Project Tasks

Projects in Ruddr can be broken down into tasks. This is especially useful on larger projects where there are distinct roles and work initiatives. By using tasks, progress and performance can be measured on a per-task basis which improves overall project manageability.

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Benefits of Using Tasks

Tasks help project leaders deliver a project with greater precision. By using tasks, a large scope of work can be divided into smaller and more manageable constituent parts. Two important benefits of using tasks in Ruddr are:

• Task-based budgeting - When setting up a budget for a project in Ruddr, you have the option of automatically creating the budget by aggregating all of the tasks for the project. This allows you to create a “bottoms up” budget that sums the hours and revenue across all tasks and project roles. For more information on creating a detailed budget from aggregated tasks, please see the Create a Project Budget article in the Ruddr Help Center.
• Task-based time tracking - When tasks have been defined for a project, team members can track time directly to specific tasks within the project. With time tracking at the task level, you can more easily identify trouble spots on projects that are taking too much time to deliver.

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View Project Tasks

To view a project’s tasks, simply click on the Tasks tab (Figure 1) of the project dashboard screen. The tasks list shows the task number, billability, name, status, assignment, hours, revenue, and effective rate. Note that tasks can be assigned to project roles, to specific project team members, or both. At the top of the task list, the following filters help you narrow down the list:

• Task name - Type in a partial or full task name.
• Status - The status of a task can be either:
  • Not Started
  • In Progress
  • Completed
• Task Archived - Toggle between Active and Archived Tasks on the Project

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Board View

In addition to the list view of tasks (Figure 1), you can view tasks in a board view (Figure 2), allowing you to see tasks organized by task status. To toggle to the board view, you can click on BOARD icon just above the tasks. Each task card on the board can show a number of small icons, depending on the task and which columns you have enabled with the Columns button above the list:

• Billability - A dollar sign icon appears on standard tasks in green if the task is billable and grey if it is non-billable. Rollup tasks and milestones don’t show this icon, since neither has its own billability setting.
• Category icon - The icon and color configured for the task’s Task Category, shown next to the task name.
• Task Code - A hashtag icon followed by the task’s code, if one has been set.
• Parent Task - A solid gray nested-task icon followed by the name of the task this one is nested under, if any.
• Archived - A box icon labeled “Archived,” shown when the task has been archived.
• Start Date / End Date - Calendar icons showing the task’s planned start and end dates.
• Tags - A tag icon for each Task Tag applied to the task.
• Assigned Roles - A person with tag icon for each role assigned to the task.
• Subtasks - A yellow icon with an unfilled subtask for each child task nested under the task.
• Assigned Members - An avatar for each member assigned to the task.

Task Code, Parent Task, Start Date, End Date, Tags, Assigned Roles, Subtasks, and Assigned Members can each be turned on or off from the Columns button above the task list.

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Gantt View

Alongside the list and board views, the Tasks tab also offers a Gantt view (Figure 3), giving you a visual timeline of a project’s tasks and milestones. To switch to the Gantt view, click GANTT next to the board view button. On the Gantt chart, each standard and rollup task is drawn as a bar spanning its start and end dates, and each milestone is drawn as a diamond on its single date. You can:

• Reschedule a task - Drag a task’s bar to move it, or drag either end of the bar to resize it and change its start or end date.
• Create a relationship - Draw an arrow from one task to another to set a Blocking / Blocked by relationship between them.
• Remove a relationship - Click the dependency arrow between two tasks and confirm to delete the link.
• Timeframe - Switch between Month, Week, and Day zoom levels to see more or less detail on the timeline.

You must have the Edit project permission to reschedule tasks or change relationships from the Gantt view.

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Create a Task

There are two ways to create a task on a project. You can create a new task “from scratch” or you can create tasks from task templates, which are managed in the Custom Data section of workspace settings. To add a new task, simply click on the New Task + button at the top of the task list (Figure 1a). This will open the new task window where you can provide information about the task. You will only see the New Task + button if you have the Edit project permission.

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Task Categories

Task categories allow you to categorize tasks within projects. Each category has a type:

• Time can be tracked directly to a standard task.
• A rollup task aggregates time from its child tasks.
• A milestone marks a single key date rather than a duration.

Workspace Admins can create Task Categories in the Custom Data section of workspace settings. Once you click save, a drawer will open for you to input further task information based on the category selected.

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Standard Tasks

If you specify a rollup task category, the Edit Task drawer (Figure 4) will be presented. The Basic Information section of the task includes the following fields:

• Task Name - The name of the task.
• Task Category - This will represent a task category from Custom Data that has been set up as a Standard Task.
• Parent Task - If this task should be nested as a subtask under another, existing task, specify that parent task here.
• Status - The status of the task, which can be either Not Started, In Progress, or Completed.
• Start and End Dates - The planned start and end dates of the task.
• Billability - Whether or not the task is billable. If a project is set as non-billable, then this task billability option is not shown. If a project is billable, but a task is set to non-billable, any hours worked on the task will be non-billable regardless of the billability setting of the project role or member.

Once you have provided the basic information for the task, you can apply various Settings:

• Hours Budget - The number of hours the task is estimated to take. Note that when roles are assigned to a task, or when hours have been specified for member assignments, the total hours for the task becomes a read-only field that is calculated automatically from the role assignment and budget (Figure 3).
• Services Revenue Budget - The budgeted amount of fees associated with this task. Note that when roles are assigned to a task, the total revenue budget for the task becomes a read-only field that is automatically calculated from the role assignment and budget (Figure 5).
• Task Code - Any internal task identifier that your team may use for the task.
• Task Tags - Apply custom task attributes to the task. A Workspace Admin can set up any number of task tags for your workspace.
• Notes - Any brief notes about the task.
• Lock time for this task - When checked, time can no longer be created or edited for this task.
• Cap the hours on this task - When this option is selected, time entries against this task will be prevented if the amount of time being entered will put the task over the budgeted hours specified.
• Cap the services revenue on this task - on time and materials projects, this setting will be enabled. When checked, time entries will not be permitted against the task if those time entries will put the task over the Services Revenue Budget.
• Only assigned members and roles can track time to this task - Setting this option will prevent members from entering time against the task unless they, or their role, are assigned to that task.
• Require notes on time entries for this task - When checked, any time entries associated with this task must have notes provided.

The next section of the New Task drawer is the Role Assignment & Hours section (Figure 5). If the project does not use roles then this section is called Member Assignment & Hours. This section is used to create an hours and revenue budget for the given project task. The Role Assignment & Hours section allows team members to see their assigned tasks when tracking time toward the project. To add a new role or member to the task assignment, simply click the + Quick Add button. In addition to budgeting hours per role, the number of hours on a task can be capped by role. The Cap the hours by role setting will prevent users from creating time entries for these roles, on this task, if those time entries will result in the role’s hours budget being exceeded. If a project uses roles, the task drawer will have an additional section called Member Assignment (Figure 6). This allows the task to be assigned to specific team members in addition to project roles.

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Rollup Tasks

If you specify a rollup task category, the Edit Task drawer will be presented. Hours budget, revenue budget, dates, and status for rollup tasks will be read-only on this drawer (Figure 7), as they are computed automatically from the task’s descendants. You can configure the task name, parent task, task code, tags, notes, and impose budget caps. Rollup tasks do not have member or role assignments.

Rollup Behavior

When a task uses a rollup category, Ruddr automatically derives several fields from the tasks nested under it:

• Hours (tracked) - Sum of tracked hours across all child tasks.
• Hours (budget) - Sum of budgeted hours across all child tasks.
• Revenue - Sum of revenue across all child tasks.
• Start date - The earliest start date among the child tasks.
• End date - The latest end date among the child tasks.
• Status - Derived from the child tasks. The rollup task will be set to Completed when every child tasks is completed, In Progress as soon as at least one child task has started (in progress or completed) but not all are completed, and Not Started when no child tasks has been started.

These values are shown wherever tasks appear: the project tasks list, the board view, reports, and the rollup task drawer.

Optional Caps

A rollup task always displays its aggregated hours and revenue as progress against the budget rolls up from its descendants. Two optional settings turn that aggregated budget into a hard cap:

• Cap the hours to the total budgeted for this task - When enabled, Ruddr blocks any time entry against a descendant task if that entry would push the rollup over the aggregated hours budget.
• Cap the services revenue on this task - When enabled (on Time and Materials projects), Ruddr blocks any time entry against a descendant task if that entry would push the rollup over the aggregated services revenue budget.

When neither cap is enabled, the rollup’s progress is still displayed, but time entries are not blocked.

Billability

A rollup task does not have its own billable / non-billable setting and does not affect the billability of the tasks beneath it. Each child task keeps the billability it would have without the rollup in the hierarchy, determined by its own setting and the project. The same rollup can therefore contain both billable and non-billable child tasks.

Time Tracking Restriction

Time cannot be tracked directly to a rollup task. In the time entry drawer, rollup tasks appear in the task list with their icon and color so you can see the hierarchy, but they are not selectable as a target for a time entry. To track time, choose one of the standard tasks beneath the rollup.

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Milestones

If you specify a milestone task category, the Edit Task drawer (Figure 8) will be presented. A milestone represents a single key date on a project — such as a client sign-off, an approval, or a go-live — rather than a span of work. Milestones behave differently from standard and rollup tasks in a few ways:

• Single date - A milestone has one date, rather than separate start and end dates.
• Status - A milestone’s status can only be Not Started or Completed — milestones cannot be In Progress.
• No time tracking or allocations - Time cannot be tracked against a milestone, and a milestone cannot be assigned allocations.
• No subtasks - A milestone cannot have child tasks of its own, but a milestone can be nested under a rollup task, in which case its status and date are factored into the rollup the same as any other child task.
• Relationships - A milestone can block, or be blocked by, other tasks. See Task Relationships: Blocking and Blocked By below.

On the Gantt view of the Tasks tab, milestones are drawn as a diamond on their date rather than as a bar. Automatically Completing Milestones If the Automatically complete milestones project setting is enabled, a milestone will be marked Completed automatically as soon as every task blocking it has been completed. This setting is optional and is configured per project — see Create a New Project for more on project settings.

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Create a Task from a Task Template

To leverage a task template, simply click the Add from Task Template action menu item (Figure 9) on the + button. This will open the Add Tasks drawer (Figure 10). From the Add Tasks drawer (Figure 11), you can select one or more task templates to add to the project. Once you have selected the task(s) that you wish to add, click the Add button at the bottom of the drawer. This will close the drawer and return you to the Tasks tab of the project dashboard.

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Edit a Task

To edit a task, you must have the Edit project permission. Simply click on the Edit menu option (Figure 11) in the action menu for the row that you want to edit. This will open up the same task drawer that is used to create a new task. Once you have made your edits, simply click the Save & Close button to save the task and return to the task list.

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Task Actions

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Clone a Task

Task cloning makes it easier to build out a large inventory of tasks quickly. To clone a task, you must have the Edit project permission. Simply click on the Clone menu option in the action menu (Figure 11) for the task that you want to clone. This will bring up a window (Figure 12) that will allow you to give the new task a name. You will have an option to include all the subtasks when cloning a task.

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Add Child Task

To create a new child task for a standard or rollup task, you must have the Edit project permission. Click the Add Child Task and you will be prompted to add a New Task where you will have the option to add to a Task Category.

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Delete a Task

To delete a task, you must have the Edit project permission. Simply click on the Delete menu option in the action menu (Figure 11) for the task that you want to delete. If a task has time entries associated with it, the Delete menu option will be disabled. A task cannot be deleted when there are any time entries associated with it. If you wish to remove a task from the task list, but can not, or do not, wish to delete it, you can archive the task.

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View Time Entries

To view time entries for a task, you must have project-level View time entries and expense items permissions. To view the time detail, click on the View Time Detail menu option in the action menu (Figure 11) for the respective task. This will bring up the Time Detail report for the specific and project and task.

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Tasks and Time Tracking

When a project uses tasks, the time entry drawer will show the list of tasks (Figure 13) associated with the project. This list is grouped by My Tasks and Other Tasks. The tasks shown in the My Tasks section are assigned to the member by direct member assignment or by project role assignment. The tasks shown in the Other Tasks section are not assigned to the member either directly or by role. Note that Ruddr does not restrict a project team member from recording time to a task in the Other Tasks section. When a member is associated with a task via a role assignment, the role is shown in a gray bubble to the right of the task name (as shown below). This can be particularly useful when a team member is assigned to multiple roles on the project team.

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Move Time

The Move Time menu option in the task action menu (Figure 11) transfers every time entry from a task to another standard task in the same project. To move time, you must have the Edit project permission. The action is only available on standard tasks that have time entries - rollup tasks do not have their own time entries to move. The target task must be in the same project, must be a standard task, and must not have time locked. Use this when you want to consolidate tracked time onto a different task - for example, before converting a standard task into a rollup, since rollup tasks cannot hold their own time entries.

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Move Allocations

To move a task allocation, you must have the Edit project permission. Here you will be able to move the allocations for a parent and its child tasks from one task to another.

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Changing a Task’s Type

The Change to Standard Task, Change to Rollup Task, or Change to Milestone Task menu options in the task action menu (Figure 11) switch a task’s type by assigning it a new category of the other types. To change a task’s type, you must have the Edit project permission. Changing a standard task to a rollup or milestone task is only allowed if the task has no time entries, no assigned members, no assigned roles, and no allocations of its own. If any of these exist, Ruddr will return an error explaining what to clear first — for example, use the Move Time action to relocate time entries, or remove member and role assignments before converting. Changing a task from a rollup task or a milestone task to a standard task is allowed at any time.

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Archive a Task

To archive a task, you must have the Edit project permission. Simply click on the Archive menu option in the action menu (Figure 11) for the task that you want to archive. When a task is archived, it will no longer be possible for a workspace member to track time against it. To view archived tasks on the Task tab, select “Yes” or “All” in the Task Archived filter dropdown (Figure 1).

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Managing the Task Hierarchy

Tasks can be nested under other tasks. To do this, you can either edit the task and specify a Parent Task or you can drag tasks in the Tasks list and place them under other tasks. In the Tasks list (Figure 1), there will be a handle (Figure 14) in each task row. You can use this handle to arrange tasks in the list. To associate one task with another, drag the task onto / under the task to which you want to associate the task. Nested tasks will appear under other tasks and will be indented. You can expand / contract parent tasks to show / hide subtasks, respectively. Both standard and rollup tasks can be nested under other tasks. The following combinations are all valid:

• A rollup task can contain other rollup tasks, producing a higher-level rollup that aggregates lower-level rollups.
• A rollup task can contain standard tasks - the typical case, where a rollup summarizes a set of standard work items.
• A rollup task can contain milestones. For example, a client sign-off milestone can be nested under the rollup task it applies to.
• A standard task can contain a rollup task. The rollup aggregates only its own descendants.
• A standard task can contain other standard tasks (the classic Ruddr task hierarchy, with no rollup behavior).

A milestone cannot contain other tasks.

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Task Relationships: Blocking and Blocked By

Standard tasks, rollup tasks, and milestones can all be linked with a Finish-to-Start relationship: a task cannot start until the task that blocks it has finished. This lets you model dependencies across a project’s timeline, such as requiring a design review to finish before development can begin.

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Setting Up a Relationship

To link two tasks, edit the task and go to the Relationships section (Figure 16) of the task drawer. From there, you can specify:

• Blocking - Other tasks that cannot start until this task finishes.
• Blocked by - Other tasks that this task cannot start until they finish.

You can also create a relationship directly from the Gantt view by drawing an arrow from one task to another. Ruddr prevents you from creating a circular chain of relationships (for example, Task A blocking Task B, which blocks Task A). Removing a relationship from the task drawer is a form edit like any other - it isn’t applied until you save the task, and is discarded if you cancel out of the drawer instead. Removing a relationship from the Gantt view, by contrast, asks you to confirm before the link is deleted. Ruddr allows you to set a task’s dates earlier than the finish date of a task that blocks it. This isn’t a typical flow, but it aligns with how other project management tools handle manually-scheduled tasks. Ruddr will not stop you from saving, but the relationship remains in place so you can see the conflict.

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Cascading Date Changes

When you change the dates of a task that blocks other tasks, Ruddr shows you the tasks it blocks and asks whether their dates should shift along with it (Figure 17). This is similar to the prompt Ruddr shows when shifting past allocations.

• Leave the checkbox checked (the default) and save to shift the dates of the blocked tasks along with the task you’re editing.
• Uncheck the checkbox and save to change only the current task’s dates, leaving the tasks it blocks unchanged — useful when you want to add buffer time between two tasks.

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Enabling and Disabling Task Dependencies

Task relationships are controlled by the Task dependencies setting on the project. This setting is on by default for new projects; existing projects need to turn it on to start using relationships. You’ll be asked to confirm before turning the setting off. Turning the setting off hides the Relationships section and all Blocking / Blocked by information everywhere tasks appear - it does not delete the underlying relationships. If you turn the setting back on later, the relationships you had set up reappear. Changes to this setting are recorded in the project’s history. For more on this and the related Automatically complete milestones setting, see Create a New Project.

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Relationships in the API and Report Export

A task’s Blocking and Blocked by relationships, along with the Milestone task category type, are included in the Ruddr API and in the Project Tasks report export.