Experiment Structure

The structure of an experiment shows its hierarchy of tasks and sub projects. It can also show a comparison between projects if you select a comparison on the Experiments tab. If the comparison is between two experiments, Project Leads can sync between the experiments without affecting the root project.

On the Projects page, click the name of a project. See Projects Page. In the navigation pane, click Experiments. Then click the Structure tab.

To see the structure comparison of two projects, click Compare Schedule on the toolbar of the Experiments tab.

A confirmation message displays asking if you want to compare and sync assignees. Click OK to display an Assignee column in the comparison and syncing. Clicking Cancel does not display the Assignee column.

Different actions are available on the Structure tab: If you select a schedule comparison for two experiments, then sync icons are available for syncing tasks from the project on the left side to the project on the right side, and vice versa. If you select the experiment or root project hyperlink, the corresponding task structure is displayed in the Structure tab and only actions for working with the structure are available.

If you compare two experiments, the tasks displayed are based on matching the names of the tasks between the two experiments. If an experiment is connected to an issue, the sync icon is not available to sync changes to that experiment.

For a sync, these values are synced: name, ID, dependency, constraint type and date, duration, estimated (duration, start and end dates), description, and calendar. When an experiment task has a calendar but the project task does not, a sync from an experiment to a project overwrites project task values with the experiment task values, and vice versa. When an experiment task does not have a calendar but the project task does: a sync from the experiment to a project disconnects the calendar and overwrites the values of the project task with the experiment task, and vice versa. The calendar behavior is also applicable for syncing an experiment to another experiment.

Calendar behavior when for syncing an experiment to another experiment if an experiment task has only one assignee and that assignee has a location-based calendar. You may choose not to include an assignee in the comparison and syncing. After syncing, the estimated dates of the target task from the source task may change.

When syncing, there is no check for validating whether an assignee is active or inactive.

If baselines display in the Baselines tab, the Structure tab displays the current baseline’s task structure. In the case of no baselines, the project’s task structure is displayed in the Structure tab.

All business rules for a project task are applicable for experiment tasks, except that you cannot modify the Type and State fields.

This page discusses:

Fields
Toolbar Commands - Normal View
Toolbar Commands - Comparison

Fields

Columns that are not used in a comparison have their column headings faded-out.


Field Name	Description
Name	The name of the project or task.
Primary Task	Indicates a primary task.
Type	The type of object. Not editable if you opened the project task schedule in the structure page.
Id	The object ID.
Predecessor	The task dependency.
Constraint Type	The type of constraint for this task, which specifies when the task completes within the project.
Constraint Date	Constraint Types other than "As Soon as Possible" or "As Late as Possible" have a constraint date.
Estimated Duration	The duration estimate for the task, which is expressed in days or hours.
Estimated Start Date	The start date of the estimated duration.
Estimated End Date	The end date of the estimated duration.
Float / Total / Free	Total float is the amount of time that the task can be delayed without delaying the project. Total Float = LS (Late Start) – ES (Early Start). It is also calculated by LF (Late Finish) – EF (Early Finish). Free float is the amount of time that a task can be delayed without delaying the early start date of a successor task or violating a schedule constraint. Free Float = Lowest ES (Early Start) of successors – EF (Early Finish) of the task.
Critical Task	Indicates whether a task is critical.
Assignee	The full names, separated by commas, for the assignees.
Description	The description of the object.

Toolbar Commands - Normal View

These commands displays when you select an experiment and do not select a comparison.


Actions	Description
Create Task	Creates a new task for the selected experiment.
Add/Copy	A menu has these options: Add project Above Adds the selected project above the selected task. If you select a task from the experiment schedule, it is added as an experiment of the selected project. Add Sub Project Adds the selected project below the selected task. If you select a task from the experiment schedule, it is added as an experiment of the selected project. Copy From Project Copies the entire schedule for the selected project. Copy From File Copies a schedule from an ASCII file.
Copy	You can copy tasks when in Edit mode. The menu has these options: Copy Copies the selected tasks. Cut Cuts the selected tasks. Paste Above Pastes the tasks above the selected task. Paste as Child Pastes the tasks below the selected task. Undo Undoes the last action performed.
Assign User	Opens 6WTags where you can search and assign people to the selected task.
Add/Remove Dependency	Adds or removes a selected dependency.
Indent Left	Indents one or more selected tasks or projects one level to the left.
Indent Right	Indents the selected tasks or projects one level to the right.
Move Up	Moves a single selected task or project one level up. You can move a task up/down only within its parent object.
Move Down	Moves a single selected task or project one level down. You can move a task up/down only within its parent object.
Link Tasks	Links the selected tasks.
Calculate Float and Critical Path	Calculate float values and the overall critical path.
Delete/Remove	Deletes the selected object, except for an experiment or project. Disconnects the project/experiment from the root project/experiment.
Edit	Enables inline editing.
Expand All	Expands the project and task structure to all levels.
Expand to Level	Expands the selected node to the number of levels you indicate. For example, selecting a task and expanding that task to "2" shows two levels for that task. The default level is "1." Note: You can also use "+" and "-" to expand and collapse the structure.

Toolbar Commands - Comparison

These commands display after you request a comparison on the Experiments tab.


Toolbar Commands	Description
Sync to Left	Syncs tasks having the same name from the experiment in the right side to the experiment in the left side. If a new row is created in the sync its font becomes green. If a blank row is synced, the row it replaces has strikeout text in red. Note: If the experiment in the left side is connected to an issue, the Sync to Left icon does not appear in the toolbar. When a sync is done on summary objects: An add operation only adds a synced task. When deleting a summary task, the delete markup applies to all child objects. External dependencies on a task are not synced, unlike other attributes. Before you perform a sync operation, make sure you select the rows that you want to sync.
Sync to Right	Syncs tasks having the same name from the experiment in the left side to the experiment in the right side. If a new row is created in the sync its font becomes green. If a blank row is synced, the row it replaces has strikeout text in red. Note: If the experiment in the right side is connected to an issue, the Sync to Right icon does not appear in the toolbar. When a sync is done on summary objects: An add operation only adds a synced task. When deleting a summary task, the delete markup applies to all child objects. External dependencies on a task are not synced, unlike other attributes. Before you perform a sync operation, make sure you select the rows that you want to sync.
Move First	Moves to the first row of differences. The row is highlighted in green.
Move Next	Moves to the next row of differences and highlights that row in green. By default, it starts from the top. If you select a row and click Move Next, it starts from the selected row; otherwise from the top. If you select multiple rows at a time and click Move Next, it starts from the last of the selected rows. If you navigate the structure using Move Next, scrolling up/down and again clicking Move Next, it starts from where it stopped previously. Note: Scrolling does not affect Move Next.
Move Previous	Moves to the previous row of differences and highlights that row in green. By default, it starts from the bottom. If you select a row and click Move Previous, it starts from the selected row; otherwise from the bottom. If you select multiple rows at a time and click Move Previous, it starts from the last of the selected rows. If you navigate the structure using Move Previous, scrolling up/down and again clicking Move Previous, it starts from where it stopped previously. Note: Scrolling does not affect Move Previous.
Move Last	Moves to the last row of differences. The row is highlighted in green.
Show Diff. Only / Show All	Show Diff Only displays only modified rows, which are shown in a flat (non-hierarchical) structure. Because you cannot expand the structure in this view, an additional first column displays that indicates the actual level of the task or row within its hierarchy. Show All redisplays the initial structure. To switch the views, click inside the box.