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Task Management

A professional schedule is built on a foundation of accurate task data. In MSP Planner, the "Task" is the fundamental unit of work, supporting a sophisticated model that distinguishes between simple planning placeholders and live Jira references.

Task Management

1. The Project Model: Hierarchy & Roll-ups​

MSP Planner uses a hierarchical tree structure to organize work. This allows you to decompose complex projects into manageable phases and tasks while maintaining absolute data integrity.

Leaf Tasks vs. Summary Tasks​

The engine distinguishes between two types of rows:

  • Leaf Tasks: The lowest level of the hierarchy. These are the tasks where work is actually performed, and they are the only rows that enter the "Task-Mode" calculation kernel (Fixed Work, Duration, or Units).
  • Summary Tasks: Any row that contains sub-tasks. Summary tasks act as "containers" and their values are derived automatically from their children.

The Roll-up Engine​

To ensure high-level reporting is always accurate, Summary Tasks use a deterministic roll-up mechanism:

  • Dates: The Start Date is the earliest start of any child; the Finish Date is the latest finish of any child.
  • Work & Duration: Effort and time spans are aggregated from the child tasks to provide an accurate view of the phase's total requirements.
  • Authoritative Overwrite: Because summary values are derived, the app authoritatively overwrites user input to these fields to prevent the "broken link" problem common in basic Gantt tools.

Manual Summary Behavior​

In professional planning, you may occasionally need a Summary Task to stay put regardless of its children. By setting a Summary Task to Manual mode, the row still rolls up dates from its children, but it will not be automatically shifted by the scheduling engine's dependency pass.

2. Task Types & Special States​

Not all tasks in a schedule serve the same purpose. MSP Planner supports specialized task types to model different project needs.

Milestones (Zero-Duration Tasks)​

A milestone represents a key achievement or a "hard point" in the project.

  • Identity: A milestone is a task with zero duration, where the start and finish occur at the same instant.
  • Dynamic Transition: The app automatically manages the milestone state. If you expand a milestone's duration, it is demoted to a standard task. Conversely, if you collapse a task to zero duration, it is promoted to a milestone.

Project-Only vs. Reference Tasks​

The workspace allows you to mix different "sources of truth" in a single schedule:

  • Project-Only Tasks: These are local placeholders used for early-stage planning or for external dependencies that don't exist in Jira. They exist only within the schedule.
  • Reference Tasks: These are tasks linked to real Jira issues. They carry a live identity (the Jira Issue Key) and are the target of the synchronization process.

3. Linking & Identity: The Jira Bridge​

The core strength of MSP Planner is the ability to connect a professional schedule to real-world execution without losing data during external reviews.

The Reference Identity​

When a task is linked to Jira, it becomes a Reference Task. This linkage is maintained via a stable identity hash.

  • Identity Preservation: This hash ensures that even if a task's name is changed in Jira or the schedule, the link remains intact.
  • MS Project Round-Tripping: For users who export to Microsoft Project, this identity is written into a reserved field (Text30). This allows the app to recognize the same task when a modified .mpp file is re-imported, ensuring lossless round-tripping.

The Synchronization Boundary​

Linking a task does not mean the tool silently overwrites Jira. To protect the team's daily work, MSP Planner employs an Explicit Synchronization Boundary:

  • Planning Space: Changes made to Reference Tasks in the timeline are stored locally as "Local Newer" changes.
  • Execution Space: The Jira issue remains unchanged until the Project Manager explicitly reviews and Pushes the changes.

For a detailed guide on managing this process, see The Synchronization Model.