Project Management in Odoo 19:
Tasks, Milestones, Burndown Charts & Collaboration

Your Spreadsheet-Based Project Tracker Is Lying to You

We audit Odoo implementations for a living. In roughly half of them, the project module is installed but barely used. Teams track tasks in Google Sheets, milestones in someone's head, and time in a separate app that nobody reconciles with invoicing. The result: project managers can't answer "are we on budget?" without spending 30 minutes cross-referencing three tools.

Odoo 19's Project module has changed significantly from earlier versions. The Gantt view is no longer a paid Enterprise-only afterthought — it's a first-class planning tool with dependency arrows, critical path highlighting, and drag-to-reschedule. Burndown charts are built in. Customer portal collaboration means clients see progress without you exporting PDFs every Friday. And the Timesheet integration now flows directly into invoicing with zero manual reconciliation.

This guide walks through every step of setting up a production-grade project management workflow in Odoo 19 — from initial project configuration through task hierarchies, milestone tracking, burndown analysis, time tracking, and customer-facing collaboration portals. Every configuration is tested on live client deployments.

Task Hierarchies in Odoo 19: Parent Tasks, Subtasks, and Dependencies

Odoo 19 supports a two-level task hierarchy: parent tasks and subtasks. This isn't a limitation — it's a deliberate design choice. Deeper nesting creates tasks that nobody can find and progress calculations that nobody understands. If you need more than two levels, you need separate projects, not deeper nesting.

Creating a Work Breakdown Structure

The pattern we recommend: parent tasks represent deliverables (things the customer sees), and subtasks represent work items (things the team does). Here's how to set this up programmatically for bulk creation:

# Create a parent task (deliverable)
parent_task = env['project.task'].create({
    'name': 'Website Redesign — Homepage',
    'project_id': project.id,
    'milestone_id': milestone_q2.id,
    'planned_hours': 40.0,
    'tag_ids': [(6, 0, [tag_frontend.id])],
})

# Create subtasks (work items)
subtasks = [
    ('Design mockup in Figma', 8.0),
    ('Implement hero section (OWL component)', 12.0),
    ('Integrate product carousel API', 10.0),
    ('Cross-browser testing & fixes', 6.0),
    ('Stakeholder review & revisions', 4.0),
]

for name, hours in subtasks:
    env['project.task'].create({
        'name': name,
        'parent_id': parent_task.id,
        'project_id': project.id,
        'planned_hours': hours,
        'user_ids': [(6, 0, [])],  # Unassigned initially
    })

Task Dependencies (Gantt View)

In the Gantt view, you can create finish-to-start dependencies between tasks by dragging a connector from one task's end to another's start. This is critical for realistic scheduling — "Cross-browser testing" can't start until "Implement hero section" is done.

Dependencies are stored in the depend_on_ids many2many field on project.task. You can also set them via code:

# Task B depends on Task A (B can't start until A finishes)
task_testing = env['project.task'].browse(testing_task_id)
task_implementation = env['project.task'].browse(impl_task_id)

task_testing.write({
    'depend_on_ids': [(4, task_implementation.id)],
})

# Query all blocked tasks (dependencies not yet done)
blocked = env['project.task'].search([
    ('depend_on_ids.stage_id.fold', '!=', True),
    ('project_id', '=', project.id),
])

Burndown Charts in Odoo 19: Tracking Velocity and Predicting Delivery Dates

Odoo 19 includes a built-in burndown chart accessible from Project → Reporting → Burndown Chart. It plots remaining work (task count or planned hours) over time against an ideal burndown line. The gap between the two tells you whether you're ahead, behind, or on track.

How to Read the Burndown Chart

Custom Burndown Query for Dashboards

If you need burndown data in a custom dashboard or BI tool, query it directly from the ORM. Here's how to build a burndown dataset:

from datetime import timedelta
from collections import OrderedDict

def get_burndown_data(project_id, start_date, end_date):
    """Generate burndown chart data for a project.

    Returns a dict of dates -> remaining planned hours.
    """
    Task = env['project.task']
    all_tasks = Task.search([
        ('project_id', '=', project_id),
        ('parent_id', '=', False),  # Only parent tasks
    ])

    total_hours = sum(all_tasks.mapped('planned_hours'))
    burndown = OrderedDict()
    current = start_date

    while current <= end_date:
        # Tasks closed on or before this date
        closed = Task.search_count([
            ('project_id', '=', project_id),
            ('parent_id', '=', False),
            ('stage_id.fold', '=', True),
            ('date_last_stage_update', '<=', current),
        ])
        closed_hours = sum(
            Task.search([
                ('project_id', '=', project_id),
                ('parent_id', '=', False),
                ('stage_id.fold', '=', True),
                ('date_last_stage_update', '<=', current),
            ]).mapped('planned_hours')
        )
        burndown[current.isoformat()] = {
            'remaining_hours': total_hours - closed_hours,
            'remaining_tasks': len(all_tasks) - closed,
            'ideal': total_hours * (
                1 - (current - start_date).days
                / (end_date - start_date).days
            ),
        }
        current += timedelta(days=1)

    return burndown

Customer Portal Collaboration: Giving Clients Visibility Without Giving Up Control

Odoo 19's customer portal lets you share project progress with clients without adding them as internal users (which would consume a paid seat). Clients log into the portal, see their project's tasks, post comments, upload files, and track milestone progress — all through a clean, read-mostly interface.

Portal Access Configuration

Enable portal access per project: open the project settings and toggle Customer Portal. Then configure what clients can see and do:

from odoo import models, fields

class ProjectProject(models.Model):
    _inherit = 'project.project'

    # Control what portal users see
    portal_show_tasks = fields.Boolean(
        string='Show Tasks on Portal',
        default=True,
    )
    portal_show_timesheets = fields.Boolean(
        string='Show Timesheets on Portal',
        default=False,  # Usually keep internal
    )
    portal_show_burndown = fields.Boolean(
        string='Show Burndown on Portal',
        default=True,
    )
    portal_allow_task_creation = fields.Boolean(
        string='Allow Task Creation from Portal',
        default=False,  # Enable for helpdesk-style projects
    )

Invite Customers to the Portal

Navigate to the project, click Share, and invite the client via email. They receive a portal login link. Once logged in, they see:

• Task list — all tasks assigned to their project, filterable by stage and milestone
• Task detail — description, attachments, chatter (comment thread), and stage history
• Milestone progress — a visual bar showing completion percentage for each milestone
• File uploads — clients can attach specifications, assets, and feedback directly to tasks

<template id="portal_my_project_milestones"
          inherit_id="project.portal_my_project">
  <xpath expr="//div[hasclass('o_portal_my_project')]" position="inside">
    <div class="milestone-overview mt-4">
      <h4>Project Milestones</h4>
      <t t-foreach="project.milestone_ids" t-as="ms">
        <div class="milestone-row d-flex align-items-center mb-2">
          <span class="milestone-name flex-grow-1">
            <t t-esc="ms.name"/>
          </span>
          <span class="milestone-deadline text-muted me-3">
            Due: <t t-esc="ms.deadline" t-options="{{'widget': 'date'}}"/>
          </span>
          <div class="progress" style="width: 200px; height: 8px;">
            <div class="progress-bar bg-success"
                 t-attf-style="width: #{{ms.progress}}%"/>
          </div>
          <span class="ms-2 small">
            <t t-esc="int(ms.progress)"/>%
          </span>
        </div>
      </t>
    </div>
  </xpath>
</template>

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