gbrace, Thanks for the suggestion. Resolved might work; however, it
would be inconsistent with how we are using Closed vs. Resolved in our
case. We have also been looking at % Completion of 100% as perhaps an
indication that the child task is completed.
Uma, I might suggest the terms predecessor and successor. However,
dependencies in project tasks also involve the concepts of early and
late starts and finishes. It might also be simpler to think in terms
of tasks containing subtasks. I would expect parent tasks to be the
tasks and children to be the subtasks.
For instance, let's say there are a number of steps to building
a server and I want to break it down. Let's say hardware install,
OS install and application install. If I wanted to indicate progress
on each of the steps of building a server, the way ServiceDesk is set
up now, I would have to have a child task of build server, and parent
tasks of hardware install, OS install, and application install. That
seems backwards to me.
Parents create children. :) In the same way, the need to build a server is what creates the child tasks of hardware install, OS install, and application install. But you wouldn't expect the parent task of build server to be finished before all of the children.
In my particular project, in one case, I have seven different small (but complicated!) tasks that need to be finished before I can shut down a certain server. Under the current scheme, that means I'd have to set up the "shut down server" task as a child and give it seven parents. Seven parents seems like a lot for a child. :)
Parents create children. :) In the same way, the need to build a server is what creates the child tasks of hardware install, OS install, and application install. But you wouldn't expect the parent task of build server to be finished before all of the children.
In my particular project, in one case, I have seven different small (but complicated!) tasks that need to be finished before I can shut down a certain server. Under the current scheme, that means I'd have to set up the "shut down server" task as a child and give it seven parents. Seven parents seems like a lot for a child. :)