Maintaining the integrity of project data within project record is obviously crucial for effective project management. One often overlooked configuration that can lead to significant issues is the presence of the "Edit" UI action in project task related lists. This article explores a best practice: removing this action to prevent accidental task reassignment and potential data corruption.
The Problem: Accidental Task Reassignment
Within project records, the Project Task related lists typically includes an "Edit" button/action. While this feature can be useful in some contexts, it poses a significant risk in project management. Project Managers who use this action can inadvertently reassign project tasks and entire branches or project tasks from other project records, leading to data corruption not only in their own project but across multiple projects in the organization. The consequences of such accidental reassignments can be far-reaching. It can trigger a cascade of issues affecting sub-project tasks, dependencies, expense lines, timecards and project financials. This domino effect can compromise the integrity of project data across the entire portfolio, leading to confusion and unnecessary stress. In addition to this there is no undo button and reverting data back to a prior state would not be trivial.
Edit button/UI action
The Solution: Omitting the "Edit" UI Action
To mitigate this risk, the recommended best practice is to omit the "Edit" UI action from Project Task related lists within project and project task records. This simple configuration change can prevent accidental task reassignments and protect the integrity of your project data.
Implementation Steps:
- Navigate to the Project Record
- Locate the related list for Project Tasks and open the list control.
- Select “Omit edit button” and save.
- Test the configuration to ensure the "Edit" option no longer appears in the related lists.
- This should be repeated on the project task table with the project task related list.
Removing the "Edit" button/action from Project Task related lists is a simple safeguard to protect the integrity of your project data.
