Availability All Editions
If there is a project break and you wish to pause a project for the time being, you can split it into two or more project segments.
Required User Rights
To split a project, you need the following rights:
- Under Edit Project and Programs, you need at least the Projects with Logged-In User as Project Manager option
- Change Project Schedule
- Edit Plan of Record or the edit rights for the selected scenario
Splitting
Splitting a project will create two project segments, one before and one after the split. The two project segments created this way will be treated as independent projects when moving, extending or shortening them.
You can merge project segments again by either moving one of the segments such that it touches the other one or by extending the first segment such that it touches the second segment.
Please note that stopping always applies to the whole project. You cannot stop project segments individually.
Proceed as follows to split a project:
- In the Gantt view, right-click the desired splitting point to open the context menu.
- Select Split at [date].
- The project will be split into two segments.
- You may move, extend and shorten both segments independently. To select a single segment, first select the project and then select the desired segment.
- To select the whole project again when a single segment is selected, deselect the project by clicking anywhere else in the Gantt chart and then select it again.
- You can also split a project directly at a milestone. To do so, right-click the milestone to open the associated context menu and select Split at Milestone. The milestone will stay in the segment before the split.
Conditions for Splitting
To be able to split a project or project segment, two conditions must be met:
- The duration of each project segment, before and after the split, must be at least one week. If a project's start doesn't coincide with the start of a calendar week, it may not always be possible to split a project or segment although its duration is one week or longer. This is because segments snap to calendar weeks when splitting. In this case, you can enable splitting by first moving your project or project segment to start at the beginning of a calendar week.
- When a project is split, the second project segment will be moved a week ahead on the timeline. When a project is split at a milestone, the second project segment will be moved to the following Monday. You can split a project several times, but only at positions where there is enough space after the end of the project segment to create another segment that can be moved to the future.
Merging Project Segments
There are three ways to merge (or "unsplit") two project segments into one continuous project again:
- Move the second segment back, such that it touches the first segment.
- Move the first segment ahead, such that it touches the second segment.
- Extend the first segment, such that it touches the second segment.
If you merge two segments by extending the first one, financial events, milestone dates and allocations may change depending on your selected extension option (Stretch, Zero Allocation or Extend Allocation). Learn more about extending projects in the Extending Projects with or without Allocations article.
Please also note that associated allocation segments will stay split and will not be merged automatically when merging project segments.