Learn/How to Create and Assign Summary Task in Project or MS Project 2013 tool(Step by Step with screenshots)

As learned via below series of articles/blogs let us know explore important aspect of Projects which are very much important with respect to organizing of tasks.


http://saxenablogs.blogspot.com/2015/04/how-to-create-project-in-ms-project.html
http://saxenablogs.blogspot.com/2015/04/how-to-change-start-date-for-ms-project.html

http://saxenablogs.blogspot.com/2015/04/how-to-assign-resources-in-project-in.html

http://saxenablogs.blogspot.com/2015/04/how-ot-assign-cost-resources-in-project.html
http://saxenablogs.blogspot.com/2015/04/how-to-change-start-date-for-ms-project.html
http://saxenablogs.blogspot.com/2015/04/learnhow-to-assign-material-resources.html

Like any project manager, lead it is very important to utilize the best of a tool and make effective use of it for efficient project management.

How we can achieve effective and efficient project management?
The answer is simple with the help of SUMMARY TASKS in the Mpp software tool or MS Project 2013.



Let us say for example we have above project plan to achieve a successful project execution or to a specific job.

Now we have a close look we can see it has plenty of tasks and all are sequentially visible at the moment is this true ?
It might happen we have some task where we also has some small tasks or sub-tasks etc.

let us include some sub-tasks to achieve to get this more clear.



Now if we look at it we have 2 things no. 1 all the 3 new sub task A, B and C are all starting from beginning and done by Resource 1.

So let us first make the chain of events so that TASK B will be done after TASK A is completed and similarly TASK C will be done post TASK B is completed.



Now we can see much better and all task are pretty much clear to be executed with sequential alignment and predessor/successor relationship with each other.

Imagine in reality how bigger projects we have and no. of tasks we will encounter.

Here if we need to achieve a much simpler view from Manager perspective then we will use something like a Summary task or at the higher level something which will be combination of all task but helps us to get a simpler view.

Just choose the Sub Task A,B and C and then click Indent Task button



Now, we see a much better simpler view where we can see that TASK 1 is more like a summary task and composed of many sub-task.



Thus, we can add more sub-tasks for other TASK and this will be added by Indent Task button to format it TASK 2 as main task for them.



Thus as visible it gives more clarity to the entire project plan in mpp or MS Project 2013.

I hope now it is clear to achieve simplification by Summary tasks in MS Project 2013 tool or mpp tool.