Task links help you complete work in order and in context.
In Hivelight we use task links to solve a number of the long standing issues in productivity solutions:
How to enable some one who is not familiar with the matter to complete the tasks in order and in context;
How to have checklists for ensuring that all the pre-requisites of a task have been completed without losing 'at-a-glance' visibility of all the work that is involved and without losing the ability to document the progress of each item in the checklist;
How to have "sub-tasks" or dependencies between tasks without the problems that subtasks cause - being the loss of the 'at-a-glance' visibility of the work that is needed (let's be honest... sub tasks get lost or forgotten pretty easily).
The answer is task links.
In Hivelight you can create links between tasks based on the relationships between them. You can also use these links to jump between these tasks to move back n forth between related tasks with a minimum of clicks.
Note: currently you can only add task link relationships between tasks that are in the same milestone.
Task link relationships
There are 3 types of task link relationships:
Required by: The current task is a prerequisite of the linked task. i.e. The current task's completion is 'required by' the linked task before that linked task is ready to start;
Requires: The linked task is a prerequisite of the current task. The current task requires the linked task to be completed before it is ready to start;
Related: The linked task is related to the current task but neither is a prerequisite of the other. The link relationship is merely there to assist by showing that each task provides context for understanding the other.
Here is a visual representation of a set of task link relationships. Each task or set of tasks on the right requires the previous tasks on the left to be complete before they are ready to start.
To see the task link relationships that a task has, open the task and scroll to the 'task links' section.
Here you can see the tasks links section on a matter. The link relationships shown are the same as in the above diagram. Notice how this also provides a useful checklist in each task that automatically updates as the related tasks are completed (saving you clicks and providing context).
Adding task links ad hoc
You can add task links ad hoc in the course of working on a matter.
Just open the task, scroll to 'task links' and click on 'Add a link'.
Select the task you want to link to and the nature of it's relationship with the current task.
Adding task links in the roadmap editor
You can add task links to tasks in the roadmap editor.
Open any roadmap in the roadmap editor.
Click on the options button next to the roadmap name and select 'edit roadmap'.
You'll then have the option on each task to add task link relationships with other tasks.
When you load the roadmap to a matter, the task link relationships you added will be there.