how do I force a task(eg. a workshop) to begin & end the same day.

[rlglaxton]

To any bright MS Project superuser -

I have many workshops planned as tasks in a complex project. They run a
full day (8 hours) each. As I change or add tasks & Ms Project recalculates
my schedule, I need each workshop to begin & end the same day, without having
to go through hundreds of lines and manually constraining each one each time.
How can I notify MS project that these particular tasks must not be split
across 2 days?

thanks

 

[John]

To any bright MS Project superuser -

I have many workshops planned as tasks in a complex project. They run a
full day (8 hours) each. As I change or add tasks & Ms Project recalculates
my schedule, I need each workshop to begin & end the same day, without having
to go through hundreds of lines and manually constraining each one each time.
How can I notify MS project that these particular tasks must not be split
across 2 days?

thanks

rlglaxton,
This or a very similar question has appeared in this newsgroup before
and as I recall there are a few different ways to get what you need. You
might want to try a search to see what suggestions were offered.
Personally, my approach would be a VBA macro that would automatically
adjust the Start time of workshops as necessary.

However, a few issues come to mind. I would assume that a workshop is
not something that can be automatically shifted to the next day if a
predecessor task happens to end in the middle of the day because a
workshop probably requires some planning (i.e. notifying participants,
obtaining a room, etc.). Perhaps workshops can only be scheduled on
Tuesday (or whatever) due to logistics. On the other foot, maybe
workshops are indeed a "spur of the moment" activity that can simply be
scheduled for the next full working day. At any rate, the particular
method used to address your issue depends on how flexible workshop
scheduling is.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP