Where can I do this?
If you have the required privileges, you can add, edit, delete, or update the progress of activity steps on the Projects > Activities page or in Activity Step Details.
Tip: While you can work with steps in Activity Step Details, you can perform all the tasks available in Activity Step Details directly on the Activities page. Some step information, such as step descriptions, is only available in Activity Step Details.
You can add activity steps based on your own requirements or, if your organization has defined templates to standardize activity steps, you can add these predefined steps to an activity. For more information about Step Templates, as well as information about using step weights, see Activity steps overview.
I want to:
Work with activity steps on the Activities page
From the Activities page, you can display the Activity Steps dialog, which you can use to add, edit, or delete activity steps, or to update progress for activity steps.
To access the Activities page and display the Activity Steps dialog
- Open the project or group of projects you want to work with in the Projects section.
- Click
on the Projects toolbar to display the Activities page.
- In the Activity Table, right-click on the appropriate activity and choose Edit Activity Steps to display the Activity Steps dialog.
For information about the fields contained in this dialog, refer to Activity Steps Field Definitions.
- Add, edit, delete, or update progress for activity steps as described below.
To add, edit, or delete activity steps
- In the Activity Steps dialog:
- To add an individual step, click
. Click in the appropriate fields to modify step details. You can add as many steps as necessary. Each step for an activity must have a unique name.
- To add steps from a template, click
. All of the steps defined in the template are added to the activity. You can assign multiple Activity Step Templates to a single activity, but you can assign only one template at a time.
- To change the order of listed steps, select the step you want to move, then use the
or
arrows to change the step's position in the list.
- To edit step details, click in any field, then edit the contents as necessary. For steps added from a template, you cannot edit the step name. Refer to the field definitions below for more information about the data you can enter in these fields.
- To delete a step, select the step you want to delete, then click
. To delete multiple steps, use Ctrl-click or Shift-click to select the steps you want to delete.
Tip: While the dialog is open, you can continue to select activities in the Activity Table and work with activity steps for the activities you select.
- Click OK to close the dialog and retain your changes, or click Cancel to close the dialog without retaining your changes.
- If you chose to retain your changes, on the Activities toolbar, click
(Ctrl+S) to save your changes, or click
(Ctrl+Z) to cancel your changes.
To update progress for activity steps
- In the Activity Steps dialog:
- To record progress for a step, enter the percentage of work completed in the Step % Complete field. If you enter 100%, the associated Completed checkbox is automatically marked after you save your changes.
- To indicate that work on a step is complete, mark the Completed checkbox. If you mark the Completed checkbox for a step, the Step % Complete value is set to 100 after you save your changes.
- Click OK.
- On the Activities toolbar, click
(Ctrl+S) to save your changes, or click
(Ctrl+Z) to cancel your changes.
Activity Steps Field Definitions
- Step Name
- The name for the step, which can contain up to 120 characters and must be unique for the activity. Although each step name for a single activity must be unique, a step name may be used for more than one activity. For steps added from a template, you cannot edit the step name.
- Step Weight
- The weight, if any, associated with the step. If you do not enter a step weight, a default value of 1 is used.
If activity steps are used to calculate percent complete, steps with higher value have a more significant effect on the Activity Percent Complete calculation. - Step % Complete
- Use this field to record progress on the step as a value between 0 and 100. Optionally for a project, physical Activity Percent Complete can be calculated based on this value and Step Weight Percent.
- Completed
- A checkmark indicates that work for the step has finished.
-
Tip: If you record a Step % Complete value of 100, the Completed checkbox is checked after you save your changes. Likewise, if you mark the Completed checkbox for a step, the Step % Complete value is set to 100 after you save your changes.
Work with activity steps in Activity Step Details
To display Activity Step Details
The procedure for displaying Activity Step details differs depending on whether you access the details from the Activities page or in the Activity Details form.
From the Activities Page:
- Open the project or group of projects you want to work with in the Projects section.
- Click
on the Projects toolbar to display the Activities page.
- Select the activity in the Activity Table, then click
on the Activities toolbar.
- Select Activity Details.
- Select Steps. The Steps dialog box displays, showing all steps related to the activity.
or
In the activity table, right-click an activity and select an option, such as Predecessors, Successors, Steps, or Notebooks, from the menu.
From the Activity Details Form in a portlet:
Expand the Steps section, if necessary.
The layout you see depends on a combination of administrative configurations and your preference settings. If Step details do not appear, edit your preferences to add them.
To add and define new steps,
click Add Steps.
Type a unique name for each step and specify a weight, if necessary.
To add a predefined group of steps, click Add Steps from Template. Select the template that defines the steps you want to use and click Assign. You can assign multiple Activity Step Templates to a single activity, but you can assign only one template at a time.
To edit, delete, or update progress for activity steps, click the step name. To edit details or report that a step is completed, modify the appropriate fields and click Save.
To delete the step, click Delete Step, then OK to confirm.
Tip: For the step description, you can format text, copy and paste information from other document files while retaining formatting, and add hyperlinks.