Forecast terminology – Forecast

This article contains Forecast terminology, concept and functionalities. It's a great place to start in order to understand the basics.

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@mention

@mention allows users to tag other team members, resources or client/guest users in task description or task comments.

Activity Log

A record of all actions made on a task. Activity is ordered by date/time and lists the resource who made the change.

Admin

A user with the highest level of user access to Forecast. Admin users have unrestricted access to the entire platform, with the ability to configure the platform to fit the needs of the company/team from the Admin Panel. Users with this permission level are the only ones with access to the Admin panel.

Admin settings

The area in which Admin users are able to access the Admin settings for their account. May also be referred to as Admin panel.

Advanced Analytics

Forecast's real-time advanced reporting solution.

Agile

A project management methodology characterized by building products using short cycles of work that allow for rapid production and constant revision.

Allocation

The act of assigning available resources.

API

The Forecast API is a complete programmable interface to all Forecast functionality. This is a REST-style API that uses JSON for serialization and HTTP.

API Key

A code used to identify an application or user used for authentication when integrating applications.

Assignee

The resource responsible for a task and seeing it through to completion.

Baseline

Forecast platform feature that allows users to pre-scope a project's financials and create a realistic proposal for any potential client. Baseline can help with scoping and can assist with avoiding scope creep.

Billable time and expenses

Time worked that is subject to a fee that a client is expected to pay.

Booking

The hard or soft allocation of resources to a project.

Budget

A general list of planned expenses. Forecast offers 4 budget types: Time & Materials, Non-Billable, Fixed Price, and Retainer.

Burn up chart

A burn-up chart is a visual diagram commonly used on Agile projects to help measure progress.

Capacity

The amount of time available for a specific resource based on their defined working hours.

Capacity Planning

The process of forecasting the gap between supply and demand to determine if you have sufficient resources to take on or complete a project at an organizational level.

Capped Revenue

The budget type of a project that has an associated revenue cap which exerts a revenue constraint from the Program to the projects.

Client

Someone you are doing a project for. This can be internal stakeholders, departments or external clients.

Collaborator

Lowest permission profile level in Forecast. Collaborators can create, view, and edit tasks on projects they are assigned to, and can also register time.

Connected Project

A parent project used to organize linked or related projects. Connected projects allow you to manage project scope, resources, workflow and sprint planning under a single umbrella. In Forecast, Connected Projects are denoted by an 'X'.

Controller

Second highest permission level after Admin. Controllers have unrestricted access to project-related actions such as managing team members, reports and has full access to financial information.

Coordinator

Fourth permission profile in Forecast. Coordinators can view and edit their team's work, time registrations, schedule, and access reports.

Deactivated

A resource or user who is no longer active within the platform.

Deadline

The end date of a task indicating the date by which the work is required to be completed.

Dependency

A condition where a task or milestone relies on other tasks to be completed (or started) before it can be performed.

Demand

The process of measuring the number of resources required to meet the demand for various types of work.

Estimate

The amount of time planned or assumed in order for a task to be completed.

Follower

A resource or user added to a task for visibility. Followers can receive task updates depending on their notification settings.

Fully-allocated

Often referred to as fully-booked. Describes a resource whose task-assigned hours or allocated project hours are equal to their available working hours for a given time period.

Gantt Chart

A horizontal bar chart devised by Henry Gantt that is used by project managers worldwide to visualize project schedules. It includes all of a project’s tasks, milestones, and deadlines, and illustrates task dependencies. In Forecast, People Schedule, All Timelines and Project Timeline are Gantt charts.

Guest User

Users with limited platform access that must be invited and fall under a client's profile.

Hard allocation

An allocation type that represents the confirmed need for a team member. Hard allocations will be taken into account when calculating the team member's availability and utilization.

Heatmap

The visual representation of your resource utilization (People Schedule) or your project scope (All Timelines).

Integration

A link or connection to another system outside of Forecast.

Invoice

A bill or list of detailing services provided with a statement of the sum due.

Kanban Board (Task Board)

A visual approach to project management where teams create physical representations of their tasks using cards to help visualize work and create efficiencies. In Forecast, Task Board is a Kanban board.

Label

An identifier or tag that can be added to a project or task. Labels help with organization and can be used in filters and reporting.

Manager

The third highest level of user access. Manager's can view/edit their team's work, time registrations, schedule, and reports. Managers can also view revenue but do not have access to costs in financials.

Manual Revenue Recognition

A feature within Revenue Recognition that allows users to input their own revenue recognition amounts per month and in turn re-calculate the estimated percentage complete of the project

Non-billable

Can be used to identify task hours/time, expenses or projects that are not subject to a fee or receive payment.

Non-project time

Registered time that is not directly linked to a specific project. Some examples could be, sickness, vacation, meetings, workshops, etc. Non-project time is also known as non-billable time.

Owner

The person responsible for creating and managing a project or a task.

Over-allocated

Often referred to as over-booked. Describes a resource whose task-assigned hours or allocated project hours are greater than their available working hours for a given time period.

Overdue

Tasks that have met or exceeded the assigned task end date.

Permission Profile

The level of access assigned to a particular Forecast user. There are 5 default permission profiles: Admin, Controller, Manager, Coordinator, and Collaborator.

Phase

A phase is a phase of the project where a specific and significant event occurs. Any given project will always have at least one phase. In agile projects, a phase can also be used to define dates for releases. Releases typically happen when one or more sprints have resulted in the product having enough value to outweigh the cost to deploy it. Phases can also be referred to as Milestones.

Pipeline

A visual representation of all the stages a project goes through from start to finish.

Placeholder

A placeholder represents a generic resource demand on a project, is defined at the role level, and is used instead of allocating a team member to a project until the project is won.

Program

A program is a group of projects that accomplishes strategic business goals by enabling the user to view overarching financial information for the projects that fall under.

Program Owner

The user responsible for creating and managing Programs.

Program User

A user who can only view but not interact with Programs.

Project

An endeavor that is undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. A project has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope and resources.

Project manager

The manager of a specific project.

Project management

The act of managing all aspects of a project from teams to tasks to tools.

Project stage

A project stage defines where the project is in its life-cycle. In Forecast, the possible stages are pre-defined as Planning, Running, Halted and Done.

Project status

A system of identifying projects by applying color to visualize the state of the project. Project status can be identified using the R-A-G acronym (Red, Amber, Green) making it very easy for the projects at risk or in trouble to be identified and action taken.

Project Team

The group of people who work with a project manager to execute a project plan.

Remaining time

The remaining time of a project or task based on the forecast setup, supported by Forecast's machine-learning technologies.

Resource

An individual or member of your project team or organization.

Resource management

The way in which you acquire and allocate individuals as required for a project.

Revenue Recognition

Revenue recognition is a generally accepted accounting principle (GAAP) that stipulates how and when revenue is to be recognized. The revenue recognition principle, using accrual accounting, requires that revenues are recognized when realized and earned, not when cash is received.

Role

The name of the position assigned to a resource that is defined by skillset and job requirements.

Schedule

A list or display of all projects, phases, allocations and tasks. Forecast has two schedules, People Schedule and All Timelines.

Scope

The range of requirements. These include both functional and non-functional customer requirements, as well as technical team-generated requirements.

Scope creep

The change to a project’s scope over time that may push the boundaries of the original parameters that may result in overspending or missing deadlines.

Show/Hide (Eye icon)

A menu within all Forecast pages depicted by the eye icon that allows you to make certain data visible or not visible within the specific page or report.

Skill

The specific traits or competencies of an individual.

Soft allocation

An allocation type that represents a tentative need for this team member. Soft allocations are not taken into account when looking at a team member's availability in the scoping or sprint pages but will appear in the heatmap calculation.

Spend

The value of the time spent and expenses on a project or program irrespective of the revenue billed.

Sprint

An iteration (cycle) of work. Typically 1-4 weeks.

Sprint burn-down

An X-Y axis graph that shows the number of tasks that need to be completed (on the vertical axis) versus the time remaining (on the horizontal axis).

Sprint planning

A meeting about what the team will do during the next sprint.

Stakeholder

Anyone with an interest in the project’s success, including your boss, customers, team, investors, etc.

Subtasks

An additional step inside of a task.

Task

A piece of work that needs to be completed. A task may also be referred to as an issue.

Task automations

A feature available for tasks in Scoping to allow bulk task updates.

Task indicator

A label or reference that can be applied to identify a task. Forecast tasks include 4 indicators: High Priority, Bug, Non-billable or Block.

Task report

An overview of all tasks created.

Team member

A member of the organization, and / or a member of a project.

Time report

An overview of registered time on each task.

Timeline

A graphical representation of a sequence of events. In Forecast, a project's Timeline is represented by a heatmap.

Time registrations

The amount of time logged or entered on a task to record work that has been completed.

Timesheet

The record of hours worked by an individual or by the organization.

Timesheet-allocation linking

Process by which time-off logged in My Timesheets creates a corresponding time-off allocation in People Schedule.

Uncapped Revenue

A budget type associated with a Program. A program of this type does not have an associated overarching budget.

Under-allocated

Often referred to as under-booked. Describes a resource whose task-assigned hours or allocated project hours are less than their available working hours for a given time period.

User

A user is a person who is able to login to Forecast.

Upcoming work

This is your personal view of what's up front. It includes all of your tasks, sorted by overdue, this week, next week, and future.

Utilization

The total amount of work assigned to a resource as compared to their availability/working hours.

Utilization report

An overview of the workload of all resources for a given time period. Utilization report is based on task or project allocations made in Schedule People.

Velocity

An analysis of the speed at which the project actually progresses compared to the estimates. A velocity of 1.00 or 100% means that it is going according to the plan. Below 1 means it's going slower, while above 1 means it's going faster.

Virtual Resource

A "mock" or "ghost" team member that is primarily used for planning, testing, integrations.

Waterfall

A project management methodology where one task must be completed before the next one begins, in a connected sequence of tasks that produce the final project deliverable.

Win Probability

A percentage assigned to an opportunity stage project based on the chance the project will be won.

Workflow Status

The indicator of where a task stands within the project. Forecast offers 3 standard workflow status: To Do, In Progress and Done. Users can create additional, custom workflow statuses to suit their process and working style.

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