Need some help with my project

[NightShade1]

Okay i have been working in a project plan( im a newbie at this) i read
some manuals and all that...

Now im practicing this ok... and i have encountered a problem and i
cant make it work

I got a task that depends of another task to start and it also depends
on ANOTHER task to finish.
So the task im talking about here ill upload the file.
Now look at my file on line 26
"preliminar de la conectividad LAN"

I know its on another language its on spanish but i dont think that
matters here...

Anyways they both depend in the task in line 10
"Levantar documentancion del hardware actual"
They both depend on this task to start i mean when "Levantar
documentancion del hardware actual" start the
"preliminar de la conectividad LAN" Should start also ok?


Now
"preliminar de la conectividad LAN"

ALSO! depends on the task in line 36 "Compra de equipos" it depend in
this task in the way that when this task finish then 10 days later the
tasks
"preliminar de la conectividad LAN"

Should finish!

But i tried putting them the dependencies and doesnt work... as you see
in line 26 if you click for task information you will see predecesors
tab that i got it configured correctly(well i think at least) i got
Start-Start dependency with
"Levantar documentancion del hardware actual" and finish to finish
dependency with "Compra de equipos" and in tab advanced got it in as
soon as possible... and it doesnt work... the starting date isnt when
documentancion del hardware actual" start.... andi dont know why! i
mean im
telling the project that it should start at that time with the
dependency!
I did calculate in the option when i finish setting everything.
Between you willl see i just did the finish to finish dependecy and
start to start ok? and i guess to make it finish 10 days later when the
"compras de equipos" finish i guess i just gotta do lag days 10 right?

What im doing wrong? plz guys help me with this... not trying to be
lazy or anything as i have read the manuals and im doing what i have
learned from them but i just cant figure out why it isnt working...
If you need something else as information to help me with that part
just ask me ill post it.


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[Steve House]

A couple of things to consider...

Links are permissive, that is to say, they determine an earliest permitted
date, not an absolute date. When a task is linked FS from a precedecessor,
the date determined by the link is the earliest date the successor CAN
start, not the date it WILL start. It can actually end up starting on that
or any later date. Likewise, in a Finish to Finish link, the link
determines the earliest date the successor CAN end, not the date it WILL
end - there are many factors that might cause it to finish later than that,
just it's not permitted to finish any earlier than that. So for your task
in question, the SS link sets the earliest date it can start while the FF
link sets the earliest date it can finish. The links WILL NOT determine the
duration of the task in question. It's the nature of the work, the amount of
effort that is required to create its deliverable, that detmines that.

Lets say you have tasks A, B, and C, each 5 days duration. Links are A FS
C and B FF C. Tasks A & B will start on day 1 and finish on day 5, task C
starts day 6 and ends day 10. Why day 10? Because the FS link from A says
the earliest it can start is day 6 and its duration says it'll end 5 days
later. The FF link from B says it CAN finish as early as day 5 but since
it's not even starting until then, it ends up finishing later.

Now make task B 15 days in duration, everything else stays the same. Now
you'll see task C ending on day 15. Why? The FF link from B says the
earliest it can end is day 15. The 5 day duration says it needs to start on
day 10 in order to finish on that date. Meanwhile the FS link from A say it
can start as early as day 6 but is still satisfied if it starts later so
that's what happens.

So what it finally breaks down to depends on the relative durations of A, B,
and C. In some case the link AC will be "stronger" and govern C's schedule
while for other cases the link BC will prevail. But in all cases the actual
timing of C will be driven by only ONE of the links plus or minus its
duration.

I know your plan uses a SS link from A but it still works exactly the same
way, just was easier to illustrate by using a FS link instead.

Now there is something called a 'hammock task' whose duration is determined
by the start or end dates of one two other tasks but they are a very special
case, normal tasks just don't behave that way. Normal tasks are always
observable physical actions producing a precisely defined and quantifable
deliverable - 100 widgets made, 37 resumes reviewed, a program module
tested, a 30 page script written, a 10 foot deep hole dug - and take exactly
as long as it takes to create that deliverable, no more and no less. Should
the task in question in your plan be one of those rare hammock task
situations, you don't use predecessor / successor links to create them.
Search help on 'hammock task' and all will be revealed.

HTH

 

[NightShade1]

Steve man Thank you! they way you pointed it makes it really easy t
understand... i just fixed it and understood how it works.

Can you recomend me a good book to see this stuff...

Im was reading it from e learning from microsoft and it doesnt explai
it as you just did.... it just says

Start-start: The start date of the predecessor task determines th
start date of the successor task. In this type of dependency th
predecessor and the successor task start and progress almos
simultaneously

It doesnt mention anywhere that it is the earliest date the successo
CAN
start, not the date it WILL start. It can actually end up starting o
that
or any later date. Thats why i was confused....

Maybe that guide isnt good... thats why im asking you where can i rea
a good manual in which i can really learn! i dont like askin
questions i can read myselft... with that question i asked up looke
like i was lazy and i dotn like that

 

[Steve House]

You're quite welcome and don't feel the least bit embarrased at asking
questions here, that's what we're here for and a lot of us learned the
answers to those questions the hard way, by making the same mistakes
ourselves. A lot of books etc leave out those essential qualifiers "all
other things being equal." LOL. The e-learning guide etc is absolutely
correct as far as it goes, it just doesn't go as far as it should for
completeness. A SS link will indeed schedule the successor to start the
same instant the predecessor starts, for instance, UNLESS some other factor
pushes the successor later - it's the "unless" that's too often left out of
a lot of reference materials and courseware.

As for reference books, there are several. If you're using Project 2007 one
you might look up is "The Ultimate Learning Guide to Project 2007" by fellow
MVPs Dale Howard and Gary Chefetz. Another, for Project 2003, is Microsoft
Press "MS Project 2003 Step-by-Step" - that one has a few faults but by and
large it's quite good. And I also recommend is PMI's "Guide to the PMBOK"
(Project Management Body of Knowledge") - although it only mentions MS
Project in a footnote as I recall, to understand why Project behaves the way
it does that's one of the best resources because MSP is written to follow
formal Critical Path Scheduling methodology as outlined in the PMBOK fairly
closely.

 

[NightShade1]

You saved me hehe.
Well the truth is that im doing an intership(no salary) cause t
graduate from university here you gotta work for a company for som
months for free.

Anyways my job is doing the project plan and all that, ask for th
duration of task to the ppl that must do it. Doing some of the wor
of a project manager just some...and telling everyone how the projec
is going... what we have done what we havent and all that.. like
report, guess im doing like a 30% of what a real project manage
does. Im not doing lot of stuff that a project manger suppose to do..
as far i read.

Anyways i never have used this program before starting this intersihp
neithre knew about project managing... had to read some books about thi
and about microsoft project to make this done. Anyways Thanks agai
Steve! it seems everything works fine hehe im really happy.
Ill try getting those books to see maybe i can add more stuff i don
know yet to my project plan. But as now i guess i got the basic don
at least!.

Ill check out those book