Manage task information in the Task Details Overview area

Select the status of the task which indicates what stage of development the task is in.

Tip: You can update the task Status in the task header.

This is a visual flag for you which allows you to prioritize your tasks.

Select from the following options:

• None

• Low

• Normal

• High

• Urgent

Depending on the Project Preferences selected by your Workfront administrator, the names of priorities might be different for you. For information about task priorities, see Update Task Priority.

This identifies the relationship between the following:

• The number of resources assigned to a task

• The total effort required to complete the task

• The total duration of the task.

Your Workfront administrator or a group administrator selects the default Duration Type setting for the tasks in your system or your group. For information about setting project defaults, see Configure system-wide project preferences.

Duration Types enable you to set consistent resource assignments based on the needs of the task. For more information about the Duration Type of a task, see Overview of Task Duration and Duration Type.

Select from the following options:

• Calculated Assignment

• Calculated Work

• Effort Driven

• Simple

This is the amount of time that you allow a task to remain open before it is completed.

Important: Because the task duration is typically the amount of time between the Planned Start and the Planned Completion Dates, it affects the timeline of the project.

To indicate the Duration of the task and the unit of time do the following:

• Type the length of time and select from the units of time available in the drop-down menu.

TIP

When you update the Duration of tasks in a task list, you can use the abbreviation for the unit of time.

You can choose from the regular time or elapsed time options in the following table:

NOTE

Elapsed time is a unit of time for a task's Duration. It is the time between the Planned Start Date and the Planned Completion Date of a task that includes holidays, weekends, and time off. In other words, elapsed time is the passage of calendar days. Regular time takes into account holidays, weekends, and time off and excludes them from the Duration of the task. For more information about task duration, see Overview of Task Duration and Duration Type.

The amount of effort required to complete the task. Your project manager might decide to use this field instead of Planned Hours to estimate the effort needed to complete a task. This field is visible only when the following conditions are met:

• The task has a Simple Duration Type.

  Tip: If you change the task Duration Type, this field becomes dimmed.

• Your project manager has enabled the Use Work Effort to automatically calculate task Planned Hours field on the project.

Select from the following options:

• Small
• Medium (this is the default value for a new task)
• Large

NOTE

Updating the amount of effort could update the task Planned Hours. The update is immediate if the project Update Type is Automatic. When the project Update Type is Manual you must recalculate timeline to see the updated Planned Hours.

For information about using Work Effort instead of Planned Hours to estimate task effort, see Work Effort overview.

Decide when the task must be completed by specifying a Task Constraint.

Select from the following options:

• Fixed Dates

  Specify a Planned Start and a Planned Completion Date.

• Must Start On

  Specify a Planned Start Date.

• Must Finish On

  Specify a Planned Completion Date.

• As Soon as Possible

• As Late as Possible

• Earliest Available Time

• Latest Available Time

• Start No Later Than

• Specify a Planned Start Date

• Start No Earlier Than

  Specify a Planned Start Date.

• Finish No Later Than

  Specify a Planned Completion Date.

• Finish No Earlier Than

  Specify a Planned Completion Date

For more information on Task Constraint, see Task Constraint overview.

When the task is planned to start. The planned start date of a task is set and influenced by a number of factors:

• Depending on the system-wide preference for the task planned start date, the start date of a new task on a project can either be today, or the start date of the project, by default. The group administrator for the group associated with the project can also set this preference for the group. For more information about the system-level or group-level task preferences, see Configure system-wide task and issue preferences.
• Depending on the predecessors of the task, the planned start date is picked by Workfront to be the next available date after the predecessors finish, or start, depending on the predecessor relationship. For more information about predecessor relationships, see Overview of task predecessors.
• The project manager or the task owner can manually set the planned start date when the task constraint is either Fixed Dates or Must Start On. For more information about task constraints, see Task Constraint overview.

The "real life" date of when the task is going to start based on the progress and completion of prior tasks. This is a calculated field and you cannot edit it manually.

The projected start date and the planned start date start out by being the same, when a project is first planned. The projected start date can move away from the planned start, if the project evolves and the task is not started yet. For more information about projected start dates, see Overview of the project Projected Start Date.

The anticipated completion date as shown when the task is planned. The planned completion date can be set by a number of factors:

• The planned completion date is calculated from the planned start date by adding the Duration of the task to the planned start date. When the project manager or Workfront specifies the Duration of the task, this triggers an update to the planned completion date. If the planned date changes, it will often be because the Duration of the has been updated.
• The project manager or the task owner can manually set the planned completion date when the task constraint is either Fixed Dates or Must Finish On. For more information about task constraints, see Task Constraint overview.
• If the Duration Type of the task changes, and the number of resources on the tasks changes at the same time, the planned completion date will change, as well. For more information about duration types, see Overview of Task Duration and Duration Type.

The "real life" date of when the task is going to be completed based on the progress of prior tasks and on the progress updates made on the task by the assignee. This is a calculated field and you cannot edit it manually.

The projected completion date and the planned completion date start out by being the same, when a project is first planned. The projected completion date can move away from the planned completion, if the project evolves and the task is not started yet. For more information about projected completion dates, see Overview of the Projected Completion Date for projects, tasks, and issues.

The date when the task was last updated.

Tip: Workfront records an Updated Date every time someone edits and saves a task.

This displays only on the parent of recurring tasks. It displays the duration of each recurring task. For information about creating recurring tasks, see Create recurring tasks.

NOTE

Durations modified in individual recurring tasks do not display the value indicated in this field.