Getting Started

1. Install Taskmaster: Search for "Taskmaster" in the monday.com marketplace and install the app.
2. Set Field Mapping
   • Open Taskmaster within your monday.com project board. You can do this by clicking on the group submenue and selecting "Taskmaster" from the Apps submenu OR slect a number of items from your tasks, and in the bottom context menu, selet Apps and then Taskmaster.
   • After allowing access, select Advanced settings from the bottom of the screen. This screen will allow you to map the fields in Taskmaster to the fields in your monday.com board. The drop downs will already provide the suitable fields to map, it is important the the field is of the same type as the field in Taskmaster. For example, if the field in Taskmaster is a date field, the field in monday.com should also be a date field. If the field in Taskmaster is a text field, the field in monday.com should also be a text field.
   • Start : Set the estimated start date and time (Date type) for each item using this field. Taskmaster populates this field with the optimized start date after scheduling.
   • Finish: Set the estimated finish date and time (Date type) for each item using this field. Taskmaster populates this field with the optimized finish date after scheduling.
   • Effort: The estimated effort required to complete the item (Number type) using this field. Taskmaster uses this during scheduling to forecast resource allocation.
   • Owner: Denote the items allocated owner (People type) using this field - first person utilises. Taskmaster uses this information during scheduling to forecast against multiple resources and their availability.
   • Timeline: This field displays the start and finish dates (Timeline type) for each item after Taskmaster optimizes the schedule. It provides a high-level view of the overall project schedule.
3. Define Team Availability:
   • Open Taskmaster within your monday.com project board.
   • You'll see a list of team members associated with the board.
   • For each member, set their work days (e.g., weekdays) and daily work hours by toggling the days, and setting the start and finish hours for them. Start and finish hours are set in 24 hour format. For example, 8:00 AM is 08:00 and 5:00 PM is 17:00.

Usage

1. Select Tasks for Scheduling: Note: Tasks are scheduled as a group, based on what is selected - not what is currently in the board. Start and finish times of existing tasks will no be considered and the 'scheduling' is carried out for only the selected tasks.
   • Choose individual tasks across multiple groups for a board. This allows you to cherry pick tasks you wish to re-schedule. Once a number of tasks are selected, you can click on the Taskmaster app in the bottom context menu to re-schedule the selected tasks.
   • Select an entire group of tasks to re-schedule. This allows you to re-schedule all tasks in a group at once. Once a group is selected, you can click on the Taskmaster app in the top left context menu to re-schedule the selected tasks.
2. Optional: Set a Start Date:
   • If you're scheduling a sprint or work period, define a future start date to initiate the scheduling process. If nothing is selected, the system will schedule from the current time and date.
3. Run the Optimization:
   • Click the "Schedule" button in Taskmaster.
4. Review and Update:
   • Taskmaster will automatically calculate optimized start and finish times for each task based on dependencies and effort estimates.
   • Review the schedule in directly in your monday.com board.
   • Taskmaster will automatically update the fields mapped in the configuration i.e. Start/Finish and Timeline based on the results of the schedule.

Advanced Features

• Scenario Planning: Run simulations to see how resource changes might affect deadlines.
• Agile Schedules: If you have a number of tasks consistantly changing priority, then you can stay ontop of delivery timeframes.

Additional Tips & Limitations

• Ensure your monday.com board includes estimated efforts for each task to improve scheduling accuracy. Effort is measured in 'HOURS'
• Review your results in realtime on the monday Gantt View
• Regularly update team availability within Taskmaster to reflect any changes in work schedules.
• We can only schedule up to 100 tasks at a time.
• Tasks are scheduled in blocks of 1hr.
• Taskmaster will not schedule tasks that have no effort or owner assigned.
• Important! : Taskmaster will schedule based on the priority they are set within monday. i.e. items earlier in the list will be denotes as dependencies of following tasks, and considered a higher priority

Coming Soon

• Dependecy based scheduling
• Trigger based scheduling
• Preview or tasks prior to committing them back to monday.com
• Skill & resource based auto allocation