Dependencies

[Karen]

My boss does not want me to set up task dependencies our
projects - Aren't dependencies important? He just wants
something basic - Task Name, Duration, Start Date, Finish
Date, % Complete and Resource Names. He just wants me to
add the fields I mentioned and then plug in the start
date when given. Doesn't the finish date update when you
enter a duration? Please give me good rationale to
explain to him why I should use task dependencies.

Thank you

 

[Sarah]

Tell him Excel is much cheaper and easier to use if that's all he wants
out of it. Without dependencies, you just have a task list, not a
schedule. If he wants to have any kind of idea of when the project will
be completed, it MUST have dependencies!

SarahK

 

[John]

My boss does not want me to set up task dependencies our
projects - Aren't dependencies important? He just wants
something basic - Task Name, Duration, Start Date, Finish
Date, % Complete and Resource Names. He just wants me to
add the fields I mentioned and then plug in the start
date when given. Doesn't the finish date update when you
enter a duration? Please give me good rationale to
explain to him why I should use task dependencies.

Thank you

Karen,
I agree 100% with Sarah. Apparently your boss doesn't understanding
scheduling. The real world is dynamic - future things depend on present
things - and the whole thing keeps changing. Now, he can either try to
do all that in his head with a static task list (and get totally
frustrated) or he can have you set up a proper plan in Project with
logically linked tasks.

John
Project MVP

 

[LeslieF]

Hi Karen,

Sounds like you've got quite the task ahead of you to educate your boss
regarding both MS Project, and how to use it best, as well as project
management methodology. Good luck! You might want to do some searching in
this newsgroup re: best practices and also for dependencies. But also take a
look at any of the MS Project "how to" books, as most of them generally begin
with an explanation about what MS Project CAN do (which involves a large
number of features such as the ability to change start/finish dates) and how
it SHOULD be used (don't use all it's features, such as changing start/finish
dates!)! Then you can put together a quick primer/business case for how to
contruct your project plans.

As I mentioned before, good luck! ...L

 

[Haris Rashid]

hi Karen,

You may want to work out the specific reason that requires avoiding
dependencies. May be the tasks are not logically dependent!

If you have a simple schedule, you may know when each task in your schedule
should start and finish, and you may want to enter those dates. But if
anything changes, such as a task slipping, you will have to manually
recalculate the changed start and finish dates for the other tasks. You can
avoid this rework, and also model more complex relationships between tasks,
by entering durations and task dependencies for each task instead. A task
dependency is a relationship between two tasks in which one task depends on
the start or finish of another task in order to begin or end.

Once you have the relationships in tasks the dates will change in relation
to the defined dependencies. Sometimes you need to model a more complex
relationship than a simple finish-to-start dependency. You can use Lead time
and Lag time for such dependencies. Also review the types of dependencies
that can be created.

Regards,

Haris

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Your boss also needs to understand that with certain exceptions you do not
input the task start and end dates into Project. It's primary job is to be
a schedule calculator - you tell it when the project can start and then it
tells you all the task start and end dates, not the other way around. If
you are inputting tasks with their start and finish dates that he's somehow
come on his own, you're essentially hunting flies with an elephant gun,
using the software simply to illustrate a schedule, something much more
easily done with a paper calendar and box of magic markers.