[Korganizer-devel] [Bug 160153] New: I WISH for a link between one task's end date & the next task's start date

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http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=160153         
           Summary: I WISH for a link between one task's end date & the next
                    task's start date
           Product: korganizer
           Version: unspecified
          Platform: Gentoo Packages
        OS/Version: Linux
            Status: UNCONFIRMED
          Severity: wishlist
          Priority: NOR
         Component: general
        AssignedTo: korganizer-devel kde org
        ReportedBy: 0x0065 gmail com


Version:            (using KDE 3.5.8)
Installed from:    Gentoo Packages
OS:                Linux

When scheduling a lot of tasks (for it to be commercially do-able) task DATE inter-dependency is really essential. *NOT SUB-TASK HIERARCHY* (Subtasks are great. Thank you so much to whoever implemented them) This is different from subtasks (which is like task grouping). In fact it would need to be completely independent of the subtask hierarchy! A link between the start date of tasks and the end date of other tasks means three things become possible:

1. you can take a jumble of tasks that you look at & think "where on earth should I start with this mess" and you work through them to see which tasks require other task to be completed first. Ideally the task list will then start to form an order in your calendar. At least it becomes clear which tasks you'd be wasting your time on initially.

2. when your timetable changes, you can push out earlier tasks & get immediate feedback about what breaks. Instead of having to wrap your head around the whole task interdependence & recheck everything again from scratch, your to-do list embodies this information/data.

3. when you have a group of people working on a project, the to-do list can communicate the information mentioned in 2 through the group, so they can see the impact of re-scheduling their task on others without needing to call a team meeting. They can also push back where they need to & get feedback without billing expensive time to their project.

With some sort of flagging field added to the ldap task description, I wonder if it could be implemented in the client. Of course it could then also be royally mangled by 'the wrong client'... (^-^) ...don't you think?

Two nice touches to this functionality
(that would really need to be implemented together):

1) a lock on the length of time needed for tasks to be completed to allow early sketching out of the task schedule over time. To allow quick but sane squeezing of the schedule that means a bi-directional relationship doesn't it. keeping the start time to end time links synced between tasks is definitely a client side activity, one way or another)

2) the ability to 'pin' the start/end date of a task/meeting...
(ie. a deadline or an 'available to start' time) linking (movable) tasks to (unresponsive) calendar items like client meetings or initial briefings would fulfill this. It would also mean that the real world chaos created by moving a client meeting forward a week can be expressed in digital space. (^-^) like an executive stress toy or a digital sandcastle.