Project activities are key elements of the project plan. It is at the activity level where the work of the project is planned and executed. The project structure, often referred to as the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), consists of the main project, subprojects, and activities guiding the planning and execution of work.
Once the project structure is established, activities related to the sub projects should be inserted into the project structure. This can be accomplished using the Activity, Activities page, or by using Project Scope and Schedule page, selecting the sub project node and then Activities tab. Tasks can be created for the activities to further define the work to be done.
When you enter a new activity, the Early Start date is automatically set to today’s date, but you can adjust it if necessary. You then have the option to specify either the Early Finish date or the number of workdays required for its completion. If you enter a value in the Total Workdays field, the system will apply the predefined hours per workday to convert this duration from days into minutes. This conversion is essential for both scheduling calculations and for manual entry of Early Start, Early Finish, and Total Workdays.
When work starts on the activity, such as when progress is reported, the Actual Start date is updated to match the Early Start date, unless the Actual Start date has already been set manually. If the activity has both Actual Start and Actual Finish dates, you cannot manually update the total work days.
Activity milestones can be added to the project plan to mark significant events in the project. When an activity starts and ends on the same date and time, it is automatically made into an activity milestone. Alternatively, the Activity Milestone indicator can be enabled on the activity. This will result in the activity automatically receiving the same early start and early finish date and time.
A variety of information and options can be defined for each activity prior to its execution. Here are some examples:
Objects, for example tasks, work orders, shop orders, document packages, and purchase orders, and resources can be connected to, or planned on the activities. These objects report progress, cost and hours to the activity based on the progress method and planned cost driver of the activity.
All costs and hours are reported to and accumulated on the activities, and cannot be assigned directly to a subproject. As the project progresses, key performance indicators such as cost, revenue, reported hours, earned value, and progress are continually reported back to the respective activity.