School time
Working days and usable lesson periods for each day.
Help Center · Getting Started
Build your first timetable in the right data order.
When using Dersiva for the first time, establish the school structure first, then lesson assignments and constraints. Generate a trial, review its quality, and only then select the timetable that will be applied.
Minimum data for the first timetable
Make sure these six data layers are ready before you run the solver.
Your first trial does not need every preference to be perfect. Establish correct core data first, then add special preferences and quality objectives gradually.
Teachers
Teacher records that will appear in the timetable.
Lessons
Lesson definitions and relevant grade levels.
Classes / sections
Classes and sections that will receive a timetable.
Lesson assignments
Which teacher teaches which lesson to which class and for how many weekly hours.
Core constraints
Unavailable days, daily limits or other conditions that truly must be preserved.
01
Install and run Dersiva
Install Dersiva on a supported Windows environment and review the current requirements on the Download page. If license or user verification is required, make sure the school network can reach Dersiva services.
- ✓Does the application start?
- ✓Does the version match the package you intended to install?
- ✓If online verification is required, can the service be reached?
02
Define the school and weekly time structure
Define the school’s working days and timetable structure. The number of available periods on each day should match the real school timetable; day-specific structures should be configured correctly from the start.
- ✓Are working days correct?
- ✓How many periods are available each day?
- ✓Are morning/afternoon or day-specific structures correct?
03
Add teachers
Create the teachers who will participate in scheduling. Enter names and planning data accurately. If the Teacher Portal is used later, account and publishing workflows will be associated with these teacher records.
- ✓Is the same teacher duplicated?
- ✓Were teachers outside the timetable added by mistake?
- ✓Are names and core details correct?
04
Create lessons, grade levels and classes
Define lessons and the grade levels in which each lesson is used. Then create the classes/sections to be scheduled. Grade-aware lesson definitions also keep the assignment workflow cleaner.
- ✓Are lesson names unique and consistent?
- ✓Are grade-level mappings correct?
- ✓Are all classes/sections present?
05
Create lesson assignments
For every class, define the teacher and weekly hours for each lesson. These assignments form the core load model of the timetable. Check totals against the teacher’s real weekly load and the class curriculum.
- ✓Does every lesson have a teacher?
- ✓Are weekly hours correct?
- ✓Does each teacher’s planned total match the real load?
06
Define hard conditions and teacher preferences
Add unavailable days, daily maximum lessons, working-day preferences, block lessons and similar conditions. For the first trial, keep only genuinely mandatory rules as hard constraints and leave quality preferences as optimization goals where possible.
- ✓Are mandatory rules being confused with preferences?
- ✓Are daily maxima realistic?
- ✓Do any unavailable-day or time rules conflict?
07
Generate the first trial timetable
When the core data and constraints are ready, generate a first trial. Its purpose is not only to get an answer, but to verify that capacity and constraints were modeled correctly. If lessons remain unplaced, identify the bottleneck before removing rules randomly.
- ✓Did every lesson place?
- ✓If not, which teacher/class is the bottleneck around?
- ✓Did any runtime error or application closure occur?
08
Review timetable quality
A 100% complete timetable is not automatically a good timetable. Review teacher gaps, overloaded or unnecessarily short days, weekly lesson distribution, daily teacher limits and school-wide balance together.
- ✓Are there unnecessary teacher gaps?
- ✓Are there overloaded or meaningless short days?
- ✓Does the same quality problem repeat across several teachers?
09
Review duty planning with the timetable
For schools using duty management, review exemptions, administratively assigned days and automatic duty selection together with the timetable. After the duty day is confirmed, verify the duty location and publication data separately.
- ✓Are exempt teachers correct?
- ✓Does the duty day fit teaching intensity?
- ✓Are duty day and location confirmed?
10
Select the applied timetable
From trial timetables, select only the timetable reviewed by school administration as the applied timetable. This is the critical decision that determines which timetable official outputs and the Teacher Portal should use.
- ✓Was the correct trial selected?
- ✓Was final review completed?
- ✓Do outputs match this timetable?
11
Publish to teachers
If the Teacher Portal is used, publish only the applied timetable. Check sample teacher accounts to confirm that personal weekly lessons and confirmed duty information appear correctly.
- ✓Does the portal connection work?
- ✓Is the teacher timetable correct?
- ✓Do trial timetables leave the portal unchanged?
12
Create the first safe backup
Once core school data, assignments and the first applied timetable exist, create a portable full backup. Keep a current backup before major data changes, restore operations or migration to another computer.
- ✓Was the backup file created?
- ✓Is it stored safely?
- ✓Is it clear which backup should be used for a restore?
Most common first-use mistake
Adding too many hard constraints too early.
Verify the data model first. Let the first timetable run with essential mandatory conditions, then add daily limits, gap quality, short-day objectives, duty and other preferences in controlled stages. This makes bottlenecks much easier to diagnose.
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