Create a work breakdown structure (WBS)

A project schedule communicates what work must be completed, which resources do the work, and the timeframe in which the work must be completed. The schedule reflects all the work associated with delivering the project on time. In Dynamics 365 Project Operations, you create a project schedule by:

• Breaking down the work into manageable tasks.
• Estimating the time that is required to do each task.
• Setting task dependencies.
• Setting task durations.
• Estimating the generic resources that complete the tasks.

You create the project schedule on the Schedule tab on the Project page.

Tasks

The first step in creating a project schedule is to break down the work into manageable portions. The schedule in Project Operations supports the following features:

• Summary or container tasks
• Leaf node tasks

Summary tasks

Summary tasks can store other summary tasks or leaf node tasks. They have no work effort or cost of their own. Instead, their work effort and cost are a rollup of the work effort and cost of their container tasks. The start date of the summary task is the start date of the container tasks, and the end date is the end date of the container tasks. You can edit the name of a summary task, but you can't edit scheduling properties, including effort, dates, and duration. If you delete a summary task, you also delete all its container tasks.

Leaf node tasks

Leaf node tasks represent the most granular work on the project. They have an estimated effort, resources, planned start and end dates, and a duration.

Create a task hierarchy

Add a task

Complete the following steps to add one or more tasks.

1. Go to Projects and select and open the project record for which you want to create a schedule.
2. Select the Tasks tab.
3. Select Add new task, enter a name for the task, and then press Enter.
4. Enter another task name and press Enter again until you have a full list of tasks.

Manage hierarchy of a task

When you indent a task, it becomes a child of the task that is directly above it. The schedule ID of the task is then recalculated so that it's based on the schedule ID of its new parent and follows the outline numbering scheme. The parent task becomes a summary task and a rollup of its child tasks. When you promote a task, it isn't a child of the task that was its parent. The schedule ID is recalculated so that it reflects the task's updated depth and position in the hierarchy. The effort, cost, and dates of the previous parent task are recalculated so that they don't include this task.

Complete the following steps to indent or promote a task.

1. On the Project page, on the Tasks tab, under Summary tasks, select the three vertical dots by the task name, and then select Make subtask.
2. Select the task to indent or promote. To select more than one task, select a task, select and hold the Ctrl key, and then select more tasks.
3. Select Indent or Promote subtask to move tasks under or out from under summary tasks.

Move tasks up and down

You can move tasks to any level in the work breakdown structure in one of two ways:

• Select one or more tasks, and drag them to the desired location.
• Select one or more tasks, right-click and select Cut, select the destination cell in the schedule, and then right-click and select Paste.

Task attributes

A task's name describes the work that must be completed. In Project Operations, the attributes associated with a task describe the schedule of the task and its staffing requirements.

Schedule attributes

The Effort, Start date, End date, and Duration attributes define the schedule for the task.

The following table shows more schedule attributes.

As an administrator, you can define custom fields on the task entity. However, you can't display these fields on the schedule grid. To see your custom fields, add them to the Project Task details page.

Staffing attributes

Access staffing attributes through the Resources field in the schedule. You can search for an existing resource, or select Create and, in the Quick Create pane, add a project team member as a new resource. When you search for a resource by using the resource picker in the task grid, board view, or Gantt, the search returns either existing project team members or active bookable resources.

Use the Role, Resourcing Unit, and Position Name fields to describe the staffing requirements for the task. These staffing attributes, together with the task schedule, help you find available resources to do this task.

• Role – Specify the type of resource that is required to do the task.
• Resourcing unit – Specify the unit that resources for the task should be assigned from. This attribute affects the cost and sales estimate for the task if the cost and bill rate for the resource are set based on resourcing units.
• Position name – Enter a name for the generic resource that serves as a placeholder for the resource that ultimately completes the work.

The Resources field holds the position name of the generic resource or named resource when one is found.

The Category field holds the values that indicate a broader type of work that the task can be grouped into. This field doesn't affect scheduling or staffing. Instead, use the field only for reporting.

Task dependencies

You can use the schedule in Project Operations to create predecessor relationships between tasks. The Predecessor field uses one or more values to indicate the tasks that a task depends on. When you assign predecessor values to a task, the task can start only after you complete all of the predecessor tasks. Because of the dependency, the planned start date of the task is reset to the date when the predecessor tasks are completed.

Project Operations supports four dependency types.

For precise planning, Project Operations provides the concept of lead and lag to the project manager.

The task mode has no effect on updates that you make to the start and end dates of predecessor or dependent tasks.

Task labels

You can apply labels on tasks and use this capability to quickly see what they have in common, to sort or filter. For more information, see Use labels to sort tasks in Microsoft Project for the web.

Task history

Task history records all the changes a user makes to a task. For each edit, the history shows details such as who made the change, when they made it, what property they changed, the previous value, and the new value.

The history records changes that include edits such as

1. Adding or removing labels
2. Changing the duration or effort
3. Editing checklists
4. Adding or removing attachments
5. Edits to any custom columns

Understanding the impacts of duration, resource calendars, and project calendars on tasks

A task's duration is the number of working hours between the start time of the start date and the end time of the finish date of the task. By default, Project for the Web defines duration units of measure as follows.

You can edit these duration conversions at the project level to support users in regions where work hours are defined differently than these default durations. Zero isn't a valid quantity for hours or days.

Unassigned tasks are scheduled by using the project's calendar. However, when you initially assign a resource, the scheduling of a task updates to respect the resource's calendar. Subsequent changes to a task with an assignment follow the scheduling mode of the project. To learn more about the influence of calendars on tasks, see Resource Calendars in Project for the web and Task Start Times & Your Projects!.

A resource assignment can be created only when the end of the resource's calendar rule overlaps the task's end date. Therefore, if your calendar rule ends before the end of the task, the assignment isn't scheduled, because there isn't enough time in the schedule for the resource to perform the task.

For example, a resource calendar begins on Wednesday, March 1, 2023, but ends on Friday, April 14, 2023. In the project where you add this resource, tasks that you assign to this resource can't end later than April 14, 2023. Otherwise, they aren't scheduled, because they exceed the last day of the resource's calendar.

The screenshot above shows, in green color, which tasks can be scheduled because they end before the last day of the resource availability, and in red color, which ones aren't allowed.

Accessibility and keyboard shortcuts

The Schedule grid is fully accessible and works with screen readers such as Narrator, JAWS, or NVDA. You can move through the grid area by using arrow keys (as in Microsoft Excel). Use the Tab key to advance through the interactive user interface elements. Use the Down arrow key, the Enter key, or the Spacebar to select and open the drop-down menus.

Planning a project in sprints

You can also use sprints and plan your project based on agile project management. For more information, see Plan a project in sprints in Project for the web.