Tasks are the core unit of work in Babel. Each task lives inside a CRISP-DM phase and carries a status, a priority level, and optional metadata like a deadline, estimated hours, and an assignee. Understanding how these properties interact helps you keep your project healthy and your dashboards accurate.
Task statuses
Every task moves through five statuses over its lifecycle. The order below represents the typical progression, though you can move a task to any status at any time.
| Status | Weight | Color | When to use |
|---|
| Pending | 0% | Slate | Task is defined but work has not started |
| On hold | 25% | Indigo | Task is blocked by an external dependency or decision |
| In progress | 50% | Cyan | Task is actively being worked on |
| Under review | 75% | Fuchsia | Work is done and submitted for review or QA |
| Completed | 100% | Emerald | Task is finished and accepted |
Use On hold — rather than leaving a task in Pending — when the task is blocked. This makes it easy to filter for blocked work and gives a more accurate progress reading. A task stuck in Pending looks like it has not started, while On hold signals that a dependency is the bottleneck.
Moving tasks between statuses
You can update a task’s status in two ways:
- Drag and drop on the Kanban board. Open a phase card and drag the task tile from one status column to another. The status updates immediately.
- Task detail view. Open the task, click the status selector, and choose the new status from the dropdown.
Both methods save immediately — there is no separate save step.
Task priorities
Priority levels communicate urgency and help the team focus on the right work first.
| Priority | Badge color | Effect on dashboard |
|---|
| High | Red | Counted in the “at risk” metric if the task is not completed; shown as a red counter on the phase semaphore card |
| Medium | Amber | No dashboard counter, but visible in task filters |
| Low | Gray | No dashboard counter |
| — (unset) | None | No priority assigned |
Reserve High priority for tasks that, if not completed, would block a phase gate or a stakeholder deliverable. If everything is high priority, the signal loses meaning. A practical rule of thumb: no more than 20–30% of open tasks in a phase should be marked high priority at any given time.
Deadlines and estimated hours
Each task supports two optional time-related fields:
| Field | Type | Purpose |
|---|
| Deadline | Date (ISO string) | Target completion date for the task |
| Estimated hours | Number | Expected effort in hours |
Set deadlines relative to phase gates, sprint end dates, or external deliverable due dates — not arbitrary dates. A deadline that does not correspond to a real commitment creates noise rather than clarity.
Task assignment
Each task can be assigned to one user. The Assigned to field accepts a user from the project team.
To assign a task when creating it:
- Set the Assigned to field in the task creation form to a team member from the dropdown.
To reassign an existing task (manager only):
- Open the task card menu (three-dot icon).
- Click Reasignar.
- Choose a team member from the modal.
Unassigned tasks are visible to all project members and are flagged in the dashboard alert system. Assigning a task makes ownership explicit and helps during planning and review.
Stalled tasks
A task is considered stalled when it has remained in the same status for a configurable period of time without progressing. Stalled tasks are a leading indicator of project health problems — they often signal that a task is blocked, forgotten, or under-resourced.
Babel detects stalled tasks automatically. The project report (see Exporting reports) includes a Stalled tasks section that lists every task flagged as stalled at report generation time, along with the phase it belongs to and its current status.
Common reasons a task becomes stalled:
- The assignee is waiting for a dependency but has not moved the task to On hold
- The task was deprioritized and no one updated its status
- The task scope grew and the team has not flagged it as blocked
When you see stalled tasks in a report or dashboard, review them in the next standup or team sync and update their status to reflect reality. 