how can I get a task to continue until the end of a project?

[adamt8]

Here is the scenario:
A task (like a daily mtg or activity) needs to happen throughout a project.
A recurring task would seem to accomplish this.
Set start and end dates.
However, when the critical path pushes the project end date out, the task
does not "stretch". I have also tried this with a single task, but the same
problem.
I would prefer the single task, because then I can assign a resource.

If there is a better way to accomplish the scenario, I'm ok with that too.

 

[Gilgamesh]

Here is the scenario:
A task (like a daily mtg or activity) needs to happen throughout a
project.
A recurring task would seem to accomplish this.
Set start and end dates.
However, when the critical path pushes the project end date out, the task
does not "stretch". I have also tried this with a single task, but the
same
problem.
I would prefer the single task, because then I can assign a resource.

This is called a hammock task.
What you do is identify the last task in the project and do a copy of its
finish date.
You then do Paste Special-Link into the finish date of the task that
continues to project end, as the project end date changes the end date of
the task changes to match it.
You should also do this with the start date linking it to an appropriate
task.

 

[adamt8]

Thank you for clarifying the hammock task. From other readings, it looked
like was only for use on 'external' sources.

Now that I know the term, and having read other posts on hammock tasks,
there are three pretty severe limitations that users should know about:
1. Undo is even less effective than usual.
The Undo feature does not appear to work if the change affects a hammock
task. Be very careful with this, because if you're modifying anyting on a
critical path that will affect the hammock, you cannot undo it.

2. A new task *must* be created.
All instructions I have read insinuate, or perhaps I just inferred, that the
step of creating a new task is just part of the instructions. In practice, I
could "hammock" an existing task, even by deleting the duration. It just
wouldn't link correctly. However, by creating a new task, it was easy to
make it work.

3. This does not appear to work on recurring tasks.

Thanks for the help and hope the limitations above help others.

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Adam,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

The simplest thing would be to double-click on the recurring task and change
its end date to meet the new end date.

You could use a hammock - please see FAQ Item: 19. Hammock Tasks.

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

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

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