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Activity Network page

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Use the Activity Network View to display a visual diagram of your project's activities and activity relationships according to the work breakdown structure (WBS). The Activity Network View depicts the sequencing of activities within a project using boxes that represent groups, work breakdown structures, milestones, and activities, and arrows that represent relationships between activities.

Significance of Boxes in the Activity Network

Boxes represent the project's activities, WBS, and other activity grouping structures. Icons indicate the type of box:

Group - Group - can be expanded to display activities by double clicking within the box
WBS - WBS - can be expanded to display activities by double clicking within the boxMilestone- Milestone - has no lower levels

Icons of activity boxes indicate completion status and criticality:

Activity, not yet started- not yet started
Activity, in progress- in progress
Activity, completed- completed
Activity, late- critical
Interconnections Between Activities

Interconnected boxes, representing activities, form the activity network. Arrows between boxes represent relationships between activities. The arrow from a predecessor activity points to its successor.

Solid lines represent driving relationships, which indicate when a predecessor activity influences the start date of its successor activity. The predecessor activity 'drives' the start date of the successor activity by causing it to start earlier or later than the scheduled date depending on the finish date of the predecessor activity.

Dashed lines represent non-driving relationships, which include all predecessor and successor activity relationships: Early Start - Early Finish, Early Start - Late Finish, Late Start - Late Finish, and Late Start - Early Finish).

You can select to show driving relationships only or all relationships.

Activity Progress

If you select to show the progress of an activity (by marking the Show Progress check box in the Activity Network tab of the Customize Activity Views dialog box), you can view the progress of activities in the activity network diagram. Completed activities are marked with an X across the activity box. Activities in progress are marked with a slash (\) across the activity box.

 

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View the activity network diagram

To display the Activity Network Diagram:

  1. Open the project or group of projects you want to work with in the Projects section.
  2. Click the arrow arrowof Select Activity View Select Activity View on the toolbar.
  3. Click Activity NetworkActivity Network.
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Select the content to display in each activity network box

In the Activity Network tab of the Customize Activity Views dialog box, you can select the content to display in each row of a box in the activity network diagram.

You can display up to four rows of content or split the rows to show up to eight content items per box.

  1. From the Activities toolbar, click the Customize View the Customize icon arrow arrow.
  2. Select Customize View.
  3. In the Customize dialog box, click the Activity Network tab.

The Activity Box section provides options to choose and view in the Preview section before applying your changes.

  1. Mark a Split Row check box to divide a row of information to be displayed in an activity.
Notes:
Splitting a line of information allows you to display more information per row within an activity. For example, without splitting a row, you can present a maximum of four fields of information, such as:
By splitting all four rows, you can present two fields of information per line for a maximum of eight fields of information per activity. For example, if you split all four rows, you can present, per line:
  1. Click the Expand Grouping Bands to Level field and select the number of grouping bands to expand per activity network view.
  2. Mark the Show Only Driving Relationships check box to show only the relationship lines where the predecessor is causing or driving the date of the successor activity.

  3. Note: Leaving the Show Only Driving Relationships check box unmarked causes all activity relationships in the project to be displayed in the activity network diagram.

    You can mark the Show Only Driving Relationships check box to:

  4. Mark the Show Progress check box to display progress indicators on the activity box. The Activity Network View indicates progress by drawing an X on a completed activity or a slash (\) on an activity in progress.
  5. Click OK.

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Select grouping bands to display in the activity network diagram

In the Grouping tab of the Customize Activity Views dialog box, you can select the grouping bands to display in the activity network diagram.

To select grouping bands:
  1. From the Activities toolbar, click the Customize View the Customize icon arrow arrow.
  2. Select Customize View.
  3. In the Customize dialog box, click the Grouping tab.
  4. From each of the Level menus, select a field or category in which to group activities. You cannot group activities by more than one hierarchical field. You can create up to twenty levels of content.
  5. From the To Level menu, select the number of hierarchical levels to group the fields or categories you selected previously from the Level menu.

  6. Tip: To create a view for managing the WBS for a single project, in the Level 1 drop-down list, select WBS and in the To Level drop-down list, select All. To create a view for managing the WBS for multiple projects, in the Level 1 drop-down list choose Project. Then, in the Level 2 drop-down list, select WBS and in the To Level drop-down list, select the number of WBS levels you want to display.

  7. From the Band Color menu for each level, select the background color of the group heading row, or band. The color you select for each band will be displayed in the Activity Table and the activity network diagram.
  8. Click OK.

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Filtering activities of large projects

Projects can contain an unlimited number of activities. For very large networks that exceed system resources, the diagram does not load or displays just the activity name as box content. To ensure that the activity network diagram displays fully, filter activities for importance. You can set filters to show the activities most relevant to your work.

Note: In the Filters tab of the Customize Activity Views dialog box, select a standard or custom filter when you need to reduce the display of activities in a large project.

Show only driving relationships or all relationships between activities

From the activity network toolbar:

Click Show Driving Relationships Show only driving relationshipsto show only driving relationships between activities in the activity network diagram. Driving relationships show when a predecessor activity influences the start date of its successor activity.

Click Show All Relationships Show all relationships to display all relationships between activities in the activity network diagram.

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Add and delete activities from the activity network diagram

From the activity network toolbar:

Click Add Add an activity an activity to add a new activity, with a Not Started status, to the activity network diagram.

Click Delete Delete activity an activity to remove a selected activity from the activity network diagram.

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Show activity details

From the activity network toolbar:

Click Details Show activity details, then select Activity Details, to view information related to a selected activity including:

 

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View the layout of the activity network

From the activity network toolbar:

Click Mouse pointerMouse Pointer to lock the activity network into place on the Activities page. Vertical and horizontal scroll bars display to allow you to navigate through the locked view.

Notes:

Click Pan Pan to move the activity network as a whole. This option is useful when you want to view the larger group of activities, or portions of the activity network at a glance. While panning, you cannot move individual activity boxes or sections of the network.

Click Magnify Magnify to open a small, moveable window that enlarges details of activities in a full view of the activity network.

Click Zoom In Zoom in to gain a closer perspective of an activity and its details or a section of the activity network. You can zoom in an unlimited number of times.

Click Zoom Out Zoom out to gain a wider perspective of the activity network. You can zoom out an unlimited number of times.

Click Zoom to fit Zoom to fit to fit the entire activity network diagram into the available space on the Activity page.

 

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Print the activity network diagram

From the Print arrowPrint selector menu in the activity network toolbar:

Click Print Print to print the current view of the activity network diagram on a configured printer.

Click Print preview Print Preview before printing to view the image of the activity network as it will appear once it is printed.

Click Page setup Page setup to select page layout options before printing the activity network diagram.

 

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