Build activities and WBS
Build the schedule around work people can identify and report. Use the WBS for structure, activities for work, and milestones for significant events.
Before you edit
Open the correct working schedule and switch to Edit. Confirm the status date and calendar first. If this is an imported or issued plan, preserve a version or copy before making substantial changes.
Add and organize the work
- Select the relevant location in the grid.
- Use Add WBS to add a structural group, such as “Building A” or “Site work.” Give it a clear name and code.
- Use Add Task to add activities, such as “Install underground drainage.” Enter a recognizable Activity ID, name, duration, and calendar.
- Use Indent, Outdent, Move Up, and Move Down to place the rows in the correct hierarchy and sequence.
- Add relationships to describe the actual order of work.
Group Selection can help organize selected rows under a WBS. Structural moves change where work belongs. The separate Group and Sort view controls only change the presentation; they are not a substitute for editing the hierarchy.
The project’s root WBS is the top of the structure. Ordinary activities belong beneath WBS rows. Avoid using hundreds of activities with indistinguishable names: meaningful IDs and verb-based names make comparisons, progress collection, and search more useful.
Choose an activity type
| Type | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Task Dependent | Ordinary work with a duration scheduled on its activity calendar |
| Start Milestone | A start-side event such as authorization to proceed |
| Finish Milestone | A finish-side event such as handover or acceptance |
| Level of Effort | Supporting work whose span is derived from related activities |
| WBS Summary | A special summary activity derived from work beneath its assigned WBS |
A structural WBS row and a WBS Summary activity are different. Structural rows organize activities and do not carry normal activity relationships. Level of Effort also behaves differently from ordinary network work; do not use it as a replacement for a task with a known duration.
Edit cells and activity details
Edit directly in the grid or select the activity and open Details. Commit the cell before moving on. Calculated, summary, and inapplicable fields may be read-only.
Use Copy, Paste, and Fill Down for repeated information. Review the selected range before using Fill Down: it applies the first selected value down the applicable selection. Paste with Options, where available, lets you review what to bring across. Keep Activity IDs meaningful when copying work.
Use Find and Replace for a deliberate text change across activities. Check the scope before applying it. Undo and Redo help with recent edits, but a saved version is the better reference for a major planning exercise.
Editing dates has scheduling meaning
Start and finish cells are not simply labels on a bar. Syncify interprets them with the activity status, type, calendar, and status date:
- A date entered on or before the status-date boundary can be treated as an actual date. Date-only entries use the calendar date at that boundary.
- A future start edit on a not-started activity updates a start-side constraint, normally Start On or After when no suitable constraint exists.
- A future finish edit on an incomplete ordinary activity can update its duration; for an active activity this affects remaining duration.
- A finish milestone’s future date edit updates a finish-side constraint.
- Moving or resizing a timeline bar can make equivalent scheduling changes. Moving a completed activity changes its actual dates.
After editing a date, inspect Details for status, duration, and constraints. For “this work cannot start until Monday,” use a justified date constraint or relationship. For “this work actually started Monday,” record the actual start. These are different statements.
Record activity progress
For work that has started, record the Actual Start and review the Remaining Duration. For finished work, record the Actual Finish and confirm the completed status. Keep historical dates accurate even if the work happened out of the planned sequence.
Physical Percent Complete is a manual assessment. It does not calculate remaining duration, and setting an active task to 100% does not complete it. Completing the activity normalizes physical percent to 100. Not-started Level of Effort activities cannot receive physical-percent edits.
If your team is in a managed collection cycle, enter updates through Progress instead. Submit a progress update explains the reporting fields and cutoff.
Delete or dissolve an activity
Delete removes the selected work. Dissolve is intended to remove an activity while reconnecting surrounding logic where supported. These have different effects on the network; inspect the resulting predecessor/successor relationships and recalculate after using either.
Do not remove a WBS or a large selection without checking which children are included. Preserve a version before a major restructuring and review schedule quality afterward.
Example: a small installation sequence
Create a WBS called “Equipment installation.” Add three ordinary activities: prepare the base, install the equipment, and test the installation. Give each its working duration, assign the correct calendar, and link them Finish-to-Start. Add a finish milestone for acceptance.
Calculate the schedule and inspect the result. If a date is wrong, check logic, duration, calendar, and constraints before dragging bars into place. See Relationships and constraints and Calculate a schedule.