Linking Slack

[Tracey]

I have 2 questions:

1.When project calculates total slack it calculates it based on the project
end date. Can you link the slack calculation to a task other than the project
end date?

2. How can a print tasks based on calendar days and in such a way thet the
gantt chart only prints that portion of the Gantt chart, without printing the
start and finish dates for the filtered tasks. The whole idea is to forecasts
what tasks are due in e.g. the next 6weeks and reflect only the bars for that
specific calendar period.

Thanx
Regards
Tracey

 

[JulieS]

Hi Tracey,

1. The Total Slack field is calculated by Project and as far as I know it
cannot be changed. Can you give us more information about what you are
trying to accomplish?

2. Have you looked at the Date Range filter? It will filter a list of
tasks within a specific date range. I'm not sure I follow what you mean by
"without printing the start and finish dates for the filtered tasks". Do
you want to print only the Gantt chart without the left side?

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie

 

[davegb]

I have 2 questions:

1.When project calculates total slack it calculates it based on the project
end date. Can you link the slack calculation to a task other than the project
end date?

2. How can a print tasks based on calendar days and in such a way thet the
gantt chart only prints that portion of the Gantt chart, without printing the
start and finish dates for the filtered tasks. The whole idea is to forecasts
what tasks are due in e.g. the next 6weeks and reflect only the bars for that
specific calendar period.

Thanx
Regards
Tracey

1. Project is following a set of rules defined by what is called
"Critical Path Method" scheduling. This is a fairly rigid methodolgy
designed to achieve certain objectives which enable someone to better
manage and control a project. So your question amounts to, "Can I play
basketball using a baseball instead of a basketball?". If you truly
need to know that slack to some midpoint in the project, you might
consider dividing the project into 2 projects, one dependent on the
other.

2. You can remove the start and finish dates from the print out by
running the "Gantt Chart Wizard". The icon is on the Standard toolbar,
near the right end. A magic wand over some Gantt bars. One of the
choices it offers you is what text to display next to the bars,
including "none".
As for displaying only the tasks in a certain period of time, do a
"Project, Filtered for, Date Range" and enter the dates you want. This
will show any task the starts, ends or passes through the specified
date range. If you want only tasks ending between 2 dates, You can copy
and modify the "Date Range" filter to show just tasks ending during the
specified period.

Hope this helps in your world.

 

[davegb]

Regarding question 1, I should have mentioned that Project can be used
in less sophisticated ways than CPM scheduling. Since you mentioned
"slack" specifically, I assumed you are past those more elementary
methods and are learning about CPM.

 

[John]

I have 2 questions:

1.When project calculates total slack it calculates it based on the project
end date. Can you link the slack calculation to a task other than the project
end date?

2. How can a print tasks based on calendar days and in such a way thet the
gantt chart only prints that portion of the Gantt chart, without printing the
start and finish dates for the filtered tasks. The whole idea is to forecasts
what tasks are due in e.g. the next 6weeks and reflect only the bars for that
specific calendar period.

Thanx
Regards
Tracey

Tracey,
In answer to your first question, yes, Total Slack CAN be referenced to
more than just the end date of the project. We used this method all the
time. On those tasks that I wanted to reference (normally some
intermediate milestone) I would set a "finish no later than" date. Tasks
that are on the critical path to that reference point would show a Total
Slack value based on the constraint date. I would then remove that
constraint and put the same type of constraint on the next intermediate
milestone. Using this method I had a series of total slack metrics to
each of our major milestones. Please note however that care must be used
because some tasks will not be measured to the constrained milestone.
They are simply not on that path and their slack will be measured to the
applicable constrained task or the end milestone.

John
Project MVP

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

There actually are several criteria that Project uses to compute total slack
besides the project end date. It is the least amount of time a task could
be delayed without:

A: delaying the project end date; or
B: causing the task or one later in the chain to end past a deadline date;
or
C: causing the task or one later in the chain to hit an MFNLT constraint; or
D: causing the task or one later in the chain to end after the latest date
allowed by a link of a successor task that is locked to a fixed date with an
MSO or MFO constraint.