Data Management Capabilities > Managing Projects > Projects and Programs > Plan Activities > Create Multiple Activities
  
Create Multiple Activities
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Only project managers or users with appropriate permission can create activities.
You can create up to five activities and milestones at a time.
If you are using resource assignments, some scheduling attributes are interdependent and the system automatically calculates one of the following variables:
• Duration
• Work
• Resource Units
The order in which you enter information determines which attribute is automatically calculated. You can manually enter information into two of the above fields; the third is calculated. For more information, see Activity Schedule Calculation.
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If you are creating a milestone, select the Mark activity as milestone checkbox before entering information. This removes inapplicable fields whose values are ignored once the milestone is created.
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If you are creating an activity that you plan on converting into a summary activity, note the following:
• Summary activities cannot have resource assignments and most attributes are calculated based on the information provided for their child activities. If already added, the resource assignments and scheduling constraints are automatically removed when you convert the activity into a summary activity. If you later convert the summary activity back into an activity, all your previous attributes are lost. For more information, see Summary Activity Calculation Example.
• Summary activities can only have the As Soon As Possible or the Start No Earlier Than scheduling constraint types. If you convert an activity that has the As Late As Possible or Must Finish On constraint, the constraint type is automatically converted to As Soon As Possible.
From the Schedule table, select Actions > New Multiple Activities.
If you select a row in the Schedule table first, the new activities are created above the selected activity. Otherwise, the activities are added to the bottom of the table.
The Create Multiple Activities window opens with the following fields. Some fields that are available in the New Activity window are not available here:
Field
Description
Name
The name of the activity. This can be up to 225 characters.
Description
A brief summary of the activity.
Constraint
Select one of the following options:
• As Soon As Possible—The activity is started at the earliest possible date. The start date is the plan start date or is calculated based on any predecessor relationships.
• Start No Earlier Than—Click the calendar icon to define a constraint date. The activity can start either on the constraint date or later than the constraint date, but it cannot start earlier.
• As Late As Possible—The activity finish date is scheduled at the latest possible date. The finish date is the plan finish date or is calculated based on any successor relationships.
• Must Finish On—Click the calendar icon to define a constraint date. The activity cannot be completed before the constraint date, and must finish on the exact date specified.
For more information, see Activity Date Constraints.
Estimated Start
Estimated Finish
You can only specify one of the following fields. Setting one field automatically calculates the others:
• Estimated Start—This field only applies to activities with the Must Finish On constraint. Click the calendar icon to set the estimated start date.
• Estimated Finish Date—This field only applies to activities with the Start No Earlier Than or As Soon As Possible constraints. Click the calendar icon to set the estimated finish date.
• Duration—Use the following unit indicators when specifying duration:
◦ Minutes: m, min, mins, minute, minutes
◦ Hours: h, hr, hrs, hour, hours
◦ Days: d, dy, dys, day, days
◦ Weeks: w, wk, wks, week, weeks
◦ Months: mo, mon, mons, month, months
Predecessors
A coded entry that describes how the activity is related to other activities within the project plan. For information on how to specify dependencies, see Predecessor Relationships.
Deadline
The date after which the activity is considered overdue. Click the calendar icon to select a specific date from the calendar and select a specific time using the drop-down menu.
The deadline is displayed in red when it has passed.
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Administrators can optionally customize the deadline so that it is automatically calculated. When customized, you cannot manually set the deadline. For more information, see Reschedule Plan and Configuring Automatic Deadline Calculation.
Specify any resources you would like associated with this activity. Click the find icon to open the Assign Resources window.
• Resource Units—Enter the percentage of workday hours that the resource can devote to the activity. For example, assigning 50 units to a resource who works a standard 8-hour workday means that resource can spend 4 hours per day working on the activity, or 20 hours per week in a 5-day work week.
• Assignment Type—If the resource is a Windchill User or Other resource type, then this field is set to Single and cannot be changed.
However, if the resource is a Windchill Group or Windchill Team Role user type, then you can select from the following options:
◦ Pool—Work is initially assigned to all users included in the group or role. When one user accepts the work, the corresponding assignment is removed from the assigned tasks of the other users.
◦ Bulk—Work is split evenly between all members of the resource group or role. A distinct assignment is created for each user.
◦ Shared—Work is assigned to all members of the resource group or role. Members complete work as they are able, and their work is added towards the overall completion status. One or more assignees can complete work; however, not all assignees are required to complete a task.
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If you do not assign a resource and the Default Resource Assignments preference is set to Yes, a default resource assignment is automatically created for the activity owner. If no owner is assigned to the activity, then the resource assignment is created on your behalf as the activity creator. For more information, see Project Planning Preferences.
The estimated or planned amount of time required to complete the activity.
Owner
The team member who is responsible for the successful completion of the activity. Owners can track activity work and edit activity attributes.
The activity owner can also be assigned as a resource.
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Your site might have customized access rules that control which users can track activity work. Depending on the needs of your site, this might mean that other users can track work or owners are prevented from tracking work.
Fixed Cost
Any unique cost associated with the activity that do not include resource costs.
Activity schedule is determined based on three variables: activity duration, work required to complete the activity, and resource availability. Choosing a task type allows you to define a fixed variable.
The task type is only relevant if you later edit the activity to change one of the scheduling variables, and has no effect if you are not assigning resources to the activity.
• Fixed Units—Set a fixed amount of resource units. Windchill does not change the resource units if you change the duration of the activity or work required.
• Fixed Duration—Set a fixed amount of time required to complete the activity. Windchill does not change the activity duration if you add or remove resources or change the amount of work required by the activity.
• Fixed Work—Set a fixed amount of work required to complete the activity. Windchill does not change the amount of work required to complete the activity regardless of whether you add or remove resources or change the activity duration.
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The task type does not prevent you from modifying the fixed variable; it only controls how Windchill recalculates the scheduling variables if you later modify the activity. For example, you can still modify the work in a Fixed Work activity.
For more information, see Task Types and Effort Driven.
In an effort-driven activity, the work remains constant when you add or remove resources. Select this option to recalculate the duration of the activity when resources are added or removed, while the amount of work necessary to complete an activity remains unchanged.
For more information, see Task Types and Effort Driven.
Mark activity as milestone
Select this option if you want to make the activity an milestone.
For more information about milestones, see Plan Activities.