Dates & deadlines (TaskAlot)
How about deadlines, do dates, delivery dates, etc., without creating an avalance of fields?
Brainstorm
- As of 2023.04, TaskAlot contains a date field called do date
- Ideally, by the time a task is executable, it shouldn't take longer than one day, so a do date makes sense
- However, even with these 'ideal' tasks, often the do date is rather a deadline. In such cases, Sunday is chosen as deadline since it's the last day of the week, eventhough folks don't usually work on that day (or maybe they do - Up to them to decide)
- Personally, I would like to use Notion as my agenda, so a do date makes sense: It's how it ends up in my agenda. But this is not how it would work for the other folks who use TaskAlot: I don't think they use it as their agenda, or even as their private project management system
- A deadline is not necessarily the same as the date for which the task is scheduled to be delivered
- Term delivery date isn't accurate either. Expected delivery date would be more accurate, but also longer
- Maybe I do need two fields: deadline & do date → Implemented on 2023.05.02
- Or three fields: Deadline, Do date & Exp. delivery date?
2023.05.25:
- I do need a separate Delivery date: Occasionally, tasks take more than a day. Sometimes even more than a week. In such cases, the field Do date doesn't make sense
- I might need a separate field Done date or Done (when a task changed its status to Done), so I can see the progress: It's information I am currently lacking.
Deadline
- Preferably, a task should have a deadline before start: We all perform better when we have clear boundaries
- A deadline is usually set externally to the assignee: By a project coordinator or ultimately by a customer
- Deadlines usually don't change when somebody misses it.
Deadline changes
There are cases where it is appropriate to change deadlines, basically when there is a mismatch between responsibilities & authority; when the assignee is unable to take responsibility. E.g.:
- Ill-defined task
- Unmet depencies
- When a whole project or timeline gets changed or rearranged.
Delivery date
- A delivery date is set by the person taking responsibility for a task
- When a deadline is not met, by default the deadline should stay the same, but the person working on the task, should change the delivery date.
Do date
- Do date is only relevant for the person working on the task, and up to him or her whether to use or not
- Personally, I tried using this date for my own tasks for planning purposes: To have tasks in my agenda according to their do date. Currently (2023.05.25), I'm not using TaskAlot as my agenda, so I currently don't use this field.