customised formula

[andy]

hope someone can advise,

I have inherited a project that has 200 ish tasks that have a start date for
the basline first task only.
the remainder of the tasks are either +/- start and finsih dates for each
task against the baseline in months.is there a simple formulae that i can
apply to determine the start and finish dates rather than sit here with a
calendar. ( i've never written a macro so wouldnt know how to start)

any help would be grateful

andy

 

[John]

hope someone can advise,

I have inherited a project that has 200 ish tasks that have a start date for
the basline first task only.
the remainder of the tasks are either +/- start and finsih dates for each
task against the baseline in months.is there a simple formulae that i can
apply to determine the start and finish dates rather than sit here with a
calendar. ( i've never written a macro so wouldnt know how to start)

any help would be grateful

andy

Andy,
Your post is very confusing but trying to interpret what you want, you
don't need a formula, VBA or any other exotic thing. All you need is a
view that is set up to show schedule start and finish fields. Normally
the Gantt Chart view provides that information directly but in your
case, it appears someone has customized the default Gantt Chart view.

Try the following.
1. Go to Tools/Organizer/Views tab
2. Select the Gantt Chart view in the left side selection list
3. Hit the "copy" button in the middle. You should get a message asking
if you want to replace the existing view - say "yes"

You should now have the fields you want.

John
Project MVP

 

[Jim Aksel]

You want to let MS Project calculate the dates for you, do NOT key dates into
the schedule. First, establish the project start date: Project/Project
Information.... it is ok to key a date in the start date field.

What I would do is calculate the duration of each task. If Task18 has
Start=BL+10days and Finish=BL+21 days then Task18 has a duration of 11 days.
To Project that means WORK days. Check with your sponsor to see if they
meant Calendar days (elapsed days). You need to establish the number of work
days it will take to complete the effort of the task. If you have "months"
as durations, you should probably assume 20 work days per month and do it
that way.

Once each task duration is settled, go back to your sponsor and ask for the
predecessor and successor relationships between the tasks and put those
relationships into Project. The software will now magically calculate all
your start and finish dates for you.

Sorry, no magic formula for you. I suppose you could do it in Excel using
the Date functions there.

The reason you "never" want to key a date into an MS Project file is that it
forces constraints onto these dates. If I key a start date of 01 AUG 2008,
it will automatically set a constraint that forces the task to Start No
Earlier Than 01 AUG 2008. So, if the precessessor to that task finishes on
09 JUL 2008 then you would want to start the next task on 10 JUL 2008 but the
software would schedule it on 01 AUG 2008 and your schedule would be
artificially constraind.

--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

Check out my new blog for more information:
http://www.msprojectblog.com

 

[andy]

thanks jim, john, sound advise as always

You want to let MS Project calculate the dates for you, do NOT key dates into
the schedule. First, establish the project start date: Project/Project
Information.... it is ok to key a date in the start date field.

What I would do is calculate the duration of each task. If Task18 has
Start=BL+10days and Finish=BL+21 days then Task18 has a duration of 11 days.
To Project that means WORK days. Check with your sponsor to see if they
meant Calendar days (elapsed days). You need to establish the number of work
days it will take to complete the effort of the task. If you have "months"
as durations, you should probably assume 20 work days per month and do it
that way.

Once each task duration is settled, go back to your sponsor and ask for the
predecessor and successor relationships between the tasks and put those
relationships into Project. The software will now magically calculate all
your start and finish dates for you.

Sorry, no magic formula for you. I suppose you could do it in Excel using
the Date functions there.

The reason you "never" want to key a date into an MS Project file is that it
forces constraints onto these dates. If I key a start date of 01 AUG 2008,
it will automatically set a constraint that forces the task to Start No
Earlier Than 01 AUG 2008. So, if the precessessor to that task finishes on
09 JUL 2008 then you would want to start the next task on 10 JUL 2008 but the
software would schedule it on 01 AUG 2008 and your schedule would be
artificially constraind.

--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

Check out my new blog for more information:
http://www.msprojectblog.com

 

[John]

thanks jim, john, sound advise as always

Andy,
You're welcome and thanks for the feedback.
John