Next Task Only

[Jitesh]

Hi
I am trying to get a view or report that only shows the next incomplete
task. I cant sort by a date range as certain taks are longer than others.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance

Jitesh

 

[John]

Hi
I am trying to get a view or report that only shows the next incomplete
task. I cant sort by a date range as certain taks are longer than others.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance

Jitesh

Jitesh,
I guess it depends on your definition of, "next incomplete task". For
example, does "incomplete" mean tasks that are behind schedule? How
about tasks that are "on schedule" but not finished? You mention "task"
(i.e. not "tasks") so which task do you want to see if 3 tasks with %
Complete of less than 100% are scheduled to finish tomorrow? If task "A"
is on-going but not finished and task "B" starts tomorrow, which one is
the "next incomplete task"? As you see there can be a lot of variations.

The method for setting up the view of course depends on your definition,
but for starters how about a filter that only displays tasks with a
finish date greater than Today and a % Complete of less than 100%?

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[Jitesh]

Thanks John

The definition of incomplete task that i am going by is just a basic next
task that is required

ie.

Task 1 Complete 100%
Task 2 Complete 100%
Task 3 Incomplete I only want to show this one
Task 4 Incomplete

the project is set up that it has multiple entries ie

Project 1
Task 1
Task 2
Task 3
Task 4
Task 5
Task 6

Project 2
Task 1
Task 2
Task 3
Task 4
Task 5
Task 6

I hope that makes sense.

Thanks

Jitesh

 

[Mark]

Could you make a custom filter based on % Complete? Assuming that Task 3
has had some work performed, (ie. not 0%), you could filter out 100% and 0%,
and see what you need, right?

 

[John]

Thanks John

The definition of incomplete task that i am going by is just a basic next
task that is required

ie.

Task 1 Complete 100%
Task 2 Complete 100%
Task 3 Incomplete I only want to show this one
Task 4 Incomplete

the project is set up that it has multiple entries ie

Project 1
Task 1
Task 2
Task 3
Task 4
Task 5
Task 6

Project 2
Task 1
Task 2
Task 3
Task 4
Task 5
Task 6

I hope that makes sense.

Thanks

Jitesh

Jitesh,
Sorry, I'm sure it makes perfect sense to you but I'm still in the mist.
If your project has "multiple entries", (and I'm not real clear on
exactly what that means, i.e. is Project 1-task 1 the same as Project
2-task 1, etc.?), why wouldn't you want to show task 3 from both
Projects given that tasks 1 & 2 are 100% complete? Also, are we to make
the assumption that all tasks are in sequence and that there are no
parallel paths (because real life plans are rarely that simple and
orderly)?

Making the assumption that your projects are unusually simple, on first
look a filter (simple or compound) probably won't work simply because
there is no good way to get the date information into the filter. For
example, if all tasks are current and on schedule, the "Today" function
could potentially be used to filter the next Finish date, but if the
plan is ahead of or behind schedule, the current date is meaningless. At
least this is my assessment.

My approach would probably be to use VBA. I would filter out all
complete tasks and then examine all other tasks and determine which one
(or ones) are next in line for completion. That task or tasks could be
identified with a flag and then filtered.

So, as simple as your request may seem, the solution, (given a full
definition of "next incomplete task"), requires the use of VBA. And,
I'll be happy to help you with that, but more questions need to be
answered.

John
Project MVP