anchoring Finish dates

[bgriffwork]

I have a scenario where I need to lock in Finish dates for a schedule,
regardless of the Actuals that are entered. I've tried constraints, but that
doesn't work in all cases. Is there a way to lock in Finish dates for tasks,
summary tasks, and the project, so that those dates don't change regardless
of Actuals?

 

[Jim Aksel]

Actual finish dates of predecessors will impact the start date of a successor
task. So, if a predecessor finishes early, you can start the successor task
early and that allows it to finish early as well. Same thing with finsihing
late. If a predecessor has a real finish date of "late" this will push the
schedule to the right. To do anyting else defies the reasons why you would
use project to begin with.

That said, you can use a constratint type of "Finsh No Later Than" or "Must
Finish On" for the detail level tasks. Summary tasks reflect dates of
subtasks so there is no point to changing them. You can examine violated
constraints in the indicators column, it will be repleat with red diamonds.

You can also force project to honor constraint dates.
Tools/Options/Schedule tab. Select the check box to always honor constraint
dates. This can truly cause logic pain.

Again, although this is possible, I want to reitterate, my opinion is what
you are tyring to do is a bad thing. Your schedule may lose all credibility
and have all sorts of incorrect driving logic.

 

[bgriffwork]

I have the "always honor contstaint" option set, but in scenarios I have
played around with the Finish date will still move very often. As you said,
the Indicator column constraint icon will show that the constraint is
violated, but it doesn't prevent the Finish date from moving. Is there a way
to anchor that finish date regardless of actuals?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

When you use Must Finish ON the finish date for THAT TASK will stay on the
constraint date until you tell the computer otherwise (for instance if the
task actually finished on a different date)

Thsi is of course no guarantee that summary tasks or the project cannot
finish later when an unconstrained task moves!

Hope this helps,

 

[bgriffwork]

I'm sorry but I'm not seeing this behavior. I can set up a dummy scenanrio
where the I can pretty easily cause the Finish date to change even with a
Must Finish On constraint set, just by switching to the Task Usage page and
posting hours for Actual Work that differ from scheduled Work. Am I missing
something.

Thanks for your help.

 

[davegb]

I'm sorry but I'm not seeing this behavior. I can set up a dummy scenanrio
where the I can pretty easily cause the Finish date to change even with a
Must Finish On constraint set, just by switching to the Task Usage page and
posting hours for Actual Work that differ from scheduled Work. Am I missing
something.

Thanks for your help.









- Show quoted text -

Actuals trump even constraints. If I tell the software that the task
must finish on Mar 8, then enter an actual date or work on Mar 9, it
will change to what actually happened! And this somehow seems strange
to you? If you want to maintain your illusions, don't tell the
software what really happened! If you want to keep 2 sets of books,
then create 2 schedules, one to maintain the illusion, one to track
what really happened. But don't expect the software to do that for
you. One of it's primary purposes is to prevent people from doing what
you are trying to do!

Hope this helps in your world.

 

[Jim Aksel]

You want to cloud the schedule with reality? Micrsoft Project can do many
things, but it will not honor requests to change reality.

 

[Steve House]

Forget the mechanics of the software for a moment. How could it be
physically possible for a project's tasks' projected finish dates NOT to
change in response to actuals???? Take an extreme example ... I have a task
that requires 5 days of work that was planned to start Wednesday the 14th
and finish Tuesday the 20th. There is only one person on staff who has the
skills needed to do the work. Tuesday night he got the flu and was out sick
for 48 hours, so he couldn't start the task as scheduled. He was well
enough to return to work and started his task on Friday. Do you think it
will still end as scheduled next Tuesday, with all the work completed as
promised? Of course not! If your objective is to preserve the original
planned dates for comparison purposes that's another story - save a baseline
and your problem is solved - but as for the plan itself, there's no way it
CAN'T change planned, ie forecast, finish dates in response to changing
conditions and be of any use at all as a management tool.