Project 2013 Introduction

Project 2013

Lesson 3 – Working with Tasks

as free-form text, and summary tasks do not inherit dates and task data from sub- tasks. If sub-tasks are linked, the start and finish dates are not calculated unless you choose to enforce the links using the Respect Links button. Some of the benefits of this are that you can use these tasks to show a high level phase view or to give estimated durations such as “Late May”. This is the default seeing for a new project file unless it is changed. Inactive Tasks allows you store critical information that can be valuable for archival purposes (actuals and cost information for example) and allows for what-if analysis (for example, to experiment with different combinations of adds or cuts). You can inactivate certain parts of the project without losing the original data. Inactive tasks will no longer be taken into account by the scheduling engine nor affect resource availability.

Top-Down Summary allows you to create a project from the top down by listing summary tasks with all their information such as duration and dates. These values can be different from the rollup value, this way you can see easily the differences between the high level and the subtasks.

Examples of User Defined Scheduling

In the above example, Tasks 1, 3 and 4 are user controlled scheduled. In the Gantt Chart, each is represented by a different formatted bar. Task 1 is a Top-Down Summary task that allows the user to store information about the project phases without being tied to the information of the subtasks. Task 3 is a manually- scheduled task. This type of task allows the user to add a task without having to provide detailed information which gives some flexibility for adding information. Task 6 is an inactive task. This type can be used to store information without affecting the rest of the project.

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