Summary MS Project

Question

I would like to be able to create short summaries of the activities in MS Project.

Answer 1

Hello @McEwen, Wendy

Yes, you can create short summaries in Microsoft Project, but the best method depends on what you mean by a summary.

If you want to group several activities/tasks under a short description, use a Summary Task:

1. Create a task that describes the group of activities.
2. Place the related tasks directly underneath it.
3. Select those tasks and choose Task > Indent Task.
4. The task above them becomes a Summary Task and automatically summarizes their schedule information.

For example:

Deploy New Server => Install operating system => Configure networking => Install applications => Perform testing

Deploy New Server is the summary task, while the indented items are the individual activities.

You can then collapse the summary task using the arrow beside it, giving you a much shorter view of the project.

If instead you mean that you'd like to create written status summaries of activities (for example, “Deployment is 75% complete with two tasks delayed”), Microsoft Project doesn't automatically generate that type of narrative summary from the task list. You would normally use Project reports, custom fields, or export the project information to another Microsoft 365 tool for reporting.

Microsoft reference: Create and work with subtasks and summary tasks in Project

If you can provide an example of the type of short summary you're trying to produce, we can suggest the easiest way to create it in Project.

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