Stage Area in weekly planning

The Stage Area (sometimes called a parking lot) is a dedicated space where teams can store activity tags before placing them on the schedule. It’s especially useful during pull planning sessions, allowing trades to prepare their tags in advance — so no time is wasted creating them during the meeting.  

Whether you’re planning ahead or holding a live session, tags stored in the Stage Area are always just a drag and drop away from the committed plan. 

Collapse the Stage Area to save space 

The Stage Area can be expanded and collapsed as needed. When you’re not using it, simply collapse it using the control at the lower left to keep your planning area uncluttered. You can expand it again when you’re ready to review saved tags, move them or add new ones. 

Add activity to the Stage Area 

Tags can be added to the Stage Area at any time — whether you’re using a desktop, tablet or smartphone, or even during the session itself on the touchscreen display. While it’s good practice to prepare tags in advance, users can still create and store them in the Stage Area if needed during the session. 

To add an activity to the Stage Area: 

1. Click the Stage Area bar to expand it (if it’s collapsed).
2. Right-click (or press and hold on a touchscreen) the empty background of the Stage Area.
3. In the contextual menu, select Add activity to the Stage Area.
4. The Add activity dialog will appear. Fill in the following:
   • Activity name (required).
   • Schedule activity ID (optional) — can be pulled from master schedule.
   • Trade (required) — select in drop-down menu.
     • By default, only active trades are shown.
     • To view all trades (active and inactive), switch the toggle off for the Active trades filter.
   • Number of days — the number of days the activity will require (1–99). Default value is 1.
   • Crew size — the number of people involved (1–99). Default value is 2.
   • Planning mode — choose whether to populate on the plan from the start date or end date. Default value is start date.
5. Click Save to create the activity or Cancel to discard changes. 

Stacking tags 

When a trade creates multiple activities, the tags will appear stacked together. To view the tags in the stack: 

1. Click or tap on the stack to cycle through the tags one by one.
2. Drag out any tag when you’re ready to place it on the plan.