and child Releases.
Child Push Cannot push to a child Release. Child-Push.png will be disabled. Can push to child Releases if the Enable Enterprise Activities Child Push functionality is selected in Release Setup Customization. Can push to child Releases if the Enable Enterprise Activities Child Push functionality is selected in Release Setup Customization.
View/Edit Visible and editable only in the Enterprise Release. Can edit in the Enterprise Release (the Status will be N/A).
Can edit in the child Release if the Release Dependency Association is not selected in Release Setup Customization.		 Can edit in the Enterprise Release (the Status will be N/A).
Can edit in the child Release if the Release Dependency Association is not selected in Release Setup Customization.