Add a Relationship to an Activity

Add a Relationship to an Activity Video

To specify that the activities in a project occur in a certain order, you must define relationships between activities. Relationships define how an activity relates to the start or finish of another activity. Activity relationships indicate whether activities are sequential or can be done in parallel. Activity relationships are used together with activity durations by the project scheduler to calculate schedule dates.

An activity can have as many relationships as necessary to model the work that must be done. Activities that are dependent on one another are known as predecessors and successors, where the first activity is the predecessor and the second is the successor. In the Relationships detail window, in the Predecessors or Successors section, you can view important information for each activity such as Name, ID, Relationship Type, Start date, Finish date, and Activity Status. When activity date indicators are enabled, the table displays indicators for the Start and Finish dates of activities that have an actual start date, actual finish date, or assigned constraints. To enable this feature, see Configure Activity Date Indicators.

You can define cross-project relationships between activities in projects that are in the same program. These are also called external relationships. The first time you assign an external relationship between two projects, you must be on the program Activities page. After you've created an external relationship between two projects, then the assigned activity from the external project becomes available to be assigned on the project Activities page. If you remove the external relationship assignment, then the activity from the other project that was assigned will no longer be available on the project Activities page.

To add relationships to an activity:

Navigate to the Activities page
1. In the object selector, select ﱆ Project or  Program, and then select a project or a program from the list.
2. From the  Main Menu, select  Schedule, and then select Activities.
In the table, select the activity.
On the Layout menu, select  Activity Details, and then select the Relationships detail window.
To add activity predecessors, do the following:
1. In the Predecessors section, select Assign.
2. In the Assign Relationships panel, in the Assign Predecessors section, search or browse for an activity, select the activity, and then select  Assign Predecessors. You can also double click activities to assign them as predecessors. Assigning an activity as a predecessor will add it to the Predecessors section of the Relationships detail window.
3. Select  Close in the Assign Relationships panel.
To add activity successors, do the following:
1. In the Successors section, select Assign.
2. In the Assign Relationships panel, in the Assign Successors section, search or browse for an activity, select the activity, and then select  Assign Successors. You can also double click activities to assign them as successors. Assigning an activity as a successor will add it to the Successors section of the Relationships detail window.
3. Select  Close in the Assign Relationships panel.
In the Relationships detail window, in the Relationship Type field for a predecessor or successor activity, choose the option that best defines how the selected activity relates to the start or finish of the predecessor or successor activity.
In the Lag field, enter the amount of lag time needed between the two activities. Values can be positive or negative.
Create standard column options for the Predecessor and Successor grids by selecting  Settings from the Predecessors section or the Successors section. Adjust column settings, then select the Apply to Predecessor and Successor checkbox.
All changes made to this page are saved automatically.

Tips

You can unassign a predecessor or successor activity by selecting an activity in the Assign Relationships panel and selecting  Unassign Predecessors or  Unassign Successors.
In the Relationships detail window, in the Predecessors or Successors section, select an activity name. This will select the activity in the table and display that activity's predecessors and successors in the detail window. If an activity is hidden by a filter, select the  Help icon next to an activity in the detail window, and then select Clear All Filters. If you select Assign Predecessors or Assign Successors from the detail window, then the relationship between the original activity and the selected activity will be highlighted in the Assign Relationships panel.
You can temporarily add a filtered activity to the current view by selecting its name in the Predecessor or Successor panels in the Relationships detail window. The  Help icon next to the activity provides a tooltip with more information about a filtered activity. Refreshing the page reapplies all current filters and removes filtered activities from view.
You can quickly create a sequence of activities by adding relationships to multiple activities at one time. In the table, select multiple activities, select the  Context menu, and then select Link Activities. Finish to Start relationships are created between selected activities in the order that the activities were selected. To remove all relationships between activities, select the activities, select the  Context menu, and then select Unlink Activities.
You can assign the same predecessors or successors to multiple activities at the same time. Select multiple activities, select the  Context menu, hover over Assign, and then select Predecessors or Successors. This will open the Assign Relationships panel where you can select predecessor or successor activities for the chosen activities.

You can assign the same activity as a predecessor or successor more than once by assigning it with a different Relationship Type.

Create standard columns in both the Predecessor and Successor grids by selecting  Settings in the Predecessors section or the Successors section. Adjust column settings, then select the Apply to Predecessor and Successor checkbox.
Click and drag the divider between the Predecessor and Successor sections in the Relationships panel and in the Assign Predecessors and Assign Successors sections of the Assign Relationships panel to enlarge or decrease each section.