Activity structures

The following illustration provides an overview of the activity decomposition for Microsoft Project.

The activity structure of an LN project can be made up of WBS elements, cost accounts, planning packages (PP), and work packages (WP). The ownership setting defines how this structure is handled in the integration.

The start/finish dates are preloaded in Microsoft Project when the structure is transferred from LN to Microsoft Project.

After you change the schedule information of the activities/budget lines/tasks/resource assignments, the start and finish dates with the duration and percentage completed, are rolled up to the summary activity in Microsoft Project. The summary activity is linked to an LN activity.

The user can now update schedule information for these activities on the LN.

When the scheduling information of activities is completed, this information is rolled up to the top of the activity structure. When Microsoft Project is the owner of the structure, the actual start and finish dates, and the percentage completed, is also transferred to LN Project. Empty fields in Microsoft Project are ignored and values set in LN Project itself, are retained.

In Microsoft Project 2002 and newer versions, a new feature is added to generate WBS code automatically while you maintain the tasks. You can use this feature to report schedules and to track costs in Microsoft Project.

In LN Project, you can define the work breakdown structure. The same structure is now mapped to WBS in Microsoft Project. The WBS code in Microsoft Project is filled with activity code of activities of type WBS in LN. For all other activity types, the WBS code is set as blank.

You can maintain relationships between activities, between budget lines and between an activity and a budget line in ERP. The relationships can be transferred to Microsoft Project for schedule development.

To transfer the data, you must select the Transfer Activity and Budget Line Relationships check box in the Budget tab in the Connect Microsoft Project to LN Projects screen. The Activities/Budget lines relationship data is transferred to Microsoft Project as Task dependencies. The transfer of relationship data is optional. However, by default, the data gets transferred. The data does not get transferred when you uncheck the Transfer Activity and Budget Line Relationships check box. When the check box is not selected, the Ownership of Activity and Budget Line Relationship field in the Connection tab of the Connect Microsoft Project to LN Projects screen, is set to Not Applicable.

It is possible to update the relationships in LN Project from Microsoft Project and vice-versa.

You can synchronize the relationship data at the time of synchronization. You must select the Synchronize Activity/Budget Line Relationship check box to synchronize the relationship data. This option is enabled only when the Transfer Activity and Budget Line Relationships check box is selected.