When you enter a dependency between two tasks, LiquidPlanner’s dynamic scheduling methodology will automatically calculate the Expected Start and Finish date for you, but you may find yourself with some questions about your schedule, such as:
- One of my resources has some availability. How do I know what is ready to be worked on and what is dependent on other tasks?
- How do I know what outstanding tasks are delaying later tasks so I know where to focus my resources?
- Are any of my dependencies broken?
Whether or not a plan item has a dependency is part of its status, and this is where filters come in.
Filter By Dependency Status
Follow these steps to filter by an item’s dependency status:
- Go to the Projects Tab
- Click on the filter icon, which is the Filter Menu. Choose Filter by Status.
- Select one of the pre-built status filters:
- “Has Dependencies” returns active plan items that either have a dependency or a dependent.
- “Ready to Work” returns active items that are not dependent on another plan item. This filter excludes items on hold. An item is included in the filter if it has no dependencies, or all dependencies are marked done.
Create a Custom Status Filter
You can also create a Custom Status Filter to include more detailed parameters for the items you want to filter to. From the Projects Tab, locate the Filter Menu > Filter by Status. Then click on the +Create New link.
Next, click on the Add Rule button. There are three true/false rules related to dependencies that you can add to your Custom Status Filter:
- All dependencies satisfied
- Has broken dependencies
- Has dependents
All dependencies satisfied
True will return plan items:
- that never had a dependency
- all items the task was dependent on have been marked done
- the task never had any dependencies, but one of the containers it was in had a dependency, which has been satisfied
False will return items that:
- have a dependency on an item on-hold
- are dependent on an item that has not been marked done
- items with multiple dependencies where at least one dependency isn’t satisfied.
Has broken dependencies
True displays items that:
- have a broken dependency alert due to one of the items being on hold, a circular dependency, or no owner assigned
- do not have a native broken dependency, but have a broken dependency on a container
False displays items with good dependencies (no blue alerts).
Has dependents
True returns items that have dependents. The filtered items need to be marked done before their dependents can start.
False returns items without dependents.
Dependency Filter Use Cases
Use Case: One of my resources has some sudden availability. How do I determine what work is ready to start so I can reassign it to my available resource?
Recommended Filter: You can use the pre-built Status Filter “Ready to Work” to find tasks that are not on hold and do not have any unsatisfied dependencies.
Use Case: Some of my tasks aren’t ready to start because they are dependent on other tasks. How can I identify what tasks are pushing out the dependent tasks so I can focus my resources on those tasks?
Recommended Filter: Create a Custom Status Filter with the rule “Has Unsatisfied Dependencies is true.”
Use Case: I have a lot of dependencies in my workspace. How do I ensure that they are all set up correctly and I don’t have any errors?
Recommended Filters: Create a Custom Status Filter with the rule “Has Broken Dependencies is true.” Only tasks with the Broken Dependency alert will show up. You can click on the alert icon to open the Edit Panel and see the cause of the broken dependency, so it can be resolved.