Hammock activity

Hammock activity is a project planning Gantt chart term for a type of grouping that summarizes purposes, or "summary activity", that contains a number of subtasks that "hang" between two end dates it is tied to. (Or the two end-events it is fixed to.)

Hammock activity is used to aggregate tasks which are not related in the hierarchial sense of a Work Breakdown Structure.

One example use would be for grouping dissimilar activities that lead to an overall capability, e.g. to group preparations under a summary label such as "vacation preparation".

Another example use would be to group unrelated items for the purpose of a summary such as a calendar-based reporting period, e.g. "First quarter plans".

The duration of the hammock activity (the size of the hammock) may also be set by the subtasks within it, so that the abstract grouping has a start date of the earliest of it's contents and the finish date is the latest of it's contents.