The Timeline is the history of an item — every change made to it, by whom, and when, along with the comments people have left on it. Use it to find out why something changed since you last looked, who approved a request, or when a stage was passed.
Initiatives and projects, benefits, measures, RAID items, and resource demand each have their own Timeline. They all work the same way, but each records the events that apply to it — see What each Timeline records.
This article covers both the Advanced and Simple Models.
Opening the Timeline
- Initiatives and projects — select Timeline on the side menu.
- Benefits, measures, and RAID items — open the item's detail page, and click the clock icon in the tabs at the top right of the page.
- Resource demand — open the demand, and select its Timeline.
Events are grouped by day, with the most recent first. Each shows what happened, who did it, and when.
Filtering and searching
Under Filter timeline:, check the types of event to show, or uncheck them to hide them. Each Timeline opens with its most-used types already checked, such as Approvals, Comments, and Updates; check the others to see more.
- Approvals — workflow approval requests and their outcomes. See Approvals.
- Updates — changes to the item's fields and custom fields, with the old and new values, and events Amplify records automatically, such as a baseline being taken. What else is included depends on the item — see What each Timeline records.
- Comments — comments left on the Timeline, and messages from Chat. See Comments.
- Ownership Changes — who the item was handed from and to.
- Moves — the item being moved to a different place in the hierarchy, with where it was and where it moved to.
- Archival Changes — the item being archived or restored.
- Documents — documents being uploaded, with each file's name and size.
- Stage Process — stage gate approvals, entering a stage, and plan and budget values being locked.
- Stage Process Checklists — stage assessment criteria being checked or unchecked.
- Status Update Process — status reports being requested, published, approved, withdrawn, archived, or deleted.
- Tasks — tasks being created, updated, or deleted.
To find a particular event, type in the Type to search timeline box. Only the types of event that are checked are searched.
Comments
The Timeline is also a place to leave notes on the item, for you or the team to come back to. To leave a comment:
- Type in the comment box. To bring someone's attention to it, type @ and choose them — they'll be notified, with a link to the item.
- Click Post Comment.
Who can comment depends on the item:
- Initiatives and projects — users whose team role has the Timeline permission.
- Benefits, measures, and resource demand — users who can update the item.
- RAID items — RAID item Timelines don't have comments.
Messages sent in Chat are kept on the initiative's Timeline, labeled Chat Comment by — including messages sent from the pages of the initiative's benefits. Clicking Search chat history in Chat opens the Timeline with only Comments checked. For more on mentions, see Chat and Mentions.
Approvals
Where the item has an approval workflow, the Timeline records each step:
- When it's submitted — who submitted it, when, and who the approvers are.
- When it's approved or rejected — the approver, their response and any message, when they responded, and the approval step.
- When approvers change — approvers being added or removed, and pending approvals being reset.
On initiatives, stage gate approvals appear under Stage Process, with the same details, plus the assessment criteria and how long the initiative spent in the stage.
What each Timeline records
Each Timeline records changes to its own item. Some also pick up events from the items within them, noted below. Changes to an item that has its own Timeline — such as a benefit's values, or a RAID item's details — are recorded on that item's Timeline, not on the initiative's.
Initiatives and projects
Offers Approvals, Updates, Comments, Stage Process, Stage Process Checklists, Tasks, Ownership Changes, Moves, Archival Changes, and Documents. Status Update Process is offered where the initiative's classification can submit status reports.
As well as changes to the initiative itself, it records:
- Costs — each change to a cost's values, showing who changed which cost, and when, under Updates. Costs don't have a Timeline of their own.
- Baselines — a baseline being taken or updated, under Updates.
- Tasks — tasks on the initiative's schedule being created, updated, or deleted, under Tasks.
- Stage gates — the initiative's stage gate approvals, its stage changes, and its assessment criteria, under Stage Process and Stage Process Checklists. Where an administrator changes a stage's approval workflow, that's noted under Updates.
- Status reports — the initiative's status reports moving through their process, under Status Update Process.
- Chat — messages sent in the initiative's Chat, and from its benefits' pages, under Comments.
Moves isn't offered in the Simple Model. A project always sits directly under its program; projects are reorganized by changing their workstream, or other reporting group fields, instead — and those changes appear under Updates.
See Managing Initiatives or Managing Projects.
Benefits
Offers Approvals, Updates, Comments, Ownership Changes, Moves, Archival Changes, and Documents. Moves isn't offered in the Simple Model.
As well as changes to the benefit itself, it records changes to its plan, forecast, and actual values, and — for benefits calculated from measures — changes to those measures' values, and comments left on them. See Managing Benefits.
Measures
Offers Approvals, Updates, Comments, Ownership Changes, Archival Changes, and Documents. Updates includes changes to the measure's values. See Managing Measures.
RAID items
Offers Approvals, Updates, Ownership Changes, Moves, and Archival Changes. RAID item Timelines don't have comments or documents. Action items are tasks, so changes to them are recorded on the initiative's Timeline, under Tasks. See Managing RAID and Action Items.
Resource demand
Offers Approvals, Updates, Comments, and Archival Changes. Updates includes changes to the demand's values, and Approvals records each request for the demand to be approved, and its outcome. See Resource Demand.
Examples
Updates — each change to the item's fields, showing who made it, when, and the value before and after. |
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Ownership Changes — who the item was handed from and to, by whom, and when. |
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Moves — where in the hierarchy the item was and where it moved to, who moved it, and when. |
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Archival Changes — who archived or restored the item, and when. |
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Documents — each document uploaded, with its file name and size, who uploaded it, and when. See Documents. |