Linking to external project without importing task duration.

[RWR]

Is there any way to link to an external project without bringing the duration
of that task into my current project in Microsoft Project 2003? I know I can
link to a milestone and there will be no duration imported into my project
but this requires another department to insert milestones for each task I
need linked. I'm looking for a way to link to an external project without
importing duration and without having to request someone to enter milestone
tasks into the source project.

 

[John]

Is there any way to link to an external project without bringing the duration
of that task into my current project in Microsoft Project 2003? I know I can
link to a milestone and there will be no duration imported into my project
but this requires another department to insert milestones for each task I
need linked. I'm looking for a way to link to an external project without
importing duration and without having to request someone to enter milestone
tasks into the source project.

RWR,
I'm not real sure what you mean when you say you don't want the duration
of the external task to be linked. Are you talking about the ghost tasks
representing the external tasks showing up on the Gantt (i.e. the visual
presentation)? If so, uncheck the options under Tools/Options/View to
show external predecessors and successors. If you are simply talking
about the impact external tasks have on your schedule, then without
linking to milestones, the duration effect of external tasks will show
up in your schedule, as well they should. Without that impact, there is
no point in having the external link.

One other method that exists is to use Paste Links, however I strongly
recommend against that approach. Paste links are very fragile and
require an extreme amount of discipline to set up and maintain, lest
they become corrupt.

Another suggestion I have is to go ahead and set up the external link
and then create the milestone in your schedule and tie it to either the
start or finish of the external ghost task. Then link your milestone to
your other tasks. This will get what you want without forcing other
users to insert link milestones into their schedules but as I said
before, this approach kind of defeats the point of having a dynamically
linked schedule.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[RWR]

I am linking to the manufacturing schedule from the engineering schedule.
Manufacturing has a master schedule with aprroximately twenty sub-schedules
inserted used to schedule manufacturing activities. I have a matching
engineering schedule used to schedule engineering activities. I use the
manufacturing dates to schedule the completion of engineering documents. I do
not need to include the duration of manufacturing projects in the engineering
schedules. I am using the manufacturing schedule only to provide completion
dates for engineering documentation.
-- I tried inserting the milestone schedule in the engineering projects but
it still brings the manufacturing task durations into the engineering
schedule.
RWR

 

[John]

I am linking to the manufacturing schedule from the engineering schedule.
Manufacturing has a master schedule with aprroximately twenty sub-schedules
inserted used to schedule manufacturing activities. I have a matching
engineering schedule used to schedule engineering activities. I use the
manufacturing dates to schedule the completion of engineering documents. I do
not need to include the duration of manufacturing projects in the engineering
schedules. I am using the manufacturing schedule only to provide completion
dates for engineering documentation.
-- I tried inserting the milestone schedule in the engineering projects but
it still brings the manufacturing task durations into the engineering
schedule.
RWR

RWR,
I'm surprised your company is using Project to schedule its
manufacturing activities. Most production activities (at least those
I've worked with) have too many variables and nuances for Project to be
effective. At the company where I worked, our engineering schedules were
indeed planned/tracked in Project but production was scheduled using a
manufacturing oriented scheduling application, the name of which I
forget.

I still don't quite understand what you mean by, "... include the
duration of manufacturing projects in the engineering schedules". I'm
also not sure what you mean by, "... inserting the milestone
schedule...". Nonetheless, try this approach. Create a separate file
that links to whatever manufacturing tasks you need. Then create a
milestone that links to the start or finish of each task. Finally, link
you engineering schedule to the milestones in your newly created
schedule. If that doesn't work for you then I guess I don't understand,
(or perhaps appreciate), your problem and you will need to elaborate in
greater detail.

John
Project MVP