Microsoft Project 2013: The Missing Manual

Grouping Project Elements

Grouping tasks, resources, and assignments with similar characteristics makes it easy for you to scan and analyze your project information. In Project, the Group feature lets you segregate tasks, resources, or assignments by field values. For example, if you group tasks by schedule variance, troubled tasks will jump right out at you. Or you can group resources by availability to see who can jump in to help burned-out team members. This section explains how to use Project groups.

Tip

If you’re confused by the different uses of the word “group” in Project, see the box on Groups, Groups, and More Groups for clarification.

Working with Groups

Like filtering and sorting, groups can work with several fields. For example, you can group tasks first by critical and noncritical, and then by duration to find the longest critical tasks for fast-tracking (Overlapping (Fast-Tracking) Tasks). Here are a few methods of applying a group:

• Choose a popular group. In the View tab’s Data section, click the “Group by” down arrow (see Figure 21-29), and then, on the drop-down menu, choose the group you want, like Critical, Milestones, or “Complete and Incomplete Tasks.”

• Choose any group. In the View tab’s Data section, click the Group By down arrow, and then, on the drop-down menu, choose More Groups. In the More Groups dialog box, double-click the group you want.

• Group by a field. Click the down arrow to the right of the column heading for the field you want to group by, and then, ...