Working the Flattened View

You can see a flat view of all tasks in a project, experiment, project concept, or project template.

The flattened view lists sub-projects of a root project and opens in a new tab, once clicked.

Before you begin: View the project schedule.
  1. In the navigation pane for a project, click Schedule > Flattened View.

    Name. The name of the task. You can hover over the name to see its description.

    Type. This could be Task, Phase, Gate, or Milestone. The type is Task for all tasks and subtasks. Your system may be set up with additional task types.

    Id. An integer that identifies task dependencies. Unlike the task number, the ID does not represent the task's level in the hierarchy. Because it is an integer, the ID is a more concise way to identify the tasks.

    Level. The task's order in the hierarchy. Integers represent top-level tasks. Second-level tasks have one decimal, third level tasks have two decimals, and so on. A critical task (one that cannot be delayed without affecting the project finish date) is identified by .

    Parent. The parent task, if it exists. The parent task has a link.

    Predecessor. Lists any dependencies defined for the task. Dependency abbreviation uses this convention: 

    Task ID: [Dependency Type] [Number of Slack Days, if any]

    Multiple dependencies have with a comma separator.

    Successor. If the project is scheduled from the Finish Date, then successors drive predecessors.

    State. A task can be in one of the following states.

    • Draft. The task has been created and an assignee specified. When a Project Lead is ready for work to begin on a task, the Lead promotes it to To Do.
    • To Do. The system notifies assignees.
    • In Work. The assignees have begun work on the task. The system automatically promotes a task to In Work when the % Complete is changed from 0% to any percentage less than 100.
    • In Approval. Project members are reviewing and approving the task and its deliverables. When 100% is entered for % Complete, the system automatically promotes the task to In Approval. Typically, an assignee creates a route to have route members review the task.
    • Completed. The task is completed. The system automatically promotes a task to Completed when an assignee or Project Lead enters an Actual Finish Date.

    Estimated

    Duration / Start Date / End Date. The dates on which the task is expected to start and end. The duration is the number of days (d) or hours (h) between the start and end dates.

    Note: If in project preferences the project duration has been changed from "Days" to "Hours," in the task structure the hours appear only in the Project row for the Estimated Duration and not for all tasks.

    Constraint Type. The type of constraint for this task, which specifies when the task should be completed within the project.

    Values can be "As Late as Possible," "As Soon as Possible," "Start No Earlier Than," "Finish No Earlier Than," "Start No Later Than," "Finish No Later Than," "Must Finish On," or "Must Start On."

    Constraint Date. Constraint Types other than "As Soon as Possible" or "As Late as Possible" have a constraint date.

    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.

  2. To quickly create new tasks (tasks, gates, milestones, phases), use the "Quick Task Creation toolbar:"



    The "Quick Task Creation toolbar" is not available for the mobile app.

    1. Click the task in the schedule for which you want to add another task above.
    2. Select the Type of task (Gate, Milestone, Phase, Change Task, Task) you want to add.
    3. Select the number of tasks in the No field.
    4. Click to insert the tasks above.
  3. To delete tasks, select one or more tasks and click .
  4. Navigate the view using the controls in the lower-right corner:

    The display shows the number of objects in the project. You can select to view another page, move to the previous or next page, or turn off the pagination controls.