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 - can be expanded to display activities by double clicking within the box
- WBS - can be expanded to display activities by double clicking within the box
- Milestone - has no lower levels
Icons of activity boxes indicate completion status and criticality:
- not yet started
- in progress
- completed
- 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.
I want to
- view the activity network diagram
- select the content to display in each activity network box
- select grouping bands to display in the activity network diagram
- filter activities of large projects
- show only driving relationships or all relationships between activities
- add and delete activities from the activity network diagram
- show activity details
- view the layout of the activity network
- print the activity network diagram
View the activity network diagram
To display the Activity Network Diagram:
- Open the project or group of projects you want to work with in the Projects section.
- Click the arrow
of Select Activity View
on the toolbar.
- Click
Activity Network.
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.
- From the Activities toolbar, click the Customize View
arrow
.
- Select Customize View.
- 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.
- 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:
Activity ID
Activity Name
Expected Finish
Activity Status
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:
- Activity ID - Activity Name
- Planned Total Cost - Actual Total Cost
- Actual Start - Actual Finish
- Planned Value Cost - Earned Value Cost
- Activity ID - Activity Name
- Planned Total Cost - Actual Total Cost
- Actual Start - Actual Finish
- Planned Value Cost - Earned Value Cost
- Click the Expand Grouping Bands to Level field and select the number of grouping bands to expand per activity network view.
- 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.
- isolate and identify the driving relationships of tasks required to keep your project on schedule
- track the progress of driving relationships
- compare the status of multiple driving relationships to analyze their effect on completing the project, and use this information to make changes to stay on schedule
- view driving relationships in the context of the entire project (by unmarking the Show Only Driving Relationships check box)
- 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.
- Click OK.
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:
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:
- From the Activities toolbar, click the Customize View
arrow
.
- Select Customize View.
- In the Customize dialog box, click the Grouping tab.
- 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.
- From the To Level menu, select the number of hierarchical levels to group the fields or categories you selected previously from the Level menu.
- 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.
- Click OK.
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.
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 to 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 to display all relationships between activities in the activity network diagram.
Add and delete activities from the activity network diagram
From the activity network toolbar:
Click Add an activity to add a new activity, with a Not Started status, to the activity network diagram.
Click Delete an activity to remove a selected activity from the activity network diagram.
Show activity details
From the activity network toolbar:
Click Details , then select Activity Details, to view information related to a selected activity including:
- using trace logic to view relationships of precedence between activities
- viewing and modifying:
- predecessor relationships
- successor relationships
- assignments
- steps
- notebooks
- documents
- expenses
- activity codes
- feedback
View the layout of the activity network
From the activity network toolbar:
Click Mouse 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:
-
If you previously zoomed in to the activity network, you can scroll through the enlarged, close-up view of the network.
-
If you previously zoomed out from the activity network, you can scroll through the reduced, fuller view, then click Magnify or Zoom in to view details.
Click 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 to open a small, moveable window that enlarges details of activities in a full view of the activity network.
Click 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 to gain a wider perspective of the activity network. You can zoom out an unlimited number of times.
Click Zoom to fit to fit the entire activity network diagram into the available space on the Activity page.
Print the activity network diagram
From the
Print selector menu in the activity network toolbar:
Click Print to print the current view of the activity network diagram on a configured printer.
Click Print Preview before printing to view the image of the activity network as it will appear once it is printed.
Click Page setup to select page layout options before printing the activity network diagram.