Statuses and stages¶
Every task carries two separate labels: a status and a stage. They answer different questions, and you set them independently.
- Status — where does this work stand right now? The same four values everywhere, in every project.
- Stage — what phase of the project does this work belong to? Defined per project, so each team can name its own phases.
Statuses¶
There are four statuses, fixed across all of TaskTree:
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Not started | Work hasn't begun. This is what a new task gets by default. |
| In progress | Actively being worked on. |
| Blocked | Can't move forward right now — waiting on something or someone. |
| Complete | Finished. |
Status drives the colour you see on a task in the list and on the canvas, so the state of the work reads at a glance. You change a task's status from its detail panel, or when you first create it.
Stages¶
Stages describe your project's lifecycle — the phases work moves through from idea to finished product. Unlike statuses, stages are set per project, so they fit whatever process your team follows.
A new project starts with a default set aimed at engineering R&D work:
- Concept
- Prototype
- Validation
- Low-Volume Batch
- Commercialisation
Every task is tagged with one of its project's stages (a new task defaults to the first one).
Changing the stages¶
A project admin can rename, reorder, add, or remove stages in the project's settings. The stage list is shared by everyone on the project, so a change applies to all of its tasks.
Note
Because each task's stage has to be one of the project's defined stages, plan a rename so tasks aren't left pointing at a stage that no longer exists.
Status vs stage, side by side¶
A task in the Validation stage might be In progress today, Blocked tomorrow, and Complete next week — its stage stays "Validation" the whole time, while its status tracks the day-to-day state of the work.