Working with progressed tasks and allocations

When you assign partial progress to a task or allocation, the task or allocation splits into completed and uncompleted sections. The two sections remain connected so that any references to the whole task or allocation display the correct information.

You can display progressed tasks and allocations in two ways:

Connected, with a line connecting the split sections	Continuous

To specify whether to display progressed tasks and allocations as split sections or as continuous tasks and allocations:

1. On the Format tab, in the Format group, click Format Bar Chart. The Format Bar Chart dialog appears.
2. Click the Progress tab.
3. Select the Split progressed sections check box to display progressed tasks as split sections, or clear the check box to display them as continuous tasks.

When a task is split by progress and you choose to display progressed tasks as continuous, progress is displayed on the continuous task up to the report date of the task's last used progress period, or up to its resume date (whichever is earlier).

When a progressed task or allocation is displayed as continuous, you can select the whole task or allocation by clicking it in the same way that you select a normal task or allocation.

When a progressed task or allocation is displayed as connected sections, you can select an individual section by clicking it. Use CTRL-click to select more than one section. You can select the whole task (but not a whole allocation) by clicking the gap between sections. When there is no gap between split sections, click the point at which the sections join to select the whole task.

You can display properties for split sections of tasks and allocations in the same way that you display the properties of whole tasks and allocations. A task's progress is shown on the Task tab of the Bar and Task Properties dialog; an allocation's progress is displayed on the Progress tab of the Allocation Properties dialog.

Displaying the properties of a completed task section displays the properties just for that section; displaying the properties for an uncompleted task section displays the properties for the whole task. Displaying the properties of a completed or uncompleted allocation section displays the properties for the whole allocation.

When a summary task, expanded task or hammock is selected, the Bar and Task Properties dialog shows the total progress for that task and all its subordinate tasks.

When viewing the progress of an allocation, if you want to enter a progress amount that is independent of the allocation's effort, work or quantity, enter the percentage in the User percent complete field. Progress specified as a user percentage is not displayed as progress shading on the allocation, but can be displayed in the spreadsheet and in annotation fields.

When you move or copy a task, if the whole task (both completed and uncompleted sections) is selected, then both the completed and uncompleted sections of the task and any allocations are moved or copied. If only the uncompleted section of a task is selected, then only that section and any uncompleted allocations are moved or copied and the completed sections remain at their original location. When you move or copy an uncompleted section to another bar, the link to the original task is lost. You might want to move an uncompleted section to another bar if you want to assign the remaining work to another part of the project.

You cannot move or copy completed sections to other bars except when moving or copying the whole task, and you cannot move a completed section to the right of its associated uncompleted section.

When a whole task (both completed and uncompleted sections) is selected:

• Dragging the left-hand end of the task changes the start date and duration of the first completed section.
• Dragging the right-hand end of the task changes the finish date and duration of the uncompleted section.

When you change the duration of a task that has partial progress, the task's percentage complete is recalculated for its new duration. For example, if a 10 day task is marked as 50% complete then you increase the task duration to 20 days, the task's progress is recalculated as 25%:

A 10 day task with 50% progress...	... becomes a 20 day task with 25% progress

You can move a completed allocation section (but you cannot change its duration) by dragging in the bar chart. You can move an uncompleted allocation section within the bounds of the uncompleted task section to which it is assigned, and you can change the duration of an uncompleted allocation section by dragging in the bar chart.

You can also change the duration of completed and uncompleted task and allocation sections by editing their start date, finish date and duration in the Object Edit toolbar.

If a completed section of a task has progress that has been marked using a progress period that is now locked, you cannot edit its progress-related values: such completed sections cannot be moved, their durations cannot be changed and their percentage progress cannot be amended.

You can specify whether users are able to move progressed tasks and allocations using the Move completed sections check box on the General tab of the Security Group Properties dialog.

You can assign progress to tasks out of sequence. For example, if you have two tasks on the same bar, normally the first task would be completed before the second task is started, but in some circumstances you might have progress on the second task before the first task has been completed, as illustrated below:

When this happens, the reschedule moves the uncompleted task sections so that they lie after the completed task sections (any link logic between the tasks is retained):

When task sections get mixed up like this, Asta Powerproject still tracks which task sections originate from the same task so that values such as the percentage complete for the whole task are still correct.

In these circumstances, tasks are displayed as unlinked split sections irrespective of whether you have chosen to display progressed tasks as continuous bars or as split sections. However when you display the bar in one-task-per-line mode, the tasks are displayed according to your display setting: either as linked sections or as continuous tasks, as illustrated below:

Tasks displayed as linked sections	Tasks displayed as continuous

To select a whole task that has out of sequence progress, display the bar in one-task-per-line mode, then click the connecting line or the continuous task as appropriate.

You can choose where the progress line is drawn on bars containing out of sequence progress, when the progress line is configured to appear jagged rather than straight. You can display it either on the progress period report date, or at the start of the first uncompleted section on the bar.

Displayed on the progress period report date	Displayed at the start of the first uncompleted section

To specify where to draw the progress line on bars containing out of sequence progress:

1. On the Format tab, in the Format group, click Format Bar Chart. The Format Bar Chart dialog appears.
2. Click the Progress tab.
3. Select the Use first out of sequence section check box to display the progress line at the start of the first uncompleted section, or clear the check box to display it on the progress period report date.

This applies only if the progress line is configured to appear jagged; if the progress line is configured to appear straight, it is always drawn on the progress period report date.

Although it is not possible to assign resources or cost centres to completed sections of tasks using most methods of assignment, you can still assign them to completed sections by dragging and dropping them from the project view, unless the Only assign to remainder check box is selected on the Assign tab of the Options dialog.

Select the Only assign to remainder check box to specify that it should not be possible to assign resources and cost centres to 100% complete tasks and to completed sections of part-progressed tasks by dragging and dropping, or clear the check box to specify that it should be possible to assign resources and cost centres to completed tasks and sections by dragging and dropping. This check box also determines what happens when you assign resources and cost centres to the incomplete sections of part-progressed tasks.

If you select the check box:

• It is not possible to assign resources and cost centres to completed sections of tasks or to 100% complete tasks.
• If you assign a resource or cost centre to the incomplete section of a part-progressed task, the resource or cost centre is assigned to the incomplete section of the task only:
  
  

If you clear the check box:

• It is possible to assign resources and cost centres to completed sections of tasks and to 100% complete tasks, but only by dragging and dropping.
• If you assign a resource or cost centre to either the completed section or the incomplete section of a part-progressed task, the resource or cost centre is assigned to the whole task and the allocation is progressed in step with the task automatically:
  
  
• If you assign a resource or cost centre to a 100% complete task, the allocation is progressed to 100% complete automatically: