Create and Manage Task Groups

When managing complex projects in TaskRay, organization is key — and that’s where Task Groups come in. Task groups allow organizing large projects into smaller, more manageable sections, setting a clear structure and flow for work. Whether you’re onboarding a new customer, managing a customer success plan, or working on an internal initiative, task groups help you organize related tasks under a shared theme or milestone, making it easier to track progress and maintain clarity across teams.

In this article, we’ll cover:

• What task groups are

• How they are used to structure projects and organize tasks

• How to create and manage task groups in TaskRay

Task Group Creation & Edits

Creating task groups can help you better organize your project work, especially when managing large or evolving project plans. You might need to create task groups when building a custom project plan, adjusting the structure of an existing project, or organizing a new set of tasks that don’t fit into the current framework of a project.

In this section, we’ll focus on how to create task groups and review best practices for when and where to create them within TaskRay.

Create Task Groups

The best place to create task groups is in Plan View. For detailed steps, refer to the Project Management section of the Plan View article. 

Manage Task Group Details

To ensure clarity and alignment across projects, key information can be added and adjusted in task group details. Editing task groups allows you to rename, add descriptions, and update field-level information.

Task Group Details

To access task group details in Plan View:

1. Navigate to the project that includes the needed task group in Plan View. This is done via the left sidebar using filters.
2. In the Projects & Tasks Plan View sidebar, locate the task group and double-click on its name.
   
3. This will open the Task Group Detail modal. From here, you can edit the task goup's field-level information. To modify any of the field values:
   1. Click on the Edit button in the modal or click on the pencil icon next to the applicable field.
   2. Update information as needed.
   3. Click Save.

Add Tasks To Task Groups

When structuring projects, you have the option of either adding tasks at the project level or at the task group level. When you create tasks at the project level, they default to Ungrouped (in other words, they are not assigned to any task group). However, adding tasks directly to task groups ensures that your project work is organized. Refer to the Create Tasks in Plan View article for more details.

Task Group Scheduling

Task group schedules are driven by the tasks within them. As you add new tasks or update existing task dates, the task group’s Start Date and Estimated End Date are automatically updated based on the schedule of those tasks.

This means that you do not need to set dates for task groups directly because they automatically reflect the earliest start date and the latest estimated end date of the tasks within them. Refer to Manage Task Schedules for detailed information and how-to instructions for scheduling.

Task Group Visualization

Viewing Task Groups

If you need to visualize the task group structure on your projects, TaskRay provides several ways to see how the work is organized.  In this section, we’ll cover where and how task groups are displayed across different TaskRay views.

Kanban View

In Kanban View, you can view the task group structure of projects by setting the Group By selector to Task Group. Once grouped, you can expand or collapse task group sections using the chevrons located in the task group row headers.

Plan View

Plan View is a great place to visualize project structure. This view visualizes projects on a timeline, allowing you to see how the tasks are scheduled and how they are organized within task groups. Similar to Kanban View, you can expand or collapse task group sections using the chevrons located in the task group rows.

Sorting Task Groups

Sorting task groups helps ensure your project plan reflects the correct sequence of work or priority of different phases. This can be especially helpful when managing complex or custom project plans, where the default order may not align with the actual flow of the project.

You may want to sort task groups when:

• You’ve added new task groups and need to organize them logically

• Your project workflow has changed and the order needs to be updated

As mentioned in the Visualizing Task Groups section, using Kanban or Plan View is the best approach for sorting task groups. 

Kanban View

When the Kanban View is set to Grouped By: Task Group, you can sort task groups using the up and down arrows located within each task group row header.

Plan View

In Plan View, you can sort task groups in the Projects & Tasks sidebar using drag and drop.

To re-sort task groups, locate the task group that you want to move in the Projects & Tasks sidebar and drag it to a different spot within the project. 

Task Group Completion

From the technical standpoint, the TaskRay Task Group object has a Completed checkbox. When it is set to true (checked), the task group is designated as complete. 

TaskRay will automatically update the Completed checkbox on a task group to true in the following scenarios:

1. 1. When all tasks within a task group are finished and the task group's progress reaches 100%
   2. When a project is marked as complete, all of its task groups are automatically updated to completed (even if they have not reached 100% progress). 

It is also possible to manually update the Completed checkbox at any point if needed.

Archive or Delete Task Groups

Refer to the Archive or Delete Task Groups article for further details.