[O] Remaining Work Report

[Sebastien Vauban]

#+COLUMNS: %40ITEM(Task) %6Effort(Estim.){:}

* Context

The question I'm trying to give an answer to is: *what's the remaining number
of hours (or days) to finish my project*?

I don't see obvious solutions for that question. And trials I've done
hereunder did not lead yet to satisfactory results.

Am I passing next to some more obvious solution?

* Development tasks
  :PROPERTIES:
  :ID:       fc314ab6-5bdc-4a2d-9c2d-d9aece03a864
  :END:

** DONE Task 1                                                          :Fred:
   :PROPERTIES:
   :Effort:   1:00
   :END:

** TODO Task 2

*** DONE Task 2a                                                        :Fred:
    :PROPERTIES:
    :Effort:   2:00
    :END:

*** TODO Task 2b                                                        :Sara:
    :PROPERTIES:
    :Effort:   4:00
    :END:

** TODO Task 3                                                          :Sara:
   :PROPERTIES:
   :Effort:   8:00
   :END:

* Reporting

I'd like to report remaining work, among others.

** Columnview

>From the columnview, we can't do that, as there is no way to exclude some
lines, and hence no way to get the right total.

#+BEGIN: columnview :hlines 1 :id "fc314ab6-5bdc-4a2d-9c2d-d9aece03a864" 
:maxlevel 2
| Task                  | Estim. |
|-----------------------+--------|
| * Development tasks   |  15:00 |
| ** DONE Task 1 :Fred: |   1:00 |
| ** TODO Task 2        |   6:00 |
| ** TODO Task 3 :Sara: |   8:00 |
#+END:

** Propview

After a =(require 'org-collector)=, we can get a table similar to this one:

#+BEGIN: propview :id "fc314ab6-5bdc-4a2d-9c2d-d9aece03a864" :conds ((string= 
TODO "TODO")) :cols (ITEM Effort)
| ITEM           | Effort |
|----------------+--------|
| "TODO Task 2"  | "6:00" |
| "TODO Task 2b" | "4:00" |
| "TODO Task 3"  | "8:00" |
|----------------+--------|
|                |        |
#+END:

There is a good step in the right direction, in that I don't have anymore
headlines with keyword DONE appearing.

Though,

1. There is no total available, and summing such a table give false results
   (due to the string nature of the values?):

       | ITEM           | Effort |
       |----------------+--------|
       | "TODO Task 2"  | "6:00" |
       | "TODO Task 2b" | "4:00" |
       | "TODO Task 3"  | "8:00" |
       |----------------+--------|
       |                | 624    |
       #+TBLFM: @5$2=vsum(@-I..-II)

2. Exclusion of lines can be tricky, as shown above:

   - "project 2" is task 2a (DONE, 2 hours) + task 2b (TODO, 4 hours)
   - total of "project 2" tasks is 6 hours, then
   - "project 2" is not DONE yet, as task 2b is still TODO
   - but remaining time of "project 2" is 4 hours, not 6

   The fact that org-collector shows 6 hours is due to a mix:

   - "project" is still in state TODO,
   - we show tasks (or projects) up to level 2, with sub-tasks being /summed up/

3. Not giving a status keyword to the "project 2" does not solve anything: in
   this case, nothing would show up in org-collector's view.

I understand I could be misusing org-collector.

But that's not what I'm after: if there is an alternative way to be able to
report remaining work to be done on a project, please let me know.

Best regards,
  Seb

-- 
Sebastien Vauban