Hi, I'm a teacher and have never used Project 'for real'. I've just started to teach myself so that I can use this with my 6th Form students. I've a background in IT so I'm a bit worried that I just can't do what I'm trying to in Project, but then again, there could be a simple reason why!

I'm trying to set up a project plan with a number of 'summary tasks' that basically act as subheadings to help organise and structure the plan. What I then want is for the summary task to 'inherit' the times I allocate for the subtasks.

I've tried this using just a 'normal' task with the subtasks indented below it, but that doesn't allocate the total for the subtasks to the 'top level' task; and then when I use an actual 'summary task' (i.e. task/insert summary) I only get the option of one <new task> below it .... this one does 'add up' correctly i.e. the time allocated for 'new task' appears by the summary task but I can't find how to add more <new tasks> and for this behavior to continue.

Please help - and also please tell me if I'm mis-using the idea of summary and subtasks

Many thanks


Ann

Hello Ann,

I'm not sure what values you want the summary task to "inherit". The duration (default field in Gantt chart view) of a summary task is not the sum of the subtask durations - it is calculated based upon the start of the earliest and finish of the latest of the subtasks. If you link the subtasks Finish to Start, the summary will calculate the total duration.

However, what I am guessing you need is the sum of the work (effort) for the tasks. The summary task will sum the work for subtasks - but you need to assign people to the tasks to generate the work. You can enter work manually (without resources) if needed by adding the work column to the view.

Your idea of summary and subasks is correct - I think the issue is the difference between duration and work.

Thanks Julie

yes, you're right - I don't want the summary task to inherit the duration, I would like it to show the total time allocation for all subtasks it contains. Do I have to do that, as you say, by allocating 'work' to each subtask?

Also, my issue of adding summary tasks but only one <new task> appearing below it .... is there an easy way to have summary task and multiple subtasks? (I may actually be getting these simply by indenting the subtasks, but I've managed to confuse myself that they're not 'working' because of the issue with duration vs planned time (above).

Ann

Hi Anne,

Work does equal duration if you have 1 resource assigned at 100%. You can add the work field and copy/paste the duration value into the work field if you want to do some very high level planning. However, you may have a scenario where you want the task duration (from start to finish) to show a longer period of time than you estimate the work. For example, you might say it takes a week in duration to accomplish the task - but it is really only about 25 hours of effort)

I do want to caution if you want to get more involved in Project on a deeper level - usually manually adding work without resources is on the "don't" list.

You can add your tasks, select multiple and then indent. The task above becomes the summary.

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