Contracts › Contract Work Breakdown Structure (CWBS) › Indent and Outdent CWBS Elements in Contract Work Breakdown Structures

Indent and Outdent CWBS Elements in Contract Work Breakdown Structures

You can create hierarchical relationships between CWBS elements. Indent an element to make it a subordinate of an element.

Use indent and outdent to designate individual CWBS elements as parent or children. Parent CWBS elements are top-level elements that have child CWBS elements associated with them. Child CWBS elements are nested beneath parent CWBS elements. You can create a parent-child hierarchical grid by indenting or outdenting CWBS elements.

Rules for Indenting and Outdenting

• You cannot indent or outdent the CWBS root node element.
• You can indent an element multiple times. However, a higher level element requires to be exactly one indent level above the element indented. An element cannot be indented multiple times when a higher-level element is not immediately one level above it.
• You can only outdent elements to the level 2 position as the CWBS root node element is at the level 1 position.
• Only one level 1 element exists and that position is reserved for the CWBS root node element.
• If the element to be outdented has subordinate elements, the subordinate elements automatically follow to their parent.
• You can select multiple CWBS elements to indent or outdent.
• If you cannot indent a CWBS element, an error message appears. If you select multiple CWBS elements for indenting and one of them cannot be indented, an error message appears and none of the selected CWBS elements are indented. The same rule applies for outdenting.

Follow these steps:

1. Open Home, and from Earned Value Management, click Contracts.

   The list page appears.

2. Click the WBS icon next to the contract.

   The contract WBS page appears.

3. Select the element to indent or outdent, click CWBS Layout>>, and do one of the following:
   • Select Indent.

     The page refreshes and the element is folded one level under the nearest higher-level element. A plus (+) sign appears next to the higher level element.

   • Select Outdent.

     The page refreshes and the element appears as outdented relative to the element above it.

   The element is indented or outdented.