Task view

If you click on a task object, it opens in task view. The task view shows the essential attributes of a task in four sections, which you may fold in and out.

o  Properties: contains the time frame, requestor and contractors as well as the context, i.e. the phase, project or folder to which the task belongs.

When a task has not yet been started, duration and deadline are shown; when a task is in execution, start and expected end date replace the duration. All temporal speci­fi­ca­tions are only shown, of course, if present.

o  State: shows the current task state, e.g. initial for a task just created or requested for a task just started. Unfold the state section to get an overview of the task states possible. The current state is indicated in faded orange. States that may be reached by contractor actions are shown in blue; states that may be reached by requestor actions are shown in green.

By clicking on a state that corresponds to your task role, you may execute the re­spec­tive action

o  Data: contains the input and output data fields of the task. If the present state of the task allows you as requestor or contractor to edit the input or output data fields, here you may enter values for data fields or objections to data field values provided.

In state requested, e.g., you as contractor could enter all output data representing the re­sult of the task. Also, you could enter objections below the respective input data fields.

With data fields of type document, two buttons appear after the value:  lets you browse your folder hierarchy and select a document as value for the data field,  un­does the selection and deletes the value of the data field again.

Use [Save form] to protect data values and objections already entered against acciden­tal deletion, because these values are lost when you leave the task view without exe­cut­ing a task action.

Data values and objections which have been saved are visible to all other users which have the same task role. If in state requested, e.g., a contractor fills in an output field or enters an objection to an input field and saves, all other contractors will see the data values and objections when they open the task. The requestor, however, cannot see these data values and objections until one of the contractors has released them via a task action. In state requested, objections are released by [Object to task] and output data are released by [Finish task]. Data values and objections that have been released cannot be changed in the current state of the task (here: objected or finished) and are visible to all parties concerned.

o  Contents: contains all task documents, i.e. values of data fields of type document di­vided into input and output data, and all other attachments of the task that have been added by either contractors, requestors or other members of the task.

The last part of the contents section is the audit trail, where all task actions (start, exe­cu­tion, objection etc.) are recorded automatically. The audit trail is organized as a discussion forum. When a task action is carried out, the actor may add a personal com­ment for the audit trail.

The different sections of the task view are only shown if they are not empty, i.e. the section ‘Data’ is not present when the task has no input or output data. Figure 26 shows the example of a newly created task in task view.

Between the ‘Data’ and ‘Contents’ sections, the task view provides an area with buttons for the task actions which you as contractor or requestor can execute in the present state of the task. You find the same actions in the context menu of the task, e.g.    Task    Finish  or   Task    Object . Above the task action buttons in task view you may add a personal comment to your task action for the audit trail.