Autopilot for projects | awork Helpcenter

Is the project going as planned?

Are we on schedule?

Are we managing with the planned resources?

Instead of constantly being worried about these questions, the answer can now be confidently handed over to the autopilot. As long as the autopilot doesn't sound the alarm, everything is fine. If the time budget or a deadline is exceeded, the autopilot intervenes and informs with appropriate mailings.

The autopilot in awork consists of a series of smart mailings that keep the project manager and the project team informed about the project's progress. The mails that the project manager receives differ from those that are sent to the team. While the team is mainly informed about their own upcoming and most urgent to-dos, the awork autopilot supports the project manager in his or her main task: project management.

Activate the autopilot for your project

When you create a new project, awork asks you if you want to activate the autopilot. There you can directly activate it from the start.

If you want to activate or deactivate the autopilot in an existing project, you can do so in the Settings tab of your project in the autopilot section.

Select project management mode

When activating the autopilot, you have to choose the mode in which the autopilot monitors/manages your project. You have the options between agile or waterfall mode.

Agile

In autopilot, you should choose the agile mode for all projects that don't have a fixed schedule. For these projects, you will be guided by the working hours that are available rather than fixed deadlines (e.g. Kanban or Scrum).

Waterfall

The waterfall method, on the other hand, is best suited if you already know deadlines and fixed responsibilities in detail. So if you work with milestones and a Gantt chart and the time factor is very important, the waterfall method is the better choice.

If the project manager receives different mails than the project team (see above), it is important to store them correctly in the project.

Change settings for the autopilot

There are two ways to reach settings for the autopilot of a project:

If you click on the awork icon in the project in the Details tab in the upper right corner
If you click on the Edit button in the project. You'll find it in the Settings tab in the autopilot section

The window with the options for the autopilot opens. Activate or deactivate it at any time. You can also switch between agile and waterfall mode.

In the lower part of the window, you can decide which notifications should be triggered by the autopilot for the project members.

Messages sent out by the autopilot

Project members and project managers receive different notifications from the autopilot throughout the project.

Project managers receive information that is necessary for controlling the project. On the other hand, project members receive general information about the status of the project and upcoming deadlines.

News for project managers

Messages for the project manager show the following information, depending on the message:

Deadline of the project
Open tasks
Tracked times
Remaining planned effort
Remaining budget in days

This information is displayed above the main message.

These are the following messages for project managers:

New Project

Waterfall mode

Reminds the project manager that there are still to-dos to plan a project
Is triggered if not all required planning steps have been performed

Agile mode

Reminds the project manager that there are still to-dos to plan a project
Is triggered if not all required planning steps have been performed

Project started

Waterfall mode

Informs the project manager that a project has been started, and the team has been briefed
Triggered when a project is set to the Progress (yellow) status

Agile mode

Informs the project manager that a project has been started, and the team has been briefed
Triggered when a project is set to the Progress (yellow) status

Project not yet started

Waterfall mode

Informs the project manager that there is a project with project team and planned tasks that has not yet been set to the status Progress (yellow)

Agile mode

Informs the project manager that there is a project with project team and planned tasks that has not yet been set to the status Progress (yellow)

Project behind schedule

Waterfall mode

Shows tasks that are behind the schedule
Shows tasks that should already start, but have not yet been started
Shows completed tasks that led to the delay

Agile mode

Shows tasks that are behind the schedule
Shows tasks that should already start, but have not yet been started
Shows completed tasks that led to the delay
For agile projects, a linear burn down of all tasks is assumed. If the project falls behind this, the message is triggered

Project behind time budget

Waterfall mode

Shows tasks that took longer than expected (planned effort vs tracked time)
Completed tasks are also displayed
Triggered when the expected remaining expense exceeds the remaining budget

Agile mode

Shows tasks that took longer than expected (planned effort vs tracked time)
Completed tasks are also displayed
Triggered when the expected remaining expense exceeds the remaining budget

Project close to deadline

Waterfall mode

Shows tasks with a high planned effort that have not yet been started
Shows overdue tasks
Shows tasks for which the planned effort was exceeded and which are not completed

Agile mode

Shows tasks with a high planned effort that have not yet been started
Shows overdue tasks
Shows tasks for which the planned effort was exceeded and which are not completed

Project time budget soon reached

Waterfall mode

Shows tasks with a high planned effort that have not yet been started
Shows overdue tasks
Shows tasks for which the planned effort was exceeded and which are not completed

Agile mode

Shows tasks with a high planned effort that have not yet been started
Shows overdue tasks
Shows tasks for which the planned effort was exceeded and which are not completed

Project deadline exceeded

Waterfall mode

Shows tasks with a high planned effort that have not yet been started
Shows overdue tasks
Shows tasks for which the planned effort was exceeded and which are not completed

Agile mode

Shows tasks with a high planned effort that have not yet been started
Shows overdue tasks
Shows tasks for which the planned effort was exceeded and which are not completed

Project time budget exceeded

Waterfall mode

Shows tasks with a high planned effort that have not yet been started
Shows overdue tasks
Shows tasks for which the planned effort was exceeded and which are not completed

Agile mode

Shows tasks with a high planned effort that have not yet been started
Shows overdue tasks
Shows tasks for which the planned effort was exceeded and which are not completed

Project completed

Waterfall mode

Informs you that a project has been set to the Done (green) status

Agile mode

Informs you that a project has been set to the Done (green) status

Project canceled

Waterfall mode

Informs you that a project has been set to the Canceled (red) status.

Agile mode

Informs you that a project has been set to the Canceled (red) status.

Project neglected

Waterfall mode

Informs you that there has been no activity in a project for 14 days

Agile mode

Informs you that there has been no activity in a project for 14 days

Project team

Messages for the project team always show the following information:

Deadline of the project
Open tasks
Remaining planned effort

This information is displayed above the main message.

For the project team, there are the following news:

New project started

Waterfall mode

Shows the next tasks for the user
Triggered when the project is set in the In Progress (yellow) status.

Agile mode

Shows the most important tasks (by planned effort) or the first 5 if no effort was planned
Triggered when the project is set in the In Progress (yellow) status.