Summary Tasks

Summary tasks group, manage and navigate all tasks.

Use summary tasks for billing purposes, phase management, milestone management, sprints and more.

If the project schedule doesn't have a lot of tasks, summary tasks may not be required:

• Just use a simple list of all tasks at the same level

Add a summary task the same way as another task, except identify it as a summary task.

Child or detailed tasks below create a hierarchical structure of the tasks. All the data in the child tasks rolls up to values at the summary task level. That's why less information is required for a summary task.

The duration, work, start and end dates for summary tasks calculate automatically based on the data in the children tasks associated underneath.

Feel free to create multiple summary tasks and child tasks.

Adding a Summary Task

... from the Task List or Gantt Chart

To add a task directly on the Task List or on the Gantt Chart and set it as a summary task:

1. Start the Simple Task Add/Edit
2. Click tripple bar icon while on that task's line and while in the add mode
3. Hit Enter or click Save 

... from the Task Add form

To add a task and set it as a Summary task using the Task - Add form

1. While on the task list, click the Add Task   menu option
   • OR right click anywhere on the white space outside the task columns or in the task list menu bar
   • Select Add Task from the context sensitive menu options
2. On the Task - Add form, check the Is Summary box
3. The form will change to display only those options that are applicable to summary tasks
   • Enter the other data as required
   • See Add Task - General for more details
4. Click 

Changing an Existing Task to a Summary Task

To change an already created task (a non-summary task) to a summary task:

1. Edit the task
   1. See the Simple Task Add/Edit 
   2. Or right click on the task, hover on Edit Task (inline)
2. Click tripple bar icon while on that task's line and while in the add mode
3. Hit Enter or click Save 

If a task is changed to a Summary task, some of the data entered for the task will be removed:

• As a Summary, that data is automatically calculated from its child tasks
• Fields include Duration, Work Hours, Start Date, End Date, Constraint Date, Constraint Settings, expenses and billable expenses
• Predecessors are also removed
• The Resources and options for entering time and expense entries against the task stay

Changing a Summary Task back to a regular task

To change a summary task back to a regular task, follow the steps in Changing an Existing Task to a Summary task but deselect the triple bar summary icon:

If there were child tasks in the Summary task, you will be asked if you'd like to delete the children tasks too or ONLY the summary task:

Best Practices for Creating Summary Tasks

Time Entry at a Summary Task Level

Project Managers can enter work hours on a summary task. These work hours will add to the hours calculating from child tasks below.

Best Practice: Don't allow time entry at the summary task level unless there is some over-riding reason. Summary Tasks are for collecting the information below.

Setting a Summary Task as a Milestone Task

Summary tasks can have longer durations than just the child tasks calculated from below.

Quick Tip: Give your milestone tasks 0 day durations to represent a discrete time period of time that can be used for easy reporting and management purposes.

Do not set a summary task as milestone task. If you're tempted, instead create a child task within that summary section and make that task the milestone task.

Assigning Resources to a Summary Task

Resources can be assigned to summary tasks.

However, Summary tasks don't appear on users work lists or task lists by default.

Therefore, it is recommended to assign resources to the child tasks within the summary task.

See Why shouldn't I assign Resources to a Summary Task?

Making a Summary Task a Predecessor or Successor

We highly recommend to avoid this practice as it goes against the PMBOK ideology of Summary Tasks and is an easy way to create circle references within a Task List structure.

Check out:

• Adding Child Tasks to Summary Tasks
• Displaying Summary Tasks