Can I create a report that filters on tasks that precede a specific task, but are not complete?

[CathyKe1]

I’m trying to create a report that filters for tasks that are a predecessor of two particular tasks, where the predecessor is ready to start but is not complete.

For example:

Task 15: "Activate Changes" (this task is ready to begin/can start, but not yet complete)

Task 16: "Live QA Review," predecessor is #15 (so this task is not ready to begin)

I want the report to show the Activate Changes task, but I can’t figure out how to filter on the task that is the predecessor of task 16.

Additional info:

• I’m interested in the tasks that precede one of two task names: Live QA Review or Immediate Live QA Review
• The live QA review tasks are always assigned to the team Live Testing
• The tasks I’m interested in will be within one of two parents: SI Testing or Post Launch

The closest I’ve come is a task report that filters by the parent names, for tasks that can start but are not assigned to the live testing team. However, this report also shows tasks that follow the Live QA Review task, which I don’t want to see. If I can figure out how to use the predecessors, I think I’d be good. Thank you!

[Sheri_Whitten]

Did you try adding Task >> Can Start = True to the Filter Rules for your report? 

[CathyKe1]

Hi Sheri. Thanks for the reply! Yeah, I can get the Can Start = true part, but I only want to see the tasks that can start that are a predecessor of a specific task. I can't figure out how to filter to show only the tasks that can start that are a predecessor of task #16 (for example). 

I'm not sure if this is completed, or if I just have a blind spot about how to accomplish it.

[Sheri_Whitten]

I should have known, it's never that easy! I'm sure there's a way you can get there. If the task name is always the same, you could add the "Task Name >> contains (then add your task name)" to the Filter Rules, for example. But that's is a very specific filter - you'd have to be careful with naming tasks. Then there's that second task you want to see and you would have to copy all your filters as a second set, with OR connecting the two sets of filters that correspond to the two tasks you want to see. You can do better filtering with text mode - check out Welcome to advanced reporting, and in the part 1 video, they show how to create advanced filters using text mode. I've watched the 3 parts many times over the years, and they're a great reference. I hope you get what you need 🙂

[CathyKe1 · Accepted solution]

For what it's worth, I got this figured out finally, and thought I'd post here in case it would be useful to anyone else. 

"successors" was the piece I was missing-

assignmentsTeamsMM:ID=6c1a42d12569f971d995da437c9e1a2e
assignmentsTeamsMM:ID_Mod=notin
canStart=true
canStart_Mod=eq
parent:name=post launch
parent:name_Mod=cieq
predecessorsMM:canStart=true
predecessorsMM:canStart_Mod=eq
project:status=CUR
project:status_Mod=in
status=INP	NEW
status_Mod=in
successorsMM:name=live qa review
successorsMM:name_Mod=cicontains

[Sheri_Whitten]

That's great! And appreciate the solution added, it's always helpful 😊

[pattyrio]

Thanks Cathy! Is there any way you can kind of walk through the logic of the above code? I'm struggling to understand the modifiers shown.