Master projects are a way of combining multiple individual projects together, to enable:
- Analysis and changes across multiple projects.
- Reporting across multiple projects.
- Linking to represent cross-project dependencies.
A master project can be thought of as a ‘window’ into the individual subprojects, as any changes made are actually being made to the source projects.
To create a master project in Microsoft Project, start with a blank project.
From the Project ribbon, in the Insert section, select Subproject.
Browse to the project(s) that you want to include in your Master Project. Select a project and click the Insert button. Select Subproject again and select the next project. Continue until you have added all needed projects.
If you are selecting multiple projects from the same folder, you may use your Ctrl key to select all of the projects to include.
The projects will be inserted into the blank project with all tasks collapsed to show a single row per project. There will be an icon visible in the Indicators column to identify that it is an inserted project. We are using only two projects in our example.
If you want the projects in a different order, you may click and drag them, just as we did for individual tasks in the Creating and Working with Tasks in Microsoft Project section.
The projects can be expanded for analysis, reporting, and cross project linking.
The IDs in the Master Project come from the source projects, so in a Master Project you will see ID numbers repeated.
Once the projects have been inserted, you may do reporting on tasks across both projects.
If you are filtering or grouping, you may lose visibility to the summary structure of the individual projects. There is a field called Project that can be inserted. It will display the name of the project that each task is from.
In the example below, the projects are grouped by Start date, in weekly intervals, and filtered to only show tasks for next year. The Project field has been inserted next to the Indicator column to identify the name of the project that each task is associated with.
One of the main uses of Master Projects, is to create links from tasks in one project to tasks in another projects.
To create the link, use the Link button in the Schedule section on the Task ribbon. Select the predecessor task and then hold down your Ctrl key and select the successor in the other project. Click the Link button. A Finish to Start link is created with no lag.
In the example below, we have specified that the Integrated Payroll System project cannot start until Gate 3 Complete of the Server Upgrades project is finished, by creating a link between the two milestones. This pushed out the entire project as can be seen by the change highlighting.
If you insert the Predecessors field, and click on it for the successor task in the link, you will see the format shown in the Entry Bar. The path and project name of the predecessor project is shown, along with the task ID.
Once the link is made, you may close the projects.
When you close, you will first be prompted and asked whether you want to save Project1, Projecct2, or whatever number your blank project was. In the example below, it is Project3. This is the Master Project.
Remember, that the Master Project is a ‘window’ into the source subprojects. If you save the Master Project, you are actually just saving the definition of what projects make up the Master Project.
If your purpose in creating the Master Project was to create a cross project link, or perform a one-time analysis, select No and don’t save the Master Project.
If you created the Master Project for reporting purposes, and will need to open the same set of projects together on a regular basis, select Yes and save the Master Project to a meaningful name and location.
Next, Microsoft Project will prompt you one by one, asking if you want to save the subprojects. If you made ANY changes that you want to keep, including creating cross project links, you must select Yes and save them one by one, or select Yes to All.
Once the cross project links are created, an external or ‘ghost’ task is visible in each of the projects. This represent the task from the other project that it is linked to.
We have opened the Server Upgrades project below. The Start Project milestone (the successor) from the Integrated Payroll project has been inserted as ID 21. This is the milestone that was linked to Gate 3 complete.
If a change is made that pushes out the predecessor task in its project, the impact will be seen in the successor project.
If we open the successor project when a change has been made that impacts the predecessor task (and therefore the successor as well), the impact will be seen in the successor project. When the successor project is opened, the dialog is displayed showing the links and any differences that have occurred.
To accept the impact into the successor project, click on the task name in the predecessor project and click Accept. If there is more than one link shown, you may accept all impacts by clicking All. Then click Close.
The resulting impact will be seen in the project.
