Summary Task versus MilestoneBY: Collin QuiringThis is a quick primer on the difference between a summary task and a milestone task.In the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), version four, the term “Summary Activity” is defined as: “A group of related schedule activities aggregated at some summary level, and displayed/reported as a single activity at that summary level.” And, a “Milestone” is defined as “A significant point or event in the project.”A milestone is usually used to indicate when a specific phase or group of tasks is to be completed. It can be considered a deadline date. It is possible to have numerous milestones in a schedule. While a milestone can be assigned a resource that is responsible for its completion, it is more common to use the milestone without resources. This is because the milestone is often a successor to a number of other tasks that all have to be completed prior to its completion.In Project Professional, a milestone is what the system automatically creates when a task is given a zero duration. To add a deadline date to the milestone task there is an option to add that date in the task information.A summary task is just that – a task that summarizes another set of tasks. Normally, the summary task is not assigned a resource.
This is because the summary task’s start and completion dates are derived from the earliest subtask’s start date and latest subtask’s finish date. As each task is completed, the summary task’s overall completion is updated as well. Normally, a summary task is not linked to other tasks. Using summary tasks makes reading a WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) easier when using a logical grouping. Creating a WBS usually involves determining the summary tasks and then the subtasks to complete them but it is possible to put all the tasks into a WBS and then determine the summary tasks later.In Project Professional, the subtasks are indented and that makes the summary task bold and outdented. Many levels of summary and subtasks can be created.Just as a reference point, here are the definitions as defined by Microsoft.
For Microsoft Project, a milestone is defined as: “A milestone is a reference point that marks a major event in a project and is used to monitor the project’s progress. Any task with zero duration is automatically displayed as a milestone. You can also mark any other task of any duration as a milestone.” And, a summary task is defined as: “When organizing the tasks for a project, you can group the tasks that share characteristics or that will be completed in the same time frame under a summary task.You can use the summary tasks to show the major phases and subphases in the project. Summary tasks summarize the data of their subtasks, which are the tasks that are grouped beneath them.”.
Milestone In Ms Project
Project Professional 2019 Project Professional 2016 Project 2010 Project Online Desktop Client Project Professional 2013 Project Standard 2010 Project Standard 2013 Project Standard 2016 Project Standard 2019In Project, an indented task becomes a subtask of the task above it, which becomes a summary task. A summary task is made up of subtasks, and it shows their combined information.To create a subtask or a summary task, indent a task below another one. In the Gantt Chart view, select the task you want to turn into a subtask, then click Task Indent.The task you selected is now a subtask, and the task above it, that isn’t indented, is now a summary task.
Tip: Click Outdentto move the task back to the level of the task above it.Show or hide subtasksTo show or hide all subtasks for all summary tasks in Project, in the View tab, click Outline in the Data section, and then click All Subtasks to show all the subtasks or click one of the Level options below it to show all the subtasks up to that level.To show and hide all subtasks for a single summary task, simple click the expand or collapse button to the left of the summary task name to show them or hide them respectively. Tip: Outline numbers can be useful for viewing the organization of your tasks at a glance. Tips for organizing and working with outlined tasks.If your tasks aren’t indenting or outdenting, there could be a variety of reasons why.When organizing the tasks for a project, you should plan the outline for the project in one of two ways; the top-down method or the bottom-up method.With the top-down method, you identify the major phases first and then break the phases down into individual tasks.
The top-down method gives you a version of the plan as soon as you decide on the major phases.With the bottom-up method, you list all the possible tasks first, and then you group them into phases. Note: Don’t forget to after you finish organizing them. Subtasks and summary tasks create structure, but they don’t create task dependencies.You can include the project as a summary task.When you move or delete a summary task, Project moves or deletes all of its subtasks. Before you delete a summary task, outdent the subtasks you want to keep.You can without changing each subtask. But be careful — changing the duration of the summary task does not necessarily change the durations of the subtasks.Avoid assigning resources to summary tasks.
Assign them to the subtasks instead, or you might not be able to resolve overallocations.Summary tasks don’t always add up. Some summary task values (cost and work) are the total of the subtask values, others (duration and baseline) aren’t.