The Project Schedule page

Phases are containers that organize tasks and issues into groups. The groups can represent anything you choose: for example, periods of time, separate goals that must be met to complete the project, or tasks assigned to a specific team or resource.

The task category determines if phases are optional or required. If they are not required, you can create a project as a simple list of tasks. Or, you can set up multiple (up to 15) nested levels of phases to organize your tasks and issues.

Phases can overlap in time. Their position in the schedule table does not necessarily indicate a relationship in time. In order to view phases and their tasks and issues on a timeline, click the Gantt chart icon. Refer to The Gantt chart (timeline view).

In the schedule, phase rows that contain a task or another phase are shaded light gray. Each phase has a unique ID number that reflects the phase's position in the schedule display. Tasks and issues contained in the phase or sub-phase also have a unique ID number. It begins with the phase ID number followed by a decimal point. The numbering after the decimal point reflects the item's position within the phase.

The phase end date is inherited from the latest end date of the tasks within the phase. If the end date of a task within the phase is bumped to a date greater than the phase end date, the phase end date adjusts.

NOTE   Phases do not have a status assigned, but when all items contained in a phase are set to complete, the phase will display Complete in the schedule Status column.
A phase without any tasks cannot be set to Complete.

Two types of assignments appear on the schedule:

• Tasks are assigned to one or more internal resources or customer contacts. Internal resources can work on, complete, and enter time against a task. For client projects, resource time appears in approve and post for billing. Customer contacts can work on a task and complete the task if they have access to Client Portal.

• Issues are internal tasks that most often are not part of the original project schedule, but are added as the project progresses to handle unexpected needs. Frequently they are a high priority because they have the potential to derail the project.

Tasks and issues are identical, except for the following:

• On the project schedule, issues are identified by an issue icon. To display the issue icon , select the Issue column in the column chooser.

• On the Projects dashboard, a link to all your open issues is displayed.

• Issues can also be created by Client Portal users, whereas tasks cannot.

NOTE  We recommend that you use tasks for the majority of your project assignments. Reserve issues for tasks that require special attention, like unforeseen tasks, or tasks that have the potential to delay a project.

Tasks and issues can be at the project level or nested inside a phase or sub-phase. They can behave independently within the project, or have assigned interdependencies.

NOTE  Unless stated otherwise, "tasks" include both tasks and issues.

Each phase, task, and issue listed in the schedule has an ID number. The ID numbers use decimal places to indicate each item's position in the schedule and its relationship to the other schedule items. When you move a phase, task or issue in the schedule, the item's ID number updates to reflect the new position in the schedule.

ID numbers are independent of a schedule item's date. A high ID number does not necessarily indicate that the task is scheduled for a later date in the project.

To move items, slide dates for items, or add a new item below a specific item, you must select the item.

You can select any row in the schedule and drag it to a new place.

1. Click and hold the row's ID number.
2. When you see the four-pointed arrow, continue to hold the row as you drag it to the intended place.
3. Release the row.

The ID number of the items you move, along with items that follow them in the schedule, update automatically.

NOTE   Moving the position of an item in the schedule does not impact the start and end dates of any items.

The context menu and the bulk menu contain options to change a schedule item's hierarchy level by indenting or outdenting the item.

• Indenting (shift + ctrl + right arrow) moves the item to the right, one level down in the project outline
• Outdenting (shift + ctrl + left arrow) moves the item to the left, one level up in the project outline

The ID number adjusts to indicate the item's new position in the hierarchy.

When you indent a task or phase that is already at the lowest sub-level on this branch, the item in the row above becomes a sub-phase, and a copy of the task or phase is made and placed into the sub-phase.

Before the indent:

After the indent:

When you outdent a task or sub-phase, it loses the ID numbering from the phase above it. A phase or sub-phase is never created when you outdent a task.

The second column of each schedule row displays the context menu icon. Hover over the icon to open a menu of commands. Not all commands are available for each item type.

The ID column header displays a small down arrow that opens the bulk menu. The bulk menu provides commands to execute actions on multiple selected rows.

The Schedule has six required columns: Alert, Phase/Task/Issue, Start Date, End Date, Work Type, and Resource(s). Several dozen additional columns are available from the column chooser.

If you try to add tasks or issues with a task category that has additional required fields, you will get a message that you must add the columns to the schedule table. Click the Column Chooser icon and move the required column from the Available to the Selected Columns pane.

The Alert column displays a calendar icon in the row when changes to that item may interfere with predecessor dependencies, prevent a task from completing on time, or cause other variations from automatically calculated data.

EXAMPLE  A date has been manually adjusted, or a phase date was shifted, causing its sub items to shift. It can also indicate that the task is preventing another task from starting on time; for example, if a fixed duration task is a predecessor task, it is not complete, and the current date is after the item's end date.

An exclamation point icon on the calendar indicates one or more of the following more serious problems:

• The task may not be completed on time or is already overdue.
• A successor task was completed prior to its predecessor task.
• A manually entered value for % complete is different from system calculated value.
• The task has triggered more than one alert.

Click the icon to open the alert message page. You will see one or more messages that describe the condition that triggered the alert.

For most alerts, the message offers an option to correct or improve the condition. You can click to implement the option or close the alert without taking action.

To display a milestone icon to easily identify each phase associated with a milestone in the project schedule, select the Milestone column in the column chooser.

For additional information, refer to Manage associated contract milestones.