Activity Types

ACTIVITY TYPES
Task Dependent:
Task dependent activity is an activity which uses activity calendar to calculate start and
finish dates. This type of activity is not dependent on any resource calendars. So, even
if you assign one or more resources to this activity, start and finish dates will still be
calculated from activity calendar. Task dependent activity is most commonly used
activity type in project scheduling.
In the picture below, an activity has a type of task dependent and it is assigned a 7
days calendar. Activity starts on 01-Jan-17 (Sunday) and after consuming 10 days of
assigned calendar, it finishes on 10-Jan-17 (Tuesday). Even if resources are added to
this activity, the start and end dates will not be changed.
Resource Dependent:
Resource dependent activity is an activity which uses resource calendar to calculate
start and finish dates. Activity calendar will not be used unless there are no resources
assigned to that activity. For example, if excavation in foundations is assigned a 7 days
calendar but the excavator which has to do the excavations is available only 5 days a
week then start and finish dates of this activity will be calculated from 5 days calendar
(if the activity type is resource dependent). In case there are more than 1 resource
assigned to a resource dependent activity, primary resource calendar will be used in
calculations.
In the picture below, an activity has a type of task dependent and it is assigned a 7
days calendar. This activity has also a resource assigned to it which has 5 days calendar
and it will not work on Saturday and Sunday. However, activity type is still task
dependent. Note that activity starts on 01-Jan-17 (Sunday) and after consuming 10
days, it finishes on 10-Jan-17 (Tuesday).
If we look at resource usage profile, note that the assigned resource will work 8 hours a
day from Sunday, 1-Jan to Tuesday, 10-Jan. As the resource has its Saturday and
Sunday off in its calendar, these days are shown as red or over allocated units of the
resource. This means that by keeping the activity type as task dependent, we are
forcing the assigned resource to use the activity calendar.
ACTIVITY TYPES
Now if we change the activity type to resource dependent, note that original duration is
changed to 12 days and activity will now start on 02-Jan-17 (Monday) and after
consuming 10 days of assigned resource, it will finish on 13-Jan-17 (Friday).
If we look at resource usage profile now, note that the assigned resource will work 8
hours a day from Monday, 2-Jan to Friday, 13-Jan. As the resource has its Saturday and
Sunday off in its calendar, these days are shown as blank days and the resource will not
work on these days. Further note that resource will actually work on 10 days as you can
see 10 number of bars in the profile, however these 10 days will actually take 12 days
of the activity calendar.
Start Milestone:
Start Milestone is a type of activity which represents start of some major event or
important series of tasks. For example, start of the project, start of foundation works,
start of structure works etc. Start Milestone has only start date and it has no finish date.
Also the duration of a Start Milestone is zero. This milestone together with finish
milestone is used to show summary of project schedule. For example if you have more
than 1000 activities in a schedule and you are given a task to show schedule summary,
you can only report the milestones which will show start and end dates of important
events of your schedule.
In the example below, ‘Start of Electrical Works’ is a Start Milestone as it has only the
start date. It is represented by a black diamond in the Gantt chart.
ACTIVITY TYPES
Finish Milestone:
Finish Milestone is a type of activity which represents finish of some major event or
important series of tasks. For example, finish of foundation works, finish of structure
works, finish of the project etc. Finish Milestone has only Finish date and it has no Start
date. Also the duration of a Finish Milestone is zero. This milestone together with start
milestone is used to show summary of project schedule. For example if you have more
than 1000 activities in a schedule and you are given a task to show schedule summary,
you can only report the milestones which will show start and end dates of important
events of your schedule.
In the example above, ‘Finish of Electrical Works’ is a Finish Milestone as it has only the
finish date. It is represented by a black diamond in the Gantt chart.
Level of Effort:
Sometimes, there are activities in schedule whose duration is dependent on some other
activities. For example, project management activities start as the project is started and
finish when the project is finished. Note that duration of project is not fixed. In planning
stage, you have to do number of iterations to reach at optimum schedule. For each
iteration, you may have to produce cost estimate of the project. So, whatever will be
the duration of project, duration of these project management activities will be adjusted
accordingly and you will get correct estimates of the project. Well, thats just one
example, there are number of cases in which this activity type can be used.
In the example below, you can see that start of ‘Consultancy for Electrical Works’ is
connected to ‘Start of Electrical Works’ and finish of this activity is connected to ‘Finish
of Electrical Works’. As this activity is a Level of Effort so its duration is dependent on
total duration between these two milestones. If duration of activity is changed, then
duration of Level of Effort activity will also be changed accordingly.
WBS Summary:
WBS Summary activity is a type of activity which shows summary data of all activities in
a WBS band. You don’t have to give any relationship to this activity type. It
ACTIVITY TYPES
automatically calculates the summary data. WBS band also shows summary of activities
but the different is that you can assign resources to WBS Summary activity. This helps
when you don’t have estimates of activities but you have estimate of the whole work
package. You may then use these estimates for top down estimation.
Another use of WBS Summary activity is that if you have some activities in a WBS with
different calendars assigned to them then you can use WBS Summary activity and
assign a calendar to it from which you want to see summary duration of the whole
WBS.

Activity Types

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