Excluding tasks from critical path

[ben.poitras]

I have some tasks that occur before the project start date, and some
that extend after the project end date.
This is acceptable, but I want to generate a critical path that
excludes these tasks, and defines the critical path excluding these
tasks.

Is there a way I can do this?

Thank you in advance!

Ben.

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Ben,

Project expects a project to run from the first task to the last, and thus
there's no effective way to do what you want. What you could do is to have 3
projects: one for the pre-start and another for the wind-up period. Each
project will then stand on its own with its own critical path. You could
link them by creating a master project by inserting the 3 projects which
will give you an overview. See my tutorials on Multiprojects.

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

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

 

[ben.poitras]

There is no way to generate a critical path of periods in a project?
For example, my project is to install a control system in a kiln.

I have prep work to do beforehand, and tie-in work and commissioning
to do afterwards.

However, kiln downtime is very expensive, so I want to generate the
critical path of tasks that determine the kiln downtime.
Many of the tasks carry over from prep into downtime, and from
downtime into commissioning - the only way to do this is split out the
tasks that are required to happen during the shutdown and have them in
a separate project?
That seems a bit extreme...

Perhaps there is another way of generating what I need - which is to
have the critical path between determined events displayed... What we
are trying to do, obviously, is to allocate resources and juggle tasks
to ensure the shutdown is as short as possible, and to demonstrate to
the board that this has been optimally accomplished...

 

[ben.poitras]

(What I mean is - even if it's not called the "Critical Path" by MS
Project - can I display what task interdependancies lead to the
required time interval?)

 

[DavidC]

Hi Ben,

It is possible to create a separate critical path. Put a deadline on to the
last task associated with the control system installation for the kiln. You
will now see a critical path for all those activities associated with that
work stream, and still have a critical path for the project as a whole, since
as Mike points out the project runs from start to finish and it will show
those tasks that are critical to achieving the final date in the project.

I would suggest an activity called "Return kiln to service" as a milestone
and use either that end date or a date determined by management as the
deadline date. If you do use the end date for the control system instal as
the deadline it is possible to have this dynamic with the end date. Copy the
end date for the last task, and paste special it as a link into the deadline
field. If the date for returning the kiln to service is fixed, then clearly
adding a hard fixed date is the way to go.

However I believe you probably want to be able see only those activites
associated with the control system install and that critical path. To do
this use a custom field, say a flag field, and flag those activities
associated with the control system instal. You can then filter out this work
stream only and see the critical path for it (since you now have a deadline
for the last activity).


Hope this helps

Regards

DavidC

 

[Mike Glen]

Good idea, David! I'd forgotton this quirk with the Deadline Dates.
However, Ben, as this is giving a false criticality for the whole project, I
would only do this temporarily to show the critical path and then remove it
when finished. The danger comes when you try to crash the project that you
will be assigning more resources to those apparently critical tasks which
will have no effect on the project end date. Use with care!


Mike Glen
Project MVP

 

[Scott S]

A simple and DIRTY solution may be to include two dummy activities to
represent the pre-work and the post-work. Make them longer than your real
pre & post work so that they are part of the critical path - you could even
filter them out of report views?

Constrain the "pre-dummy" to a fixed finish date, to correspond with when
the critical work starts?