Active (task field)

With the Active field, you can inactivate tasks to remove them from the Project plan. Inactive tasks remain available for use in a later phase, a later project, or for reporting or historical purposes. Inactive tasks no longer affect other tasks or the overall Project plan. Unlike deleted tasks, inactive tasks are recoverable and can be returned to active status if needed. Reactivated tasks retain any dependencies, constraints, or resource assignments associated with them. You can create reports of inactivated tasks. Microsoft Project retains baseline information for inactivated tasks.

Data Type    Yes/No

Entry Type    Entered

Best Uses    The Active field is useful when various proposals are being presented for a Project plan and ultimately one course of action will be selected. The Active field is also useful when a task or set of tasks is being cut because of a scaling back of project scope. With the Active field, you can experiment with inactivating and reactivating tasks to see the resulting schedule effects.

Only the active tasks are considered part of the Project plan, but a record of the inactive tasks and their properties still exist for historical purposes, or for reactivation into the Project plan at a later time.

Example    Your team is planning the development of a new product that has a long list of features represented in the Project plan. After estimating feature costs, examining priorities, and reviewing the desired date to market, you know you need to make feature cuts. You add the Active field to a task sheet, and select No for the features being proposed for cuts. When you remove those features, the schedule and costs are adjusted in the Project plan. At the next status meeting, you present a report listing the inactivated items. If a stakeholder insists that a certain feature be returned to the project, you reactivate the tasks associated with that feature.

Remarks     Another way to inactivate or reactivate a selected task is to click the Task tab, and then in the Tasks group, click Inactivate. Inactive tasks appear dimmed with a strikethrough. You can easily hide inactive tasks by filtering them out. On the View tab, in the Data group, click the arrow next to Filter, and then click Active.