This
page describes the recurring projects/tasks feature in
Achieve Planner available starting with the 1.2 release.
Making a Project/Task Recurring
Any project or task can be setup as a
recurring project/task. To setup recurrence for a
project/task, you can:
1) Use the Recurrence button/menu in
the project/task information form
2) Use the Set Recurrence command in the Actions menu
Both of these options bring up the
Recurrence dialog, which allows you to set a date based
recurrence, where the recurrence date for each new
instance follows a predetermined pattern, or a
regeneration based recurrence, where the date for each
new instance is based on the current date and the
regeneration delay.
Recurrence and Deadlines
The recurrence date is used to compute
the new deadline for the recurring project/task (and all
its children) based on the lead time value.
Each project/task has a lead time
field, which determines how far away to set the deadline
for new recurring instances of the project/task. The
lead time field can be blank, in which case the deadline
for the new instance is unchanged for each new instance.
You can specify the lead time for
projects/tasks through the appropriate information form
or using the new "Recurrence" views for projects/tasks.
When the recurrence is first setup, a
dialog appears asking if the "lead time" for the item
and all its children should be determined based on
existing deadline values.
If 'Yes' is chosen, the
lead time field of the item and all its children will be
set based on the existing deadlines and Today's date.
For example, if the
deadline for Task A is 4 days from now, the lead time
will be initialized to 4 days. If you choose 'No', any
existing lead time values will not be changed.
Creating New Instances
New instances of the
recurring project/task are created whenever the current
instance is completed (either through the state column
or using the command.)
All deadlines for the new recurring
instance and its children are initialized based on the
recurring date and associated lead time values.
All children of the new recurring
instance are then uncompleted, which means they are put
'In Progress' if previously completed.
Skipping a Recurrence
You can skip a recurrence
instance by using the 'Skip Recurrence' command in the
Actions menu. This will advance the recurrence date of
the current instance (without creating a new instance)
and adjust the deadlines accordingly based on the new
recurrence date.
Currently, skipping a recurrence does not mark children
of the recurring item as uncompleted.
Open Questions
1) Should new recurring
instance children be initialized in 'Not Started' when
they are uncompleted?
2) Should skip recurrence uncomplete all
the children of the instance?
You can discuss these open questions in our forum. |
