Scheduling: Task Types
In project management—especially within Earned Value Management Systems (EVMS)—task types define how work is categorized, planned, and measured. Each plays a distinct role in managing scope, schedule, and cost.
Why Do Customers Use
You use task types to ensure clear planning, proper control, and accurate performance tracking across all phases of a project. They allow the project team to match the right tools to the right kind of work, ensuring success in both execution and reporting—especially in complex, regulated environments like Aerospace & Defense.
Structured Planning
Task types break the project into manageable pieces aligned to the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).
They help define what work is planned, when it will occur, and how it will be controlled.
Accurate Performance Measurement
Different types of work require different measurement methods.
Work Packages allow discrete earned value tracking.
LOE tasks track progress based on time, not deliverables.
Enables Earned Value Management (EVM) by aligning the right tracking method to the right type of work.
Flexibility in Project Maturity
Planning Packages allow you to allocate time and budget to future work before details are known.
These packages can later be broken into Work Packages when ready—supporting phased or long-term planning.
Resource and Cost Allocation
Task types guide how resources and budgets are distributed and managed.
Enables more precise forecasting and cost control.
Compliance with Standards
Required for EVM compliance under ANSI/EIA-748 and many government contracts.
Supports documentation, traceability, and auditability.
Communication and Accountability
Clearly defines roles, responsibilities, and expected outputs.
Makes it easier to assign work, set deadlines, and hold teams accountable.
Cora Task Types & Definitions
Task Type | Definition |
|---|---|
Control Account (CA) | The control account is the intersection of one WBS element and one organizational structure element representing a specific portion of program scope assigned to an individual manager. The control account is the minimum level where technical, schedule, and cost responsibility exists. |
Detailed Task (TSK) | Lowest level tasks in a Gantt schedule. |
Hammock (HAM) | A hammock activity is a grouping mechanism that summarizes or aggregates multiple related activities under a single, high-level task. The purpose of a hammock activity is to carry overhead costs and resources during a portion of the project. Like a level of effort task, it’s a way to apportion overheads without having to split them between the other activities or to summarize time required as a result of several tasks. |
Milestone (MS) | A zero-duration schedule event or point in time that is measurable but does not consume time or resources. |
Planning Package (PP) | A PP is a holding account (within a control account) for budget for future work that is not yet practicable to plan at the work package level. The PP budget is time-phased in accordance with known schedule requirements (due dates) for resource planning and plans are refined as detail requirements become clearer and time to begin work draws nearer. |
Schedule Margin (SM) | A technique for improving schedule accuracy by modeling the anticipated impact of schedule risk in the schedule. Schedule margin activities are established and managed as a margin of time in the schedule to offset unforeseen issues during project execution. |
Schedule Visibility Task (SVT) | A schedule activity that is not resource loaded and represents effort that is not part of the budgeted project scope, but is necessary to complete a logical sequence of activities and properly time-phase downstream project effort. |
Summary (SUM) | A higher-level task that represents a group of subtasks or phases within a project. It's essentially a container for other, more detailed tasks. |
Summary Level Planning Package (SLPP) | Used to establish high level holding accounts for budget that is identified to some work scope, but which is not ready to be detail planned so, has not yet been allocated to Control Accounts (CAs). |
Work Package (WP) | A WP is a task/activity or grouping of work under a Control Account. A WP is the point at which work is planned, progress is measured, and earned value is computed. |
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