[Chris]

Here's how I think projects and parent/child actions should work.

(1) There should be subprojects.

(2) There should only be parallel projects; there is no need for sequential projects.

(3) Parent actions should be able to have multiple children.

(4) When a parent action is completed, all its children are promoted one level, similar to the way sequential projects work now.

Here's an example. I'll use "->" to denote different generations, then explain the structure below.

-> Action 1.
->-> Action 1A.
->->-> Action 1Aa.
->->-> Action 1Ab.
->-> Action 1B.
->-> Action 1C.

Action 1 is the parent action. It needs to be completed before any children can be completed, but it is not dependent on any children.

Action 1A is the first child. It can't be completed until Action 1 is.

Action 1Aa is the grandchild of Action 1. It can't be completed until Action 1A is. Similarly, Action 1Ab depends on Action 1A, but NOT on Action 1Aa.

Action 1B is the second child. It can be completed as soon as Action 1 is. Same for Action 1C.

So, once you completed Action 1, you would then have:

-> Action 1A.
->->Action 1Aa.
->->Action 1Ab.
->Action 1B.
->Action 1C.

Now you have three parallel actions in your project, one of which has two children.

This setup preserves the distinction between actions and projects that is now confused in OF. Actions should be atomic---they should be things that you can do as soon as you've completed the prerequisite actions. They shouldn't be sets of multiple actions, which is what parents actions are now. That's what projects are.

Furthermore, with this setup, you wouldn't need sequential projects. A sequential project would now be a project with one action that has several children.

I'll probably send this directly to OG. Thoughts?