Editing the Task Schedule

Project Leads and task assignees can update important status information about tasks in their task schedule. Use this procedure to edit information about tasks that you manage. For tasks that are assigned to you, it is easier to use the Edit Tasks page. See Indicating Progress in Completing a Task. To edit a task assigned to you, view your tasks; see Working with Tasks Assigned to You. If you are a Project Lead for the project or project concept, view the project schedule.

  1. On the page toolbar, click Enable Edit .

    The schedule becomes editable. For a description of the fields, see Working the Structured View.

  2. To copy and paste a task, select the task to be copied and click Edit > Copy. Then select another task for which the copied task will be copied above or as a child. Accordingly, click Edit > Paste as Child or Edit > Paste Above.

    Copied tasks in any state will be pasted in the "Draft" state only and the constraint type of the copied task will be same as that of the project.

    Note: Unless you save a cut/copied action, the cut or paste action will happen to the original task that was cut or copied.

    The following task information is copied:

    • Estimated Duration (These dates will be recalculated based on the constraints and dependencies applied to tasks.)
    • Task Deliverables .
    • Calendar, if it exists.
    • When a summary task is copied to another location in the schedule, its children tasks are also copied.
    • The task owner is the person who has created/copied the task.
    • If a task is copied, the assignees will not be copied from the original task to the newly copied task.
    • The name of the new task is identical to the name of the task that is copied.

    If the constraint type of the task where you are pasting the new task is "Finish No Later Than" or "Start No Earlier Than," then the estimated start and estimated end dates of the copied task are determined by the task under which you are copying the task.

    If the constraint type of the task where you are copying the new task is "Finish No Earlier Than," "Must Finish On," "Must Start On," "As Soon As Possible," "As Late As Possible," or "Start No Later Than," then it will be changed to the project's default constraint type, and the estimated start and estimated end dates of the copied task are determined by the project's start or end dates.

  3. Make changes to the State, % Complete, Start Date, End Date, Duration, Dependency, Project Role, and Owner as required. The Type for a task cannot be changed when the task is Active or beyond. The Type for a summary task can be changed to Task or Phase. For a summary task, the columns "State," "% Complete," "Estimated Duration," "Estimated Start Date," "Estimated Finish Date," "Actual Start Date," and "Actual End Date" are not editable. Upon saving a sub task created below the summary task, the summary task will have its Actual Start Date updated based upon the sub task's Actual Start Date.

    You can edit dates using the Calendar icon to choose the date. The calendar shows standard nonworking days (Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays); all the nonworking days in the user-defined calendar are shown in yellow color.

    You can change the estimated start date and end date of a task if you are the Project Lead or owner or if you are an Assignee (and not the task owner). If the project is scheduled from the end date, the project start date should not be changed. Note that duration must be manually changed, if required.

    Changes to each of these fields can result in changes to other fields on the page. In addition, there are restrictions on the kinds of changes you can make. For a description of the rules for making changes to these fields, see Rules for Task Fields. Two important guidelines to keep in mind are:

    • The best way to update the status of a task is for the assignee (the person doing the work for the task) to update the % complete on a regular and frequent basis, such as daily. For instructions on how assignees make these updates, see Indicating Progress in Completing a Task.
    • To directly change the status , click inside the status cell and select a status from the list.
    • When changing the Duration for a task, click inside the duration cell and enter the updated value, followed by a space and then d or D for days or H or h for hours. For example, "15 d." If you omit the d/h, the default is days.
      Note: You cannot change the duration of a summary task.
    • The % complete, durations, dependencies, and start and end dates for a subtask roll up to its parent task and then to the project. Therefore, it's best to update the lowest level subtask and allow the changes to roll up to higher-level tasks.

    When scheduling from the project finish date, you cannot change a task's end date to a value that would cause the project's end date to extend out. The finish date of the project can be extended even if the project is in Active state to allow project managers to manage projects that exceed deadlines due to unavoidable reasons.

    • The Start or End Date is calculated according to the events (nonworking days) defined in the calendar of the owner of the task. If the calendar to which a person is associated is changed, and if that person is the owner of a task, then the Start or End Date will get changed based on the events of the changed calendar.

  4. To assign a task, select it, and click Assign Selected from the Actions menu. You then select the assignees for the task.
  5. To view deliverables for tasks, select one or more tasks. Then click Deliverables Report from the Actions menu. See Deliverables Report.