Project Tasks

Time and expenses can be charged at either the project or task level in Unanet.  User assignments and plans can also be associated at either the project or task level.  Like projects, tasks can have their own effective dates, budgets, etc.  The use of tasks is optional on a project by project basis.

Project Managers and Project Leads can manage task data.

The Tasks menu has a number of sub-menu options used to manage task information for a particular project.  The Task menu is accessible via the Project Profile left menu as well as the task icon on the Project List.

Note that even though Unanet supports a task hierarchy, all tasks are essentially independent of one another, that is, there is no automatic roll-up of budget information or date constraints between parent and children tasks.  Actuals can be charged at any level of the task hierarchy (ie not just leaf level tasks, so long as the tasks are active).

Note that the system enforces unique task names at the same level within a branch of the work breakdown structure.

Topics covered on this help page include:


Example Task Search screen:

When you click on Tasks in the menu, the task Search screen is displayed.  From this screen, you can specify what tasks and task attributes you would like included in the resulting list of tasks.

Note that whether the Search or List tab is displayed when clicking on the Task menu item, is controlled by the unanet.task_list.search_enable.limit property. This property can be configured to provide a threshold value, such that for smaller task lists, the List tab is automatically displayed, and for larger task lists, the Search tab will be displayed.

Field Descriptions (click on a link below for additional information):

 

 


Listing Tasks

The filtered (or complete) list of tasks will resemble the following example:

Field Descriptions (click on a link below for additional information):

 

  

Note that you can edit all or delete all tasks using the () or () icons.

Note: the unanet.task.sort.order.by_sequence can be used to influence the sort order of tasks on various drop down lists and reports throughout Unanet.


Edit Individual Task

You can edit all of the attributes of an individual task by clicking on the edit pencil icon in the task list.  When doing so, you'll be presented with a set of tabbed screens resembling the following.

Additional Fields (click on a link below for additional information)

 

 

 

Additional Fields (click on a link below for additional information)

 

 

 

Note that a users ability to view and manipulate bill or cost related fields is governed by each users Cost Rate and Bill Rate Manager role assignments.

Additional Fields (click on a link below for additional information)

 

 

  • Status

  • Output

  • Task UDFs -- Additional User Defined Fields will only be available if the Task User Defined Fields are configured to be displayed in the user interface.  The UDF fields on this tab allow for various types of input depending on how they have been configured by the administrator, and are not visible on any other screens within Unanet (though they are available for export and on the ad-hoc reports).

 


Edit All Tasks

You can edit all tasks by clicking on the edit all icon .  The fields available for editing are determined by the Column Options on the Search tab.  When making changes to the displayed fields, other fields not included in the display will not have their previously saved values modified.

Possible Fields (click on a link below for additional information)

 

 

 

Note that a users ability to view and manipulate bill or cost related fields is governed by each users Cost Rate and Bill Rate Manager role assignments in conjunction with the unasource.allow_bill_rate_edit and unasource.allow_cost_rate_edit properties.

Note: The Task entity has 10 user defined fields that can be activated if additional fields are required.  The screen shot above includes several task user defined fields.

 

Summarized from Assignments

The fields available in this section include Hours and Estimates to Completion details.  These values are displayed on the task list, but include values that have been summarized from assignments associated with each task.  The definition of what is available in each field is included as hint text at the bottom of the task listing.

These fields are only available when the unatime.etc_collection.enabled property has been enabled.

See ETC Wizard for more information about managing ETCs.


Task Import

The task import feature provides the project manager with the ability to load a list of tasks into Unanet.  The file must be in the current Task Import csv layout.  Supply the name of the file to be imported and click on the import button.

Warning and error messages are written to the screen.  See the Task Import help page for more information about importing tasks.


Task Export

The task export feature provides the project manager with the ability to save a csv formatted file containing information about all tasks on the current project.  The layout of this output file will match the current Task Import layout.

This feature may be useful if you would like to manipulate the task work breakdown structure via an excel spreadsheet for example, or possibly create a similar task list for another project from this project's list of tasks.  In these scenarios, the project manager could export the task list, make any desired changes via a spreadsheet and then import the modified file using the Task Import feature (described above).

Permission Note:  When run by a non-administrative user from the Project Profile, a users ability to export bill or cost related fields is governed by each users Cost Rate and Bill Rate Manager role..  Bill and Cost related fields will be empty if the user does not have the corresponding role.


Copy Tasks (from another project)

If you are setting up a new project, and would like to copy a task work breakdown structure from another project, use the copy task feature.  This may be particularly useful if you have a standard project / task template that you use for many projects.  

Use the filter to select the Project that you want to copy tasks from and specify other task attributes that you would like to copy as well. All the tasks from that project will be appended to your current project's task list (that is -- if any tasks already exist in your current task list, they will remain and the set of new tasks will be appended to the end).  

If you do not copy the Task's 'Active' indicator from the target project, the task will be established as 'Active'.

Note that several bill or cost related options in the Budget group will conditionally appear based on the current users Cost Rate and Bill Rate Manager role.  

Note that the Billing Type option may be disabled if the current project's project level Billing Type is either CP, NB or not specified.  As such, no task level Billing Type override values will be copied to the current project during this operation.


Task Date Dependencies

Tasks can be defined in Unanet with either an explicitly entered date or a date dependency relationship between tasks.  Establishing a date dependency will allow for changes to a task's dates to automatically recalculate those dates of dependent tasks.  

Note that this may be particularly useful when used in conjunction with linking Assignments and Plans to Task Date, such that moving a task date will not only recalculate dependent task dates but also associated (linked) People Assignments, People Plans, Expense Budgets and Expense Plans.

To enter Dependency information for a task, click on the predecessor icon ( ) available on the Task List and a screen resembling the following will be presented.  Using this screen you can define which task the current task is to be dependent upon, as well as establishing the type of dependency relationship and any lag or lead value.  Multiple dependency relationships may be defined for a single task by clicking on the add row icon.

Additional Fields (click on a link below for additional information)

 

 

  • Task

  • Type

  • Lag  (enter a positive {lag} or negative {lead} value)

 

Dependencies for Current Task

When editing an individual Task, you can click on the Task Dependencies icon (  ) to see a popup report showing the predecessors and successors for the current task.  This screen will resemble the following:

 

Dependencies for All Tasks

To view a complete list of all predecessor and successor information for all tasks on a project, click on the Dependencies left menu option on the Project Profile screen, which will produce a report resembling the following:

 

Task Dependency information must be entered via the Unanet user interface (or imported via MS Project).  The Task Import will allow for the import of task dates and duration information, however, the dependency relationships must be maintained via the Unanet user interface.


 

Related Topics