Is this a bug in Dependencies?

[Rob Feeny]

I'm planning out a repair job to a kitchen in a tiny house and I'm running into what appears to be a bug to me. If it's not a bug, can someone explain what is happening to me? What happens is that when I set a dependency for a task, all its subtasks (children) seem to now depend on that as well. This doesn't seem right to me. I have run into it with several things but the example I have included in my screen shot is this:

I need to re-install a sheet of plywood that goes behind the kitchen counter units. I can't install that until the wall vapor barrier is resealed because that will be behind the plywood, so I created a dependency on that task (because it is also part of the "re-install drywall" task). But also, before the plywood can be re-installed, I need to measure out and drill some holes in it. That can be done anytime as it doesn't depend on anything. Those tasks are children of the "Re-install plywood" task. But they are not showing as available (turning green) nor appearing in the to-do.

I can understand the parent tasks of "Re-install plywood" not being available as both children (water line holes, power hole) need to be complete, as well as the vapor barrier dependency complete, but why would the water line hole and power line hole depend on the vapor barrier task? If I remove the "Reseal vapor barrier task" dependency from "Reinstall plywood" they show up immediately.

Can someone explain?

[Dwight]

Hi, Rob. The way you are looking at it makes a lot of sense, unfortunately That's Not How It Works.

An explicitly coded dependency means that the branch with the dependent task at its root is inactive until the trigger task has been completed. So your two hole-drilling tasks are a part of the branch rooted at reinstall kitchen plywood, therefore neither of them can become active until the dependency is satisfied. There are several ways to code exactly what you want without using dependencies, to avoid confusion I will just tell you two of them. If you don't like either one please write back and say why and I will send you another.

FIRST SCENARIO
>Cut Out Hole for HW Heater (complete subtasks in order)
     >Drill holes for HW Heater Power Line
     >Drill holes for waterlines
     >Reinstall Kitchen wall plywood (dependent on reseal vapor barrier)
>Paint Kitchen Walls
etc

This scenario is not exactly what you wanted. It will allow the two drilling tasks to become active before the vapor barrier is resealed, but the plywood will not be reinstalled until the vapor barrier is done. But the problem is that the waterline drilling will remain inactive until the powerline drilling is marked complete. That is not quite what you wanted. So here is a second scenario:

SECOND SCENARIO
>Cut Out Hole for HW Heater (complete subtasks in order)
     >[folder]Drilling
          >Drill holes for HW Heater Power Line
          >Drill holes for waterlines
     >Reinstall Kitchen wall plywood (dependent on reseal vapor barrier)
>Paint Kitchen Walls
etc

The option to complete subtasks in order will force sequential completion on Drilling and on plywood reinstall. The Drilling item will not appear on your task list because its a folder. The tro actual drilling tasks will be free of the sequential requirement because the folder interrupts the requirement. So, when the hot water heater branch becomes available, the two drilling tasks will appear on your to-do list at the same time. Reinstallation of the plywood is waiting for two things: the completion of all (both) of the subtasks under the drilling folderm and satisfaction of the dependency on the vapor barrier. When the two drilling tasks and the vapor barrier are complete then the plywood task will become active.

[Rob Feeny]

Dwight, thanks for your thorough reply. I have been playing around more with the 'complete tasks in order' option and folders and I think I have made things work. Your second scenario is the most useful for me. I seem to be getting all my current tasks listing well now.

I'm planning the kitchen repair job as a test to see if this is something I could use to plan an entire build in MLO. Any experience getting a Gantt chart from an MLO export?

[Dwight]

Hi, Rob. I think that you will end up doing things in MLO that nobody
else has accomplished and I look forward to learning new techniques from
you.

I do not, at this point, see making a Gantt chart out of an MLO tree
because MLO does not carry enough information about dates.

MLO basically has start date and due date. In my personal variant of GTD
I use Start Date to show the earliest future date on which a task could
possibly be started, and due date to show the date after which it is no
longer possible or meaningful to work on the task. To promote MLO from a
task manager to a project manager I believe that I would also need the
date on which I intend to start the task, the date on which I intend to
finish it, and the date by which I want it to be finished. I would also
want the app to be able to look at the planned start date modified by
any unsatisfied dependencies plus the estimated effort and calculate a
new planned completion, notifying me if that caused the planned
completion of any date to fall after the desired completion date.

-Dwight

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