Feature #365

Partial completion indicator

Added by Cory Donnelly 198 days ago. Updated 58 days ago.

Status:New Start:01/12/2010
Priority:Normal Due date:
To:Paul Beckingham % Done:

0%
Category:core Spent time: -
Target version:2.0.x - Katana

Description

I have a few monumental tasks which don't lend themselves well to being reinterpreted as projects. Consider:

$ task add pro:Wedding.Prepare_for_Reception Create playlist
Created task 1

This represents a task that could conceivably take days to complete. It could be broken up into subtasks, but this seems kind of artificial:

$ task add pro:Wedding.Prepare_for_Reception.Create_playlist Collect first hour of music
Created task 1
$ task add pro:Wedding.Prepare_for_Reception.Create_playlist Collect second hour of music
Created task 2
$ task add pro:Wedding.Prepare_for_Reception.Create_playlist Collect third hour of music
Created task 3

What do you think about recording partial completion? I propose something similar to:

$ task 1 do 50%
Completed 50% of 105 'Collect playlist'

Some thoughts:

  • 0.25, .25, and 25% should be acceptable input.
  • Partial completion values should be incorporated into the `task summary` report.
  • Should indicating that a task is partially completed mark the task as started? I'm thinking that it shouldn't, but I don't think I have a clear understanding of how you guys intended Start/Stop to be used.
  • If so, should resetting a task's percentage done to 0% stop the task?
  • Should setting a task's percentage done to 100% stop the task and change the Status to Completed?

History

Updated by Cory Donnelly 198 days ago

We could display partial completion dates alongside annotations:

$ task info 1

Name        Value
ID          1
Status      Pending
Description Collect playlist
            2010-01-19 20% Done
            2010-01-11 Received from spouse a list of must-have songs
            2010-01-12 50% Done
Project     Prepare_for_Reception
Tags        home
UUID        380d37b7-e831-1ca8-e430-b64d7d61bbae
Entered     2010-01-07 (4 days)

Updated by David Patrick 197 days ago

Completion is like pregnancy, in this case, it is or it isn't.
There's status:pending and status:completed and nothing in between.

I think you were onto something when you suggested that a partially completed task should be deemed started, but I think it will have to be the other way on; that a pending task that has been started can be thought of as partially completed.. but it's still pending until it is marked done.

One measure of completeness might be the ratio of the estimated time (using the as-yet non-existent duration:<time> attribute) as compared to the calculated time spent (recorded in start<time>---stop<time> annotations).
Yes, you could easily be 133% complete, and no, nothing should automatically change status because of it, although it might move higher on your Next report.
These elements will be easy to modify, and when aging is factored, reporting starts to take on some depth.

Let's be cautious about increasing the complexity surrounding what is marked done or deleted and what is still pending, being especially wary of automation.
It's simple now, let's keep it that way.

Updated by Paul Beckingham 58 days ago

  • Target version set to 2.0.x - Katana

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