Task Specializations

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A task specialization is a specialized version of another task. For example, suppose you have a standard Oil Change task which describes a standard oil change. However, the oil change for a particular vehicle might require a different type of oil, extra inspection operations, or other differences from the standard. In this case, you can create a task specialization based on the original Oil Change task. The specialization states ways in which the special job differs from the original. The following rules control what happens when a work order is generated from a task specialization:

• Information in the specialization is added to the original whenever possible. For example, the task description in a generated work order will consist of the description in the original task plus any description in the specialization. Similarly, the work order will contain all resources from the original plus all resources from the specialization.
• Information in the specialization replaces information from the original when the two can't coexist. For example, a work order can only have a single priority. Therefore, if the original task description has one priority and the specialization has a different one, the work order will take its priority setting from the specialization.

A task specialization can be used wherever a task can. For example, you can schedule a specialized task in the same way that you schedule a basic task. Similarly, you can create a specialization of a specialization.

In the Tasks viewer and other viewers, tasks and specializations are shown using a map similar to a location map. Specializations are shown under and indented from their base tasks.

For information on creating and editing task specializations, see Editing Task Specializations.

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