Duration
The duration of an activity is added by using numbers corresponding to days.
Duration can last from 0 to an infinite number of days.
A duration of 0 days, is called a milestone.
As seen below, a number corresponding to days is typed, and the right side of the gantt immediately shows the timeline being changed.
Dependencies
Besides giving activities a duration, it's important to make them dependent of each other.
This is used to showcase in which order the activities should be executed in.
As seen below the only action needed here is to tell each activity which other activity it is depended on.
The right side will show the changes made to the timeline.
Planning the activities
Automatic planning
When adding a dependency, the activities will be planned accordingly.
The start date and end date will be changed automatically based on the user inputs
Manual planning
It's possible to manually set the start date and end date of an activity.
This will move the activity to the new dates.
Locking an activity
You can lock an activity by right and then lock activity.
This will be shown as a colored row, and the activity won't be moved automatically by other dependencies.
Add dependency
Adding a dependency is done in two ways:
- Opening the dependency menu with the mouse right click
- Typing the row number of another activity
Dependency menu
When opening the menu the following options are available:
- Activity: Which activities you want to depend on
- Dependency: The type of dependency used (see below for details)
- Delay: Add a delay corresponding to an amount of days
- %: An alternative to the regular delay, stating that the activity can start/finish when a certain % of the dependent activity is passed
Typing:
When typing the dependency, simply write the number of the row that you would like to make the activity dependent on.
Dependencies can be typed as:
- Row number: The number of the row for the dependency
- Type of dependency: Two letters representing the dependency type
- Delay number: A number with the delay (a "-" symbol can be added to add a negative delay)
- % symbol: Dictates if the delay number should be regarded as a percent
Below dependency examples.
Dependency types
There are 4 types of dependencies that can be used to create the timeline.
Finish to start
This is the default dependency type chosen by the system, as it's also the most commonly used.
This states that an activity can start when the dependent task is finished.
Start to start
This states that an activity can start when the dependent task is started.
Finish to finish
This states that an activity can finish when the dependent task is finished.
Start to finish
This states that an activity can finish when the dependent task is started.
Grouping exception
It's not possible to add dependencies to or from a group. Only dependencies between activities are valid.