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Hooking a Task
The Goal and Plan modules have a unique concept called 'Hooking' that links communication between the two modules. This concept is the key to unlocking the full potential of the module, so it's definitely worth putting the time in to understand it. Once you've got the hang of it, you'll wonder how you ever managed without it.
What Hooking Means?
As a Schedule Owner with top-level access, you can smartly integrate high level tasks into the Plan module by hooking them through from the Goal module. This integration ensures that progress and information related to the task are synchronised between the Goal and Plan modules, providing a seamless and efficient workflow.
Note: Hooking is only available for tasks, meaning that the group title represented by orange colour cannot be hooked.
How to Hook a Task
There are two ways to hook a task in the Goal module. You can click the hook icon beside the task displayed in the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) or you can click the task and select the 'Hook' option. After doing that, a new window will appear displaying all the boards available in the Plan module, allowing you to choose the appropriate board or to create a new one. Once you select a board, the task hooked will be created in the Plan module.
Option 1
Option 2
How to Hook a Task with an Existing Board
To hook a task with an existing board, choose one of the alternatives above to hook an item to, and from the new window displayed you can select one of the existing boards taken from the Plan module and hit 'Hook'.
In the Plan module, when a task is hooked, it will appear as a standalone work item under the selected board, and the board owner will have full authority over this work item to further break it out into child and sub-child work items.
How to Hook a Task with a New Board
As the Schedule Owner, you can create a new board while hooking a task. When doing this, the project owner from the Plan module will automatically become the owner of the new board and the work item owner of the hooked task. Also, the project owner has the autonomy to assign this task to related users in the Plan module to perform the necessary actions if needed.
Once you have hooked your item, you will see the task details on the left panel while the right panel will show the task information, including the task's start and end dates in both the Plan and Goal modules.
The schedule owner can perform the following actions over an unhooked task:
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Manually add task duration
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Add start date
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Add end date
If a task is hooked in Plan module, the schedule owner will be able to add additional columns such as work item lead, company and status, but won't be able to modify the data from Goal. Updates on task information need to be updated on the Plan module.
As you can see, it's easy to integrate and hook the Plan and Goal modules and get all benefits of having both apps working together.
The hook icon colour will be green once the hooked task progresses smoothly in both Goal and Plan modules. However, if a conflict arises between them, the hook icon will turn red showing that an issue needs to be resolved.
For example, if the project owner in the Plan module changes the end date of the hooked work item, a conflict will occur, and the hooked icon's colour will turn from green to red. In this case, Schedule Owner can accept the change or discuss the issue with the Project Owner in charge of Plan, so that both can agree on the date change, or in the event that they disagree, break the hook.
The conflict will be highlighted in the info panel of every module, and it will be visible for the Project Owner and Schedule Owner in their respective modules.
Hook Conflicts
Similarly, if the Schedule Owner changes the date, the project owner can accept it or break the hook.
At the bottom of the info panel, there is a text box where both the Schedule Owner and the Project Owner can communicate to discuss and solve the issues.
Here the Project Owner and Schedule Owner can add comments to communicate to each other on why the date was changed. The comments will be visible both in both Goal and Plan modules.
How to resolve Hooking Conflicts
There are two scenarios that may arise when a Project Owner suggests date changes to a task.
Example 1: The Schedule Owner may agree with the proposed changes, provide and then adjust the task according to the details shown in Plan. After that the hook icon will turn green again to signify that the task is now synchronised.
Example 2: If the Schedule Owner does not agree with the changes proposed by the Project Owner in Plan, and there is no resolving this between the two, the only option is to break the hook, meaning that the task will become independent and not any longer integrated with the modules.
How to Break a Hook
When the Project Owner in Plan and Schedule Owner in Goal do not come to an agreement on changes to the dates, either party can choose to break the hook by clicking on the 'Break' link.
Once a hook is broken, the item's colour will change to grey. However, to maintain effective communication and transparency, the person breaking the hook should provide a brief comment in the comment box explaining the reason for doing so.
For Example: If the Project Owner has changed the date and the Schedule Owner doesn't agree, a comment should be provided such as 'This date cannot be changed on Goal and we need to keep to the initial plan or else the hook needs to be broken'.
The planner can then decide whether to accept the scheduler's request to stick with the original date or agree to break the hook and communicate back to the scheduler. If both parties agree on breaking the hook both must click 'Break'.
How to Re-hook an item
In case the Project Owner or Schedule Owner wants to hook the item again, the Schedule Owner can simply click on the 'Re-Hook' link and as a result the icon will turn green or red depending on whether the item date is synced on both modules or not.
Note: The re-hook option is not available in the Plan module, therefore re-hooking feature is only available for the Schedule Owner.
