| Access level | A set of access level permissions a user has in relation to a project(s) s/he is (or is not) part of. Birdview includes such built-in access levels. There are also predefined (ones that are likely to meet your needs, and thus preset for your convenience) and user-defined access levels. You can create as many access levels as you wish. | |
| Activity | One of the key entities in Birdview, "activity" is a piece of work to be done as part of a project. Activities can contain any number of sub-activities. "Sub-activity" is another name for "child activity". To accomplish them, activities are assigned to project members. There are three types of activities in Birdview: task, issue and request. | |
| Activity assignee | Users assigned to an activity, from among the members of the project the activity is created under. | |
| Activity center |
One of the main screens in Birdview.
The screen includes the numerous filters, the project and activity list section, export & import functionality and much more. |
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| Activity details section | A section in Activity center used for editing activity details and accessed by hovering the name of an activity and clicking on the Details button. It is activity editing mode enabled by default. | |
| Add projects, global permission | Access level permission that allows a user to create new projects. As s/he creates a project, the user is added to the project team as a Project manager-access level member. | |
| Administrator | A built-in access level endowed with a complete set of system-wide "administrative" permissions. Subsequently, Administrator-access level user enjoys very broad powers, such as adding users, customers, roles, etc. | |
| Advanced settings | 1. Login as Administrator (or a user who has the "Manage system settings" permission). If you are already logged in, skip this step. 2. Select User menu > Company settings > Advanced settings on the header menu. |
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| Approval alert |
A blue circle with a counter in its center indicating that there are unread posts that are waiting approval or rejection.
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| Assignee | Assignee is the term in Birdview that means a user that is assigned to one or more activities. When a user is assigned to an activity he or she also automatically becomes a member of the project that activity belongs to. The opposite is not true: a user assigned to project members may not be an assignee. | |
| Avatar | Computer user's representation of himself or herself as a means to simulate their "physical presence" on an Internet forum, social network, an online game, etc. In Birdview, an avatar serves to improve visibility of project members, activity assignees, etc. as well as to make the program more fun. | |
| Batch operation panel |
A panel in Activity center, shown below, which gives access to the batch operations: Assign, Unassign, Reassign people, Change dates, Duplicate, and Delete. Batch operations allow performing actions on several projects or activities at once. For example, you can assign a group of people to several activities in one go which is a great time saver. To open the panel you need to select at least one project or activity (using the checkbox left of their link names).
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| Batch operations | Actions performed on a group of projects or activities at once instead of one project or activity at a time. Key batch operations include: copying a group of activities from one project to another, changing status in a group of projects, removing a member from activity's assignees, etc. | |
| Billing report | Helps create invoices to bill your customers with, or review internal costs of a project. | |
| Built-in access levels | These are preset access levels that cannot be deleted. | |
| Calendar | A Birdview feature that allows you to view activities accessible to you on a timeline, as a bar chart, and add events, including group, or shared, ones. Depending on your access rights (permissions) you may have access to other users' calendars. | |
| Cannot login, user | Users with the "Can login" option turned off in their properties. While such "resource" users do not require a user license, they can have activities assigned to them, are visible on Gantt charts, etc. However, it is impossible to add a cannot login user to an e-mail notification addressee list. | |
| Category | Category is an attribute of a task, request, issue, or a portfolio that allows to refer them to a particular type of activity. A category filter allows sorting activities by category. Also you can run a report on activities using category as a grouping attribute. | |
| Context-sensitive menu | A context-sensitive menu (or simply context menu) which is part of some lists in Birdview. A sure sign a list has the context-menu functionality is its rows changing color when moused over. | |
| Cost Performance Index (CPI) | Cost Performance Index, this parameter is used to measure the efficiency of expenses spent on a project or activity. If CPI is greater than 1, it indicates good cost utilization, if less than 1 intervention into is indicated. In Birdview, CPI and SPI are used to assess project or activity health either together, or separately (to cover cases where either CPI or SPI is not available). | |
| Creation bar |
The top bar in Activity center. Allows to quickly add projects (including based on templates) and save Views.
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| Critical activity | An activity that must be completed on schedule for the project to finish on time. If a critical activity is delayed, the project completion date might also be delayed. A series of critical activities makes up a project's critical path. | |
| CSV file | The comma-separated values (or CSV; also known as a comma-separated list or Comma-Separated Variable-width) file format is a file type that stores tabular data. The CSV file format is supported by almost all spreadsheet and database management systems, e.g. MS Excel. | |
| Customers | Companies, individuals or even other departments in your organization you do some work for, such as delivering goods, developing a software product, rendering services, etc. It is optional to specify the customer when creating a project in Birdview. However, it is advisable as you can use customers as a selection criterion to filter out projects listed in the system. | |
| Custom field | A field of one of ten types (Text, Number, Date, Checkbox, Dropdown, Paragraph text, Paragraph text (rich formatting), Hyperlink, Multi-select, Formula) that can be added as an option to details of a project, activity (of any of the three types), customer, user, or portfolio. One example might be a "Contract expires on" field containing contract expiration date as its value. Accessible through User menu > Company settings. | |
| Columns button | A button in the Activity center. Selecting a field results in making the respective column appear in the main grid beneath. | |
| Default currency unit | The currency unit used in project financials and financial statistics by default. | |
| Dependency | Two activities are called "dependent", or "in dependency" if one’s timing is dependent on that of the other, such as when one finishes the other one starts, or when one is to start exactly in a week after the other is completed. | |
| Draft project | A project with the Draft status. Such projects are only visible in Activity center when the Drafts view or the project status filter is applied. | |
| Duration | Duration is the time planned to complete an activity or project based on the number of hours in a workday used (refer to Company schedule). Duration is expressed in full workdays plus a remainder expressed in hours. Can be entered in days, hours, minutes or any combination of these. Minimum non-zero duration is 0.25 hours (15 minutes). | |
| Estimated hours | A characteristic of an activity used in planning how long it will take to implement. Before the activity is started, you can modify its estimated hours at will. As you do so, it will be equal to its hours left. As soon as the activity has been started, e.g. an assignee has logged X hours for it, it is hours left that are used in the calculation of the activity's rate of completion. | |
| Filters | Part of Birdview graphical interface. The filters allow you to sift out projects, activities, users, customers, etc. that match one or more selection criteria. They are found on most Birdview screens. | |
| Global access level | The primary access level of a user that is assigned to him/her on its details in User menu > Company settings > Users. It can be different from the user's access level within a project (project access level). The global access level applies to actions that are system-wide, not being specific to any particular project. | |
| Guest Portal | An add-on to Birdview designed to allow customer users to interact with the system. The actions available here are viewing activities, adding issues or requests, posting/accessing messages and attaching/viewing attached files. | |
| Guest users | Users that can interact with the system only via Guest portal. Granted with a limited set of permissions, such users provide a way for customers to keep track of their projects' workflow. Apart from viewing the exchange of messages between activity assignees, guest users can add issues or requests. It is possible to add an unlimited number of guest users. | |
| Main menu (side menu) | All Birdview's key screens and features are accessed through the main menu located on the panel running vertically on the left of the screen. It is the main gate to the program's functional areas. | |
| Inactive user | The type of users who are no longer active, and visible on the user list and in reports only. Deactivating a user lets you add a new user through the same user license. | |
| Issue | In Birdview, an issue is one of three types of activity usually representing a problem to be addressed as part of a project. Examples include a bug in a software product, a defect in manufactured goods, a problem submitted to the customer service department, etc. | |
| Locked time logs | A billed, or approved time entry, or both. Locked time entries cannot be deleted. | |
| Manage system settings | One of the global access level permissions available in Birdview. Only users with this permission enabled in their access levels have access to administration settings. | |
| Manage workflows | One of the global access level permissions. Users with this permission in their access levels can view and edit workflows. | |
| Message | A piece of information sent to its intended recipients via Message board, or Email notification system. For any message there must be a project or activity to attach it to. | |
| Messages, Files, Audit trail panel | A panel available on the Project and Activity details pages, as well as in Activity center as a column for projects and activities, and an item on the My Assignments page. The panel is used to view and post messages, upload files and view the audit trail log. Also referred to here as "message board". | |
| Milestone | In Birdview, an activity that marks the completion of a work package or phase, typically marked by a high level event such as completion, endorsement or signing of a deliverable, document or a high level review meeting. | |
| Notification event | An event, such as adding a task, issue or request to an existing project, upon the occurrence of which a notification may be sent by email, email notification rules permitting. | |
| Not treat as completed, Status | Any project or activity status that is not flagged "Treat as completed". See System lists. | |
| Permissions | The key components of an access level, permissions make the user able to do certain actions and view certain objects in Birdview. Permissions can be global or project-level. For example, permission to manage members means that you will be able to add and remove users from projects. | |
| Personal hours left | Personal hours left, or PHL, is the scheduled loading of an assignee in hours from the moment the activity is started. Before an activity is started its estimated hours are equal to its hours left. After the activity starts there is no longer syncing between the two parameters, and it is only the hours left value that is used in resource loading calculations. | |
| Personal schedule | A section on the User details page that allows you to specify what is your typical work schedule is for a week including Saturday and Sunday since either or both can be working days on certain jobs. The hours specified here are used to calculate your total available hours and, consequently, your resource loading. We recommend filling out the personal schedule section as early as possible when adding a user to the system. | |
| Portfolio | A group of two or more of projects grouped under one name for ease of management. For example, it can be handy to group projects carried out for one and the same customer. | |
| Post | A message posted on the message board with or without files attached. | |
| Predefined access level | An access level in Birdview that has been preset for you. Unlike built-in ones, predefined access levels can be deleted. | |
| Printer-friendly version | Printer friendly is a term used on the Internet to describe a version of a web page formatted for printing. Printer friendly pages are designed to fit on an 8.5"x11" or A4 sheet (see paper sizes) and include only the content of the page, along with source information. | |
| Priority | Priority is an attribute of projects and activities. It can be used to filter out those, and in reports. | |
| Project | One of the key Birdview entities: a set of activities united under one name and implemented by a team of assignees (drawn from project members). A project has one or more objectives attainable through implementing a number of activities. | |
| Project details section | A section in Activity center used for editing project details and accessed by hovering the name of a project and clicking Details. | |
| Project members | Birdview users that constitute the team of a project. | |
| Project access level | The access level of a user that is assigned to him/her within a project. It can be different from the user's global access level. The project access level applies to actions that are specific to the project the user is a member of. | |
| Project template | A project with the Template status. Such projects are visible in Activity center when the Templates view or the filter is applied. | |
| Public holiday | Official holidays, including religious and secular, e.g. New Year's Day, Banking Day, or Easter Monday, that are designated by the government of a given country or region. Public holidays are managed via Company settings > System lists. | |
| Regular users | Unlike guest users, regular users can have their access level or individual permissions changed to any other. | |
| Report generator | Allows you to produce custom reports with as many data fields as may be required. Producing a custom report includes selecting a data source (one per report), which is an array of interlinked data fields; building a list of data fields as suits your needs; and, finally, generating the report. | |
| Request | Request is a type of activity in Birdview. Requests are usually submitted by customers, e.g. a new feature or requirement, an amendment to the contract, etc. Requests are particularly useful when you need to track the amount of time spent on activities (requests) that are out of the original scope of a project. | |
| Workload |
This report allows you to see what loading your staff or team members have per day within a specific date range. It is a convenient way to see at a glance how workload is distributed in your department or team.
The report assumes that load on any given activity is distributed evenly across both the lifetime of the activity and its team of assignees. Additionally, the workday is assumed to be 8 hours long.
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| Person summary report | It is generated based on time log entries, and provides details of how much time an individual user or all users have utilized within a selected date range. | |
| RLS project | A project created using resource loading simulation. | |
| Schedule Performance Index (SPI) | Schedule Performance Index is used to evaluate how much your project or activity is behind or ahead of schedule. If SPI is less than 1 the project is behind schedule, if greater than 1 it is ahead of schedule. The condition of being right on schedule corresponds to SPI equal to 1. In Birdview, CPI and SPI are used to assess project or activity health either together, or separately (to cover cases where either CPI or SPI is not available). | |
| Slack | The amount of time that an activity can slip before it affects another activity or project end date. | |
| SMTP authentication | SMTP authentication extends SMTP (the Internet e-mail transmission protocol) to include an authentication step through which the client effectively logs in to the mail server during the process of sending mail. Servers which support SMTP authentication can usually be configured to require clients to use this extension, ensuring the true identity of the sender is known. | |
| Sub-activity | An activity (of any of the three types – task, issue or request) that is part of another activity (parent one) hierarchically. | |
| System lists | System Lists is a screen that allows a user with the "Manage system settings" permission to change or add some important settings fundamental to the system's proper functioning, such as project and activity statuses, categories, etc. Accessible through User menu (click your login picture) > Company settings > System lists. | |
| Task | One type of activity in Birdview that usually represents "par for the course" action (piece of work that must be done to complete a project). E.g. for The Wedding project your tasks might be: send out invitations, organize reception, buy the rings, order a cake, etc. | |
| Team | A group of users to perform a particular task. Teams are used in Birdview primarily as a way to facilitate assignment of resources to activities or projects, and filtering by users in Activity center. Teams are created in User menu > Company settings > Users > Batch operations. | |
| Template project | A project with the Template status. Such projects are visible in Activity center when the Templates view or the filter is applied. | |
| Time entry/Time log | A record of time spent on specific action within a given activity by an assignee or someone else who has the right to add these records on their behalf. The place where time entries are logged and viewed is called Time Log. Time entries are crucial for calculating billable time that is the measure of project progress. | |
| User menu |
The user menu is linked to the login picture (avatar) of the logged-in user.
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| Users | Individuals who use Birdview. Two principal types of users are available. One is global users, and the other is project-related ones. While generally enjoying broader administrative, system-wide, permissions, global users are not normally members of projects, unlike project-related ones whose rights (permissions) are often confined solely to projects or activities they are part of. The maximum number of users that can use Birdview is equal to the number of valid licenses. "Cannot log in" users do not require a license. | |
| View | A snapshot of the Activity center page with a particular set of filters, columns and customization options applied. The power of Views is that you can save and share any given View at any time to be retrieved for later use. |
Glossary
