Dissolve an Activity

What a planner means

Dissolve an activity is Oracle Dissolve an activity. You select the activity and then choose Edit, Dissolve. It is a how-to. It is not stored as its own table. It is not the Dissolve object note, not Delete an activity, not Unlink Activities, not Link Activities, not Remove predecessor / Remove successor, not Delete relationships in the Gantt Chart / Activity Network, not EPPM Dissolving Activities copied onto Professional, and not Microsoft Delete / Unlink Tasks / Inactivate / Autolink.

Oracle does print a how-to titled Dissolve an activity. Oracle does not print a menu item named Dissolve an activity. The menu that how-to prints is Edit, Dissolve. Edit Menu / Edit Toolbar print Dissolve / Edit > Dissolve. Do not invent Edit > Dissolve an activity.

Oracle Dissolve an activity (Professional):

"To dissolve an activity, you select the activity and then choose Edit, Dissolve."

"Dissolving an activity removes the dissolved activity and joins the dissolved activity's predecessor and successor activities as well as possible to maintain the project's network logic, as explained here. You cannot dissolve an activity unless it has a predecessor and successor."

Quote those. That how-to fetched prints no "Choose Project, Activities,", no numbered 1-2-3, no Click Yes, no Confirm, no Save, no "one activity at a time", no Actions, no Edit Toolbar, no Alt-E, O, no privilege, and no menu item named Dissolve an activity. Do not invent those on this how-to.

When an activity is dissolved, that page prints relationships as follows:

• The first half of the relationship between the immediate predecessor of the dissolved activity and the dissolved activity is used as the first half of the relationship between the predecessor (of the dissolved activity) and all successors that had a relationship with the dissolved activity.
• The second half of each new relationship "remains the same for each successor as when each was linked to the dissolved activity."

Oracle's example (Activity B dissolved; A was linked to B with SF):

That example uses one immediate predecessor and several successors. Oracle did not print a worked example with several predecessors. Do not invent how several predecessors combine.

Lag (same how-to page):

• Default: "any lag applied to relationships with the dissolved activity is removed and the new relationships created have zero lag."
• Retain lag on the Calculations tab of User Preferences: "the lag from the predecessor relationship is added to the lag from the successor relationship and applied to the new relationship."

The Calculations tab heading as published is Regain lag; the body says "retain the lag." If the option is not selected, "the newly created relationship has zero lag." Quote Retain lag (how-to) and Regain lag (Calculations tab heading). Do not invent that the how-to printed Regain lag. User Preferences are not a project XER table.

Edit Menu Dissolve (a different page): "Deletes the selected activity and joins its predecessor and successor activities with a finish to start relationship. This command is enabled when you select an activity that has a predecessor and successor." Enabled when Activities. Corresponding toolbar: Edit Toolbar. Do not collapse that "finish to start" one-liner and this how-to's first-half / second-half combination into one invented rule. Oracle printed both.

Edit Toolbar Dissolve: the same finish-to-start / predecessor-and-successor sentence. No (does not display by default). Enabled when Activities. Shortcut keys: None. Edit > Dissolve. Tip: "To show icons on the toolbar that do not display by default, you must customize the toolbar."

Using Hot Keys: Alt-E, O = Dissolve. Using Shortcut Keys lists no Dissolve row. That page: "If an option is not listed, it does not have a shortcut key." Quote the toolbar None, the missing Shortcut Keys row, and Alt-E, O. Do not collapse them. Do not invent that Shortcut Keys printed a Ctrl key for Dissolve.

Activities window: "Use the Edit menu on the Menu bar or use the Edit toolbar to add, delete, cut, copy, paste, link, renumber, or dissolve activities, and to undo an action." The Activities-window task list names Dissolve an activity once, under adding and defining general activity information, separately from Delete an activity.

Delete Activities privilege (Professional project profile): "Determines whether the profile will enable users to remove activities from projects." Add/Edit/Delete Activity Relationships: "Determines whether the profile will enable users to create, modify, and remove activity relationships assigned to projects." The Dissolve an activity how-to fetched does not print those privilege names. Do not invent that it did. Do not invent which privilege this how-to uses.

The Dissolve object is a different note. Edit > Dissolve as a command (Edit Menu finish-to-start one-liner, combination rule, lag, EPPM). Opening sentences live there. This is the how-to titled Dissolve an activity. Do not collapse them. See Dissolve Removes an Activity and Joins Its Predecessors to Its Successors.

Delete an activity is a different how-to. Project, Activities → Edit, Delete → Yes. Tip on that page: "To remove an activity, but maintain the relationship between its predecessor and successor activities, dissolve the activity instead of deleting it." Delete does not join predecessors to successors. See Delete Activity.

Unlink Activities is a different command. Edit > Unlink Activities "Removes relationships between the selected activities." It does not remove the activity. See Unlink Activities.

Link Activities is a different command. Edit > Link Activities creates finish-to-start in listed order. It does not remove the activity. See Link Activities.

Remove predecessor / Remove successor are different how-tos. Details Predecessors or Successors or Relationships tab → Remove → Yes. Those pages fetched do not print Edit, Dissolve.

Delete relationships in the Gantt Chart / Activity Network are different how-tos. Double-click the line → Delete → Yes. Those pages fetched do not print Edit, Dissolve.

Professional vs EPPM

Professional — select the activity, then Edit, Dissolve. First-half / second-half combination. SF/FF/FS/SS example. Zero lag vs Retain lag on the Calculations tab of User Preferences. That how-to fetched prints no Actions, no Confirm, no Yes, no Save, and no "one activity at a time."

EPPM web — do not copy Professional Edit, Dissolve / first-half–second-half / SF example / Calculations tab onto EPPM.

Oracle EPPM Dissolving Activities: "remove the dissolved activity and join the predecessor and successor activities to maintain the project's network logic." You cannot dissolve unless it has a predecessor and successor. "You can only dissolve one activity at a time."

1. Navigation Menu → Projects → Activities.
2. Select a single activity and click Actions and select Dissolve.
3. In the Confirm dialog box, click Yes.
4. Click Save.

Retain lag is "in the General section in the Global tab of the My Preferences page" with the same pred-lag-plus-succ-lag sentence. That EPPM page fetched does not print Edit, Dissolve, the Professional first-half / second-half combination rule, or the SF/FF/FS/SS example. Do not copy those Professional sentences onto EPPM as if Oracle printed them there. Do not copy EPPM Actions / Confirm Yes / Save / "one activity at a time" onto Professional Edit, Dissolve.

Oracle EPPM Activities Page Actions: Dissolve — "Removes the selected activity from the schedule and links all its predecessors to all its successors." That page fetched does not print Edit, Dissolve, first-half / second-half, or the SF example. Do not copy "links all its predecessors to all its successors" onto Professional.

Primavera Cloud is a different product. Do not copy it here.

XER

None. Oracle's project XER map TOC has no DISSOLVEACTIVITY / DISSOLVE_ACTIVITY / DISSOLVACT / DISSOLVE / DISSOLV table. After the how-to you see a missing TASK and rewritten TASKPRED rows. Do not invent a command %T. Do not treat a missing TASK row as "the planner used Dissolve an activity."

TASK is the activity. TASKPRED is the relationship. The Dissolve an activity how-to fetched does not print those column names. Oracle did not name an XER column for Retain lag / Regain lag (that is a User Preference / My Preferences option). See TASKPRED (Activity Relationships) and Dissolve Removes an Activity and Joins Its Predecessors to Its Successors.

A Viewer parse of one XER cannot reconstruct whether the planner used Dissolve an activity, Edit > Delete, Delete WBS with Delete Element(s), never imported the activity, or imported after it was already gone, or whether Retain lag was on.

Microsoft Project

Desktop Project has no Dissolve command on the pages fetched.

Microsoft documents Delete (task IDs update when you delete a task), Unlink Tasks ("Removing a task link removes the dependency between two tasks"), and Inactivate (Project Professional: the task "stays in the project plan, but does not affect resource availability, the project schedule, or how other tasks are scheduled"). Microsoft Active field: "Unlike deleted tasks, inactive tasks are recoverable." Reactivated tasks "retain any dependencies, constraints, or resource assignments associated with them."

Microsoft Autolink inserted or moved tasks links a new task between already-linked tasks. That is insert, not remove. It is not Dissolve an activity.

The pages fetched do not print a Microsoft command that removes a task and joins its predecessors to its successors the way Oracle Dissolve an activity does. Do not map P6 Dissolve an activity to MSP Delete, Unlink Tasks, Inactivate, or Autolink and call them the same command. Do not claim MPXJ writes a real MPP.

Don't

• Treat Dissolve an activity as the Dissolve object note, Delete an activity, Unlink Activities, Link Activities, Remove predecessor / successor, or Gantt / Network delete-relationship.
• Invent a menu item named Dissolve an activity. Oracle printed Edit, Dissolve / Edit > Dissolve.
• Invent Project, Activities / Click Yes / Confirm / Save / "one activity at a time" / Actions on the Professional how-to. That page printed select the activity, then Edit, Dissolve.
• Collapse Oracle's Edit Menu "finish to start" one-liner and this how-to's first-half / second-half combination into one invented rule.
• Invent how several predecessors combine; Oracle's worked example has one immediate predecessor.
• Copy Professional Edit, Dissolve / first-half–second-half / SF example onto EPPM, or copy EPPM Actions / Yes / Save / "one activity at a time" / "links all its predecessors to all its successors" onto Professional.
• Invent that the how-to printed Delete Activities or Add/Edit/Delete Activity Relationships.
• Collapse toolbar None, the missing Shortcut Keys row, and hot key Alt-E, O.
• Invent a DISSOLVEACTIVITY / DISSOLVE_ACTIVITY / DISSOLVACT / DISSOLVE XER table, or treat Retain lag as a TASKPRED / SCHEDOPTIONS / PROJECT column.
• Claim a Viewer reconstructed that the planner last used Dissolve an activity, or the Retain lag setting, from an XER.
• Map P6 Dissolve an activity to MSP Delete / Unlink Tasks / Inactivate / Autolink as the same command.
• Claim MPXJ writes a real MPP.