How do I test for out of sequence logic in Project?

[PWHill]

I have inherited a schedul in which successor tasks have been statused with
progress prior to the start or completion of predecessor tasks. I need a
process to identify these other than a line by line audit. Thanks.

 

[Projectability]

You could look at creating a view to give you this insight as follows:

View> More Views > New
Select the Single View option

Specify the Name - I suggest "Top View"
Select Screen - Gantt Chart
Table - Tracking
Group - None
Filter - Incomplete Tasks

don't check either of the 2 tickboxes, simply click OK

In the more views dialogue box select New again, this time select
Combination View.

Give the view a name - "Audit Schedule" for example.

In the top section select your new view - "Top View"
In the bottom section select - Relationship Diagram
Check the Show in Menu tickbox and click OK.

In the More Views dialogue box click the apply button.

The new view should filter your project for incomplete tasks and in the
lower half of the screen show the dependencies between the task shown in the
upper half of the view.

If you find this view useful use the Tools> Organiser> Views tab to copy the
view to your local Global.mpt so that it is always avaialable in future.

Let me know if you found this advice useful.

The downloads section on my Website contains a host of useful documents to
help you get more out of Microsoft Project.

--
Dominic Moss

Projectability - Helping People achieve more with Microsoft Project

www.projectability.co.uk

 

[Jack Dahlgren]

You could probably use a macro to do this.

Something like this:


Sub outOfSequence()
Dim t As Task
Dim s As Task
Dim ts As Tasks
Dim ss As Tasks
Set ts = ActiveProject.Tasks
For Each t In ts
If Not t Is Nothing Then
t.Flag1 = False
If t.PercentComplete < 100 Then
Set ss = t.SuccessorTasks
For Each s In ss
If Not s Is Nothing Then
If s.PercentComplete > 0 Then
t.Flag1 = True
End If
End If
Next s
End If
End If
Next t
End Sub

Then filter for Flag1. It will show any incomplete tasks which have
successors which have started.

You could do the reverse with predecessors if you like. Same basic
structure, but use t.predecessortasks and change the percent complete values.



-Jack Dahlgren

 

[PWHill]

Thanks folks. I modified the first filter to eliminat tasks with zero
completion as these would not factor into a logic error. This still requires
scrolling among the list to identify early starts of successors. Jack's
solution should be great, but I have not yet executed it.

 

[vanita]

Hi

If Baseline was saved before Actual progress data input, you may open Gantt
chart view with Table 'Variance'.

Now if for an activity 'Start variance' is negative but before that no
activity had negative 'Finish variance', it indicates that this activity is
starting before its predecessor.

I hope it helps.
Vanita

 

[patlefranc]

You could probably use a macro to do this.

Something like this:


Sub outOfSequence()
Dim t As Task
Dim s As Task
Dim ts As Tasks
Dim ss As Tasks
Set ts = ActiveProject.Tasks
For Each t In ts
If Not t Is Nothing Then
t.Flag1 = False
If t.PercentComplete < 100 Then
Set ss = t.SuccessorTasks
For Each s In ss
If Not s Is Nothing Then
If s.PercentComplete > 0 Then
t.Flag1 = True
End If
End If
Next s
End If
End If
Next t
End Sub

Then filter for Flag1. It will show any incomplete tasks which have
successors which have started.

You could do the reverse with predecessors if you like. Same basic
structure, but use t.predecessortasks and change the percent complete values.



-Jack Dahlgren

I do not think this macro addresses Finish to Finish and Start to Start relationships? What could we add to the macro to help address relationship types? Thanks,