To enter WBS elements, all that is entered is the WBS element name into the Task Name column. All other fields should have default values.
To define multiple levels of the WBS, we use the Indent and Outdent buttons on the Tasks ribbon in the Schedule section to model our WBS levels.
All of our WBS elements will become summary tasks once we add our detailed tasks to the schedule.
In this, and future examples, we will display the Project Summary Task – ID 0.
NEVER type in Start or Finish dates, or Duration into summary tasks. This information will be calculated by Microsoft Project. Summary tasks inherit information from the subtasks indented under them. If you enter data into any of these three fields, the Task Mode for that summary task is automatically switched to Manually Scheduled. Remember that a Manually Scheduled task will display the thumbtack icon in the Indicators column, instead of the bar and arrow icon that is displayed for Auto Scheduled tasks.
The Start for a summary task will be set to the earliest Start of any of the subtasks, and the Finish will be set to the latest Finish of any of the subtasks.
The Duration of a summary task is calculated as the number of working days between its Start and Finish dates. It will NOT be equal to the sum of the Durations of the subtasks (unless they happen to all be in series).
We will be adding detailed tasks under these WBS elements.