Table of Contents

Rollups

Rollups are a feature that can be used, in multiple ways, to simplify, and decrease the amount of time spent, in keeping project dates current at varying levels of the project structure in Wrike. The main areas of focus where we use the Rollup feature is at the top project levels, and the milestone, or bucket, task level.

Project Level Rollups

At the project level, Wrike allows for a feature called "Auto Rollups". Auto rollups can be enable by going to the table view of a project, making sure either the start date or due date field is activated, and hovering over one of the date field values of the project. The user will then see and select a small icon appear with the text "Enable Auto Rollups".

Once auto rollups have been activated on a project Wrike will constantly be searching for the earliest start date on any task contained within the project, and the latest due date on any task within the project. Those dates will then automatically be rolled up to either the start date or due date at the project level.

Note: Activating the rollups on either the start or due date field will activate rollups for both fields automatically. That is to say, if you enable rollups on the due date of the project, start dates will also be rolled up to the top project level.

The utility of this is fairly straightforward for any user overseeing a project. Instead of having to consistently update the project to when the tasks are dictating the project is trending to begin/finish (more relevant for finishing) Wrike will simply auto update those fields for the user.

Task Level Rollups

Task level rollups, unlike project level rollups, can only be triggered manually by a user. Task rollups are used to rollup the earliest start date or latest due date, of any subtasks, to the top parent task level. This is why, for the eCornell use case, task rollups will be applied on the milestone, or bucket, level tasks within projects.

To perform a task level rollup, a user will need to go to the gantt view of a project, and right click either the start date or due date of a bucket level task and then select "Item Rollup".

In the above example, and in general, the easiest/fastest way of being able to recognize where a rollup might be needed is noting where the shaded area of the task bucket in the gantt view appears. The area of the bar in the gantt view that extends past it's due date is the shaded out region, this is telling the user there is a subtask scheduled to finish after the due date, and that an "Item Rollup" should be executed. The same will be seen when a subtask's start date is earlier than the bucket's start date.

Note: Currently the gantt view does not indicate when a subtask start date is later than the bucket's start date, or earlier than the bucket's due date.

When right clicking either of the dates of a bucket task, the user has the option to perform either an "Item Rollup" or a "Branch Rollup". Here are the definitions of both:

  • Item Rollup: When selected, the parent task’s dates change and are rolled up depending on the dates of the items within/under it.
  • Branch Rollup: When selected, Wrike starts rolling up dates starting from the bottom up. Dates are progressively rolled up for items higher up in the branch/dependency chain until the dates on the parent task are rolled up.
Warning: For the eCornell use case, "Branch Rollups" should be avoided, because it can trigger unintended consequences when interacting with our detailed dependency chain between tasks.

When performing item rollups on a project, the best practice is to sort the entire project by title, and executing rollups starting at the top bucket that needs a rollup, and then working downwards. This is because often times, because of the project's dependency chain, other task buckets later in the timeline will be updated as needed automatically once task buckets before them are updated.

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