FF relationship not working

[Armand451]

Hello all,
I have a project in which the FF relationship is not working. I have read
the help and believe that the reason is because the start date for the
dependent task is in the past. However, it is important to note that I have
not set an actual start date. I guess that Project just automatically assumes
the start date as being actual since it is in the past.

Well, the problem is that when I adjust the finish date of the predecessor
to be one month past the successor's finish date, the successor's finish date
does not move. How can I over ride this?? The predecessor task has slipped
and I need the program to show that this will also cause the successor to
slip. Since a FF relationship is supposed to mean that the dependent task
cannot finish until the previous one ends, that is what I want to happen. How
do I insure that this does indeed happen?
Thanks in advance!
Jordan

 

[Rob Schneider]

Hello all,
I have a project in which the FF relationship is not working. I have read
the help and believe that the reason is because the start date for the
dependent task is in the past. However, it is important to note that I have
not set an actual start date. I guess that Project just automatically assumes
the start date as being actual since it is in the past.

Well, the problem is that when I adjust the finish date of the predecessor
to be one month past the successor's finish date, the successor's finish date
does not move. How can I over ride this?? The predecessor task has slipped
and I need the program to show that this will also cause the successor to
slip. Since a FF relationship is supposed to mean that the dependent task
cannot finish until the previous one ends, that is what I want to happen. How
do I insure that this does indeed happen?
Thanks in advance!
Jordan

While the predecessor type (FF) is important, I'd first look to see if
if you also have some sort of date constraint on the successor task that
makes it stick where you put it. Remove any date constraints.

Stopping this from happening in the future, if this is the root cause of
the problem, is to avoid putting date constraints on tasks where you
don't want the date constrained.

 

[Armand451]

Thank you very much for the response, but unfortunately I checked this. I
both insured that the constraint for the successor is "Start no earlier than"
AND set the option for tasks to ignore their date constraints. So that should
not be it.

Any other thoughts?

Jordan

 

[Rob Schneider]

What "option" did you set to ignore date constraint? I've never run
across that option. Where is it set and what is the field name?

What happens when when you remove the date constraint and make it ASAP?

It may well be that you need the data contsraint to model your project
correctly. In which case believe the answer since I'm pretty sure that
after 15-20 of existance years Project computes this right. But I
suspect you really need it to be ASAP with no date constraint to get
what you want.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi Rob and all,

Tools, Options, Schedule, "Tasks will always honor their constraint dates"
Jordan: I don't like guessing. Can you send the file to
jandemesATprom-ade.be, I'll have a look.

Greetings,

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[Armand451]

Jan,
Thanks for the offer. I just sent you the file with the tasks
inconsideration. Stripped out about 95% of the tasks for simplicity sake.
Thanks again!
Jordan

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi Armand,

Your hunch that FF links are not decently honored for tasks "in the past"
was almost spot on.
After some testing, found out that those links don't work for tasks STARTING
BEORE THE PROJECT START DATE
So go to Project menu, Project Start, set to (for instance) 1/1/08 and all
goes back to normal.

HTH

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf