To access Current Projects

1. From the Application Home screen, click Project Management.

2. Click the Current Projects tab.

3. Click the Project Details tab.

Project Conditions

By default, the project condition is determined by the Progress Status, which is a relationship of between the planned schedule and the actual and projected schedule. For example, if a project is behind schedule, it will display a yellow condition indicator. The project conditions are described in Table 3.7 below.

Project Conditions

Condition	Description
On Time	The project was completed on or before the planned due date, or it is projected to be completed on or before the planned due date.
Behind Schedule	The projected completion date is later than the planned completion date of the project, but the project due date hasn't yet passed. This condition indicates that there is still a chance that the project could complete on time.
Late	The project was completed late, or it is not completed and the due date has already passed.
At Risk	Indicates a compressed schedule, or a project date range that is too small for the total duration specified in the plan. Usually only occurs when there are constraints on tasks in the project that compress the schedule. For example, a ten-day task is given a Must Finish On constraint 5 days from now. This would indicate that 10-days of task duration needs to fit in 5 days in order to complete on time.

You can change the project to use a manual condition indicator, instead of automatically using the progress status, simply by changing the Condition Type on the project from Progress Status to Manual.

To change the Condition Type of the project:

1. Open the project for editing by clicking Edit Project in the Contextual Menu of the Project Details page

2. On the Project Details tab, change the Condition Type from Progress Status to Manual.

3. You can now change the Condition manually by changing the value in the Condition field.

Looking at Multiple Project Views

@task has integrated views to graphically display multiple projects. You can see some or all of your projects together using the Gantt chart view or the Project Milestone view.

Using the Gantt Chart View

@task shows you your projects in a Gantt chart view. With this view, you can see the timelines for multiple projects together and you can see how your projects overlap or line up. The view shows you whether you have multiple concurrent projects and give you an idea of your total work load. You can view the Gantt chart by days, weeks, or months. Figure 3.5 shows an example of a Gantt chart view

Figure 3.6: .

You can change the date column ranges using the Zoom In ( ) and Zoom Out ( ) buttons. This changes the scale between Day, Week, Month and Year.

You can collapse and expand all subtasks at once, using the Open All ( ) and Close All ( ) buttons.

The Print Gantt icon ( ) opens the options page for printing the Gantt to a multi-page PDF.

You can open the Gantt into a Full Screen view by clicking on the Full Screen icon ( ).

The fields displayed and the information displayed on the Gantt chart can be configured using the View Preferences page. Click on the Preferences icon ( ) to open the Gantt chart View Preferences.

The Field Data checkboxes determine which columns will be displayed for each item in the gantt chart. The Chart Indicators checkboxes control the information that is displayed in the main body of the gantt chart. If you want to display only a portion of the tasks in the Project Gantt, you can put a range in the Display Numbers fields. For example, if I just wanted the Gantt to display the first 25 tasks, I could put 1 in the first box and 25 in the second box. After you click `Ok', the View Preferences window will be hidden and the Gantt chart will be refreshed with the new options.

NOTE: The Gantt chart can be accessed in two ways. In the Project List you can change the view to Gantt view, which has a slightly different toolbar and look. It has all the same functionality with the exception being

Using the Milestone View

Milestone paths are used to track a task over multiple projects to see trends in completing a task. The milestone view displays the tasks that are associated with a milestone and shows which are late and which are on time. You can use the milestone view to look at projects over time and detect trends.

The view shows all early tasks in green and late tasks in red. Tasks that are in progress are also shown with their current status.

A complete explanation of milestones and how to use them is documented elsewhere in this chapter.

SeeCreating and Working with Milestones

Figure 3.7: Milestone View

To see alternate project views

1. Do one of the following:

In the Navigation Menu, click Find -> Projects and submit the search.

From the Application Home page, click Project Management -> Projects.

2. Click the View menu and select the view you want to see.

Working with Project Timelines

When you view a project, @task gives you several timeline tools to view project plan and status information from different formats and get several vantage points. In the Contextual Menu there are several tools that can aid you in assessing your projects. These tools include:

• A Gantt chart
• A project calendar
• A resource grid
• A tool to recalculate the project timeline
• A project replanning tool

Viewing and Printing The Gantt Chart

A Gantt chart shows a graphical representation of the progress of your project over time. It shows the planned time allotment for each task and the actual time taken to complete each task and the project as well as the critical path of the project. It can display in units of days, weeks, or months. Gantt charts also show you dependencies and display the order in which the tasks should be completed and names of persons who are assigned to the tasks. In the Gantt chart, tasks are stacked to show the number of concurrent project tasks and they have a small black line that displays the current completion percentage for the tasks. Planned durations appear as blue lines. Actual durations appear as red lines.

@task can also save your Gantt chants in a printable format. @task turns your Gantt chart into a.pdf file so you can print it or use it in other ways. Figure 3.4 shows an example of a Gantt chart.

Figure 3.8: Task Gantt Chart

To view the project Gantt chart

1. From a project list, click on a project to access it.

2. In the Contextual Menu, click Timelines -> Gantt Chart.

3. Select the zoom level from the drop-down menu.

4. Click the Plus icon (+) to expand tasks with subtasks.

To print the Gantt chart

1. In the Contextual Menu, click Timelines -> Print Gantt Chart.

2. Select the data that you want to print in your Gantt chart, then click Print.

The Calendar View

@task has a calendar view that shows all tasks and issues that are scheduled for work on a specific day. Tasks and issues that take more than one day stretch across multiple days. The calendar displays task numbers and a tasks current completion percentage.

To display the Calendar view

1. From a project list, click on a project to access it.

2. In the Contextual Menu, click Timelines -> Calendar.

Using the Resource Grid

The resource grid is a tool to show you tasks and workloads for users. It shows the task, the day that it is scheduled to be worked, and the number of hours scheduled for each user who is assigned to the task. The total number of hours scheduled for each day is displayed along with the total number of hours for each user. If the total number of hours in scheduled tasks for a user is greater than the number of hours that the user has available, then the total for the user is shown in red.

For example, assume a project has three tasks that are scheduled to be completed on a specific day and each should take six hours. Assume that there are two people on the team assigned to complete the tasks. The total number of hours scheduled for that day is 18. This number displays in the project totals row. If one of the users is assigned two of the scheduled tasks then a 12 displays in red in the user total. The number is red because the user has only eight hours of work for the day, and yet is assigned to complete 12 hours worth of work. The other user has only one task assigned, and has a six for his total. This user is under-tasked by two hours. You could use the resource grid to even out the tasks between the two current users and assign a third user to assist in completing the tasks. However, if the two current users fulfilled the assignment and completed the three tasks, then a record exists to support awards and commendations.

You can also see a Resource Grid view when you search for users. Assume that you want to see if a user is available for a project that you are doing. You can search for that user using the user search feature (Find -> Users from the Navigation Menu). Then in the View menu, if you select Resource Grid, you see a list of all users that come up in the search. You can click on the `plus' icon next to the user name to see the projects and tasks for each user. This way, you can see if a user is tasked on other projects. Figure 3.8 shows an example of a resource grid.

Figure 3.9: Resource Grid

To display the Resource Grid

1. From a project list, click on a project to access it.

2. In the Contextual Menu, click Timelines -> Resource Grid.

Recalculating a Timeline

When you initially create a project, you must select an update type. This determines when @task updates timelines and costs for the tasks in a project. By default, the plan updates anytime that the project changes and at a set time each day. However, you may have chosen to only update manually.

SeeCreating a Project

When you update a timeline, @task examines the current project plan along with each task, its projected completion date, its current progress, and its dependencies. With this information, @task updates the project plan timeline to show you the current status of the project and each task, and the projected timeline for the future.

To manually update a project timeline

1. From a project list, click on a project to access it.

2. In the Contextual Menu, click Timelines -> Recalculate Timeline to recalculate the timelines and Timelines -> Recalculate Finance to update the budget information.