The Project Tasks Manual

By the end of this article you will have answered questions pertaining to Project Tasks and their comparison to non-project tasks, sometimes referred to as ad hoc tasks. The topics covered in this article are divided by a series of frequently asked questions including:

  • How is a Project Task different from an ad hoc task?

  • Who can see Project Tasks?

  • Who can edit or delete Project Tasks?

  • What are the advantages of Project Tasks?

  • What is the Project Task Pool?

  • How do I configure a project with the Tasks module?

  • How do I create a project task?

  • How do I make more than one person responsible for the same task?

  • How do I create a Project Task Pool task?

  • How do I specify the project default task approvers?

How is a Project Task different from an ad hoc task?

The main difference between project tasks and ad hoc tasks is the visibility permissions defined by the project. All project members can see each project task. There is no way to restrict project members from seeing the project tasks.

Another key difference is that project tasks can be assigned to a project member specifically or can be assigned to no specific member of a project. Unassigned project tasks are called Project Task Pool tasks because any project member can make themselves responsible for the task simply by clicking the “Mark as Started” or “Re-assign” button. These tasks will appear under the filter pending tasks.

The last key difference that we’ll mention is that project tasks affect the health of a project. Too many overdue tasks and the project becomes at risk. The threshold for the number of overdue tasks to put the project at risk is determined by the project administrator.

Who can see Project Tasks?

All members of the project that the task is a part of can see the project task. If the project has “Public” visibility, it means that potentially every network user in your MangoApps domain can see a task that is part of that public project.

Who can edit or delete Project Tasks?

Editing a Project Task can be done by the creator of the task, the owner of the task, or the admin of the Project the task belongs to.Deleting a task must be done by the task owner.

What are the advantages of Project Tasks?

Project tasks are collaborative because of the membership of the project. More users, even users that are not directly responsible and are not assigned as reviewers, have access to the task based on their membership of the project. Also, project members can decide for themselves whether to assign an unassigned Project Task Pool or Pending task to themselves and become responsible for that task.

What is the Project Task Pool?

The Project Task Pool is the set of tasks that are unassigned to specific project members, found under filter pending tasks to all project members. The Project Task Pool empowers project members to become responsible for tasks that are not yet assigned to anyone but require action. When a project member clicks the “Mark as Started” or “Re-assign” button, they become responsible and other project members will receive notifications when the task progresses in it’s lifecycle towards completion.

How do I configure a project with the Tasks module?

Project administrators must first add the Project Task Module to a project before users can start creating project tasks. To add the Task Module to a project:

  1. Choose “Projects” from left navigation bar.

  2. Choose the project that you want to add tasks to from the available list or grid.

3. Choose “Edit Project & Module Details” from the “Admin Tools”

4. From the list of available modules, make sure the “Tasks” module has been enabled.

How do I create a project task?

To create a project task:

  1. Choose the Universal “Compose” button from the top-middle of MangoApps and select the “Create a Task” from the drop down. Additionally you can select “Task Tools” drop-down and select add new task

2. Expand the “Add More Details” section, open by default and fill in at least the marked fields then click “Save”.

3. To enable workflow go to the “Task Tools” then select “Task Settings”. Enable Task Review Workflow.

How do I make more than one person responsible for the same task?

To assign the same task to multiple users, put more than one colleague’s name into the “Responsible Person” box as in:

This will create identical tasks for each individual user that is responsible for the task. The same can be done for “Task Approvers”.

How do I create a Project Task Pool task?

To create a Pending Task in a Project:

  1. In the project from the sub-categories, choose Tasks Module, top-right select “Task Tools” and “Add New Task” from the drop-down.

2. Expand the “Add More Details” section, fill in at least the marked fields and leave blank the “Start typing the project member name” field then click “Save”.

3. Project members will see the task in the Project Task List under the filter pending tasks and be able to click the “Re-Assign” and “Mark as Started” button to make themselves responsible for the task.

How do I specify the project default Task Approvers?

Rather than adding reviewers one-by-one to each project task that gets created, the project administrator can pre-specify members of the project to be the default Task Approvers who approve a completed task. To manage the default task approvers:

  1. Go to the Project that you will specify the default task approver.

  2. From the Task Module select “Task Tools” menu choose the “Task Settings” from the Drop-down.

  3. From the Task Settings popup, enable “Task Review Workflow”.

How do I generate A Task Report?

You can generate a report to export a PDF or CSV file of all our Tasks. The following steps will explain how.

1. Ensure Reports is enabled, by editing the “Edit Project & Module Details” and enable Reports.

2. Now select Reports in the sub navigation menu. 3. Go through your options like date range and task filters.

4. Click on Generate Report, and now you can export the following report.

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