Managing Project Plans in the Project Center

1

Add new phases, tasks and milestones to your project plan without having to open a form. Click the Add New icon in the Actions column next to a phase or a next to the project root to insert a new entry. The new entry will be nested immediately under the phase or the project root.

2

Use inline-editing to enter or update the phase, task or milestone information. See Inline-Editing in Lists.

You can distinguish set start and end dates from calculated dates. The fixed date icon indicates a set start and end date for a task or milestone. You can modify set start and end dates using inline editing in the project center, if your role permissions allow it, but you cannot modify calculated dates. However, you can change calculated dates to set dates and conversely.

To change a calculated start or end date to a set date, double-click the start or end date cell, clear the Calculated date box, then select the date. Conversely, to change a set start or end date to a calculated date, double-click the start or end date cell, then check the Calculated date box.

Click a different row or press Enter to save the changes. A message appears confirming the record was saved.

3

To change the sequence of your project, point to the row corresponding to the phase, task or milestone you want to move, then drag it to the required position. The mouse pointer changes to a closed hand cursor when you hold the mouse down.

When you drag the selected entry:

• (a) Point in between the rows. Notice a green line and an arrow appear in between the rows. Notice also the direction of the arrow.

  • If you point closer to the row above, the arrow starts in the row above . Release the mouse to insert the selected entry after the row above.

  • If you point closer to the row below , the arrow starts in the row below . Release the mouse to insert the selected entry before the row below.

  Note:

  Inserting the selected entry after/before another entry is relevant when the nesting level of the two entries is different. For example, when inserting a task between a task nested under a phase and a milestone at the same level as the phase above, the inserted task will either be nested under the phase if inserted after the task above, or at the same level as the phase and the milestone if inserted before the milestone below.

• (b) Point to a phase row and release the mouse to insert the selected entry into that phase. Notice the background color of the entire row turns green as you point to a phase row.

• (c) Point to a task or milestone row. Notice the background color of the entire row turns gray as you point to a task or milestone row, indicating this is not a valid operation. If you release the mouse, the operation is cancelled and the sequence of your project is not changed.

4

Click the Edit icon in the Actions column to open the phase, task, or milestone property form.

Click the More icon in the Actions column and select Delete to delete an entry. Any entries nested under the deleted entry will move up one level. For example, if you delete one of the main phases nested under the project root, all the sub-phases, tasks and milestones that were nested under that deleted phase will now be nested under the project root. A message appears confirming the record was deleted successfully.

5

The project center lets you view and set dependencies between predecessor and successor phases or tasks.

• You can add the Predecessors column to the project outline section of the view.

• You can set predecessor tasks or phases for any task and phase in your project sequence. The functionality is similar to setting predecessors from the task entity form or the project outline, Gantt and task detail view. You set the relationship on the successor task or phase and select multiple tasks or phases that control the start or finish date of this task or phase (predecessors).

Click the More icon in the Actions column and select Edit predecessors or click the cell in the Predecessors column to edit the predecessor settings for a task. The Predecessor settings popup window appears and shows any predecessors already set and a blank line, you can use to add a task or phase dependency.

1. Select the name of the Predecessor task or phase. This is a task or phase that controls the start or finish date of the task or phase you a re currently editing.

2. Select the Type of the relationship. The following options are available.

   • Finish-to-Start — The finish date of the predecessor task or phase controls the start date of the successor task.

   • Start-to-Start — The start date of the predecessor task or phase controls the start date of the successor task.

   • Finish-to-Finish — The finish date of the predecessor task or phase controls the finish date of the successor task.

   • Start-to-Finish — The start date of the predecessor task or phase controls the finish date of the successor task.

3. Enter the number of Lag days. This is the number of days you want to allow between the start or finish date of the successor task and the start or finish date of the predecessor. For example, If you define a Start-to Finish with 60 Lag days, the finish date of the successor task or phase should be 60 days after the start date of the predecessor task or phase.

4. After you set the Predecessor, Type, and Lag days, a new blank line appears.

5. To remove a dependency, click the delete icon

6. Click Save to save your changes to the predecessor settings, or Cancel to discard your changes.

   The popup window closes and a confirmation message appears if you made any changes.