Planning logic (Feature #999)

Hi folks,

I have a suggestion for how the logic of scheduling and gannt charts should work.

I'd like to set estimated durations for tasks at an early stage in my planning, then create the dependencies and see the tasks get lined up in serial or parallel on the gannt chart. Right now, the estimated duration doesn't seem to get used for anything. This would call for a new parameter to specify how many working hours there are in a day, which might eventually develop into a per-resource holiday schedule etc.

A "likely end date" could be calculated for each task, equal to the likely start date plus the estimated duration. The likely start date would be latest of the likely end dates of the preceding tasks, any assigned start date of this task, and any assigned start date of its supertask/project.

As we know from bitter experience, due dates exist only in the fantasies of PMs, so the above should be the main scheduling model. You could then use the due date to paint things pretty colours. For instance, if the likely end date is later than any assigned due date, then the bit between the two (i.e. the later part of the bar on the gannt chart) could be painted red. In the opposite case, there could be a faint green haze in the region from the likely end date to the due date, but it should not look like part of the bar.

A supertask doesn't need start or end dates. But if it has an end date, then the same colouring principle applies to the bar that represents the supertask, but there are no consequences for the subtasks. If it has a start date then it would act on the subtasks as explained above.

It's completely daft at the moment that if I define a subtask without a start or end date, the supertask disappears from the gannt chart, its start and end dates are wiped out and the subtask is scheduled to start in the year 5000.

If nothing in the whole plan has a start or end date, then the start can be today, and everything else follows from there according to the estimated durations and dependency relationships. Estimated duration can default to a week so you can at least see it on the gannt chart.

Is this making sense?

Adrian.