[chandler-users] [Sum] Tasks and Stars - Next Steps

[chris janssen]

Hi,

I came to Chandler post the "Task" to "Star" transition. I use Chandler 
daily/ heavily to coordinate projects and tasks within my team. The 
reasons why I have taken up Chandler:

- project management needed more fine grained task management than gantt 
charts provide; i.e. projects needed to be broken down into small tasks.

- it is important that tasks are assigned to time slots in the calendar; 
i.e. tasks need specific time slots in which they are worked on - this 
prevents overloading and helps with time management issues when people 
really have too much to do.

- tasks need to be persistent until marked as done. Just using a 
calendar slot for task/ time management is no good, since the task will 
automatically expire once the time/ date has passed, even if it is not 
completed. The current version (0.7.5.1. and 0.7.6) solves this 
beautifully (with the "Dashboard").

- my staff do find the "Star" slightly confusing, and sometimes forget 
to apply it, which then defeats the purpose. This however can be fixed 
with practice, and there is no guarantee that they would not forget to 
apply a "Task" button!! Ironically, my PA did use a "star" sign for 
to-do lists (as opposed to appointments to arrange) when using pen and 
paper... so its not so far fetched an idea.

- working with collections for tasks ("Star" items) which are visible in 
the "Dashboard", and appointments collections (personal diary) that are 
not visible in the Dashboard, provides us with a perfect platform to 
coordinate tasks and time for projects, and thus getting things done! 
(And avoids double booking or overloading.)

So, to sum up, in my opinion the functionality is what matters, not 
whether the item is denoted as "Star" or "Task". If you need to 
coordinate a team, and seriously need to get things done (as in more 
than is humanly reasonable), you need to be able to track tasks in real 
time, monitor their status, and re-schedule if necessary (without 
loosing items!).

I have to say that Chandler (in its present incarnation) has proven an 
excellent solution.

best regards

Chris


Mimi Yin wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> There have been several discussions on this List and Chandler-Dev 
> concerning the Task/Star Label. I'd like to take this opportunity to 
> summarize the main points and outline next steps.
> 
> 1. We've heard from a number of users on the list that the Task Stamp is 
> sorely missed and that the Star stamp does not satisfy the same user 
> need. (It's always nice to hear that a feature was liked and used!)
> 
> 2. My next design project is to revive and update a proposal for 
> extending the range of Item Kinds in Chandler to re-instate Tasks and 
> add a Reference Kind, and an extremely basic notion of Contacts. This 
> will be a good opportunity for us to re-examine the Task Stamp (how can 
> it be improved?!**) as well as discuss simple things we can do to make 
> basic, yet useful Reference and Contacts Kinds.
> 
> (**My theory about why the Task Stamp was confusing for some people is 
> that it simply didn't *do* enough to merit use. The same could be said 
> for why in PIMs, features like Flagging and Starring are more widely 
> used than Todo Lists.)
> 
> 3. We have also discussed making a "Task" parcel available in the 
> short-term as a temporary stop-gap measure while we sort out a more 
> coherent story for customizing and extending Item Kinds.
> 
> 4. Finally, please believe when I say that we remain focused on users 
> who will be *heavy* users of Chandler and are trying our best to balance 
> competing user needs.
> 
> I will be following up with a more detailed blog post on this issue.
> 
> Mimi
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