I may be in the minority, but I am specifically NOT looking for all the sophistication and resource managment built into a full project manager. That's why I chose MLO over MSN Project or Project Libre. I don't need all that project management clutter. I'm not managing a construction project.
What I *would* like is to be able to display my Tasks organized into Projects with Subtasks sequenced by Start Date and Target (due) date. I know this data is all there because I entered it. But how do I get a convenient summary view of my Project's status that can show me my start and end dates for dependent tasks in some kind of timeline, so I can tell if I have missed a step or ID where I might have a bottleneck. I don't need resource balancing or budgeting functions or CPM, just an expanded Project view. Is this something I can create on my own with a custom view, or has somebody already developed a view template that does this? On Friday, May 24, 2019 at 7:43:01 AM UTC-7, Dwight wrote: > > Hi, Susannah, your suggestion of providing a *Gantt chart view *in MLO > has been popular. I'd like to discuss *some of the factors that could > make this into a high-cost low-benefit feature.* > > If all you were looking for is a task list with horizontal bars showing > start date and due date, that's probably available at a moderate cost. But > I suspect that most if not all of the people asking for this are actually > hoping for much more - I believe that you will be disappointed with a > simple Gantt view unless MLO also provides project management features such > as resource balancing and dynamic rescheduling. > > Let's start with dates. If you follow anything like the GTD methodology > for task management, you are not using MLO's Start and Due dates for > anything like the date you plan to start and finish the task. Start is the > earliest date on which you could start the task, and Due is the date after > which the task can no longer be done or is no longer meaningful. For > example, if I want to buy tickets to the opera, I might put the date they > go on sale as the start and the date of the performance as the Due - If I > have not bought them yet on the day after the performance there's no point > in doing it now. So maybe they are on sale for three months, that does not > mean that the duration of this task is three man-months. Also, you could > have a large and complex set of interrelated tasks with complex > dependencies, some of which could be running behind schedule, and none of > that makes the tickets go on sale any sooner or causes a delay in the > performance. MLO is very good at handling dependencies but it does so by > managing the active/inactive status of each task. Suppose I am buying the > tickets for a group who want to go to the opera together, so I have to put > in my order for the tickets, confirm the they are available, then collect > money from all of the people, pay for and pick up the tickets, and > distribute them. Suppose that takes a month to complete. That means that I > really should buy them no later than a month before the performance. MS > Project would reschedule the "buy tickets" task to be due a month before > the performance. MLO cannot do that because MLO will not reschedule your > tasks for you. > > In order to handle this simple situation MLO would need four dates instead > of two - you would add Begin and End which would reflect the plan for when > you will actually do this task. MLO would be free to reset the begin and > end dates to reflect your dependencies. > > You would also need to know the actual effort required for each task, > usually measured in hours (different from the Effort field, which gets a > number between 0 and 100, not clear if it's hours, days or just a relative > scale where 100 means "very big"). And you would need to know how many > hours per day you have available to work on tasks like this. And which days > you work and which days you don't work, like weekends and holidays, > including obscure local holidays. You might need to also track all of the > other things you spend your work hours on, and all of the people who you > will need to help you and their availability. If there are scheduled > resources, like conference rooms or bulldozers you may need some way of > knowing when and whether they are available. > > Once MLO can handle all of this, then you need to enter all of this > information, and even worse, you have to maintain it - when bad weather or > a broken tool or a long phone call from your Mom throw you off schedule you > have to remember to update your project plan and see whether the end date > changed. That's why most projects that use project management tools > effectively have a full time project administrator (different from the > project manager) in charge of creating and maintaining project plans and > spending little or no time actually working to complete the project. A > single person trying to manage tasks on a project management tool usually > has an inevitable crisis where you have to choose whether to try as hard as > you can to get the project done on time and forget updating the project > plan, or spend your time keeping the plan accurate and not actually > complete the project. > > For your nice to have feature of finding the critical path, a MLO would > need further enhancement. > > And this brings me to my primary concern. MLO is in my opinion the > absolute top of the line in task management apps with tools and features > that bring power and flexibility seen nowhere else. If the MLO developers > were to invest in all the things described above, the result would be a > passable but primitive project management tool missing most of the advanced > features found in the many currently available project management apps, > like time tracking to feed payroll, or calculating the cost per value added > ratio for each task to allow outsourcing or elimination of nonproductive > tasks. There would be little reason for anyone seeking a project management > tool to select MLO over the established project management apps, and not > much chance that the MLO developers could ever recover their investment in > these enhancements. > > -Dwight > > On 5/22/2019 7:19 AM, Susannah wrote: > > Me too on the Gantt view > I thought there used to be one on the phone app but I don't see it > anymore. Would love one on the desktop version. Would also like a kanban > board view but Gantt would be first choice. > > On Tuesday, May 21, 2019 at 8:04:35 AM UTC-4, Costa G wrote: >> >> Hi All, >> Suggested feature: Gantt chart graphical representation of projects. >> In my opinion, MLO has all the infrastructure to implement this: >> - Task list >> - Dependencies >> - Due date >> >> Tasks do not have to be arranged into hierarchy according to their >> dependency. >> >> What needs to be changed: >> Commonly on MSproject, projects are constructed by defining the following >> basic data: >> 1. Kickoff event >> 2. Dependencies between tasks >> 3. Duration of each task. >> >> The most important results of this feature are: >> 1. A graphical representation of the project's structure, - the Gantt >> chart. >> 2. The outcome, - the project's end date, given the task durations and >> dependencies. >> 3. (nice to have: ) Calculation of the critical path - branch of the >> project which is the limiting factor to the completion date. >> >> >> Thanks and hope to see this come to life! >> > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MyLifeOrganized" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] <javascript:>. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > <javascript:>. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/mylifeorganized. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/98e3da94-b8c7-4808-865d-ca3b851bc336%40googlegroups.com > > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mylifeorganized/98e3da94-b8c7-4808-865d-ca3b851bc336%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MyLifeOrganized" group. 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