Why a task is “Not applicable”

A template can say that a task applies only in some cases, for example only when the client approved the appeal. It does this with a “condition”: a test on one of the project's values. While a test fails, the task is Not applicable: it stays in the plan, but nobody needs to do it. When the values change so that every test passes, the task becomes Active again by itself.

One value, one test, two outcomes:

A task can have up to ten tests. It applies only when all of them pass.

• When the project starts.
• Each time someone saves or empties a value that a task depends on, on the project's page.

Every value starts empty, and an empty value passes only one test: is empty. So a task with a test usually starts Not applicable, and becomes live when someone enters the value it waits for.

While the value a failing test reads is still empty, the task's card in the Work panel says Undecided, not Not applicable, and names the task that asks for the value. The task waits for nothing and shows no Blocked line. Once the value is entered and a test fails on it, the card says Not applicable.

• When a live task stops applying, the requests it had open, such as a document asked for, are closed. If it applies again later, they show as not yet requested, so ask for them again.
• A manager can bring back a not-applicable task by hand. It then stays active until someone skips it or changes a value it depends on. See Skip a task, and bring it back.
• A not-applicable task does not hold up other work: anything waiting on it goes ahead. So a task that waits only for tasks that start not applicable is ready from the first day. So the template makes such a task wait for one that always applies as well: the three-year tracking of a property's assessment waits for the first post-sale year, not only for the true-up invoice, which applies only when a true-up is due.