Creating and Editing Tasks

Projects are comprised of tasks. After you have created a new project you can create the tasks that are associated with the project and add them to the project. To do this, you need to understand the task attributes that you can select. Also, during the course of a project, you may need to modify or delete tasks. This chapter contains procedures for doing these activities.

When you create a project and add tasks to the project, you must know what attributes that you want the task to have, such as the priority of the task, the tracking mode that you plan to use, the duration of the task, and the task constraints for start and completion dates. The following sections explain the task attributes and describe how you can implement them when you create or edit a task.

Tracking Modes

Tracking modes are methods that @task uses to update the status of tasks that are in a project. When you create a task, you must assign a tracking mode to the task. Table 4.1 describes the Tracking Mode values that you can select when you create a task.

Table 4.1: Tracking Mode Values
Value	Description
User Must Update	The person who is assigned to complete the task must update the progress of the task manually, supplying completion status percentages and hours spent.
Assume On Time	@task assumes that a task will complete on time regardless of the current completion status. If it does not, then @task automatically assumes a completion date of the next working day. The user must still update the task when it is completed.
Ignore Late Warnings	@task assumes that tasks will be completed on time. However, if a task runs late, then @task projects its completion date depending on its completion percentage. For example, if a task is scheduled to take 10 days, and on the day that it should be completed the task is reported to be only 60% complete, then @task updates the projected finish date by adding four days.
Auto Complete	@task assumes that tasks will be completed as scheduled, and marks them as complete on their due dates.
Predecessor	@task schedules timelines for tasks with unenforced dependencies based on its predecessors. For example, assume that a task is scheduled to complete two days after its predecessor, which should take five days. Then, a user updates the dependant task as being 50% complete but the predecessor task has not been started. @task schedules the dependant task to be completed six days after the start date of the predecessor task.

N O T E : Regardless of the tracking mode, users still must update the task status to enter their hours for the timesheets.

Durations

The duration of a task is the estimated time that it will take to complete it. When you create a task, you must type a duration. When you fill in the Duration field, the time can be expressed in hours, days, weeks, or months. You should fill in the field with a number followed by the word days, weeks, and so forth; for example, 1 day or 3 weeks. You can use decimals.

You can change the way that @task interprets the values that you set in this field. Using @task's Project Management Preferences tool, you can change 1 day to mean 10 hours rather than the default of 8 hours. You can also change the number of days in a week and so forth.

SeeSetting Project Management Preferences

Regardless of how many man-hours a task takes, the duration should be set to the total estimated time that will pass before the task is complete. For example, assume that you are creating a task to paint a machine part. The part needs three coats. It only takes one hour to apply a coat of paint, but the paint must dry for 1 day after each coat. Even though it only takes three total man-hours to paint the part, the duration of the task is three days.

Task Constraints

Task constraints determine the placement of tasks within the timeframe of a project. You may want certain tasks done at the beginning of the project and you may want to reserve other tasks until the end of the project. When you create a task, you must select a task constraint value so that @task can put the task in its proper timeframe.

Table 4.2 describes the options that you can select in the Task Constraint field.

Task Constraint Values
Value	Description
As Soon As Possible	This places the start time of the task as close to the beginning of the project as possible and may cause predecessor or dependant tasks to be rescheduled. This is the default constraint if a project uses a schedule mode of Schedule from Start Date.
As Late As Possible	This places the start time of the task as close to the end of the project as possible and may cause predecessor or dependant tasks to be rescheduled. This is the default constraint if a project uses a schedule mode of Schedule from Completion Date.
Earliest Available Time	This places the start time of the task as close to the beginning of the project as possible but does not require predecessor or dependant tasks to be rescheduled. @task schedules them as soon as possible after taking into account the schedules for the predecessor tasks.
Latest Available Time	This places the start time of the task as close to the end of the project as possible but does not require predecessor or dependant tasks to be rescheduled. @task schedules them as late as possible after taking into account the schedules for the dependant tasks.
Start No Earlier Than	The task is scheduled to start at a time after the date that you specify. If you select this value, then you must type a date in the Planned Start Date field.
Start No Later Than	The task is scheduled to start at a time before the date that you specify. If you select this value, then you must type a date in the Planned Start Date field.
Finish No Earlier Than	The task is scheduled to be completed at a time after the date that you specify. If you select this value, then you must type a date in the Planned Completion Date field.
Finish No Later Than	The task is scheduled to be completed at a time before the date that you specify. If you select this value, then you must type a date in the Planned Completion Date field.
Must Start On	The task must start exactly at the time and date that you specify in the Planned Start Date field.
Must Finish On	The task must finish exactly at the time and date that you specify in the Planned Completion Date field.
Fixed Dates	You specify the exact start and end dates in the Planned Start Date and Planned Completion Date fields.

Many factors may affect the task constraint that you select. For example, if you need a specific piece of equipment, but you know that it is not available until a certain date, you would probably select `Start No Earlier Than' as your task constraint, and then type the date when the equipment is available.

Perhaps you are doing a project and the person who has the skills to do a certain task has been in an accident and you are unsure when this person will return to work. Assuming that the task can be done at any point in the project, you could set the constraint to `As Late As Possible'.

Figure 4.1: Setting the Duration Type

There are three duration types. Depending on the duration type you select and the number of people that you assign to a task, @task calculates the total work time required and the resource percentage allocation values. Table 4.3 lists, describes, and gives examples for the duration types that you can select.

Duration Types
Value	Description
Calculated Work	When you use this duration type, @task fills in the Work Required field using the formula Work = Duration * Assignment Units. This duration type is used for calendar-driven tasks, which are based on time rather than effort. Assigning additional personnel resources to the task does not decrease the time that it takes to complete the task, but causes the amount of work to increase. Delivering a letter to a specified address would be an example of this type of task. If you assign three people to do it, then you have not accomplished the task any more quickly, you have only increased the amount of effort expended to accomplish the task. When you set a task to this duration type, @task uses the percentage allocation values that you provide and the duration value to calculate the total work required. Using the example above, if you assign two people to deliver a letter and the duration of the task is one hour, then it takes two man-hours to complete the task. Therefore @task would calculate the work required to be two hours.
Calculated Assignment	This duration type is for a type of task with a constant duration, but if you assign more people to it, it reduces the amount of work that the people have to do. An example of this type of task is using a crane to build a structure. The crane (assuming that you have only one crane) takes the same amount of time to lift the materials to build the structure, but only one person can run it at a time. The more people you have doing the task, the more available time each person has to do something else. In @task, when you select this duration type, @task changes the assignment percentage value for each user. If a task set to this duration type takes two days and you assign two people to the task, then for those two days each user has an assignment percentage of 50%, meaning that half the time the user is free to do something else.
Effort Driven	When you use this duration type, @task fills in the Assignment Percentage using the formula Work = Duration * Assignment Units. This duration type is for optimizing resource effort when the task is constrained by time, and increasing the number of personnel resources can decrease the time required to complete the task. Use this duration type when you need to know the optimal number of people to assign to a task to get it done on a specified date. An example of this type of task would be shelling a barrel of nuts. Two people can accomplish this faster than one. When you use this duration type, @task changes the planned dates for the task. For example if shelling a barrel of nuts takes one person two days, then two people can get it done in one day. Therefore, if you set a task to this duration type, and assign it a duration of two days, when you assign two users to accomplish it, @task sets the projected start and completion dates to a length of one day.

Approvals

You can set up approvals for tasks based on user name or job role. If you use approvals with a task, then when the user who is assigned to do the task marks it as complete, @task places the task in a queue to be approved by the person or a person in the job role assigned to approve it. If it is assigned to an individual for approval, then it appears in the user's approval list. If it is assigned to a job role, then anyone in that job role can access and approve or deny the task.

When you enable approvals, @task displays a field in which you must set a duration for your approval. The approval duration time is added to the total estimated task time. For example, assume that you have just created a task that takes three days. If you enable approvals and set the duration to one day, then @task adds a day to the total estimated task duration.

SeeApproving Completed Tasks

You can also set up approvals so that the person doing the approving must authenticate with a user name and password at the time of approval. This additional security step is set up in the Project Management Preferences screen.

SeeSetting Project Management Preferences

Predecessors

Predecessors are used to determine task dependencies. If a task is dependant on another task's completion status, then you should give it a predecessor task. For example, you can't lay carpet if the floor boards haven't been placed yet. A task called "Lay Carpet" would have a predecessor task of "Lay Floor Boards".

When you set predecessors, you have several options as to how you want the predecessor relationship between the tasks to work. You can choose from among several dependency types and lag types and you can determine whether you want to enforce the dependency within the project schedule. If a dependency is enforced, then @task does not allow a user to update the completion status of the dependant task until the predecessor task condition is fulfilled.

Table 4.5 lists and describes the dependency type options.

Dependency types
Value	Description
Finish-Start	The predecessor task must finish before the dependant task can start.
Finish-Finish	The predecessor task must finish before the dependant task can finish.
Start-Start	The predecessor task must start before the dependant task can start.
Start-Finish	The predecessor task must start before the dependant task can finish.
Scheduled-Start	This has similarities to both Finish-Start and Finish-Finish dependency types. This schedules a task as a Finish-Start, but enforces it as a Finish-Finish. When you use this, the dependant task is scheduled to start after the predecessor task is completed. However, the enforcement makes it so that the dependant task can start anytime, but can't finish until the predecessor task is finished. Lag times are unavailable when you use Scheduled-Start.

N O T E : Regardless of the predecessor that you select, if a task dependency conflicts with a task constraint, the dates that you set for the constraint take precedence over any predecessor relationship.

Lag Types

A lag is an amount of time that must pass after the completion of an enforced predecessor until the dependant task can begin. For example if you used a Finish-Start dependency type and you wanted the dependant task to start four days after the predecessor task has completed, then you set the lag time to four days by putting a 4 in the lag field. You could also use a negative number, such as -4 days, to express that you want the dependant task to start four days before the predecessor task ends.

An example of a task that would require a lag time might be sawing trees into lumber. If the freshly-cut wood must dry for a time before it can be cut, then there would be a lag time between the cutting the trees, and sawing them into lumber. Table 4.5 differentiates between the lag type options.

Lag types
Value	Description
Days	The lag time is expressed as work days.
Calendar Days	The lag time is expressed as calendar days, including weekends and holidays.
Percent	The lag time expressed as a percentage of estimated time to complete the predecessor task.
Day of Week	The dependant task can start on the day of the week following the completion of the predecessor task. Sunday = 1, Monday = 2,... Saturday = 7

In the Predecessors screen is a column labeled `Enforced' which contains a check box per row. If you check the box, then @task enforces the dependency. This means that the user who is assigned to do the dependant task, depending on the dependency type, cannot update the task status or complete the task until the predecessor task has fulfilled its requirement.

To add a task to a project

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

2. Click a project name.

3. In the Contextual Menu, click New Task.

4. Fill in the fields on the Task Details tab taking into account the following:

The URL must be absolute. If not, HTTP:// will be prepended.

The Planned Start and Planned Finish date fields are only available if you select a task constraint that requires them.

5. Fill in the fields on the Resources tab taking into account the following:

The Work Required field is only available if you set the Duration Type to Calculated Assignment.

If you set the Task Constraint to Fixed Dates in the Task Details tab, then you can set the Resource scope to Global. If you set this value to Global, then no other tasks will be assigned to the person who is completing this task during the dates that you set for the task.

You can set your audit trail attributes by checking the Recorded Changes values. If you enable recorded changes, changes made to the task are recorded as notes.

SeeSetting Up Audit Trails

You should assign one or more users to complete the task.

SeeManage Resources and Assign Tasks

SeeAssigning Resources to a Task

6. On the Approvals tab select the type of approval that you want for the task:

None - No approval for this task.

At Least One User - One person assigned as an approver must approve the task.

All Users - Every person assigned as an approver must approve the task.

Role-Based - A user in the selected role must approve the task.

7. On the Predecessors tab do the following:

Select the check box next to the name of any task that is a predecessor task to the task that you are creating. If you are adding the first task to a project, then you cannot assign any predecessor tasks.

When you check a task as a predecessor task, the dependency type, lag and enforcement fields appear.

The check box in the E column enforces the dependency.

To add cross-project dependencies, click the Blue Add icon (

) to create a new cross-project dependency.

Click the Search icon (

SeeUsing Inline Search Features

Use the Remove icon (

) to delete a cross-project dependency.

8. On the Custom Data tab, fill in all necessary fields. Custom data is data that is attached to tasks or other @task items using forms that people in your organization have created. If you are unsure as to how to fill in a custom data field, contact your system administrator or a member of your @task development group.

SeeAbout Creating Custom Data

Assigning Resources to a Task

You can assign resources to a task when you create the task or when you edit the task. The functionality for making user assignments is located under the Resources tab. In order to assign tasks to users, the users must first be added to the project that the task is associated with.

SeeAdding and Viewing Users Associated with a Project

In addition to assigning users to a task, you can assign a Job Role. When you assign tasks to a Job Role, any user in that Job Role can update the task status.

To edit a task

1. Open a project and view its tasks.

2. From the task list, click on the name of the task to open it.

3. In the Contextual Menu, click Edit Task.

4. Click on each tab and modify any field. For information about the fields, SeeCreating a Task.

N O T E : When you update tasks, you can update the status of the task.

SeeFinding and Updating Your Tasks

Editing Multiple Tasks Simultaneously

There may be times that you want to edit many tasks at the same time. For example, perhaps you have made a personnel change, and you need to change the name of the approver for all tasks assigned to a certain user. You can edit the approver for all tasks at one time so that you don't have to open each task individually to edit it. @task allows you to edit the following attributes of multiple tasks simultaneously:

Task status
Completion percentage
Job role assignments
User assignments
Task constraints and dates, with the exception of the Fixed Dates constraint
Approvers

SeeUnderstanding Task Attributes

Figure 4.3 displays an example of the edit screen for multiple tasks.