10. Scheduling Summary Tasks Manually
There may be times, however, when you want to directly
enter a duration value for a summary task that is independent of its
calculated duration as determined by its subtasks. For example, a
summary task might represent a phase of work for which you want to
allocate 60 working days, and compare that duration with the
calculated duration determined by the subtasks (their durations, task
relationships, and other factors). This is especially true during the
initial planning of a project plan, when you may need to account for
the gap between how long you’d like a phase of work to take and its
duration as determined by its subtasks.
Fortunately you can enter any duration you wish for a summary
task. When you do so, Project switches the summary task from automatic
to manually scheduled and reflects both the automatically calculated
and manually entered durations as separate parts of the summary task’s
Gantt bar. If the summary task is a predecessor of another task,
Project will reschedule the successor task based on the manual, not
automatic duration.
Setting a manual duration for a summary task is a good way to
apply a top-down focus to a project plan. You can, for example,
introduce some slack or buffer to a phase of work by entering a manual
duration for the summary task that is longer than its calculated
duration.
In this exercise, you enter manual durations for some summary
tasks.
To begin, you’ll adjust the outline display of the project plan
to display just its top-level summary tasks.
-
On the View tab, in the
Data group, click Outline, and then
click Outline Level 1.
Project hides all subtasks and nested summary tasks, leaving
only the top-level tasks visible. -
On the View tab, in the
Zoom group, click Entire Project.
Note that the minus signs next to the summary task names
changed to plus signs, indicating that the subtasks are
hidden.
In this view, you can more easily see and compare the
durations of the individual summary tasks. Next, you’ll enter some
manual durations. You’ll begin with the Editorial phase, which
you’d like to see completed within 30 working days. -
In the Duration
field for the summary task 20, Editorial,
type 30d and press
Enter.
Project records your manually entered duration and makes
some adjustments to the schedule:
-
The summary task is switched from automatically
scheduled (the default for summary tasks) to manually
scheduled. Note the pin icon in the Task Mode column that
reflects the task’s scheduling status. -
Project drew a two-part Gantt bar for the summary task.
The upper portion of the bar represents the manual duration,
and the lower portion represents the automatically scheduled
duration. -
Project draws a red squiggly line under the new finish
date to flag this as a potential scheduling conflict. -
Project rescheduled the successor tasks throughout the
schedule based on task 20’s manually entered duration.
Looking at the updated schedule, you decide you’d like to
allow a bit more time for the color prep and printing. -
In the Duration field for
the summary task 42, Color prep and printing,
type 50d and press
Enter.
Project records your manually entered duration, switches the
summary task to manually scheduled, and redraws the Gantt bar. To
conclude this exercise, you’ll adjust the display settings to see
all subtasks. -
On the View tab, in the
Data group, click Outline, and then click All Subtasks.
Project expands the task list to show all subtasks.
Next, you will collapse the recurring task. -
Click the minus sign next to the name of the recurring task
1, Editorial staff meeting.
In the chart, you can see approximately where the tasks in
the Editorial phase are extending beyond your preferred duration
of the phase, and where there is a small amount of extra time, or
buffer, in the Design and Production phase of the project
plan.
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