Summary task in imported projects

[Konstantin]

Hello all!

While importing project MS Project system show error message "You cannot create a subtask for task". Project type defined properly (Task Hierarchy = With summary tasks).

Have anybody any suggestion?

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Konstantin,

You said that the project type setting is correct to allow subtasks. That's good. My other guess is that you need to create these tasks under a phase element. I think I remember it being required to have the tasks/subtasks contained within a phase in order to allow subtasks.

When you create the phase line in MS Project, you need to mark it as a phase by using a custom field. Ours had to be Text20. Whatever you select here must match the ID of a valid phase type in your configuration.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes,

Wendy

[Former Member]

Konstantin,

I just remembered something else. You can not have a resource assigned to the summary task. A summary task is a task with children, but it is not updated with status/resource information. It is expected that the children tasks are for tracking the work.

If you change the project type setting to "Without summary tasks" the parent task will be treated like other tasks and you can assign a resource to it.

If you change the project type setting to "None" for task hierarchy you will not be able to have subtasks at all.

You might want to try the "Without summary tasks" setting if you are assigning a resource to that parent task.

Best wishes,

Wendy

[Konstantin]

Thanks for you answer.

I have 4 levels in my project:

level1 - stands like phase1 <-marked as a phase in custom field (by phase type id)

level2 - stands like summary_task1 <-marked by task type id in custom field

level3 - stands likesummary_task1-1 <-marked by task type id in custom field

level4 - stands like task1-1-1 <-marked by task type id in custom field, resorce assign here

level4 - stands like task1-1-2 <-marked by task type id in custom field, resorce assign here

level4 - stands like task1-1-3 <-marked by task type id in custom field, resorce assign here

...

...

...

...

I maintained the CATEGORY field in MS Project with the correct project type.

After importing i have a structure like this:

definition of project <-project type is correct

phase1 <-phase type is correct

summary_task1 <-task type is correct

when i try to create a subtask under summay task1 system shows error message "You cannot create a subtask for task <summary_task1>".

Field mapping I checked - its OK.

I have cProjects 4.0, support package 11 (the last at this moment). cProjects run on CRM 5.0.

MS Project Client 2003.

If I create a project in cProjects I create summary tasks without any problems.

PS. Sorry for my poor English :-[

[Konstantin]

Ha-ha! Just tried to import without resources, everything is fine!!!

Going to "dig" further. I think soon going mad. %)

[Former Member]

Hi, Konstantin,

Glad that the resource thing helped. Just in case you had not viewed this I am including some information about the task hierarchy setting in the project type configuration.

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Work with Task Hierarchies

Use

None:

You cannot create any subtasks and therefore you cannot build any task hierarchies.

With summary tasks:

You can build task hierarchies but you can only execute some activities on tasks that do not have any subtasks, for example:

Record time

Enter qualifications

Assign project roles

You can collect this information for the subtasks and display it in aggregated form on the higher-level summary task.

Without summary tasks:

You can build task hierarchies and can execute all activities on any level of the task hierarchy. There are no summary tasks.

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We used to get the same error with MS Import. Our user wants to assign project roles at the summary task level so we had to switch to "Without summary tasks." We had the same issue for a while!!

Best wishes,

Wendy

[Konstantin]

Yes, I have read it, but still many thanks for the speed!