¶ Workflow Views
Once you’ve created a project within a workflow—whether it’s a student record, audit, contract, or unit—Planally automatically organizes all activities, roles, and governance rules based on the roadmap you selected. This automation ensures your workflow is structured from the start.
The Workflow Views feature makes it easy to navigate and manage these activities. With five powerful views, you can visualize progress, track deadlines, and make decisions without digging through complex spreadsheets or emails.
¶ Why Workflow Views Matter
Workflow Views allow you to:
- Visualize progress across phases and activities.
- Track deadlines and dependencies with ease.
- Navigate effortlessly through automated tasks and governance checkpoints.
- Choose the view that fits your working style—whether detailed tables or visual boards.
¶ 1. Phase Gate View
Phase Gate View presents your workflow as a governed sequence of phases with gate checkpoints. Activities appear as cards within each phase, showing status, dates, late indicators, and assignees—so approvals are clear, execution stays aligned, and decisions move forward confidently.
¶ How to Use This View
- Add Activity within the relevant phase using the phase toolbar; new activities inherit roadmap rules and permissions.
- Collapse/Expand All to focus on a single phase or scan the entire workflow quickly.
- Search to locate an activity card by keyword.
- Read status badges (Not Planned, Planned, In Progress, Completed, Late) and due indicators to prioritize action.
- Drag and drop to reorder within a phase or move cards across phases (subject to governance and role permissions).
- Open an Activity to update status, forms, attach documents, and review the audit trail.
- Use gates to verify readiness for the phase and either proceed to the next phase, stop the workflow, or go back a previous phase. If the roadmap has a gate activity required, complete that gate activity to determine the gate decision.
¶ 2. Table View
Table View offers a spreadsheet-style perspective across all activities, ideal for managing all your activities and filtering and searching activities in a single place. Columns include Phase, Activity Name, Applicability, Swimlane, Status, Assignees, Planned Start and End Dates, and Actual Start and End Dates.
¶ How to Use This View
- Sort and filter columns by clicking headers (e.g., Phase, Status, Planned Start Date).
- Search using the top-right field to filter rows instantly.
- Export to XLSX or CSV for offline reporting and analysis.
- Add Activity from the toolbar; new rows adopt the selected workflow’s roadmap structure.
- Open an activity by clicking its name to review details and update fields.
- Use pagination and page size controls (e.g., 10, 25, 50) to adjust how many rows display.
- Confirm ownership via user avatars in the Assignees column.
¶ 3. Timeline View
Timeline View provides a clear visual of all activities over time. It helps you track the status of activities by swimlane, making it easy to monitor activities over a particular timeframe and ensure your work is on time.
¶ How to Use This View
- Zoom in/out to adjust the timeline scale (months or years).
- Activities are displayed within swimlanes, showing how many activities per Activity Status fall within a specific timeframe.
- Click an Activity Status in a swimlane for a given timeframe to open the list of activities and access individual activity details.
¶ 4. Diagram View
Diagram View provides a visual representation of your workflow phases and activities in a structured diagram format. It’s ideal for understanding relationships, dependencies, and governance flow at a glance. It also helps you understand the required sequencing of activities in your workflow based on the activity dependencies.
¶ How to Use This View
- Zoom and pan to navigate the diagram easily.
- View dependencies to understand activity relationships, such as Related (R), Start-to-Start (SS), Start-to-Finish (SF), Finish-to-Start (FS), and Finish-to-Finish (FF).
- Click on activities to open detailed information, update fields, and manage associated documents.
¶ 5. Snapshot View
Snapshot View allows you to compare the state of your workflow at different points of time. Snapshots are automatically taken upon changes to key updates in your workflow including updates in Status (Draft,Active, Completed, Inactive), Phase, and Roadmap. Snapshot can also be taken ad-hoc by users at any time.
¶ How to Use This View
- Create a snapshot from the toolbar to record the current state.
- Compare snapshots to track progress over time.
- Export snapshots for offline reporting or audits.
¶ Best Practices
- Choose the view that matches your task: Phase Gate for governance, Timeline for scheduling, Table for reviews, and Snapshot for historical analysis..
- Regularly update activity status to keep views accurate.
- Use filters and search to quickly locate tasks.
- Export data for offline analysis when needed.