Using the Calendar

Collaborative Calendar Overview

DreamTeam incorporates a group calendar to manage team events. In the context of Project Management it is much more than a calendar. It is a visualization and decision making tool, mapping any activity to the backdrop of a calendar view. For example, you can view all project tasks by day/week/month or similarly view all scheduled resources by calendar view. This offers a very straightforward model for resource allocation and capacity planning.

By adding these capabilities to the Salesforce.com implementation (vs. a stand-alone product) Team Calendar Management becomes a natural extension to the Salesforce experience.

Recorded Tutorials

The links below take you to record-and-playback movies that cover many common questions about the Collaborative Calendar.

How do I view select project or user information on the Calendar?
How do I view select Salesforce entities on the calendar?
Where can I find the color code legend or entities menu?
How do I view group schedules?
How do I schedule a group event?

Calendar Views

The DreamTeam Collaborative Calendar can show you a great deal of information on one page. To help you organize your calendar and see exactly what you need, a number of Calendar views are available.

The Collaborative Calendar lets you see, at a glance, project tasks, subtasks and milestones as well as calendar events (e.g. meetings or calls). Color coding lets you easily distinguish between Tasks and Events belonging to you and other team members. Double-click any item to get more detailed information.

Intuitive buttons at the top right of the Calendar let you choose to view a calendar month, a week, or even a single day's Tasks and Events. Jumping to the current week is easy - just click on the house icon.

Controls in the sidebar on the left let you further control what you see. You can look at all Tasks and Events for one or several Projects, view only your own calendar, look at two people's events side-by-side, choose only Tasks or only Events. Collaborative Calendar will remember your settings between sessions.

Collaborative Calendar Entities

Within DreamTeam Calendar Manager, there are two primary entities to keep in mind:

Note: Within the DreamTeam Project Manager, there is also an entity called a Project Task that is distinct from a salesforce.com Task. A DreamTeam Project Task is a task, subtask or milestone that is a part or step in a DreamTeam Project. In the DreamTeam Collaborative Calendar, you can create and edit salesforce.com Tasks and Events. You can also view DreamTeam Project Tasks, but they are only editable in the DreamTeam Project Manager tab.

Collaborative Calendar Activities

Within DreamTeam Collaborative Calendar, you can

• Create, view and edit Project Tasks, including assigning Resources to Tasks.
• Create, view and Edit calendar Events.

Creating a New Task

The New Task button brings up a dialog that lets you create a new salesforce.com Task. You can also right click on any date in the Collaborative Calendar and select New Task.

You can assign a Task to any salesforce.com user. Choose a predefined subject line (click on the Page icon to the right of the Subject) or type in any Subject line. Specify a Due date, optionally set Priority and Status, add any Comments you have and click Save. Your new Task will appear in the DreamTeam Collaborative Calendar and in the Tasks list on the salesforce.com Home tab of everyone you assigned to the Task.

Creating a New Event

The New Event button brings up a dialog that lets you create a new salesforce.com Event. You can also right click on any date in the Collaborative Calendar and select New Event.

Events can be assigned to any team member for any of your Projects. The Page icon to the right of the Subject field offers a number of predefined subjects, or you can type in any Subject line. Specify Date, Time, Duration and optionally specify a Location and any Comments you have, and click Save. Your new Event will show up in the DreamTeam Collaborative Calendar and in the salesforce.com calendar for everyone you assigned to the Event.

Working with Tasks and Events

You can edit and modify salesforce.com Tasks and Events by clicking on the Event or Task in the DreamTeam Collaborative Calendar.

The Task Properties dialog is virtually identical to the New Task dialog, allowing you to edit all aspects of a salesforce.com Task. The Delete button allows you to completely delete a Task.

The Event Properties dialog is virtually identical to the New Event dialog, allowing you to edit all aspects of a salesforce.com Event. The Delete button allows you to completely delete an Event.

Working With Projects and Schedules

You can view the status of any DreamTeam Project Task by clicking on the Task in the Collaborative Calendar. The Project Task Completion dialog will show you the Project to which a Task belongs, along with its expected Start and Finish dates and its percentage of completion. From this dialog, you can change the Task's percentage of completion by moving the slider to the left or right.

Team Communication Overview

DreamTeam brings rich Groupware capabilities to salesforce.com in the form of Notification and Threaded Discussions. These features let you communicate, share ideas, and stay in touch with team members throughout and across projects.

Notification

From within Collaborative Calendar, you can easily access DreamTeam Notification via the paper airplane glyph in the top right corner of Task Property dialogs.

DreamTeam Notification offers a quick, easy way to send email or create salesforce.com tasks between Project team members. Search for team members by Name, Organizational Role, Project or Skill Type. Specify Subject, Priority, Status and Text. DreamTeam Notification lets you choose between (or use both) email and salesforce tasks.