Schedule Enhancements

Characteristics of Milestone Type Activity

The Milestone Type activity in Exto Scheduling represents significant point-in-time events. This activity type is characterized by: 

a) No Duration — Unlike standard or routine tasks that have a defined(or non-zero) duration, Milestones have Zero duration.

b) Start and Finish Milestones — To mark the begining and end of a vital event, the Milestone has only a Finish Date. The Start date is not editable and reflects the Finish Date.

c) Milestone Indicator on Gantt — Represented as a Diamond in Gantt View

d) Summary — Supports "End to End" and "Start to End" upstream relationships and "Finish Type" constraints

e) Dependencies — Pre-requisites other than scope units and resource assignment can be assigned to Milestone type activity

Characteristics of Resource Type Activity

The Resource Type activity is specifically used when the progress and performance of the activity are directly influenced by the resources assigned to it. In other words, the availability and allocation of resources play a significant role in determining the timeline and outcome of the activity. 

This activity type is characterized by: 

a) Resource Allocation —  "N" number of resources can be assigned to the activity

b) Cost Consideration —  Every assignment has its own units, price/unit and cost.

c) Performance Consideration —  Every assignment has its own % complete based on unit consumption

d) Assignment-Activity Roll-up Calculation —  % complete from assignments rolls up to the activity. Assignment total cost rolls up to the activity. Note that every assignment has its own spread of units and cost

You can view the resource assignments in the Grid View. Depending on your settings, the fields appear on the page as Grid columns.