Once the WBS elements have been entered into your schedule, the detailed tasks needed to create each element are defined. These detailed tasks will be entered underneath the WBS element (Summary Task) that it supports.
To enter detailed tasks, fill in the Task Name, and either the Duration or Work estimate for the task. If you need to enter Work estimates, you can insert the Work column into the table. If you enter Duration, Work estimates for individual resource may also be entered later when we add resources to our project.
NEVER type in Start or Finish dates. Start and Finish will be calculated by Microsoft Project. If Start and Finish dates are typed in or selected from the calendar pulldown, date constraints are automatically assigned by Project Pro. Date constraints can prevent your schedule dates from being able to dynamically move earlier or later, based on updates or changed information in the schedule.
Once the tasks have been entered, they are then indented under their associated summary task using the Indent/Outdent buttons on the Task ribbon.
Milestones are created in the same way as tasks, but with a Duration of 0 days. Milestones can be used for linking and reporting. They allow us to measure progress in our project.
**Best Practices:
- NEVER type Start, Finish, or Duration values into Summary Tasks. If you do, Microsoft Project will automatically switch the Task Mode to Manually Scheduled.
- NEVER type Start or Finish values into Detailed Tasks. Microsoft Project will automatically assign a Start No Earlier Than or Finish No Earlier Than date constraint.
**Best Practices (from previous section):
- Task names should begin with an action word – a verb.
- Task names should be detailed, unique, and standalone. If you are looking at a subset of the tasks, you must be able to understand exactly what the task represents and where it falls in the schedule structure.
- Include a Start milestone at the beginning of the project and a Completion milestone at the end.
- Include a milestone at the end of each major summary task group (WBS deliverable). These are useful in reporting and for linking.
Outline Levels
Once you have built the structure of your schedule with indenting, there may be times that you want to focus on a specific level of the schedule information. On the View ribbon, in the Data section, there is an Outline pulldown that can be used to select a specific outline level. When you select a Level, Microsoft Project will only display the tasks at that level and above. All other tasks will be collapsed and hidden.
For example, if you select Level 2, Microsoft Project will only display level 2 and level 1 tasks. Any other tasks will be collapsed under their summary tasks. You may expand and collapse individual summary tasks by clicking on the caret next to the Task Name.
Select All Subtasks on the pulldown to expand out all levels.
To insert a new row in the table, right-click on the ID number that you want the new row to be inserted above. Select Insert Task from the menu. A new row will be inserted and the ID numbers will be adjusted.
To insert more than one row at a time, click and hold the mouse key while dragging through a number of IDs. Right-click and select Insert Task from the menu. The number of new rows that are inserted will be equal to the number of rows that you selected, and they are inserted directly above the first task selected.
To delete a task, right-click on the ID number of the row that you wish to delete and select Delete Task from the menu. The ID numbers will be adjusted. You may delete more than one row at a time by clicking and dragging through the IDs if they are adjacent, or by clicking on one ID and holding down your Control key and selecting any nonadjacent tasks that you wish to delete. Then right-click and select Delete Task.
There may be times when you wish to reorganize your task list and move tasks to a different location.
To move tasks, they can be “dragged and dropped” or “cut and pasted”.
The difference between these two methods is their effect on a field called Unique ID.
As mentioned previously, the ID field changes when new tasks change position in the task list whether by inserting, deleting or moving tasks.
There is also another field called Unique ID. Microsoft Project enters a value into this field when a task is created and this value never changes. It can be used to identify tasks even if they change location.
If the drag and drop method is used, the Unique ID value is maintained and doesn’t change. If the cut and paste method is used, Microsoft Project considers the pasted tasks as new tasks and will give them new Unique IDs.
Drag and Drop Method
To move a task, click on the ID of the task you want to move. Once you have clicked on the ID, hover the cursor over the ID and it changes to a four-directional arrow. Click and hold down the mouse button and start dragging the task to its new location. As you start to drag the task, you will see a horizontal line that shows you where the task is going to be placed.
More than one row can be moved at a time by clicking and holding the mouse key while dragging through multiple adjacent IDs. Once you have selected the IDs, hover over the ID, and again, the cursor changes to a four-directional arrow. Click and hold the mouse button, and start dragging the tasks. Again, as you start to drag the tasks, you will see a horizontal line that shows where they are going to be placed.
If you move a single task and it is a summary task, all of the detailed tasks under the summary are automatically moved with it.
If you move multiple tasks that include a summary task, all of the detailed tasks under the summary are also automatically moved.
Click on the ID(s) of the task(s) that you want to move. Right-click on the selection and select Cut from the menu.
Right-click on the ID of the task that you want to paste the selection above and select Paste from the menu.
NOTE: If you select a single task to cut and it is a summary task, a warning is displayed indicating that the task is a summary task and all of its subtasks will also be deleted:
- If the summary task is expanded (its subtasks are visible), DO NOT select Continue as only the summary task will be pasted to the new location. All of the detailed tasks will be lost. You must select the summary and all of its detail before you cut.
- If the summary task is collapsed (its subtasks are not visible), you may Continue as all subtasks will be pasted with the summary task.
Remember with Cut and Paste that the Unique ID values will change.