Changing project start date so it affects the whole project

[John]

Hi, I'm very new to Project. I've recently completed a brief (very
brief) class on the software. So I'm reaching out for help.

We are about to start a construction project. The general contractor
gave us a 120 item task list with start dates and durations. There is
some lead and lag time involved from what we can see, When I input the
tasks into Project I used his dates and durations. But, the start has
changed. When I changed the start date in project information, it
didn't make the associated changes to the subsequent tasks. Because I
can't assume the relationships of one task to another, how can I get
the change in start date to roll down to all of the tasks?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, John

 

[JulieS]

Hi John,

A couple of comments and hopefully the answer.

1. In the future, please post your question to the
Microsoft.public.project newsgroup. The
Microsoft.public.project.pro_and_server newsgroup you posted to is an
old newsgroup that has been replaced by:

Microsoft.public.project - for questions about MS Project without use of
Project Server
Microsoft.public.project.developer - for questions about MS Project
development using programming tools such as VBA or PDS/PSI
Microsoft.public.project.server - for questions about MS Project and
Project Server.

2. I understand your reasons for entering start dates due to the
information (or lack of) from the general contractor. Generally
speaking, it is not wise to enter dates (either start or finish) into MS
Project as it creates task constraints. When you entered the start
dates of the tasks, you have constrained each task with a Start No
Earlier Than Constraint. MS Project's job is to calculate the start and
finish dates for each task based upon a number of factors. Again,
because you don't have the information from your GC about relationships,
lead, lag, resources, etc, so entering dates was the best you could do.

3. Because each task in your project is constrained, simply changing the
start date of the project doesn't shift the tasks. You'll need to use
the "Adjust Dates" button on the Analysis toolbar. Display the Analysis
toolbar, and click the Adjust Dates toolbar button. Supply the new
start date of the project in the dialog box and Project will shift each
task maintaining the relative relationship between the old project start
date and the constraint date.

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

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional information
about Microsoft Project