Adding new task start ignors predecessor

[Pierre M]

On an existing project I added a new task in the following manner in the task
details form:
1 entered task name
2 entered duration
3 selected 'fixed duration' in task type
4 selected 'as soon as possible' in constraint
5 selected a predecessor (with a finish date well beyond today or the
project start date
MS Project shows new task starting on the project start date, not FS to the
predecessor as expected... HELP

 

[Rod Gill]

Try pressing F9. If that moves the task then calculation is set to manual.

 

[Pierre M]

Calculate is set to 'Automatic'

Try pressing F9. If that moves the task then calculation is set to manual.


--

Rod Gill
Project MVP
Visit www.msproject-systems.com for Project Companion Tools and more

 

[JulieS]

Hi Pierre,

Pardon me for jumping in. A couple of questions for clarification.

Are you adding the new task to the end of the list of tasks or inserting the
task in the middle of other tasks that are linked?

In Tools > Options, Schedule tab, is the Automatically link inserted or
moved tasks enabled or disabled?

What version (2000, 2002, 2003 etc.) are you using and what service pack?

When I try to reproduce what you are seeing and I add a task at the end of
the list (not inserting) and follow what you outlined, the newly added task
obeys the selected predecessor.

However, if I attempt to insert a task in the list in between two tasks that
are linked F to S and attempt to link it to a later task *and* Auto link is
enabled, I get an error message about creating circular relationships and I
am unable to select the correct predecessor.

Julie

 

[Pierre M]

Hi Julie,

No need for an apology, your questions led me to part of the solution to the
problem. I was entering a new task between existing ones and the
Automatically Link was 'enabled'. This led to the creation of a "circular
relationship". I may have ignorred the warning, I don't recall seeing one
anyway.

Once a circular relationship exists anywhere within the WBS no calculation,
automatic or manual will be done by MS Project (I am using 2003 BTW). At this
point finding the circular relationship and removing it becomes the next
challenge. I received an error message when I Saved the file and reopened it
this morning. The message pointed to one task which it said had a circular
relationship with another task. Stragely that task had no predecessor or
successor. I tried the unlink command anyway but that had no effect. I
deleted that task, Saved, and Opened the file again. The same error message
appeared but had changed the task it pointed out to the previous one on the
WBS.

Do you know of any way to get out of this circular relationship short of
unlinking everything and starting over? Is there a way of finding out which
task links are causing the problem?

Thanks for getting me this far anyway.

 

[JulieS]

Hi Pierre M,

Glad to have helped thus far and thanks for the feedback.

The issue of circular relationships is a tough one. Circular relationships
in Project are usually created when there are links between summary tasks
and somewhere one of the subtasks has been linked as a previous subtask.

Unfortunately, I don't know of a direct way to track it down other than
looking at the predecessor and successor fields for the tasks and trying to
track it that way. I suggest unlinking the summary tasks (if any exist) and
then seeing if the error disappears.

You may like to take a look at FAQ 48 - Summary Task Linking at:
http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie

 

[Pierre M]

Hi Julie,

The circular reference was with a summary task link, thanks for the advise.

I was also curious about how I might have created such a problem without
being aware of it. When I tried to replicate what I had done I was unable to
do it because MS Project pops up a warning and prevents the action that may
cause a circular reference. Then I remembered that I had taken a subtask and
had promoted it to a summary task. This did cause a circular reference and
when I saved the file immediately after there were no warning messages. Upon
re-opening the file MS Project issued the warning that there was a problem
and that calculation could not be done. Unfortunately MS Project points to
the wrong task as one of the links causing the problem. The lesson for me is
to always create summary tasks completely new and with no links.

Thanks for your help

Pierre

 

[JulieS]

Hi Pierre,

You are most welcome and thanks for the feedback.

I'm glad you were able to sort it all out. The issue of promoting tasks to
a summary task after linking is a fairly common cause of the circular
reference. Sorry you had to discover that the hard way ;-)

Julie