Id/Outline Number

These are automatically assigned as a unique identifier for the task and indication of its position within the structure.

Parents

If the task has a parent task, this is shown.

Description

You can enter multiple lines of text to describe what the task entails. Input is not mandatory but will identify the task so that the correct one can be selected. The description appears on all tabs and can be input at each one.

Confirmed

Check the box if the task is confirmed, indicating that it is to go ahead and that resources are to be assigned and work undertaken. Uncheck if a provisional entry so that resource requirements can be predicted and estimates of costs and charges obtained.

NOTE:
This setting does not impose any restrictions on the way a task is processed. It is simply an indication of the task’s status.

You cannot change the status to provisional if there are already confirmed assignments — you must make these provisional first. However, a confirmed task can have provisional assignments.

Project

You must identify the project for which the task is to be undertaken. Enter the code of the project or click Select and choose the project.

Milestone

Set the check box on if this is a milestone task. Such entries may not be actual tasks but are major events that are used to monitor the project’s progress.

A milestone task may or may not have any work carried out although it may have a resource assigned. Its main purpose is to set a delivery date when the project is due to reach a specified stage. This stage is indicated by a diamond symbol within project charts.

Deliverable Project/
Deliverable

Select a deliverable associated with it. This can be either provisional or confirmed. You can select a different project to link the task or milestone to a deliverable in a different project.

Start/Finish/ Delivery Date/Time

For a milestone task you must indicate when completion of the stage is due. In the case of all other tasks you will determine the earliest and latest dates that resources can be allocated to work on the tasks.

The input of dates is mandatory but times are only needed if you wish to be precise about the earliest and latest times that the work has to be done (for example, a scarce resource may need to be scheduled by the hour or a delivery or collection may be set for a particular time).

Refer to Entering Data  for information about entering or selecting dates and times.

NOTE:
Depending on project settings, you may not be able to change these dates so that a task starts after any of its assignments or is due to finish before the end date of assignments. In these cases you must reschedule the assignments first.

If you alter the overall length of the task, press the Recalculate Days button to recalculate the number of days.

Minimum Resources

The availability of this entry depends on Planning Settings. It defaults to 1 but you can change it if more resources are required to complete the task between the specified dates. The number is used when calculating the number of days allowed for the task, by multiplying the number of resources by the available days.

Effort

This is the number of days required to complete the task and so is the maximum number for which resources can be assigned. Depending on Planning Settings, this value may be automatically set to the duration for a new task. If so, it can be changed and will generally exceed the length of the task since multiple resources will be involved.

You can change the required number of days by typing in a different value or by pressing the Recalculate Days button. This calculates the days as:

Number of available days (days between start and finish date
– non-working days)
× minimum number of resources

Before recalculating the days you may therefore:

•      adjust the non-working days set on the System Calendar (through Administration routines)

•      change the minimum number of resources at the General tab (this defaults to one for a new task).

These values are then taken into account by the calculation.

NOTE:
You cannot change the number of days to less than the total of those already assigned to the task.

Actual Effort

This entry indicates the number of days of work recorded so far against the task and is not maintained here. Input is through timesheet entry when recording time worked for the task.

NOTE:
For the Actual Work value to be updated, you must choose to record work against tasks for the project. This is defined through the Planning tab for Project maintenance.

Percent Complete

You may update this percentage as the task proceeds to indicate its progress. Set to 100 when fully compete, providing this is not automatic for the project when all assignments are complete. This will generally occur when all the task’s assignments are 100% complete.

You can update this percentage here, through the Project Review routine or during timesheet entry . It is used in the “Project Progress” report.

Date Completed

only applies when recorded for tasks and assignments. If so, the date is set to the current date when the task becomes 100% complete.

NOTE:
The preceding two entries do not appear when editing a direct scheduling task, which is system-generated from an assignment.

Constraint Type

Determine if there are constraints on when the task has to start or finish. If you set a constraint, enter the required date.