Types of Task Relationships in Microsoft Project (Lesson 5)

In the first lesson on Getting Started with Microsoft Project, we saw how to define tasks in the MS Project application. We also pointed out that Microsoft Project will, by default, assume that all tasks start on the Project start date.

Then in the second lesson, where we talked about task Insertions and amendments, we briefly touched upon task relationships, and we said that we would take the topic up later. Now, let us understand what we mean by task dependencies or task relationships, and what their role in defining a project is. The very purpose behind breaking a project down into smaller, manageable tasks is that this process of work breakdown makes project planning easier. After having defined a project in terms of the planned tasks, we also need to address the more important part of project management - the part related to project scheduling. As you are aware, any scheduling activity will need to take the constraints into consideration in order to come up with a practical and meaningful schedule.

The question then is how do we indicate the constraints that need to be considered while scheduling the tasks in a project to the MS Project application. The two major constraints that we will indicate to Microsoft Project are:

• Sequencing constraints
• Capacity constraints

We will take up capacity constraints in a later lesson after we define resources in our project. The sequencing constraints are indicated in Microsoft Project using Task Relationships.

Note: When finished with this lesson, be sure to check out the other Microsoft Project tutorials available at Bright Hub.

To understand the different types of task relationships that can be defined in Microsoft Project, and to learn how to define these

relationships, let us create a new sample project, using the following steps:

• Open Microsoft Project.
• Create a New project (File->New).
• Insert four Tasks with the names and durations in days as follows: Task 1 (7 days), Task 2 (10 days), Task 3 (8 days), and Task 4 (11 days).
• Save the project as "Sample For Task Dependencies" in your tutorial folder (File->Save As).

Now your project should appear as shown alongside, with all four tasks starting on the default project start date.

(Note: Please click on the image to view a larger size for all images in this article.)

Let us now start defining the relationships between the tasks. In earlier lessons, you were defining task relationships by using the mouse and dragging a relationship line from one task to another. Here we will do this using Microsoft Project's Task Information Dialog Window.

• Highlight Task 2 (either click on the task in the task pane or in the Gantt chart pane).
• Click on the Task Information icon in the Standard toolbar. (The Task Information Dialog window will pop up.)
• Click on the Predecessor tab.
• Under Task Name, select Task 1, and under Type, select Finish-to-Start.
• Click on OK.

As you can see, the drop-down box for Type has four Task Relationship types available as follows:

• Finish-to-Start (FS)
• Start-to-Start (SS)
• Finish-to-Finish (FF)
• Start-to-Finish (SF)

We will come to the meaning of each of these in a moment. In the meantime, complete the relationships for Tasks 3 and 4 as follows:

• Choose Task 3. Open the predecessor tab in the dialog window. Enter Task 1 with type as SS. Also enter Task 2 in the second row and define the relationship type as FF
• Choose Task 4. Open the predecessor tab. Enter Task 3 with type as FS. Enter Task 1 in the second row with type as SF.

Thus for Tasks 3 and 4, we have defined two predecessors each. The idea is to see for ourselves and understand how they show up on our project and in the Gantt chart.

Continue to Page 2 to learn more about the meanings of task relationships in Microsoft Project.