When your project kicks off it may become clear that not all the individual tasks are relevant or do-able. In this instance, you can use tools in Microsoft Project to make them inactive, but still see the influence they could have on the schedule you've set.

This is important if you've had to cancel some assignments that make up the larger picture of the overall campaign due to budgets constraints or other issues that could change. No doubt, you spent a fair amount of time making sure that all the necessary tasks were in order and that each smaller job was designed to make your project successful. At times, it's not always possible to include all the tasks that you have created, as time and money may run out.

Microsoft Project 2010 allows you to make some tasks inactive, but if you do find you're in a position to devote time and energy to them, then you simply make them active again. This means that once they are included and 'live' you'll once again see how they impact on your resources and scheduling. Being able to experiment in this way is a major advantage to using project management software.

You have the opportunity to make adjustments to the resources required for the task concerned and potentially predict whether the task's inclusion will be a success or failure. For this reason alone, team leaders like to keep track of their inactivated tasks, as they may provide inspiration during meetings and reveal other options if it becomes possible to include them again. Microsoft Project has functions that enable you to create reports and graphs that are an excellent way of revealing what the future could hold for the initiative, if the tasks were included once again.

To get an all-round picture of all the changes that have taken place where these mini-assignments are concerned, you're able to use the Created field and grouping features integrated within the application. As well as making sure these assignments can be re-instated, they are a good way to refer back and take a look at your previous plans as all the information is saved, but it does not affect resource availability unless it is reactivated.

Whether the assignments are inactive or not, they will not be visible in some views, such as the Team Planner and Timeline view. But, you will be able to see them in the Task Sheet view, and the projected Gantt Chart bar will appear as a white block. If the inactivated task is linked to another then you're advised to adjust the links manually to get an accurate picture of scheduling.

This is because if you take out the second of three tasks, then changes will occur to the scheduling of the third linked task, which could prove inaccurate. If you prefer not to inactivate tasks there are also other options available within Project to make them defunct. You could make the assignment irrelevant by setting the remaining work left to zero. Otherwise it makes sense to simply inactivate it, if you think that it could be included later on.

On the other hand if you're sure you'd like to scrap it entirely then you're free to delete it. This has the effect that it is removed from the schedule but still may show up in the baseline, which could cause confusion at a later point.