Task states besides "complete" and "incomplete" in TaskJuggler?

Question

I am using TaskJuggler to manage a project. In my particular project, we are doing basic research, so some tasks are not guaranteed to be completed, due to large numbers of unknowns. I would like some way to denote that "we worked on this task, but this task is permanently incomplete because it is not complete-able".

In my limited experience, TaskJuggler easily handles the task states of "incomplete" and "complete". Is there a way to denote other options outside of these two possibilities, such as a "failed" state?

Answer 1

Split your research tasks into two parts

I am not familiar with TaskJuggler. However, I would recommend that you split your research tasks into two parts:

1. Ascertain task feasibility.
2. Work the task to completion.

You can always complete the first task - the outcome would be either 'feasible' or 'not feasible'. The second one is a conditional task that kicks in only if the task is 'feasible'.

Answer 2

You can apply the logic from Scrum framework under Agile where the task is either complete or not complete - there is no other state for the task. This means any partially completed tasks are considered incomplete, no matter how much the work done on the task.