Aligning tasks to move together with Project Finish date

[Nurazhar]

Hi all,

I tried to look for a similar problem in the NG, but can't seem to find one,
so here goes.

Let's say I have a Task A (fixed duration) which runs from week 1 to week 3,
Task B (fixed duration) from week 2 to week 4, and the project finish date
is week 5. Is it possible to move the finish date to week 6, while Task A
and B keep their respective finish dates relative to the new finish date
(e.g: project finish date is week 6, Task A runs from week 2 to week 4, Task
B runs from week 3 to week 5). I will only be changing the project finish
date.

I have tried the 'Adjust Dates', but it doesn't seem to work well. With
reference to my comment in oisinirish's "Change Start date for project and
move all dependent tasks as wel", if the date entered is the same as the
current project finish date, all tasks will move back a day, and if the day
entered is one day after the current project finish date, the tasks will not
move.

This issue has me perplexed for like 2 days now, and I have exhausted all
searches online. I could be looking for the wrong thing, so I need your
help. =D

I look forward to your favourable reply. Thanks in advance!

Sincerely,
Nurazhar

 

[Rod Gill]

Hi,

Firstly entering dates will cause you to become more than perplexed!! Only
use links.

Add a milestone that is linked to the last task and so is the end of the
project. For any tasks that should finish on the last day of the project,
make it have a Finish-Finish link.

So, the Project Start date drives the start of the project (Project, Project
Information menu), the task durations and links determine when the project
finishes and all tasks with a Finish-Finish to the final milestone all end
on the last day automatically.

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see:
http://www.projectvbabook.com

 

[Nurazhar]

Hi,

So instead of using the Project Finish date to control the tasks, I use
milestone (to act as a finish date) instead? That might just work!

But if that is the case, I will be having a Finish-Finish link from ALL
tasks to the milestone, as the finish dates of the task are like (D-??days),
not a specific date. Wouldn't that make the Gantt chart a bit messy with all
the end dates pointing to the milestone?

And since all the tasks are not dependent on another (at least for now), I
can't really use links between tasks.

I hope I understand your concept correctly. Correct me if I'm wrong. =D

Sincerely,
Nurazhar

 

[Rod Gill]

If your tasks are not related to each other, you don't really have a
project! At the very least as it is more efficient to have each resource do
one task at a time, link to do this. All tasks finishing on the last day
means any one task finishing late delays the project finish.

Under Project, Project information you can schedule from a finish date, but
over the course of the project you will spend more time editing and
maintaining tasks this way than if you schedule from a start date.

If this is not a project (the tasks are unrelated) and all you need is a
pretty Gant Chart, then just enter dates and edit them as you go 9that's
like disabling 6 of the 8 cylinders in a v8, but you will still get there!

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see:
http://www.projectvbabook.com

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Nurazhar ,

With your last question, I think you can see the why? by going to
Tools/Options.../ View tab and select the Date format to show the time of
day. You will probably see the project finish date is at 1700 (assuming
defaullt settings). When you enter a new date, it starts at 0800, thus
pushing the previous tasks back a day.

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials

 

[Steve House]

I think your problem is arising from a desire to have MS Project document
the schedule you feel you 'ought' to be able to work instead of carrying out
its proper role of telling YOU the schedule you will be ABLE to work.
You're trying to force Project to display dates that you arrived at via some
external mechanism rather than computing the dates the task will fall on
given a particular workflow, work requirement, and resource assignment. Let
it do its job of generating the schedule for you rather than trying to
dictate to it what dates tasks will fall on. If the dates it computes don't
match your business objectives you have to make phuysical changes in the
environment it models - hire resources, change workflow, change
deliverables, call in overtime, rearrange priorities - so that the revised
computations fall into line with your needs. You cannot simply declare a
schedule by management fiat and expect it to be workable.

Scheduling backwards from a finish date is an incredibly bad idea because it
virtually guarantees your project will finish late. While it's a useful
academic exercise to determine the latest date you might start and still
have a prayer of finishing by your deadline, it assumes you live in a
perfect world where no one ever misses a delivery date. To actually be able
to work that plan and be successful will absolutely require divine
intervention. Every task is scheduled to start at the latest possible date
that will let you finish on-time and the one thing you can count on every
project is that something is going to take longer than expected. Since
everything is already scheduled right up against the wire, any delay
whatsoever guarantees you will not be able to make your required completion
date. The smart money says pick a kick-off date well in advance of the
latest possible start date and schedule forward from that date so you have a
cushion at the end to absorb the inevitable delays and unsder-estimations.

All projects should have at least a start milestone and an end milestone.
Every task in the project must have at least one predecessor and one
successor. IF nothing else is a predecessor of a given task, the start
milestone is. If nothing else is a successor to a given task, the finish
milestone is. Nothing exists in a vaccum, unrelated to the rest of the
project.

HTH