Buildings & Grounds uses tasks to identify, plan and track a wide variety of activities. A task is assigned a unique TaskID (TID) number when its Task Summary is listed in UUBG-053 Tasks: Master Index. Then a Task Plan is created in UUBG-042 Tasks: TODO List. When the task has been completed, the Task Plan is moved to UUBG-052 Tasks: DONE List. Most tasks are odd jobs handled by one or two people - when they are done, that's it. Some tasks expand into larger projects which become UUBG-PPP Project: ... documents. Other tasks may be integrated into a regular maintenance procedure.
Tasks are fundamental to UUBG-055 Organization: Getting Things Done in the Buildings & Grounds committee. They are lightweight and malleable so UUBG can respond quickly and flexibly as events develop. Tasks are used in many ways:
- Capture "TODO" requests - UUBG's "IN" basket
- Recruit and credit volunteers
- Plan work & work parties
- Track progress and next action
- Record labor and material costs
- Combine tasks into project
- Decompose project into tasks
- Evolve maintenance procedures & checklists
- Accumulate maintenance database
- Text searchable historical log
Task information is stored in two tabular formats. The Task Summary format is one line of data in the master index with a hyperlink to the current location of the more expansive Task Plan format. The Plan being either in the UUBG-042 Tasks: TODO List or the UUBG-052 Tasks: DONE List.
The Task Summary format used in UUBG-053 Tasks: Master Index provides basic information for each task.
TID-003 is given as an example:
| TaskID | Status | Group | Title |
| TID-003 | [FIXED] | Hardscape | Repair Bricks @ Nursery & Founders' Hall |
- TaskID - Assign incrementally starting with TID-001
with hyper-link into TODO List or DONE List - Status - Current status of task:
- [TODO] - Awaiting volunteer(s)
- [WIP] - Work-in-process
- [PATCH] - Problem patched, may not be fixed
- [FIXED] - Problem fixed
- [DONE] - Task completed
- [PROJ] - Assigned to project
- [MAINT] - Assigned to maintenance
- [QUIT] - Abandoned the task
- Group B&G group responsible for task:
- Steering - Steering Committee
- Landscape - Landscape Group
- Hardscape - Hardscape Group
- Structures - Structures Group
- Furnishings - Furnishings Group
- Title One-line title of the task
The Task Plan format used in UUBG-042 Tasks: TODO List and UUBG-052 Tasks: DONE List accomodates additional information:
| TaskID InDate (DueDate) UpDate [STATUS] |
Title (Source)
Description NEXT: / DONE: Action (what; by whom; when) NEED: / USED: Resources (labor; material; skills; tools) NOTE: Summary, details, loose ends |
| TID-003
2007-07-10 () 2007-10-06 [FIXED] |
Repair Bricks @ Nursery & Founders' Hall (Allan Sohl)
The roots of a tipuana tree have pushed up bricks in front of the nursery. This trip hazard has already injured one of our members. Remove bricks in the area, cut back the roots and re-lay the bricks. DONE: Fixed during OSS#1 by Niel Lynch, Michael Parr, Bob Packard USED: 12 hrs; 2 bags sand; masonry saw, pickaxe, shovels NOTE: A few bricks at top of main steps still need work. |
- InDate - Date received from source
- (DueDate) - Date required (optional)
- UpDate - Date of latest change
- (Source) Who submitted the task?
- Description - Describe task in a paragraph
- DONE: Step done, by whom, when
- USED: Actual resources used.
- NEXT: Step to do, by whom, by when
- NEED: Estimated: Labor; Material; Tools; Skills
- NOTE: Summary, details, loose ends
All dates are in YYYY-MM-DD format. UpDate reflects the most recent change to the Task Plan. The DueDate is optional. If not provided, leave an empty pair of parentheses.
TaskID, InDate and Source should not change after the task is created. Group and Title rarely change. Description tends to grow over time as the plan evolves. NEXT: / NEED: lines are added for each step, then converted to DONE: / USED: line pairs as each step is completed. NOTE: is a scratchpad.
In the true spirit of Buildings & Grounds we have implemented the Task management system with tools we found laying around. Sure they are a bit rusty, but they are also inconvenient and unreliable ;-} Since there are no decent HTML editors (they all trip over themselves trying to be fancy) we ended up writing XHTML Transitional qualified web pages using little more than an ASCII editor.
Although a data base might be convenient for sorting, they tend to be rigidly formatted and require specialized tools to access. Web pages are text searchable using any old browser. The Task Plan format is very much free-form. Who knows know what stuff we might need to toss into it?
We compensate for our limited toolset by using a few simple data entry templates and standardizing our hyperlink naming schemes.
UUBG documents which include Task Summary or Task Plan tables label each TaskID with an id attribute. Use the format: id="TID-TTT", where 'TTT' is the three digit TaskID number. Thus, a hyperlink reference to a particular task entry in any UUBG document has the format: UUBG-NNN.html#TID-TTT, where NNN is the document number and TTT is the TaskID number.
Formatted tables in UUBG web pages generally include a blank entry template embedded within a <!-- ==== ... ==== --> comment. These include dummy data fields in ALL CAPS. For creating new tasks there is a ==== BLANK TASK SUMMARY ==== and a ==== BLANK TASK PLAN ==== in the appropriate html pages.
An excellent discussion of how tasks are used in the workflow of the UUBG committee is at UUBG-055 Organization: Getting Things Done / Workflow . Here we delve into the details of editing task entries in the web pages.
New tasks arise from various sources. Other members of the Fellowship submit task suggestions to the UUBG's In-Basket. If the task is not novel:
- Tell the source that we are aware of the task
- Cite it's ID, Project or Maintenance list document number
- Direct the source to the corresponding document
Otherwise, create a new In-Basket Task.
The information required to create an In-Basket task is minimal:
- Task Summary in UUBG-053 Tasks: Master Index:
- TaskID = 1 + previous TID; link into TODO List
- Status = [IN]
- Group = { Steering, Landscape, Hardscape, Structures or Furnishings }
- Title = descriptive phrase
- Task Plan in UUBG-042 Tasks: TODO List adds:
- InDate = today
- DueDate (if any)
- UpDate = today
- Source = who from?
- Description = per source
Open the UUBG-053 Tasks: Master Index html file in an editor. Copy and paste the BLANK TASK SUMMARY contained in a comment at the top of the Task Summary Table. Set all 3 instances of TID-TTT to the next TID number. Set other fields as indicated above. Save and close.
Open the UUBG-042 Tasks: TODO List html file in an editor. Copy the BLANK TASK PLAN contained in a comment at the top of the "Tasks by Group" section of the file. Then scroll down to the appropriate table for the Group { Steering, Landscape, Hardscape, Structures or Furnishings } and paste the BLANK TASK PLAN at the top of that table. This will be just below a comment saying (for example):=== PASTE NEW STEERING PLAN HERE ===.
Set all 3 instances of TID-TTT to the same TID number as the SUMMARY. Set other fields as indicated above. All dates are in YYYY-MM-DD format. The DueDate is optional. If not provided, leave an empty pair of parentheses.
Focus on the source information. Don't sweat the Title or Description. Leave the DONE: USED: NEXT: NEED: NOTE: lines as-is with their dummy data fields. These will be hammered out by the task planner. Save and close.
Planner adds a NEXT: line and a NEED: line for each step of the task. After each step is completed, convert these to DONE: and USED: recording progress and actual costs. Within a task the sequence of steps progresses downward in chronological order. DONE: USED: pairs are first with the most recent NEXT: / NEED: pair below. NOTE: is always at the tail end.
Simple tasks like TID-003 above are completed with one DONE: / USED: pair. Other tasks can end up with many DONE: / USED: pairs, particularly if they drag out over time. If the task has [PROJ] status, the DONE: / USED: pairs are typically moved into the project document, reserving the Task Plan for the immediate NEXT: / NEED: steps.
Change the UpDate whenever the Task Plan is modified. Remember to update the Plan Summary in UUBG-053 Tasks: Master Index if the Status, Group or Title are changed in the Task Plan.
Once a task has been completed (or abandoned), move the Task Plan from UUBG-042 Tasks: TODO List html file to the corresponding group table in the UUBG-052 Tasks: DONE List html file. Keep the DONE List tables sorted in descending TID number order as the newly completed Task Plans are added.
Always update the Plan Summary in UUBG-053 Tasks: Master Index when the task is completed: update Status and redirect the TID number hyperlink from UUBG-042 to UUBG-052.