Home Page

If you are new to Ketura, please see the Start Here topic. This will help you to become familiar with Ketura and how it can help you manage your work more effectively.

The Home Page acts as a navigation hub in Ketura: most parts of the system are available either from the Home Page itself or from pages you can reach directly from it. Whatever you wish to achieve in Ketura, the Home Page therefore acts as the natural place to begin.

Overview

If you have the Adobe Flash Player version 9 or later installed, the orientation section of this tab also shows you an interactive overview of Ketura. You can click on items in the diagram to go to the relevant area in Ketura.

Favourites sidebar section

The Favourites section in the sidebar on the right of the page acts as a place where you can gather together links to various items in Ketura that are of frequent interest to you.

To add favourite items:

Use the Add to Favourites link at the top right of project, milestone, issue topic, issue, task or user pages.

To remove a favourite item:

Click the Remove link next to the item.

Your activity

This section shows how much work the user has undertaken on particular projects. It also shows how much time was allocated (by the project manager) to the user for particular projects. Depending on your permissions, you may also be able to see the associated cost of the work done.

This information is useful as it shows how much work the user has done out of what was expected, indicating clearly how much more work he or she has to do on each project in a particular period to meet project manager’s expectations.

Projects that are alternatives are not shown in the table. For more information on alternative projects, please see the help for the Manage Projects Page. Any work in the specified time period for issues that are not part of a milestone will not contribute to values in the table.

To restrict the display of work done on projects to a particular period:

Select one of the time periods (Today, Yesterday, This month, etc) in the For period drop-down. The From and To dates will be adjusted automatically.
Or, choose the From and To dates for the period you desire using the associated ... buttons or by manually entering in the dates, then click Apply. The For period drop-down will be adjusted automatically.

Description of table columns

Project	The name of the project. If you have permission to view projects, this is a link to the project’s page.
Allocated Work	The amount of the user’s time allocated to the project in the chosen period. Time is allocated to users on the Allocation calendars tab of the Manage Users page, reached using the global Users tab.
Work Done	The total amount of work done on the project by the user in the chosen period, based on the user’s work journal entries. Any work journal entries within the period but dated in the future (that is, with a start time after the end of today) are ignored, as these cannot represent work that has actually been performed thus far.
Variance	The variance of the Work Done to Allocated Work (that is, Work Done - Allocated Work), expressed as a quantity, and as a percentage relative to the Allocated Work. The variance will be highlighted in red if the % Allocated Work Done column is less than 85% or more than 115%. Otherwise, it is highlighted green.
% Allocated Work Done	The amount of Work Done, divided by the Allocated Work. It is possible for this figure to be over 100% if the user has done more work than allocated.
Cost	If permissions allow, the cost of the amount of the user’s time indicated in the Work Done column. This is calculated by multiplying the work done by the user’s hourly cost. Cost information is calculated on the current hourly cost of users. Consequently, any changes in a user’s hourly cost over time are not taken into account.

For help working with tables, see Tutorial 1: The Basics of Working with Ketura.

Alerts

You can use this tab to have Ketura alert you when something of interest happens to the issues and tasks in your Pending and In Progress task lists. This tab also shows you any such alerts that have been raised for you.

Alerts help you to monitor specific projects, milestones or issues. For example, you can choose to be alerted when a project or milestone isn’t going to meet its deadlines or, perhaps, when someone updates a particular issue in which you are interested.

Ketura checks for alerts at least every 15 minutes, so it might take a few minutes from something happening for an alert to show up here on your Home Page.

Once you have seen the alert, you can clear it to remove it from your Alerts list. However, if you clear an alert that relates to some ongoing condition that hasn’t yet been resolved (for example, a project that isn’t going to meet its milestone), the alert will be raised again. For these types of alerts, it is therefore best to solve the problem before clearing the alert.

To indicate which alerts you would like to receive relating to your task lists:

Check or uncheck the checkboxes next to the alerts in which you are interested.
Click the Apply button.

To indicate if you want alerts automatically cleared for issues in an inactive state:

Check or uncheck the checkbox next to Automatically clear related alerts when issues move into an inactive state.
Click the Apply button.

To abandon any changes before you have applied them:

Click the Reset button.

To ensure users are not inundated with Alerts, the Pending and In Progress task list notifications are not raised in the following situations:

When moving issues between milestones;
When a milestone is made current.

To be alerted when other particular events occur:

Go to the issue, project or milestone of interest.
Use the Alerts tab to indicate which alerts you wish to receive.

To clear one or more alerts from the alerts list:

Check the checkbox next to the alerts that you wish to remove.
Click the Clear button.

To clear all alerts from the alerts list:

Click the Clear All button.

If you are no longer interested in a particular type of alert:

Visit the relevant issue, project or milestone.
Uncheck the relevant checkbox on the Alerts tab.

Any related alerts that have already been raised will continue to remain in your Home Page Alerts list until you manually clear them.

To subscribe to your alerts with an RSS/Atom feed reader:

Use the Feed link at the top right of the alerts table.

In progress

This tab shows the tasks on which you are currently working, grouped by issue.

How tasks reach your in progress list

You are in control of which tasks from your Pending list of tasks are moved into this list, so you can choose to focus on a few tasks at a time. This means that you don’t have continuously to hunt through a large number of tasks that might possibly be pending for you.

To move a task into this list:

Select one or more tasks from the list in the Pending tab and click the Move To In Progress button on that tab.
Or, click the Start button for a task in the list in the Pending tab. A work timer (see below) will be started for the task and the task will be moved to the In progress tab automatically.

To remove a task from this list:

Select that task’s checkbox, then click Move To Pending. The task will be moved back to the Pending tab.
Or, if you have completely finished working on a task, select that task’s checkbox, then click Mark As Complete. The task’s Work Remaining estimate will be set to zero and the task will be marked as being complete. The task will still be accessible from its issue’s Tasks tab.

Order of tasks

For each issue in the list, the tasks are shown in the order that the project manager expects you to undertake work. This is the same order as the tasks appear on an issue’s Tasks tab. The issues themselves are ordered taking into account the following factors (in decreasing order of importance):

The desired start or end date of the issue (which can be set on an issue’s Schedule tab), if either is earlier then the predicted expected start date for the issue (see the next point).
The expected start date of the issue predicted by Ketura. This is when Ketura believes that you will be able to begin work on the issue, determined by the project schedules Ketura calculates based on expected work remaining. Your availability to do work (determined by your Availability calendar) and the allocation of that working time to various projects (set on your Allocation calendar) will play a significant role in affecting Ketura’s predicted schedule dates for your issues, and thus also the relative ordering of issues from different projects in your task lists.
The relative ordering of milestones within each project.
The relative priority of issues within each milestone.

If your your time is allocated (on your Allocation calendar) to several different projects, it is likely that Ketura will interleave issues from those projects in your task lists. This is not always desirable, particularly if you actually wish to concentrate on issues from a particular project for a period of time. The solution in this case is for your project manager to update your Allocation calendar to indicate that you will, in fact, be working solely on a particular project for a block of time. An alternative solution would be to filter your task list by the project on which you are concentrating. However, it is better to have each user’s Allocation calendar accurately reflect the projects on which each user is working, as this will also help Ketura to provide more reliable project schedule predictions.

It is recommended that you periodically monitor your Pending list to see whether tasks have been assigned to you that are scheduled to be completed sooner than tasks already in your In progress list.

Recording the work that you do upon tasks

Ketura makes it easy for you to record how much work you’ve done for each task. This information is used to determine whether milestones and projects are on schedule, and also to calculate the cost of dealing with issues and completing milestones and projects.

The quickest way to record the time you spend on tasks is to use the Start and Stop buttons to control the work timer for a task whenever you begin or end work on that task. Alternatively, you can add entries directly into your Work journal.

To start the work timer for a task:

Click the Start button for the task. A new entry is created in your Work journal for the task with the start of the entry set to the current date and time. The currently timed task is highlighted with a yellow background.

If necessary, you can adjust the start time for the newly created entry in your Work journal. The task timer will continue to run. This is useful if, for example, you are unable (or forget) to start a task timer when you start working on a task.

To stop the work timer for a task:

Click the Stop button for the task. The timer is stopped and the entry in your Work journal that was created when you started the timer has its end time set to the current time.
Or, start the timer for another task by clicking its Start button. The timer for the currently timed task will automatically stop.

Keeping your estimates of the work remaining for each task up to date

The Work Remaining estimate for each task assigned to you is your best, current, estimate of how much more work you expect to be required to complete the task.

This information is used by Ketura to calculate schedules for milestones and projects, and to alert project managers to schedule slips. Consequently, it is essential that you keep these estimates up to date.

When you complete entries in your Work journal, either directly, or by using task work timers, Ketura will automatically adjust Work Remaining estimates.

To update the work remaining estimate manually for one or more tasks:

Enter your revised best estimates for work remaining in the entry fields in the Work Remaining column, then click the Apply button.

To learn how to enter durations and work quantities, see the Glossary of Ketura Terms and Concepts.

Why a task might disappear from this list

A task will be removed automatically from your In progress tab if any of the following occur:

The task is reassigned to another user;
The task is deleted from its issue;
The task is marked as complete;
The task’s issue is in an inactive state;
The task’s issue ceases to be part of a current milestone of an active project.

Acting on several tasks at once

Depending on your permissions, it is possible to perform several actions (such as reassignment) on any tasks you have selected.

To perform an action on several tasks:

Select the tasks that you wish to act upon, then click Act On.... A new page will appear, presenting you with a list of possible actions.

To abandon changes before you have applied them:

Click the Reset button. The fields will be restored to their previous values.

Quickly adding tasks to an issue

Ketura makes it quick and easy to add an extra task to any issue in your Pending, In Progress and Work journal tabs (provided, of course, that you have permission to do so). You can even add a task and start logging time to it in a single operation. This makes it very easy to be specific about where your time is going; if you have a major activity, you can give it its own task.

New Task links are provided next to each task and issue in the Pending and In Progress lists, and next to each task in your Work journal. When you click the link, you will be taken to a page where you can specify the new task’s details. If you followed a New Task link next to a task, the fields will be pre-filled with the information from that task. A colon (‘:’) is automatically appended to the task summary, so that you can create what are, in effect, sub-tasks of existing tasks. Simply add an additional description of the sub-task after the colon in the task’s summary. Once you are happy with the task’s other details, you can Apply your changes and be returned directly to your Home Page.

To add a new task to an issue based on an existing task:

Locate the relevant task in the table. Click the New Task that follows the task summary.
Confirm or modify the new task’s details (which will be pre-populated with relevant information), then click Apply.
The new task will be added immediately to the issue, positioned immediately after the task whose New Task link you followed.

To add a new task to an issue:

Click the New Task link adjacent to an issue summary.
Complete the new task’s details, and click Apply.
The new task will be added immediately to the issue, positioned after all other tasks on the issue.

Printing issues in your in progress list

You can print selected issue in your in progress list.

To print issues:

Select at least one task of each of the issues you want to print, then click Print.... A new page will appear suitable for printing.

Description of table columns

Issue/Task	The id of the issue or task. If you have permission to view the task or issue, this is a link to the item.
Summary	The summary of the task or issue. Issue summaries are followed the issue’s priority, state, topic and (if Ketura has been able to determine one) a scheduled date for work to continue on the issue. A link to create a new task is provided in square brackets.
Work Done	The total amount of work done on this task to date. If the task has previously been assigned to someone else, this figure might also include work done by them.
Work Remaining	Your best, current, estimate of the expected work remaining. This indicates how much more work you expect to be required to complete the task.
Work Timer	The Start or Stop buttons that control the work timer for the task.
Selection	A checkbox that, when checked, selects the task. Selected tasks are highlighted with a blue background. You can select all the tasks in the current table page by clicking the checkbox in the column’s heading, or all the tasks in the table that belong to an issue by clicking the checkbox for that issue.

For help working with tables, see Tutorial 1: The Basics of Working with Ketura.

Pending

This tab shows the tasks that are pending for you, grouped by issue.

How tasks reach your pending list

A task will appear in your Pending list if all of the following are true:

The task is assigned to you;
The task has not been marked as complete;
The task’s issue is set to an active state;
The task’s issue is part of a current milestone of an active project.

The number of tasks waiting for you in your Pending list can be significant, so it can be helpful to focus on a few tasks at a time by moving them to your In progress list.

To move a task into your In progress list:

Select that task’s checkbox and click the Move To In Progress button.
Or, click the Start button for a task. A work timer (see below) will be started for the task and the task will be moved to your In progress tab automatically.

To move a task from the In progress list back into your Pending list:

Select that task’s checkbox on the In progress tab, then click Move To Pending on that tab. The task will be moved back to the Pending tab.
Or, if you have completely finished working on a task, select that task’s checkbox on the In progress tab, then click Mark As Complete on that tab. The task’s Work Remaining estimate will be set to zero and the task will be marked as being complete. The task will still be accessible from its issue’s Tasks tab.

Order of tasks

The desired start or end date of the issue (which can be set on an issue’s Schedule tab), if either is earlier then the predicted expected start date for the issue (see the next point).
The expected start date of the issue predicted by Ketura. This is when Ketura believes that you will be able to begin work on the issue, determined by the project schedules Ketura calculates based on expected work remaining. Your availability to do work (determined by your Availability calendar) and the allocation of that working time to various projects (set on your Allocation calendar) will play a significant role in affecting Ketura’s predicted schedule dates for your issues, and thus also the relative ordering of issues from different projects in your task lists.
The relative ordering of milestones within each project.
The relative priority of issues within each milestone.

It is recommended that you periodically monitor your Pending list to see whether tasks have been assigned to you that are scheduled to be completed sooner than tasks in your In progress list.

Keeping your estimates of the work remaining for each task up to date

The Work Remaining estimate for each task assigned to you is your best, current, estimate of how much more work you expect to be required to complete the task.

When you complete entries in your Work journal, either directly, or by using task work timers, Ketura will automatically adjust Work Remaining estimates.

To update the work remaining estimate manually for one or more tasks:

Enter your revised best estimates for work remaining in the entry fields in the Work Remaining column, then click the Apply button.

To learn how to enter durations and work quantities, see the Glossary of Ketura Terms and Concepts.

Why a task might disappear from this list

A task will be removed automatically from your Pending tab if any of the following occur:

The task is reassigned to another user;
The task is deleted from its issue;
The task is marked as complete;
The task’s issue is set to an inactive state;
The task’s issue ceases to be part of a current milestone of an active project.

Acting on several tasks at once

Depending on your permissions, it is possible to perform several actions (such as reassignment) on any tasks you have selected.

To perform an action on several tasks:

Select the tasks that you wish to act upon, then click Act On.... A new page will appear, presenting you with a list of possible actions.

To abandon changes before you have applied them:

Click the Reset button. The fields will be restored to their previous values.

Quickly adding tasks to an issue

To add a new task to an issue based on an existing task:

Locate the relevant task in the table. Click the New Task that follows the task summary.
Confirm or modify the new task’s details (which will be pre-populated with relevant information), then click Apply.
The new task will be added immediately to the issue, positioned immediately after the task whose New Task link you followed.

To add a new task to an issue:

Click the New Task link adjacent to an issue summary.
Complete the new task’s details, and click Apply.
The new task will be added immediately to the issue, positioned after all other tasks on the issue.

Printing issues in your pending list

You can print selected issue in your pending list.

To print issues:

Select at least one task of each of the issues you want to print, then click Print.... A new page will appear suitable for printing.

Description of table columns

Issue/Task	The id of the issue or task. If you have permission to view the task or issue, this is a link to the item.
Summary	The summary of the task or issue. Issue summaries are followed by the issue’s priority, state, topic and (if Ketura has been able to determine one) a scheduled date for work to continue on the issue. A link to create a new task is provided in square brackets.
Work Done	The total amount of work done on this task to date. If the task has previously been assigned to someone else, this figure might also include work done by them.
Work Remaining	Your best, current, estimate of the expected work remaining. This indicates how much more work you expect to be required to complete the task.
Work Timer	The Start button that controls the work timer for the task.
Selection	A checkbox that, when checked, selects the task. Selected tasks are highlighted with a blue background. You can select all the tasks in the current table page by clicking the checkbox in the column’s heading, or all the tasks in the table that belong to an issue by clicking the checkbox for that issue.

For help working with tables, see Tutorial 1: The Basics of Working with Ketura.

Work journal

Your work journal is a record of all the work that you have undertaken on tasks. Each entry in the journal records the task that you have worked on, when you worked on it and how much work you did. Ketura uses this information to help managers keep projects and milestones on track and within budget.

Entries are created automatically when you use task work timers, or you can create entries manually.

Depending on your permissions, you may be able to perform the actions below, as well as change the time format using the Time tab of the System Settings page.

To create a new work journal entry:

Start a work timer for a task by clicking the Start button for a task on the In progress or Pending tabs. A new work journal entry for the task will be created automatically. When the work timer is stopped, the end time and duration of the newly created entry will be set appropriately.
Or, click the New Entry button. Before creating a new entry, any changes to existing work journal entries will be applied. In the new entry field that appears, type in a task id (or select one from the drop-down list), adjust the start date and time if necessary, enter an end time or a duration, then click the Apply button. If you enter an end time, the duration will be calculated automatically when you click Apply, alternatively if you enter a duration the end time will be calculated automatically when you click Apply.

When a new entry is created in using the New Entry button, its start time is initially set to be the same as the latest start or end date of existing entries. If necessary, the For period drop-down will be set automatically to Latest entries to ensure that the new entry is visible.

If you enter a task id and select one from the drop down list, the task id in the drop down list takes precedence and the task id you entered will be ignored.

To learn how to enter durations and work quantities, see the Glossary of Ketura Terms and Concepts.

Note that you can only create work journal entries up to 24 hours in duration. Create additional, contiguous, work entries if you wish to record a single session of work that is longer than 24 hours.

You can click the New Entry button repeatedly to create several work journal entries. This makes it easier to record work on several different tasks after the fact. This can be useful if, for example, you have been out of the office for a period of time and have been unable to record work as you have undertaken it.

To delete one or more work journal entries:

Select the work journal entries you wish to delete.
Click the Delete button.

To mark one or more tasks as complete:

Select the work journal entries of any tasks you wish to mark as complete.
Click the Mark As Complete button.

To abandon changes before you have applied them:

Click the Reset button. The fields will be restored to their previous values.

To complete a work journal entry created by starting a task work timer:

Stop the work timer, by clicking the Stop button for the task in the In progress list. The end time for the work journal entry that was created when the timer was started will be completed automatically.
Or, start the work timer for another task by clicking the Start button for the other task in the In progress or Pending lists. The original work timer will be stopped and the end time for the work journal entry that was created when the original timer was started will be completed automatically.
Or, enter an end time or duration in the work journal entry created when the task work timer was started. The work timer will be stopped automatically.

To modify existing work journal entries:

Make the changes you wish, then click the Apply button. If you modify an end time, the corresponding duration will be recalculated automatically when you click Apply, alternatively if you modify a duration, the corresponding end time will be recalculated automatically when you click Apply.

To correct a work journal entry created by inadvertently starting a work timer for the wrong task:

Change the task id for the entry in the work journal created when the timer was started to the id of another task. Then, click the Apply button. The timer will continue to run, but it is as if the timer were originally started for the other task rather than the original one.

If you clear the task id instead of changing it, the timer will be stopped automatically.

To restrict the display of work journal entries to those starting or ending within a particular period:

Select one of the time periods (Today, Yesterday, This month, etc) in the For period drop-down. The From and To dates will be adjusted automatically.

Note that choosing Latest entries will result in the date range being set to the week containing the work journal entry with the latest date.

However you select the date range, only work entries that start or end within that range will be shown.
Or, choose the From and To dates for the period you desire using the associated ... buttons or by manually entering in the dates, then click Apply. The For period drop-down will be adjusted automatically.

To change the sort order of the work journal:

Click the Start Date column heading link. Each time you do this, the order in which work journal entries are sorted will be reversed.

How Ketura interprets end times

Ketura tries to interpret any end times you enter the following way:

An end time which is later than the start time will be interpreted as being on the same date as the start date. For example, a start time of 19:30 and an end time of 23:30 will be interpreted as a duration of four hours.
An end time which is earlier than or the same as the start time will be interpreted as being on the day following the start date. For example, a start time of 22:30 and an end time of 00:30 will be interpreted as a duration of two hours.

Overlapping entries

If one work journal entry starts before another ends, Ketura will show a yellow warning triangle against any entry that overlaps with an entry higher up in the displayed table page. Adjust the entries so that they do not overlap to remove the warning.

For efficiency reasons, Ketura only warns you about overlaps in the work journal entries that are currently displayed.

Note also that Ketura stores work journal entry start and end times to the nearest second, even though they are only displayed to the minute. If two entries are shown as overlapping, and the end time of the first is the same (to the nearest minute) as the start time of the second, it is likely that the first entry ends a few seconds after the second starts. In this case, remove the overlap warning by adding a minute to the start time of the second entry, so that the entries no longer overlap.

Locked work journal entries

It is possible for a manager to lock your work journal entries that are on or before a particular date. This is useful if your organization has a particular process for checking and approving work journal entries. A padlock symbol will be shown next to any locked entries and you will be unable to modify them.

Quickly adding tasks to an issue

To add a new task to an issue based on an existing task:

Locate the relevant task in the table. Click the New Task that follows the task summary.
Confirm or modify the new task’s details (which will be pre-populated with relevant information), then click Apply.
The new task will be added immediately to the issue, positioned immediately after the task whose New Task link you followed.

Description of table columns

Task	The id of the task for which this work journal entry is recording time worked.
Task Summary	The summary of the task, prefixed with the task id and followed in square brackets with the task’s issue’s id and summary. If you have permission to view tasks and/or issues, the task and issue ids will be links to the appropriate task or issue.
Start Date	The date on which the work recorded by the work journal entry starts.
Start Time	The time on which the work recorded by the work journal entry starts. Times are displayed to the nearest minute, although Ketura records them in its database to the nearest second.
End Time	The time on which the work recorded by the work journal entry ends. This is typically on the same date as the start date, but might be on the following day if the entry’s duration means that the entry spans midnight. Times are displayed to the nearest minute, although Ketura records them in its database to the nearest second.
Duration	The duration of the work recorded by the work journal entry. This is the difference between the start and end times.
Selection	A checkbox that, when checked, selects the work journal entry. Selected entries are highlighted with a blue background. You can select all the entries in the current table page by clicking the checkbox in the column’s heading.

For help working with tables, see Tutorial 1: The Basics of Working with Ketura.