Event Phases and Constraints for Tasks
How to group an event's tasks into phases like Load-In and Strike, and how to log constraints that record what is blocking tasks until they are resolved.
Phases and constraints give an event's task list shape. A phase groups tasks into a stretch of the event, and a constraint records what is holding tasks up. Both have their own tabs on the event's Project Management page, next to Tasks.
Phases
A phase is a named stretch of an event that tasks can belong to, such as Pre-Production, Load-In, Show, Strike, or Settlement. Grouping tasks by phase answers questions a flat list cannot: are we ready for load-in? What still has to happen after the show?
Add a phase
Put tasks in it
Group the Tasks list by phase to work through one stretch at a time.
A phase cannot be deleted while it holds tasks. Move its tasks to another phase, or clear their phase, first.
Constraints
A constraint is a logged blocker: something that is stopping or slowing tasks. Logging constraints as they happen, rather than reconstructing them afterward, makes them visible while there is still time to act and leaves an honest record for the post-event review. Patterns across events, such as approvals from the same client always running late, show up only when they were written down.
Each constraint has a name, a description, a type, and the Blocked tasks it holds up. There are two types:
- General, for a blocker outside the task list, such as a late venue contract or a permit still pending.
- Task, when another task is the blocker. Choose it as the Blocking task. A task cannot block itself.
A new constraint starts Active. When the blocker clears, edit the constraint and set its status to Resolved. Resolved constraints stay on the list as history. Deleting a constraint removes it without touching the tasks it was attached to.