The article enlists the top 20 terms for the basics of Microsoft project and project management.

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Civilverse Admin 4 October 2020
MS Project Terminology- Top 20 Terms Everyone Must
Know
civilverse.org/ms-project-terminology
Microsoft Project is one of the most used project scheduling and planning tool. The
project schedule with the Gantt Chart is helpful in visualizing the timeline of the project.
The critical path can also be visualized through the same. This article covers the top 20
MS Project terminology.
One of the important features of Microsoft Project is to create resource loaded schedules.
The resources can be defined and then can be allotted to the activities. This helps in the
planning of the resources and their required duration.
The MS Project terminology covers the task, summary task, milestone, calendar in MSP,
recurring task, task dependencies, manually and auto-scheduled tasks, baseline schedule
and baseline cost etc.
Following are 20 must-know MS Project terminology. The understanding of these terms
will help to learn the MS Project effectively.
1. Task
The activity defined in the project schedule is called ‘task’ in MS Project.
2. Summary Task

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Task, Summary Task and Milestone
The summary task is the one which summarises a task or a group of tasks. The duration of
the summary task depends on its sub-tasks. The start date of the summary task is the
earliest start of its sub-tasks and finish date is the last finish date of its sub-tasks. The
summary tasks indicate a higher level of WBS than its sub-tasks.
The summary tasks are highlighted by the bold text.
3. Milestone
A milestone indicates a task of zero duration. It is used as entry milestone, exit milestone,
completion of certain activity whose process of completion is not included in the task.
For example, the handover of the site to the contractor for starting the work can be
marked as entry milestone in the schedule. The mobilisation of equipment to a
construction site can be marked as a milestone and handover to the client after
construction as exit milestone.
4. Manually Scheduled Task
The manually-scheduled task gives the steering wheel to the user. The user defines the
duration, work and the start date of the activity. The manually scheduled task is denoted
with a blue pin.
The manually scheduled task is to be used when the duration, work or the start date are
not known and to be decided later.
5. Auto-Scheduled Task
Manually Scheduled and Auto-Scheduled Tasks

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The auto-scheduled task itself schedules the start date on the project start date or the
current date as per the predefined settings. It also assumes the duration of the activity as 1
day which can be changed as per the requirement. It is denoted by a blue box with a grey
right arrow.
6. Predecessor and Successor
The predecessor and successor follow their usual meaning. For example, activity ‘A’ is
followed by activity ‘B’, then ‘A’ is called the predecessor to ‘B’ and ‘B’ is called the
successor to ‘A’.
7. Calendar
The calendar in MS Project defines the working and non-working days along with working
and non-working time for each day. The calendars are of two types- task calendar that
controls the task and the resource calendar that controls the resource. The MS Project
has three pre-defined calendars-
a. Standard (Project Calendar) with 8 hours working on working days and
Saturday and Sunday as non-working days
b. Night Shift Calendar with 12 am to 8 am working with Sunday off.
c. 24 Hour Calendar with 7 days for 24 hours working every day.
The new calendar can also be created with the desired working days and time along with
keeping provision for holidays, leave etc.
8. Duration
The duration of an activity is the time to complete the activity. The duration of an activity
can be suitably be defined in days, week or month. The task calendar controls the
duration in terms of excluding the non-working days.

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9. Work
The MS Project calculates the finish date, and cost etc. by the work. The work is calculated
by duration and the working time. For example, an activity has 1-day duration and
Standard Project Calendar assigned to it, the MS Project considers the activity as 8 hours
of work.
10. Unit
In MS Project unit means the unit resource. The task can be assigned to a unit. The unit
can also be assigned 50% or 80% or in any desired percentage of its actual value to a task
depending on the work requirement.
The 50% assignment of a unit to a task means that the resource works half of its total
work.
11. WBS
WBS Code Definition Dialog Box
The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is the breakdown of a project into manageable and
deliverable parts. For More on WBS click here.
The MS Project assigns a WBS Code to every task. The WBS Code of a task can be
modified as per the organisation.
12. Project Start Date
The MS Project allows us to mention the project start date. This function is helpful in
aligning the auto-scheduled tasks to the project start date. Further, the whole project can
be postponed just by changing the project start date.

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Project Start Date & Status Date
13. Status Date
The status date is used in the schedule update and monitoring. It is the date of a project
progress update. For example, a 10-day activity was to finish on 31 January, but you
update the progress as on 28 January, then 28 January is to be set as the status date.
The status date shouldn’t be confused as today date.
14. Recurring Tasks
Recurring Task
Recurring Task Dialog Box
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The recurring task is used for the activity that is repeated during the project life. For
example, review meetings held at the end of every month is a recurring task and it can be
defined just once under recurring task with the desired recurring time.
15. Task Dependencies
The tasks are interlinked with each other through task dependencies. The task
dependencies are of four types-
1. Start to Start (SS)– Two activities start together.
2. Start to Finish (SF)– First activity starts after the second activity finishes.
3. Finish to Finish (FF)– Two activities finish together.
4. Finish to Start (FS)– First activity finishes when first starts.
16. Lead and Lag Time
The lead and lag times are used in conjugation with the task dependencies. The lead time
is positive and the lag time is negative. For example, activity ‘B’ starts 1 day after activity
‘A’ then it can be said that activity ‘B’ has 1-day lead with Start to Start.
Similarly, if activity ‘B’ finishes one day before activity ‘A’ then, ‘A’ is linked to ‘B’ with
Finish to Finish with 1-day lag.
17. Respect Link
The respect link option is used for the manually scheduled tasks. The respect link function
enables the MS Project to reschedule the task as per task dependencies when the project is
being manually scheduled.
18. Resource
Resource Sheet
The resource in MS project can be defined as work, material or cost. The manpower is a
work resource, concrete used in the project is a material resource and the mobilisation
advance given to the contractor at the project start is the cost resource.
The amount of these resources can be accrued to the resource on the start of their usage
duration, end of the usage duration or prorated (distributed throughout the duration).
19. Baseline Schedule

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Baseline Schedule
The project schedule agreed between the client and the contractor is called Baseline
Schedule. All the progress, delay, planned vs actual analysis, etc. are measured with
respect to the Baseline Schedule.
20. Baseline Cost
The cost of the project that is to be incurred as per the Baseline Schedule is called Baseline
Cost. The cost variation is measured against the Baseline Cost of the project.
Read the Part-2 of this article. Click MS Project Terminology-Top 20 Terms- Part 2.
Want to move ahead with MS Project? Click here for Changing Working days and Time in
MS Project.
For more on Project Schedules click here.
Liked the MS project terminology post? Or do you have a suggestion or a doubt? Let me
know in the comment below.
Happy Engineering!