It
is well a known fact that no project can evolve in a day or two. These
activities need to be prioritized in order and completion to certain
degree indicates achieving a milestone. The activities towards
accomplishing a milestone are delegated as tasks by the Project Manager
(admin or manager) to the other users.
Once
delegation of tasks is complete, the users are free to add their own
items to their task list and plan up completion of tasks in time for
implementation. Ownership of Tasks and respective deadlines are brought
to the notice of the users and this minimizes the complexity of project
management a great deal. Also, planning tasks well in advance ensures a
hassle free completion of the project on time.
Each
individual in the project group has privileges to view, update or
delete his own tasks or the task lists associated to a particular
milestones. The user can also configure notification to be sent to
his/her mail ID for his/her tasks on a daily, weekly or monthly basis,
for this use the email this page option under 'My Home'.
Tasks & Milestones Design
Tasks & Milestones are designed in such a way that Milestone having features (Task Lists) inturn features having tasks.
Milestone 1 Milestone 2 This module is split into following parts:
- New Milestone, New Task List, New Task
- Internal Tasks & Milestones
- External Tasks & Milestones
- Task List
- Miscellaneous Lists
- Delayed Milestones
- Upcoming Milestones
- Completed Milestones
- Archived Milestone
- Expand/Collapse Milestones
- Expand/Collapse TaskLists
- Reorder TaskLists
- Reorder Tasks
- Add Notes to Tasks
- User based Filtered Views
- Calendar -- ( All Months & Three Months)
- Disk space Usage
- Export to xls or csv
New Milestone, New Task List and New Task
You
can create a new Milestone by clicking on the New Milestone button at
the top of the page. Similarly new task list and new tasks can be
created by using the respective options at the top of the page.
Internal Tasks & Milestones
Those
tasks which are generated for the internal users under a project are
referred to as Internal tasks and milestones. These cannot be viewed by
external users (clients).
External Tasks & Milestones
Those
tasks which can be viewed by external users can be grouped as external
tasks and milestones. They can be viewed by all users.
Task List
A
list or group of tasks constitute a Task List. The purpose of grouping
tasks under Task List is that when there is need to move certain tasks
to the next milestone, you can move an entire Task List instead of
moving individual tasks. This acts as a time saving technique
particularly in cases where there are huge number of tasks to be moved
from one milestone to another. The order of the items in a Task List
can be edited, deleted or moved between internal or external users.
Choose from Templates
: Creating Task List Templates makes it easy to use the same set of
repititive tasks/tasklists in multiple projects without actually
re-creating the task list again. Use the 'Choose from Templates' option
for creating such a task list. These templates can be used across
projects and save the effort of retyping repetitive tasks all over
again in a new project. (For creating task list templates, refer the 'Settings' help page)
Miscellaneous Lists
This
list shows all the task lists which have no association with any
milestone in the Project. These may be a list of activities which are
necessarily maintained by the users but may not be relevant to any
milestone.
The reorder task list
bar displays the items entered as tasks, along with the name of the
user to whom it is assigned or the owner of that task.Incase the user
wants to re arrange the items in this list, he can click on the reorder
button to drag the items and arrange them as per his requirement.
Elapsed/Delayed Milestones
This
list shows the Milestones scheduled but have not been accomplished. You
can add tasks, reorder task list items or edit/delete any task under
the Milestone mentioned in this section.
Upcoming Milestones
This
information is essential to keep the user well informed about the
upcoming milestones so that he can complete his tasks on time and plan
for the next milestone accomplishment.
Completed Milestones
This
section shows the list of all the Milestones that have been
accomplished in the recent past. To mark a milestone as completed, you
can select the check box on its left. This moves the particular
Milestone into completed Milestone list.
Archived Milestones
Once
a milestone is completed, you can archive it to avoid clutter. There is
also an option available on the top right side of the Tasks &
Milestones tab, where you can click on the 'Archived' link to see the
archived milestone. It will also ensure that all the Milestones in the
past are safely archived and can be referred to, over a period of time.
To move a completed Milestone to Archive, simply use the button next to
the completed milestone. To see the list of Archived Milestones, click
over the Archive hyper link on the right extreme of Task &
Milestone tab.
Expand/Collapse Milestones
You
can view all the Milestones by choosing the Expand Milestone option or
you can choose to collapse the Milestone by choosing the Collapse
Milestone Button.
Expand/Collapse Tasklists
Similar
to Milestones view, you can choose to see the entire task list items or
collapse the view by clicking the respective buttons for Expanding and
collapsing the Tasklist .
Reorder Tasklists
The
items in the Tasklist can be dragged and reordered as per the user's
priority. For this, you can use the re-order task list button which
will let you move the task list items in any order as per your
requirement.
Reorder Tasks
The
tasks in any particular task list can be re -arranged as per the
project requirements .For this you can click on the Reorder tasks
option, which wll let you move the tasks in a task list.
Adding Notes to Tasks
As
a latest feature addition, you will be able to see the 'Add Notes'
option available for any Task that is created. This enables users to
keep detailed notes of the Task as it progresses for easier
understanding and reference in the course of your project.
User Based Filtered Views
You
will find that there are customized views available for users. You can
choose the username from the filter drop down list and see the
respective views of tasks, task list or milestone assigned.
Calendar:
You
can make use of the calendar that is available on the right side which
can be chosen to show all the months or the last three months calendar.
All important dates of the month highlighted to represent any activity
that is marked for that date.
Export as xls, csv for Tasks and Timesheets
You
can now easily export your tasks or timesheets from Zoho Projects into
an xls or a csv file. To be able to export your data from 'Tasks &
Milestones', you can use the 'Export' button next to the 'New Task'
button in the 'Tasks & Milestones' tab (refer screenshot below).
Once you click on the Export option, you need to choose the required
data to be exported and select the required format from the drop down
list.
Why are tasks in the milestone tab not shown in the precedence view and the other way around? I would like to put dependencies in tasks that I associate to milestones!
What are "child" and "parent" tasks? Are these anything like dependencies? Without dependencies, and automatically updating start/end dates, project management software is way more trouble than it is worth.
I am also having trouble establishing precedence and showing tasks and milestones in general view
Hi, i can nat create a new task, and all the tasks that i was created i can not see it in the milestone view.... please help ...... i just can see the tasks in the dependence view....
proyectostde,
Check whether Collapse Todolist is displayed just above the Dependency View tab. If Expand Todolist is displayed, then click Expand Todolist link to expand all the collapsed todolist.
Once done you will be able to view all the tasks.
Hello devs,
GREAT app this one.
how to create child/parent task? Ot it is just future feature?
thank you
I got it, it is precedessor dependency based.
Feature requests:
1. reports > tree view of tasks milestones (completed open)
2. reports > bubbles (tasks, milestones) (onclick open sub-bubbles) in timeline view (systemic approach)
@samuel.grznar,
Thanks for your compliments and we are glad that you found how to create child/parent task.
Also thanks for your feature request. We will add up your feature requests in our road map and implement the same in future as per the priority.
I am making a template that we are going to be using for multiple projects therefore do not have start date or end date for milestones. Therefore when creating the milestones did not go in chronological order and was wondering if there was a way of reordering the the milestones or having an option of not having a date set with milestones.
@Guest,
As of now, its not possible to create milestones without date and re-ordering milestones is not possible.
Is this something especially milestones without a date that could be possible for the future? Thanks for writing back I appreciate it.
I added several new projects in and then we decided to create a template that we could use on all projects. How can I apply the template to the project that I have already created?
@Sharon,
As of now, it is not possible to create a project template from an existing project.
Instead, you can create a project template (with all the necessary tasks %26 milestones, documents, forum posts and users) by clicking the ' ' sign to the right of Project Template title, just below the project pane.
Then you can use the created project template while creating a new project. Click 'New Project' link --> Enter the project name --> select the project template from 'Choose Template' drop down --> click 'Add Project' button.
I am partially color blind, alas a common affliction for men. People like me have trouble distinguishing certain colors from others. In this case, I have to strain to pick up the priority of tasks in the list given the colors you have chosen. It unfortunately gives me a headache after a few minutes.
Can you make the colors customizable? This would allow people like me to pick colors that are easier to detect. This isn't for prettiness, but for usability.
Thanks!
I am trying to export my tasks. I have 6 tasks lists, and no matter what I select (All Tasks, Pending Tasts, etc) it only exports the first 2 task lists. Is this a bug?
Thanks!
Peter Laird,
Sorry that the existing colors for tasks priority causes usability problem for you (hard to distinguish).
Currently, color customization is not available in Zoho Projects. But, moving forward we will consider providing the color customization for tasks priority, thus enhancing easy usability for users.
Thanks for your patience until then!!
Peter Laird,
As of now, only 50 tasks are displayed per sheet in the exported excel file and the other tasks are displayed in the following sheets (sheet 2, sheet 3, etc.) of the same excel file. So please check for the other tasks in following sheets of the excel file.
If the same problem persists, please send a screen shot of the task & milestones page and the exported excel sheet (if not confidential) to support[at]zohoprojects[dot]com for further assistance.
Great work so far Zoho!
But the duration of tasks should also specify hours.
According to the Project Management association, a task also needs to be specified in hours.
For example a task that says "build a house", duration 90 days, wouldn't make sense. Instead the proj. manager should specify a task as "Put tiles on the kitchen floor", duration 8 hours.
It wouldn't make sense either to put 0.5 days.
This is a must for a Proj. management software.
Guest12,
Thanks for your compliment and for your feedback. Providing hours as task duration is already taken up in our feature list, which will be available in future as per the priority.
Can I change the end date of a milestone?
@barbblumen,
Yes, you can change the end date of a milestone.
To change the end date, place the mouse over the milestone, click edit (pencil) icon and change the milestone's end date.
I am finding it difficult to establish dependencies. Example: I want to list 10 tasks first, then go back and state how long each will take, then establish the dependencies between them. Then, and only then, I want to choose when I will start this project (i.e. start the first task). I can do this really easily in MS Project and immediately see when each tasks will be finished - based on the durations and dependencies I have established. How do I do this in Zoho?
Hi
About duration of task : is it possible that only working days are taken into account.
ie : if i enter a monday as the begining date and a duration of 6 days, the end date should be next monday and not saturday.
Is it possible ?
Thanks
@category,
No, as of now all the days in a week are taken into account. Moving forward we will provide this feature (ignoring weekends) while creating tasks.
How do I upload a file with a list of tasks that I've created in a spreadsheet?
@afmunoz,
Currently, you can upload the file (with list of task list) into documents module of Zoho Projects but its not possible to import the task lists in the file to Tasks & Milestones module of Zoho Projects.
To upload file, login to your projects account --> go to the required project --> click the Documents module and upload the file.
My task lists seem to have disappeared. The tasks still show up in my home overview screen (http://img2.pict.com/04/ea/93/e17b216de0622fdff31ad8314f/2hhxA/800/zohoprojectsoverview.png), but when I go to the project milestone screen and click the plus to expand them, the task lists are gone (http://img2.pict.com/c3/a2/56/038ecc30cab2e9e046161feba4/o9rHB/800/zohomissingtasks.png).
I just reworked a bunch of task list templates - did that somehow unconnect the lists from the milestones? Where did they go?
@Jandy,
From the screen shot, it's clear that the task lists are collapsed. Please click the 'Expand Milestones' option just above the 'Dependency View' tab to view the collapsed task lists.