Task MOD0099CA

Information

• The Task module is a type of task data sheet.
• It allows you to get an overview of all important data of a selected task. If you have the respective authorizations, you can also edit this data.

Authorizations

• Users with multi-project manager or multi-portfolio manager or multi-project/request manager rights and the managers of the respective project are allowed to edit task data.
• Persons who do not have write rights but who are assigned to the task as resources can record or edit some data, e.g.
  • task description
  • Documents
  • Todo Items

Access

• Project, Proposal → Schedule → Click on the link on the ID of the required task or select the Edit task → Task context menu command
• Project, Proposal panel → WBS → Click on the link on the ID/WBS code of the required task or select the Edit task → Task context menu command
• Project, Proposal → Progress → Click on the link on the ID of the required task or select the the Edit task → Task context menu command
• Program panel → Schedule → Click on the link on the ID of the required task → Task
• Employee → Own Planning → Employee Board → My Activities → expand the required status area → Click on the link in the Task name field in the Task name category or select the Edit task → Task context menu command

Module Variants

Task Header Data

Define a Person Responsible for the Task

Information

• At the top of the module you can define a person responsible for a task in the Person responsible for task field.
• If a resource is defined as a person responsible for a task, this task is displayed in the Tasks area of the My Planning Objects module in the Employee Board of the resource.

Lock Task

Procedure

• Tasks can be locked against the recording of hours worked, expenses, km, etc. by activating the Lock task checkbox.

Note

• If the recording of hours worked is prevented at project level via the Locked code in the Project Core Data module, this lock cannot be canceled via the Task locked code.

Define Task as a Milestone/Master Milestone

Procedure

• In the Milestone field, tasks can be defined as milestones or master milestones (gates).
  • If a task was defined as a milestone or master milestone, you must consider some peculiarities when you plan it (duration, requested dates). For further information, see here.

Change Note/Estimate Flag

Information

• The project manager can evaluate or estimate each task of the schedule and visualize this by using different symbols.

Procedure

• Click on the » arrow button repeatedly until the required symbol is displayed.

Details

• For new tasks for which there were no notes or estimates before, no symbols are displayed initially.

Descriptive Data

Information

• The Descriptive data area contains two continuous text fields for a detailed description of the task or of the requirements necessary for the completion of the task

Effort/Costs/Dates

Information

• In the Effort/costs/dates area, further parameters of the task can be edited, e.g. remaining duration or requested dates, etc.
• In addition, effort and cost data is displayed..

Task Dates

Information

• In the task data sheet you can specify planned dates and enter actual dates of the task manually if they have not been calculated from the resource working time recording before.
• The calculated dates are only displayed here since they are calculated automatically. However, the calculation cannot be made in the task data sheet but only for the entire schedule of a project, i.e. for all tasks, in the Schedule module.

Procedure

• Enter Requested start and Requested end in the respective fields or define the Remaining duration to terminate the task.
• Enter Actual start manually if the task has already started but no resource hours have been recorded to the task yet.
• If you want to end the task, you have to fill the Actual end field.

Monitor Progress

Information

• If the current project is already running, you can monitor the degree of completion (Progress) of the task based on the values in the Used (Effort used in %, Costs used in %) and Completed (Functionally completed in %) fields in the Effort/Costs/Dates area.

Parameters Relevant for Scheduling

Information

• In the Parameters relevant for scheduling area you can edit the Planning early, Hammock task, Fixing, and Split parameters.
• These parameters influence the scheduling result and can also be edited in the Schedule module in the Entire schedule module variant.

Resources

Information

• Resources are responsible for the completion of tasks.
• They are assigned (allocated) to individual tasks.
• Resources must have been created before as part of the Master Data Entry.
• Which resources (individual employees, entire departments, or machines) can be assigned to the tasks depends on several factors, e.g. planning horizon, project type, etc.
• PLANTA poject distinguishes between resources, which comprise persons, departments, and skills and the effort of which is planned in time units, and revenue and cost resources the effort of which is planned in monetary units.

  Assign several resources to a task at once

• Click on the icon with the symbol next to the Resources heading.
• Click on the required button in the displayed dialog, depending on the type of the resources to be inserted: Persons, Departments, and Skill Resources or Revenue and Cost Resources.
• The Assign Resources dialog module is opened.
  • Depending on which button you have clicked on before, resources of the respective type will be loaded automatically when the dialog module is opened, i.e. either person, department, and skill resources or revenue and cost resources. In order to have resources of the other type displayed, click on the corresponding button.
    • Select the required resources from the list by activating the Select checkbox.
    • Click on the Assign selected objects button.
    The records of the selected resource are now assigned to the task.

Assign individual resources to a task

• Right-click on the Resources area heading to open the context menu and select the Insert → Resource assignment or Revenue and cost resources context menu command.
  • Select the required resource from the listbox on the Resource field in the new resource record.
  • Define the required resource parameters.
    • When the resource was assigned to the task, several parameters have already been filled with default settings from the Resource Data Sheet (e.g. Load profile, Cost type). They can then be changed manually here.
    • Caution: If you change the default values for one of the resources assigned to the task and then copy this resource assignment to one of the further tasks, previously changed settings will be included instead of the default settings of the resource.

Notes

• Resources can also be assigned to the tasks in the Schedule and Resource Plan modules.
• If the schedule was recalculated after resource assignment, load records will be displayed below the resource as well.

Display Resource Utilization in Other Projects

Information

• To have the utilization of the resources assigned to the task displayed in other projects,
  • right-click on the required resource and
  • Select the Show utilization context menu command. By doing so you switch to the Utilization with Cause module where the utilization of the corresponding resource is displayed.

PLANTA pulse

Information

• In this area, a widget with the PLANTA pulse cards is displayed for the selected task if the task has been synchronized with PLANTA pulse.
• Furthermore the area contains information on the degree of completion of the respective PLANTA pulse cards.

Notes

• This area only exists if the PLANTA pulse entry (PLANTA Hybrid) has been selected in the External system field in the Project Core Data of the project.
• In order to be able to consult the data, the user must be logged-in to PLANTA pulse and be a member of the respective board.

Details

• In the upper part of the area, the number of all cards of the board as well as the number and share of all pending, overdue (due date lies in the past) and completed cards is displayed.
• Below, you will find a widget with the cards from PLANTA pulse.
• In the header area of the table, the information of the corresponding PLANTA pulse board is listed.
  • You can open the list of all members by clicking on a board member.
    • By clicking on next to a member you can filter by cards to which this very member is assigned. 
  • Completed cards can be displayed if necessary.
    • Completed cards are hidden by default.
  • Overdue cards can be displayed exclusively if necessary.
• In the table, cards are listed with the following data:
  • Card (name)
  • List
  • Swimlane (if available)
  • Members
  • Labels
  • Status
    • "OK" means that the card has been set to "Completed". Cards which have not yet been completed are referred to as "Pending". Further information
  • start
  • Due
  • Created by
• You can sort the results by the respective column by clicking on the headings.
• You can create new cards by clicking on the .
• You can open the board directly in PLANTA pulse by clicking on the button in the lower left corner.

Notes/Documents

Information

• PLANTA project does not include any text processing facilities comparable to standard programs such as Microsoft Word. However, for certain objects (e.g. project documents, task documents, resource notes) it is possible to enter and manage a text in the continuous fields.

Procedure

• Click on the plus symbol next to the area heading.
  • Insert the required text to the document
    • in the Note field in the new task document record.
    • Create a link to a file (a document) in the Linked file field if necessary.

Todo Items

Information

• In the Task module you can define small open items for the selected task and assign them to the required users (resources) for completion.
• All todo items of a project are maintained centrally in the Todo Items module.

Procedure

• Click on the plus symbol next to the area heading.
  • A todo item line will be inserted.
  • Enter the name of the todo item in the Todo item name field.
  • Save.
    • As a result, the ID number (Todo item field) of the todo item is generated automatically.
    • The Created on / Created by: name of the todo item are automatically filled with the current date and the current user.
    • Fill the required fields, e.g. the date up to which the todo item is to be completed (when a todo item is created, today’s date is automatically entered here), resource which is to complete the todo item, etc.
  • Save.

Links

Information

• Links represent dependencies between tasks of a project and have an impact on the calculation of the project dates.
• For a description of further options for mapping dependencies, please click here. 

Create a link between the selected task and another task

• Click on the plus symbol next to the area heading.
  • Fill the following fields in the new link record:
    • Task successor
    • Link type (here, the Link type = "FS" is preset by default).
    • Time interval (if required).
  • Save and click on the Calculate schedule button in the toolbar to recalculate the schedule.

External Links

Information

• In the External links area, the external links of the task are displayed and can be edited.
  • Cross-project (external) links connect the tasks of different projects.
  • They work in the same way as links within a project. You can define any type of link (SS, FS, SF, FF), time intervals, as well as fixed and soft links.

Details

• Both incoming and outgoing external links will be displayed. However, only outgoing links can be created and edited.

Create Internal Links

• Click on the plus symbol next to the area heading.
  • In the new record, insert
    • the target project in the PR successor field for a new external link and select the target task in the Task field.
      • ThePR successor field is preset with the ID of the opened project by default.