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Procedure documentationMaintaining Relationships Between Tasks

 

By creating relationships between tasks, you can specify whether the tasks are to be carried out in sequence, in parallel, or whether they should overlap. Relationships serve as a basis for task scheduling. You can create the following types of relationships:

  • Finish-start relationships link the finish of a task to the start of its successor.

  • Start-start relationships link the start of a task to the start of its successor.

  • Finish-finish relationships link the finish of a task to the finish of its successor.

  • Start-finish relationships link the start of a task to the finish of its successor.

By entering a time interval for a relationship, you can specify how much time should elapse between the linked dates (start or finish) of the tasks. If the date of the successor phase lies before the date of the predecessor phase, you need to specify a negative interval. You can assign a calendar that is to be used when scheduling the time intervals of the relationship.

In Project Management, you have the following options for maintaining relationships between tasks:

  • You can create, edit, and delete individual relationships on the Relationships tab page of a task (see below).

  • You can create, edit, and delete individual relationships in the Graphic subview of the project structure (see Graphical View).

  • You can create and delete multiple relationships in the project structure (see below).

Note Note

When a task is cancelled, all relationships between the task and its predecessors and successors are deleted automatically by default. If you want to preserve the relationships, make the appropriate entry for area 0012 Scheduling and Project Structuring, setting 0006 Preserve Relationships When Cancelling Tasks in Customizing for SAP Portfolio and Project Management under Start of the navigation path Project Management Next navigation step Basic Settings Next navigation step Override Default Global Settings End of the navigation path.

End of the note.

Procedure

Open the Structure view of your project.

Creating a Relationship

  1. Open the Relationships tab page of the task for which you want to create a relationship.

  2. Decide whether you want to create a relationship with a task on the same level of the project structure or one with a task on another level, and choose the appropriate radio button.

  3. Select the required task.

    You can only use tasks that do not yet have a relationship to the current task.

  4. Select the required type of relationship and choose Add as Predecessor or Successor, as required.

    The system adds a relationship with this task in the corresponding table.

Note Note

You can also select a predecessor or successor task using drag and drop. In the structure tree, select the line of the predecessor or successor task without opening it, and drag it to the Predecessor table or the Successor table on the Relationships tab page. The system adds the task to the table.

End of the note.
Editing a Relationship

  1. Open the Relationships tab page of the task for which you want to edit a relationship.

  2. Make the required changes in the Predecessor table or the Successor table. You can edit the following attributes:

    • Time interval

    • Calendar

    • Type of relationship

Deleting a Relationship

  1. Open the Relationships tab page of the task whose relationship you want to delete.

  2. Select the relationship in the Predecessor table or the Successor table and choose delete.

Creating Multiple Relationships

  1. In the project structure, select the tasks that you want to link to one another by means of relationships.

  2. From the Relationships menu button, choose Create and the type of relationship that you want to use.

    The system creates relationships that link the selected tasks according to their sequence in the project structure. Note that if you have selected more than two tasks, the system only creates relationships between tasks that belong to the same structure level. If you have only selected two tasks, it creates a relationship between these tasks regardless of the structure level to which they belong.

  3. If required, maintain time intervals and calendars for the relationships.

    You can do this in the Detail subview of the project structure on the Relationships tab page of the tasks (see the Editing a Relationship section above).

Deleting Multiple Relationships

  1. In the project structure, select the tasks whose relationships you want to delete.

  2. From the Relationships menu button, choose Delete Relationships.

    The system deletes all relationships between the selected tasks. It does not delete relationships to tasks that have not been selected.