Product Information
Understanding Task Types and Sources in SAP Cloud ALM
In this Blog post I would like to explain
What are Task types
What are Task sources
How to make them effectively
What are Task Types
Anything that you need to take an action on or a track in SAP Cloud ALM is a task. Since different tasks have different behaviours (e.g can this be edited or not) and attributes(can I assign story points or not), you need to understand Task Types.
Currently CALM supports following Task Types
Template Task
A Task which is delivered by SAP , whose content can not be updated by a user is called a Template Task. An example would be tasks delivered by SAP Activate methodology which are generated when the user selects a Project template during a Project Setup
Project Task
Tasks created by users themselves as required in the Project.
User Story
Task that describes user expectations as part of the Requirement to Deploy process.
Sub-Task
A breakdown of a user story into smaller under-stable segments of work.
Differences in Task Types
The table below helps understand the subtle differences in Task Types.
| Template Task | Project Task | User Story | Sub-Task | |
| Allows Editing | – | X | X | X |
| Set to Obsolete after content update | X | – | – | – |
| Mass Upload allowed | – | X | X | X |
| Own Timebox | X | X | X | Inherited from Parent |
| Story Points | X | X | X | – |
| Allows Editing of Assigned Deliverable | – | X | X | Inherited from Parent |
| Available in Overview Page | X | X | X | – |
| Manual Deletion Allowed | – | X | X | X |
Task Sources
You need to understand from where did the task land in your task list.That is explained by Task sources. Currently the following sources are supported.
SAP Cloud ALM setup
These are also called Foundation tasks. These tasks exist in system even before an Activate template is selected. They help the user understand how to use SAP Cloud ALM and get started.
SAP Activate Methodology
Tasks that are generated when SAP Activate template is selected
Manually created
Tasks created manually by the user.
Requirement
Tasks generated when Requirement is approved for Realization.
Scoping
These are also called scope specific tasks. Each scope creation causes generation of these tasks guiding the user deal with created Scope.
How to make use of them
The answer to this question is based on what you are trying to do.
Most of the time you want to focus on a particular kind of work on a given moment. Using Task types and Task sources give you easy filter options to narrow down to what you want to do.
The best part is you do not need to think of this everytime as you can save your filter options by creating a view.
As an example if you want to get to tasks that are provided by Activate Methodology , you will just use Task source:SAP Activate methodology . In case you want to quickly see how your Project team has supplemented content on top of activate content you will select Task type:Project Task or Task type:User Story or Task Type:Sub-task
Next Steps
Hope you found this information useful. You can visit the link below that contains other blog posts in one central place for Project and Task management in SAP Cloud ALM
Project and Task Management capabilities-Master List
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All the best in your journey.
Nice blog post Jagmohan Singh Chawla I live and die by the task list and backlogs...