Set up project and task management

Configure working times, calendars and time zones for project and task management. Enable the automatic update of the Project Editor.

Prerequisites

The configurations explained in this article are carried out in censhare Web and the censhare Admin Client. You need the respective administrator permissions and root domain access.

Introduction

Project and task management is an integral part of censhare and works out of the box. The respective assets - Projects and Tasks - are available in the censhare standard configuration. They rely on different resources like time zones, working times and availability calendars. Tasks are assigned to users and workflows. Users on their part can be assigned to a department or team, which allows for planning and monitoring the team workload. Thus, Task assets can be viewed and edited in different contexts such as project, process, department or user. This requires a proper setup of the resources like calendars, time zones and teams.

The following resources are used for project and task management. Most of them have a default configuration. Some of them are optional.

Enable project planning automation

The module Project planning automation triggers the recalculation of tasks in the Project editor timeline. Whenever you edit dates, times or durations of a task, the module checks if the task is assigned to a project. It then sends the updated properties to the Project editor. In the timeline, the task representation is adjusted accordingly. The timeline is the visual planning board for projects. censhare also detects conflicts with other dependent tasks (predecessors or successors) and generates the respective warnings in the Project editor.

The Project planning automation is disabled by default. To enable it to carry out the following steps in the censhare Admin Client:

1. Log in to the censhare Admin-Client and go to the directory Configuration/Modules/Project planning automation.

2. Open the "Project planning automation" configuration file.

3. Check the field Enabled.

4. Click OK to save the configuration. Your custom configuration is now shown in the "Project planning automation" directory.

5. Click the button "Update server configuration" at the top of the window and - if needed - the button Synchronize remote servers. The Project planning automation is now running on your server(s).

Task automation

The task automation module ensures setting the completion and times when a user edits one of these parameters in a task. The module is configured and enabled in the censhare standard configuration. However, you can add additional asset events or define time or cron events if you want the task automation module to be triggered by them. By default, the task automation module listens to the events "Create asset" and "Save and close". That means, that every time a new task is created or a task is saved and closed, censhare will recalculate the times and durations.

Proceed as follows:

1. Open the censhare Admin Client and go to the directory Configurations/Modules/Task Automation.

2. Double click the default configuration Task automation setup.

3. In the General setup section, you can select a dedicated server for the custom configuration. If you want to use your configuration on all servers, do not change anything here.

4. Important:  Do not remove the Asset events in the Trigger events section! These settings ensure the mutual adjustment of completion state and times every time a task is created or saved. You can add more events if you want the calculation to be triggered by them. Additionally, you can add a time or cron event in order to execute the calculation periodically.

5. In the Send new asset events section, you define which events are created after the calculation has been executed successfully or has been skipped or failed. Currently, only the "Task calculation completed" event is configured. This event indicates that the calculation was successful. Do not change anything here.

6. Save your custom configuration by clicking OK. The custom configuration is now shown in the Configurations/Modules/Task Automation directory.

7. Update the server configuration and - if necessary - synchronize the remote servers as well.

8. The configuration is now available in your system.

Working times

Planned durations and working times in tasks and projects can be entered in hours, days, weeks and months. censhare automatically converts the entered value in hours. This is the so-called base unit. For that purpose, it uses the conversion rates defined in Master data/Units. For more information, see Defining working times.

Time zones

You can configure a default time zone and project-specific time zones. The default time zone is configured in the System asset and used if no other time zone is defined for a project. Project-specific time zones can be defined in each project asset individually. 

To configure a default time zone, do the following:

1. In censhare Web, open the System asset.
2. Edit the Project planning widget.
3. In the Timezone field, select the desired time zone.
4. Click OK to close the dialog.
5. Click SAVE to save your changes.

To configure a project-specific time zone, do the following:

1. In censhare Web, open the desired Project asset.
2. Edit the Properties widget.
3. In the Planning section, select the desired time zone.
4. Click OK to close the dialog.
5. Click SAVE to save your changes.

Task direction

The Task direction setting defines the default behavior of the project editor timeline. Forwards adds new tasks chronologically. Tasks are created with a start date. This is also the default behavior. Backwards adds new tasks beginning from the end. Tasks are created with an end date. This is convenient if you want to plan projects with a fixed date (for example: an event).

You can configure a default direction or a project-specific direction. The default direction is configured in the System asset and used if no other direction is defined for a project. A project-specific direction can be defined in each project asset individually.  

To set the default task direction, do the following:

1. In censhare Web, open the System asset.
2. Edit the Project planning widget.
3. In the Task direction field, select the desired direction/behavior.
4. Click OK to close the dialog.
5. Click SAVE to save your changes.

To configure a project-specific task direction, do the following:

1. In censhare Web, open the desired Project asset.
2. Edit the Properties widget.
3. In the Planning section, select the desired task direction.
4. Click OK to close the dialog.
5. Click SAVE to save your changes.

Free-floating task behavior

Free-floating tasks are tasks that have only a duration, but no start date or end date. Free-floating tasks with dependencies to other tasks can behave in two different ways when predecessor or successor tasks are moved in the project editor

Move free-floating tasks regardless of secondary dependencies

If a user moves a task on the timeline, dependent predecessor and successor tasks are moved as well. Free-floating tasks with a secondary dependency are moved, regardless if they overlap with their dependent predecessor or successor tasks. This is the default behavior.

Move free-floating tasks with regard to secondary dependencies

If a user moves a task on the timeline, dependent predecessor and successor tasks are moved as well. Free-floating tasks with a secondary dependency are moved, but only if they do not overlap with their predecessor or successor tasks. This ensures that no conflicts occur in the chronology of dependent tasks.

Configuration

To configure the free-floating task behavior, do the following:

1. In censhare Web, open the System asset.
2. Edit the Project planning widget.
3. To change the default behavior, select Consider free-floating task dependency.
4. Click OK to close the dialog.
5. Click SAVE to save your changes.

Availability calendars

Users can apply different availability calendars in the project and task management. Unless you assign a custom availability calendar to a project, censhare applies the default availability calendar. This is configured in the System asset. 

Other Availability calendars can be created in censhare Web and assigned to projects. You can create them from scratch or duplicate the Default availability calendar and adjust times accordingly.

Team workload

The team workload board is used for the planning of tasks from a team perspective. For that purpose, you can assign personal availability calendars to team members. These will be shown with their respective workload on the workload board of the team asset (asset type: "Department"). Each team member can assign or create their own availability calendar in their user profile. 

Holidays and holiday regions

Holidays are taken into account in availability calendars (system and personal). However, they are configured and assigned independently. For that purpose, the respective Holiday assets for countries and regions have to be created in your system.

In order to simplify the handling of holidays, you can create holiday regions in the "Holiday region" feature in the censhare Admin Client. The feature contains a hierarchical value list.

To add a holiday to a region, open the holiday asset and edit the "Properties" widget. In the field "Holiday regions", select one or multiple values from the list. Holidays that have been added to a top-level region (for example "Europe") are inherited to all regions below (for example ("Europe/France").

In Project and Person assets, you can assign holiday regions. Individual holidays cannot be used in these contexts. Holiday regions and availability calendars are taken into account in order to calculate availability times and durations. 

Workflows

Although workflows can be assigned to any asset, they are used with tasks in particular. With a workflow, you not only track the progression of a task execution but can allocate workflow steps. Moreover, workflows steps of a workflow can have a completion value defined. If the assigned user selects a certain workflow step the task progression is then automatically adjusted. It is also possible to define events that trigger a certain workflow step and consequently a completion value. For example, uploading a file or creating a relation can set an asset to the following workflow and consequently adjust the completion value.

By default, the "Approval" workflow is assigned to the asset type "Task / Approval" and can be used out of the box in projects. If you use custom workflows for your project management, you can map the workflow steps to the respective completion values. The article  Workflows (Master Data)  gives you an overview of the definition of workflows in the censhare Admin-Client.