Editing the WBS

Project Leads and task assignees can update important status information about tasks in their WBS. Use this procedure to edit information about tasks that you manage. For tasks that you are assigned to, it's easier to use the Edit Tasks page. See Indicating Progress in Completing a WBS Task.

To edit tasks in a project template, you can edit the Basic Information page (see Editing Basic Information for a Task).

To edit a task assigned to you, view your WBS Tasks; see Listing WBS Tasks Assigned to You or If you are a Project Lead for the project or project concept, view the project WBS.

  1. Click Enable Edit in the page toolbar.

    The WBS becomes editable. For a description of the fields, see Listing WBS Tasks within a Project or Task.

  2. To copy and paste a task, select the task to be copied and click Edit > Copy. Then select another task for which the copied task will be copied above or as a child. Accordingly, click Edit > Paste as Child or Edit > Paste Above.

    Copied tasks in any state will be pasted in the "Create" state only.

    The following task information is copied:

    • Estimated Duration (The estimated start and end dates are not copied because these dates are determined by the summary task that it is being copied under.)
    • Task Deliverables
    • Calendar, if one exists
    • When a summary task is copied to another location in the WBS structure, its children tasks are also copied.
    • The task owner and assignee is the person copying the task.
    • The name of the new task is identical to the name of the task that is copied.

  3. Make changes to the State, % Complete, Start Date, End Date, Duration, Dependency, Project Role and Owner as needed. You can edit dates by typing in a manual date or by using the Calendar icon and choosing the date from there. The calendar shows standard non-working days (Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays) in light blue color; all the non-working days in the user-defined Calendar are shown in yellow color.

    You can only change the estimated start date and end date if you are the Project Lead or owner and the project is in the Create state. If the project is scheduled from the end date, the project start date should not be changed. Note that duration must be manually changed, if needed.

    Changes to each of these fields can result in changes to other fields on the page. Additionally, there are restrictions on the kinds of changes you can make. For a description of the rules for making changes to these fields, see Rules for WBS Task Fields. Two important guidelines to keep in mind are:


    • The best way to update the status of a task is for the assignee (the person doing the work for the task) to update the % complete on a regular and frequent basis, such as daily. For instructions on how assignees make these updates, see Indicating Progress in Completing a WBS Task.
    • When changing the duration for a task, you enter a number and select days (d) or hours (h).
    • When changing the status, click inside the status cell and select a status from the drop-down list.
    • The % complete, durations, dependencies, and start and end dates for a subtask roll up to its parent task and then to the project. For this reason, it's best to update the lowest level subtask and allow the changes to roll up to higher level tasks.

    When scheduling from the project finish date, you cannot change a task's end date to a value that would cause the project's end date to be pushed out. The finish date of the project can be extended even if the project is in Active state to allow project managers to manage projects that exceed deadlines due to unavoidable reasons.


    • The Start or End Date is calculated according to the events (Non-working days) defined in the calendar of the Owner of the task. If the calendar to which a person is associated is changed, and if that person is the Owner of a task, then the Start or End Date will get changed based on the events of the changed calendar.

  4. To change the owner of a task, choose another person from the Owner list.

    The owner list contains all project members and non-members who are assigned a task in the WBS. If you want to assign someone outside of this list as the owner, you need to assign the person to the task or project first.

  5. To assign a task, select it, and click Assign Selected from the Actions drop-down menu. You then select the assignees for the task.

  6. To view deliverables for tasks, select one or more tasks. Then click Deliverables Report from the Actions drop-down menu. See Viewing the Deliverables Report.