In this article, we will review the Project Desktop tasks page, its layout, and detailed information on how the Project Desktop tasks are synchronized to PPM Express.
You can review tasks synchronized from Project Desktop on a separate Project Desktop tasks page in PPM Express.
To access this page perform the following:
1. Open the Project Dashboard of the project where the Project Desktop connection is added, and you need to review Project Desktop tasks.
2. Navigate to the Schedule project section and select Project Desktop tasks by clicking on the corresponding icon on the right.
3. Click on the 'View Tasks from Project Desktop' button on the left.
Also, if you click on the number of tasks on the Tasks Statuses, Tasks Progress, or Tasks Summary cards, the Project Desktop tasks page will be opened at once, and the tasks will be filtered out according to the selected value. For example, if you click on the number of the Critical task, Critical tasks will be shown on the Project Desktop tasks page at once.
Using the 'Configure' menu you can turn on data sections that you want to make visible on the page. Drag and drop is available to reorder the position of these sections. These changes can be saved to Project layouts and views.
On the Project Desktop tasks page, you can review all tasks synchronized from Project Desktop.
Please note: The Project Desktop tasks page is for viewing the tasks only, it is not possible to edit the tasks on this page. If you need to edit the tasks, open them in Project Desktop, edit them there and synchronize the changes to PPM Express, all changes will be present on the Project Desktop tasks page when the synchronization is completed.
Project Desktop tasks page includes two sections: Tasks Summary and Tasks.
Tasks Summary section includes four cards where you can quickly review the tasks statuses, progress, summary, and timeline. All the numbers on the cards are clickable and can be used to filter out the information in the Tasks section.
'Task Statuses', and 'Task Progress' Counters include the project tasks without summary tasks.
'Tasks Summary' counters ('Late', 'My Tasks', 'This Week', 'Today', 'No Dates') include all tasks summary tasks, tasks, and sub-tasks.
Milestones are included in the counters.
To get back to the PPM Express project, click on the project name at the top of the page or on the 'Back to Project Dashboard' button.
To open PPM Express tasks, click on the 'View PPM Express Tasks' button.
Tasks section includes all tasks synchronized from Project Desktop.
There are two views available: table and timeline.
The summary tasks and tasks/sub-tasks are synchronized from the Project Desktop to the task page, preserving the schedule hierarchy from the Project Desktop.
You can use multiple filters to review the tasks you need quickly. You can also create new filters and new views if needed.
The selected tasks can be exported to an CSV/PNG file by clicking on the Export button at the top of the Tasks section.
To hide/show all tasks in the tasks hierarchy use the Outline button. It is applied to all tasks at once, you can either Expand all tasks to show subtasks or Collapse all tasks to show only the parent task.
Please note: The 'Outline' filter is applied by default to the Project Desktop Tasks section. It displays all tasks, including the Summary tasks and tasks hierarchy. All other default filters will not include Summary tasks.
'All Milestones' task filter includes milestones that are not summary tasks, only regular tasks.
Please note: The fields will be mapped in the following way:
- Start Date = Start
- Progress = % Complete
- Duration = Duration
- Remaining work = Remaining work
- Due Date = Finish
- Assigned To = Resource Name
- Milestone flag is on = Milestone
- Effort = Work
- Completed Work = Actual Work
- Remaining work = Remaining Work
- WBS = WBS (The WBS field contains work breakdown structure (WBS) codes and displays the tasks hierarchy)
- Type = Summary (Yes = Summary Task, No = Task)
The Progress is synchronized in the following way:
- Not Started tasks - 0% Completed;
- Completed tasks - 100% Completed;
- In Progress tasks - 1-99% Completed.
Tasks Status is not editable and is set according to the Tasks finish date, considering the current date. The following calculation logic is applied:
- On Track: Finish Date is greater or equals Today;
- At Risk: The task is late for less than 10 days (from Today);
- Critical: The task is late for more than 10 days (from Today);
- Done: The task is marked as Completed.
Please note: These default calculation logic rules can be customized on the Insight settings page. If custom rules are set there, the custom logic will be applied to the task statuses on the Project Desktop tasks page.
Please note: If the auto-calculation of Statuses is turned off on the Insights settings page, the Tasks Statuses will be set to N/A for all tasks.