Table of Contents

Updating Task Start and Due Dates

Making sure the dates on Wrike projects and tasks are current is an important step in making sure all eCornell users in Wrike can stay up to date on a projects current process. For this article, we will focus on updating task dates specifically. Updating task dates within Wrike is also a good way of making sure you as an individual user has a straightforward experience when using Wrike on an everyday basis.

Start and Due Date Definitions

For the eCornell use case within Wrike, it's important to note how users should be considering both the term "Start Date" and "Due Date" for tasks within our production projects.

Start Dates are fairly straightforward, and are when it is assumed that work will be able to begin towards completing a task.

Due Dates are a less straightforward term in our use case. Due dates should be considered more as "Expected Completion Dates". Meaning, the due date of a task is not signifying specifically when a task needs to be done, but more so when it's assumed it will be completed.

Note: It should be specifically noted by the task assigner or a project overseer/manager, within a task's description, or in a comment on the task, when a due date needs to be considered strict. In other words, if a task needs to be completed by a specific date, that needs to be clearly stated for the task assignee.

Who Updates Task Dates

It is expected that anyone who is assigned a task will be the person updating a tasks dates as needed, as they are the ones with the most current and accurate information about when that task can and will be worked on.

The importance of task dates being maintained by individual assignees is especially true for the more service oriented groups of the production team (QA, Video, Motion, Graphics, etc) as they will have even more specific knowledge and context regarding a task's completion.

If assignees of tasks within a project are not updating their dates and keeping the task data current, it will then be expected for the project's overseer/manager to periodically check the project, and update the tasks dates as needed. Instructional Design team members (ID, IDA, or IDD) will be the individuals given this responsibility for projects, but it is assumed by default that this position will be filled by the project's ID, unless otherwise noted. A different role, besides ID, being given the status of overseer/manager of a particular project will be determined based off a multitude of potential variables such as, IDD team, project content, project timeline, individual's aptitude and availability, etc.

When to Update Task Dates

All tasks within course production projects will have dates attached to them by default. These dates are established by the templated dependency chain and predecessors applied to all projects and their tasks.

However, the initial dates and durations that are applied out of this mechanism are based on general assumptions about how long certain tasks will take to complete. So it is very unlikely that once production begins on a project that all of the initial dates that are applied will be 100% accurate, therefor individual task dates will need to be updated if the assumed dates are no longer realistic.

The predecessors and the dependency chain will automatically update and shift all dates within a project once one of the tasks in it is changed, either by pushing out all of the dates down chain of an adjusted task, or pulling them in (depending on if a task's timeline for completion is extended or shortened). Once these automatic changes have taken place, on the rest of the dates within the project, it is likely that some of these assumed dates will fall out of alignment with reality, and will need updating.

It is therefor recommended, when considering the above, that assignees/project overseers focus on updating the task dates that are currently being worked on, or that soon will be worked on. And allowing all of the applied dates that are generated by the dependency chain to act as a more high level predictive function, giving a general estimation of a project completion timeline.

Ways to Update Task Dates

Within Wrike, there are a number of views and ways in which a user can update the dates of a task. Here are some of the more critical methods when considering how to keep a project's tasks dates current. Which method(s) are used should be determined by user preference.

Task Details View

Within the details view of a task you will see the start and due dates, of that particular task, in the top left corner of the details screen.

When a user clicks on either one of the dates, a dropdown will appear that allows that user to update both the start and due date. When entering this dropdown, the system defaults to having the user adjust the start date first, even if the due date was clicked on to enter the dropdown. See this gif as an example:

However, within this window, the user can select either the start or due date field specifically, and edit either or both as needed.

Additional pieces of functionality that users can access from within this window are:

  • Adjust Duration: Allows users to specify the amount of business days it will take to complete work on this task. Adjusting the duration will by default push out or pull in the due date in accordance to the adjustment.
  • Clear Dates: Allows users to completely remove both the start and due dates on the selected tasks.
  • Working Days Configuration: Allows users to specify what days of the week a specific can/will be worked on. Might be appropriate especially for tasks involving faculty members, who sometimes work on tasks on weekends.
  • Activate Effort: Activating effort on a task allows users to enter and track the amount of specific hours it will take/is taking to complete a task. However, this is not a variable that is currently used or tracked on by anyone within eCornell.
Gantt View

The gantt view of projects within Wrike is a practical place for updating dates, as there is a right hand pane that will visualize the dates of the tasks in a project.

To most effectively use the gantt view for updating the start and due dates of tasks, if the start and due dates are not appearing by default, the user will want to click the gear icon in the left hand upper corner of the view. From the dropdown window the user will want to activate both the start and due dates in the left hand columned pane. It is recommended when working with dates, in the gantt view, to also activate the predecessor column. The effects of predecessors will be covered in depth in the next article in this category. However, it is important to note that predecessors can only be viewed/changed from the gantt view.

Here is a gif illustrating all of the above actions:

Tip: The order in which each of the columns are selected, is how they're appear from left to right in the columned pane, however, users can click and drag to rearrange them once activated.

Once the view has been configured as needed, users can now change dates either from the cell/column left hand pane, or the visualized gantt chart right pane. The option comes down to user preference, so experimenting with both options is recommended.

Adjusting dates within the cells is as simple as double clicking a cell and either typing in a specific date, or using the dropdown calendar window to search for an appropriate date.

As stated above, a user can also adjust dates for tasks from the gantt chart view itself as well. To do this, find the task that needs to be adjusted, find either the start or the end of the task in the gantt view (whichever needs adjusting) and simply click and drag that end of the task either forward or backward in time on the gantt view.

Note: Once the dates are adjusted in any of the ways mentioned above/below, the date for that specific task will be updated across the entire system. In other words, within Wrike, when one change is made to a data field on a task, that data will be updated instantly for every user across the system however they access/view that task.
Table View

The table view is an effective way to update task dates when a large amount of tasks within one or more projects will need updates made to their dates. The table view acts a spreadsheet type of view for projects, which allows quite a few line items to be shown on the screen.

To effectively use the table view for date changes, it is recommended to remove as much unneeded information from the screen as possible. This is achieved by the same approach described above in the gantt view. Click the gear icon in the top left corner of the view, make sure the start and due date columns are activated. Then make sure any columns that will be helpful to the user, such as assignee, status, role, etc, are activated, and that any columns that are not needed by the user are unchecked and deactivated.

Once the view has been configured, users can double click the date field of the tasks within the project(s) to adjust the date as needed. Once again, this will open a dropdown calendar view, or give the user the ability to manually type and enter a specific date.

Dashboards

Many users within Wrike will be, or it is at least recommended for them to be, using dashboards in Wrike to manage their tasks. This might be done through the "PERSONAL: Main Task Management Dash" provided to each eCornell user, or their own custom created/configured task management dashboard. There are multiple ways to quickly adjust both the start and due dates from these dashboards when users are monitoring their tasks.

The first, and quickest, option is to find the task in the dashboard widget, find where the due date of the task is shown, and click on that date. Once a user has done so, they will see the same date adjustment window that they would see within the task details view. All of the same options that were described above in the Task Details View section are available in this window as well.

A second option is to click the task itself, which will open up the task details view. From here, dates can be adjusted as described above in the Task Details View section. Users selecting this option will then have the opportunity for other updates on this task as well, such as status or assignee changes/updates, posting comments, adding attachments, etc.

A third option is to right click the task from the dashboard, and select one of the 2, more limited, date related options. The first is "Clear Dates" this will remove any date values that are either in the start and/or due date fields. The second option is "Reschedule" which will give the user to adjust the start date of the task to either today, tomorrow, or next week. The next week option will set the start date to a Sunday, even though they are outside of our system's configured working days.

Reports

Users monitoring the dates of tasks that either they, or members of their team, are responsible for, might be inclined to use this collected view of a set of tasks to adjust the dates of these tasks.

While users can not interact with tasks from within reports, they can still click on the view details button on the tasks in the report, which will bring up the task details view of the selected task. From here dates can be adjusted as described above in the Task Details View section. As well as make any other changes/updates that are needed.

How did we do?

Statuses

Predecessors

Contact