BriefSpec Phase User Guide

Phase

User Guide

BriefSpec

1. Introduction

Phases in BriefSpec are time-boxed segments of a project that group related requirements and help teams plan, track, and deliver work in an organised sequence. Each Phase has a name, goal, Start and End dates, and a lifecycle status — giving project managers full visibility over what is being worked on and when.

This guide explains how to create, manage, and monitor Phases within a project. It is written for project managers, test managers, and team leads who plan and oversee delivery milestones. Access to each action depends on project role privileges (for example add-phase, start-phase, and assign-for-review-phase-requirement).

What you can do with Phases

• View all phases for a project in a sortable, filterable table.
• Open Swimlane View to see predecessor and successor phase linkage.
• Create phases manually by entering the name, goal and dates.
• Generate phases automatically using AI from a project plan.
• Import requirements into a phase.
• Import verified requirements from the Backlog, move requirements back to the Backlog, and copy qualifying requirements from a predecessor when you Start Phase.
• Track progress with Metrics toggled to Build Status or Review Status (counts such as Not Started, In Progress, Build Complete / Verified).
• Edit phases, bulk-delete Not Started phases, reset an In Progress phase when allowed, and open Executive Summary for AI-generated phase insight.

2. Accessing Phase

Phases are managed at project level.

1. Sign in to BriefSpec and open Home.
2. Select the project you are working on.
3. In the project workspace sidebar, open the Work group and select Phase.

Note: Everything on Phase applies only to the project you have open. If you do not have permission to view Phase (view-phase), the sidebar item may be hidden. Configurable email / in-app rules for Phase calendar, Pending Review aging, Build Complete → ready for review, and overdue requirements are under Settings → Notifications → Phase (see the Notifications Guide).

3. The Phase Screen

The Phase screen lists all phases for the current project in a table. Open a phase (phase name or drill-in) to work with its requirements. Use List View for the phase table and Swimlane View for linkage. Requirement details inside a phase support List View and Kanban View.

Columns

Column	What it shows
Phase	The name given to the phase when it was created.
Start Date	The date the phase is scheduled to begin.
End Date	The date the phase is scheduled to finish.
Predecessor	The linked Phase that needs to be completed before moving to the current Phase.
Successors	The linked Phase that will be started after completing the current Phase.
% Completed	Depending on the Metric value selected – Build Status or Review Status, the percentage of work completed.
# Completed	Count of work items completed depending on the Metric value selected – Build Status or Review Status
# In Progress	Count of work items In Progress depending on the Metric value selected – Build Status or Review Status
# Not Started	Count of work items Not yet started – Build Status or Review Status
# Total	Count of RTM’s or User Stories in the Phase
Status	Current status of the phase (e.g. Not Started, In Progress, Completed).
Actions	Has actions such as Edit Phase / View Phase, Executive Summary, Start-related controls in drill-in, and Delete (Not Started only). Bulk delete uses row selection.

Note: Use Columns on the toolbar to show or hide list columns. Available columns include Phase, Start Date, End Date, Predecessor, Successors, % COMPLETED, # COMPLETED, # IN PROGRESS, # NOT STARTED, Total, Status, and Actions. The Goal column is currently not shown on the phase list (Goal remains on the Add / Edit Phase form).

Toolbar controls

• + Add Phase — opens the form to create a new phase manually (privilege add-phase).
• Search — filters the list by phase name as you type.
• Metrics — toggle Build Status or Review Status to change how progress counts are calculated.
• Column Visibility — show or hide individual columns.

Bulk delete — when Delete is allowed, select one or more Not Started phases and use the trash control to delete them together.

Add Phase screen

Viewing the requirement details

Click the phase name (or open phase details) to reveal the requirements assigned to that phase. Each requirement can show Requirement ID, Title, Description, Size, dates, Build Status, Review Status, Pillar, Module/Epic, Hierarchy, Assignee, Client Reviewer, Test Cases, Tags, and more. Use Columns to choose which fields appear in List View.

Viewing Streams

Click Swimlane View (tooltip: “Swimlane View (shows phase linkage)”) to see how phases connect through predecessors and successors, with status and progress. Swimlane View requires the swimlane-view privilege.

In this view, you get to see the Successor and Predecessor Phases for each of the Phases and their current Status and Progress.

4. Phase Status

Each phase moves through a lifecycle that reflects where it is in the delivery plan. The statuses below are the common set; your administrator may configure additional custom statuses from project module status options. You cannot set a phase to Completed while any requirement still has Review Status Pending Review.

Status	Typical meaning
Not Started	The phase has been planned but work has not yet begun.
In Progress	Work on the requirements in this phase is actively under way.
Completed	All work in the phase is done and the phase is closed. Note that a Phase cannot be set to ‘Completed’ if any of the requirements have a review status of ‘Pending Review’

Requirement statuses (inside a phase) use separate Build Status and Review Status values. Common Build Status values include Not Started, In Progress, Build Complete, and Delivered. Common Review Status values include Draft, Pending Review, Verified, Rejected, In Test Cycle, and Signed Off. Delivered typically requires Signed Off; In Test Cycle and Signed Off typically require Build Complete. Many requirement edits require the parent phase to be In Progress.

5. Creating a Phase

There are two ways to create a Phase in BriefSpec:

5.1  Manually

1. Click + Add Phase on the toolbar.
2. Fill in the phase details on the form (see fields below).
3. Click Save to create the phase.

Phase form fields

Field	Description
Phase Name	Required. A short, unique name for the phase (e.g. CRP1, UAT, Go Live).
Status	Set the initial lifecycle status. Defaults to Not Started.
Predecessor	The linked Phase that needs to be completed before moving to the current Phase.
Start Date	The planned start date for the phase.
End Date	The planned end date for the phase.
Tags	Any particular tags that need to be associated with the Phase
Goal	A free-text description of what the phase is intended to achieve.

5.2  With AI — Generate from Plan

When a project plan has been uploaded or defined, you can ask the AI to suggest a complete set of phases based on the plan’s timeline and milestones.

1. On Plan (Execution Plan), use Create Phases from Plan. This requires plan privilege plan-create-phase-from-plan and plan feature AI plan → phases conversion (ai_plan_to_phases_conversion). The project must not already have phases.
2. The system analyses the plan and displays a suggested list of phases, each with a name, predecessor, start date, end date, and goal.
3. Review the suggestions in the preview table. The AI shows a progress indicator while it works.
4. Click Save Generated Phases to create all the suggested phases in one action, or close the dialog to discard. You can Stop while generation is in progress.

Note: AI-generated phases inherit their dates and goals from the plan data. You can edit any phase individually after saving. If phases already exist, BriefSpec asks you to delete existing phases before generating again.

5.3 Copying requirements from a Predecessor Phase

After a phase is created, it can be edited and a Predecessor Phase selected.

Once a Predecessor Phase is selected, the application forces you to enter a new Phase Start Date and End Date. The Start date of the new Phase cannot be before the End Date of the Predecessor Phase. After filling out the details, clicking on the Save icon to save the changes. When you click on the Phase you get the following message.

To set the current Phase to In Progress, any Predecessor Phase must be Completed. Use the Start Phase (play) control on the phase requirements toolbar. Starting a phase requires the start-phase privilege (and may be limited to phases you created).

When you click the Start icon, you see these options

These options allow you to copy a subset of requirements from the Predecessor Phase (for example by build or review criteria). Select the options you need and click Start Phase. Qualifying requirements are copied into the new phase.

6. Editing a Phase

1. On the Phases list, open Edit Phase (or View Phase / View Details when the phase is read-only) from the row Actions.
2. Update fields such as Phase Name, Predecessor, Start Date, End Date, Tags, and Goal.
3. Duration is calculated from Start and End dates on the form.
4. Click Save to apply the changes.

Executive Summary

Open Executive Summary from the Actions column to view the AI-generated Executive Summary for the phase. You can download PDF or PPTX when available. Executive Summary is not available when Phase status is Not Started. It may also require privilege executive-summary and plan feature Smart Phase Readiness scoring (smart_phase_readiness_scoring) where enabled.

7. Deleting a Phase

1. Use Delete on the phase row Actions, or select multiple Not Started phases and use bulk delete.
2. Only phases in status Not Started can be deleted. Deleting a phase does not delete the requirements assigned to it — they remain in the project backlog and can be reassigned.
3. Confirm the deletion in the confirmation dialog.

Note: Prefer bulk delete when removing several unused Not Started phases at once.

Only Phases that are in the status “Not Started” can be deleted.

8. Managing Requirements in a Phase

Requirements (user stories and RTM items) are the work items that live inside a phase. Open a phase first — many actions stay disabled until the phase is In Progress. Completed phases are view only.

Click Import from Backlog to add requirements into the phase. Only verified requirements can be imported. Import requires add-phase-requirement privilege.

Viewing requirements in a phase

Inside the phase, switch between List View and Kanban View. In List View, choose columns, search, and use advanced filters. Client reviewers can filter to items pending their approval and use Approve / Reject when they have approve-reject-phase-requirement privilege.

Generating test cases from phase requirements

You can trigger Generate Test Cases for a requirement from the phase view when your plan includes test case generation from phase (test_case_generation_from_phase) and you have generate-test-cases privilege. The system opens the test case generation flow for that requirement.

9. Views

Phase requirements can be displayed in List View or Kanban View. On Kanban, switch between Build Status and Review Status columns and drag cards when your privileges allow status updates. Grid view for the phase list is not available — use List or Swimlane for phases.

Kanban View

On Kanban, switch between Build Status and Review Status boards to view and update requirement progress. Dropping a card may open Assign for Review or review dialogs when the transition requires it.

Use Export phase requirements to download an Excel document of the requirements in the phase (export visibility uses phase-requirement-export where configured).

Select one or more requirements with Build Complete status and use Assign for Review (assign-for-review-phase-requirement). You can also move selected requirements back to the Backlog when allowed.

Use Reset to move a phase back toward Not Started when the phase is In Progress and reset is allowed. Reset is blocked if the phase already has generated test cases, or if any requirement has linked test cases and the phase has no predecessor, or if readonly predecessor-copied requirements still block the action. Mass Update and Close Phase are not available on the toolbar in the current product.

10. Tracking Phase Progress

BriefSpec calculates progress for each phase based on requirement Build Status or Review Status, depending on the Metrics toggle on the Phase list. Counts such as # COMPLETED, # IN PROGRESS, # NOT STARTED, Total, and % COMPLETED follow that metric.

Indicator	What it represents
#Total	Total number of requirements assigned to the phase.
#Completed	Number of requirements counted as completed for the selected metric (Build Status or Review Status).
#In Progress	Number of requirements counted as in progress for the selected metric.
#Not Started	Number of requirements counted as not started for the selected metric (for Review Status this may map to Draft).
% Completed	Calculated as: Completed ÷ Total × 100.

These counts update in real time as requirements are updated. The Project Dashboard also shows phase-level charts and comparisons — see the Dashboard section of this guide set for details.

11. Using Phases Across BriefSpec

Phases are referenced by several other features in the platform:

Settings → Notifications → Phase configures calendar offsets, Pending Review aging, Build Complete → ready for review, and overdue requirement alerts. The navbar Notifications bell can deep-link into a phase when module is Phase.

Feature	How it uses Phases
Scribe360 FDD Agent	The Use Requirements button lets you pick requirements from an active phase to auto-fill a Functional Design Document.
Test Cycles	Test Cycles can be linked to a phase so that testing scope aligns with the delivery milestone.
RTM / Backlog	Requirements in the backlog show which phase they are assigned to, enabling traceability from requirement through test to phase.
Project Dashboard	Phase Analysis charts show planned vs. actual progress, requirement counts by phase, and completion trends.
Plan (AI)	Create Phases from Plan converts an AI / execution plan into phases (plan feature ai_plan_to_phases_conversion).

12. Related Areas

Area	How it relates to Phases
Backlog / RTM	Source of requirements that are assigned to phases.
Test Cycles	Test execution milestones aligned to phase delivery.
Defects	Defects may be associated with requirements in a phase.
Project Plan	AI can generate phases automatically from an uploaded plan.
Project Dashboard	Real-time phase progress charts and executive summaries.
Scribe360 FDD Agent	Phase requirements used to auto-populate design documents.

13. Privileges and plan features (summary)

Phase: add-phase, update-phase, delete-phase, view-phase, start-phase, executive-summary, swimlane-view.

Phase Requirement: add-phase-requirement, update-phase-requirement, delete-phase-requirement, view-phase-requirement, assign-for-review-phase-requirement, approve-reject-phase-requirement, generate-test-cases; export may use phase-requirement-export.

Plan / subscription: ai_plan_to_phases_conversion (Create Phases from Plan), test_case_generation_from_phase, smart_phase_readiness_scoring (Executive Summary readiness where enabled).