A common practice among many self-taught users of Microsoft Project is to delete unneeded tasks in a project. Although there is nothing wrong with this practice if you delete the tasks during the planning process, deleting tasks after you baseline a project is problematic. When you delete a baselined task, you are deleting the baseline information about the task, and have no way to know that the task ever existed in the project. Furthermore, when you delete a baselined task, this causes negative variance in your project (shown primarily in the Work Variance and Cost Variance fields), but you have no way to determine why you have negative variance since the task no longer exists.

For example, consider the task shown in Figure 1. The project sponsor elected to cancel the Phase I Review task after learning that the task was not necessary to complete the project work. Therefore, you need to use some method to cancel this task in the project.

Figure 1: Project with an unneeded task

Instead of deleting a baselined task, a better way to handle unneeded tasks is to cancel them. Depending on the version of Microsoft Project you use, the software offers you two different ways to cancel unneeded tasks. If you use Microsoft Project 2000 through 2007, or you use the Standard version of Microsoft Project 2010, you should use the custom process for cancelling the unneeded tasks. If you use the Professional version of Microsoft Project 2010, you can cancel a task using the Inactivate Task feature.

Cancelling a Task Using Microsoft Project 2000 - 2007

To cancel a task using any version of Microsoft Project from the 2000 version through the 2010 version, use the following process:

1. Click View Ø Gantt Chart.

2. Click View Ø Table Ø Work to apply the Work table.

3. Drag the split bar to the right to expose the Remaining Work column.

4. Set the Remaining Work value to 0 hours for the cancelled task.

5. Click View Ø Table Ø Work to reapply the Entry table.

6. Drag the split bar to the right edge of the Duration column.

When you set the Remaining Work value to 0 hours for the cancelled task, Microsoft Project recalculates the Duration value to 0 days for the task, and displays the task using the milestone symbol, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Cancelled task displays as a milestone

7. In the Gantt chart, double-click the milestone symbol for the cancelled task (the black diamond). Microsoft Project displays the Format Bar dialog shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Format Bar dialog

8. In the Start section of the Format Bar dialog, click the Shape pick list and select a unique symbol to use in the Gantt chart for the cancelled task. For example, you might pick the solid circle near the bottom of the list.

9. Click the Color pick list and select a color for the cancelled task symbol. For example, you might pick the Green color.

10. Click the OK button. Microsoft Project displays a unique symbol for the cancelled task, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: New symbol for a cancelled task

11. Double-click the name of the cancelled task.

12. On the Notes page of the Task Information dialog, enter a note documenting the reason for cancelling the task.

13. Click the OK button when finished.

Cancelling a Task Using Microsoft Project Standard 2010

To cancel an unneeded task using the Standard version of Microsoft Project 2010, I recommend you use the following process:

1. Click the View tab to display the View ribbon.

2. Click the Gantt Chart button in the Task Views section of the View ribbon to display the Gantt Chart view.

3. In the Data section of the View ribbon, click the Tables pick list and select the Work table.

4. Drag the split bar to the right to expose the Remaining Work column.

5. Set the Remaining Work value to 0 hours for the cancelled task.

6. In the Data section of the View ribbon, click the Tables pick list and reselect the Entry table.

When you set the Remaining Work value to 0 hours for the cancelled task, Microsoft Project recalculates the Duration value to 0 days for the task, and displays the task using the milestone symbol as shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5: Cancelled task displayed as a milestone

7. Click the Task tab to display the Task ribbon.

8. In the Gantt chart, double-click the milestone symbol for the cancelled task (the black diamond). Microsoft Project 2010 displays the Format Bar dialog shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Format Bar dialog

9. In the Start section of the Format Bar dialog, click the Shape pick list and select a symbol to use in the Gantt chart for the cancelled task. For example, you might pick the solid circle near the bottom of the list.

10. Click the Color pick list and select a color for the cancelled task symbol. For example, you might pick the Green color in the Standard Colors section of the list.

11. Click the OK button. The system displays a unique symbol for the cancelled task, as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7: New symbol for a cancelled task
with cell background formatting

12. Double-click the name of the cancelled task.

13. On the Notes page of the Task Information dialog, enter a note documenting the reason for cancelling the task.

14. Click the OK button when finished.

In addition to completing the previous steps, you may also want to apply cell background formatting to the cancelled task, as shown in Figure 7. Using a unique cell background color for all cancelled tasks makes them stand out in the completed project

Cancelling a Task Using Microsoft Project Professional 2010

To cancel an unneeded task using the Professional version of Microsoft Project 2010, complete the following steps:

1. Click the Task tab to display the Task ribbon.

2. Select the task and then click the Inactivate button in the Schedule section of the Task ribbon. Microsoft Project 2010 sets the task to Inactive status.

Figure 8 shows the Inactivate button on the Task ribbon, along with its floating tooltip.

Figure 8: Inactivate button and tooltip

3. Double-click the task you set to Inactive status.

4. On the Notes page of the Task Information dialog, enter a note documenting the reason for cancelling the task.

5. Click the OK button when finished.

Figure 9 displays the original project shown after setting the Phase I Review task to Inactive status using the Inactivate button. When you cancel a task using the Inactivate button, Microsoft Project 2010 does the following:

• The system formats the text of the Inactive task using the strikethrough font effect and the gray font color.
• The system formats the Gantt bar of the Inactive task using a hollow (unfilled) pattern.
• The system treats the Inactive task as if it has 0h of Remaining Work. This means the Inactive task no longer affects resource availability for resources assigned to the task.
• Although the system continues to show link lines for the Inactive task, the system schedules successor tasks as if they are not linked to the Inactive task. This means that the duration of the Inactive task no longer affects the schedule of successor tasks.

Figure 9: Phase I Review task set to Inactive status

Figure 10 shows the Inactive task with the Work table applied in the Gantt Chart view. Notice that the system did not set the Remaining Work to 0h. Notice also that the system shows -16h of work variance in the Variance column for the Phase I summary task and for the Project Summary Task, caused by inactivating a task with 16h of work on it.

Figure 10: Work table shows cancelled tasks

Remember that when you set a task to Inactive status, Microsoft Project 2010 schedules successor tasks as if they are not linked to the Inactive task. Because of this, you should link successor tasks for the Inactive task to the nearest Active predecessor task to reset the project schedule from that point forward. Figure 11 shows the project after linking the Implement P1 task to the Phase I Complete milestone task.

Figure 11: Link the Implement P1 task
to the Phase I Complete milestone task