Problem with my finishing on my parallel tasks

[tshad]

This is driving me crazy.

I have a small project that have only 9 tasks

A few are parallel tasks with some Lag in start times and the start dates
seem to be fine.

Where I have a problem is with a task (#7) which is only 16 days long (3
weeks) but the end date is about 13 weeks after the start date?????

I originally had only one resource (100%) and thought maybe that was the
problem so I created 3 resource (staff<1,2,3>) but that didn't change
anything. The Gantt looks like:

1 Prepare 10 days 7/7 7/18 Staff1
2 First 5 days 7/21 7/25 "1,3" Staff1
3 Preparation 5 days 7/7 7/11 Staff1
4 Schedule 10 days 7/28 8/8 2 Staff1
5 Second 2 days 8/15 8/18 2FS+14 days Staff2
6 Study 20 days 8/26 9/22 2FS+21 days Staff3
7 Study 16 days 9/23 12/25 "6,5,4" Staff1 <----
8 Study 5 days 12/26 1/1 7 Staff1
9 Study 1 day 1/2 1/2 8 Staff1

I spent an hour trying to figure out what the problem was. Then to see - I
changed the duration to 1 day and it went 9/23-9/23. Then I put 16 days
back in and it was not 9/23 - 10/14 (which is correct).

What?????

What was the problem?

Thanks,

Tom

 

[Dave]

This is driving me crazy.

I have a small project that have only 9 tasks

A few are parallel tasks with some Lag in start times and the start dates
seem to be fine.

Where I have a problem is with a task (#7) which is only 16 days long (3
weeks) but the end date is about 13 weeks after the start date?????

I originally had only one resource (100%) and thought maybe that was the
problem so I created 3 resource (staff<1,2,3>) but that didn't change
anything. The Gantt looks like:

1 Prepare 10 days 7/7 7/18 Staff1
2 First 5 days 7/21 7/25 "1,3" Staff1
3 Preparation 5 days 7/7 7/11 Staff1
4 Schedule 10 days 7/28 8/8 2 Staff1
5 Second 2 days 8/15 8/18 2FS+14 days Staff2
6 Study 20 days 8/26 9/22 2FS+21 days Staff3
7 Study 16 days 9/23 12/25 "6,5,4" Staff1 <----
8 Study 5 days 12/26 1/1 7 Staff1
9 Study 1 day 1/2 1/2 8 Staff1

I spent an hour trying to figure out what the problem was. Then to see - I
changed the duration to 1 day and it went 9/23-9/23. Then I put 16 days
back in and it was not 9/23 - 10/14 (which is correct).

What?????

What was the problem?

Thanks,

Tom

Have you looked at the Resource Usage view to see what the resource is
doing for all that time? Could it be the case that automatic levelling
is turned on and the resource is allocated to another project during
that interval?

Have you checked the calendars for that period? Also what is the task type?

What happens if you drag the end of the bar in to be more representative?

 

[tshad]

When I set up your example with the durations and predecessor links you specify, I agree with all of your dates down to Task 6, and the start date for Task 7.

Then for 7, 8 and 9 I get these start and finish dates:
23/09/08 08:00 14/10/08 17:00

15/10/08 08:00 21/10/08 17:00

22/10/08 08:00 22/10/08 17:00

This is with the standard 5 day week, Monday - Friday Project Calendar with no other Resource Calendars or Task Calendars.

Your 25/12 finish date for Task 7 is being caused by something else apart from the information you have provided, perhaps a calendar or a date constraint.
Perhaps (very likely) the task is split. Zoom up on it and if it is split drag the bar back together.
Splits often happen unintentionally when waving the mouse around in the Gantt Chart, so don't.



It did show a ... between the beginning and end of the program.

but why did it fix itself when I changed the duration on the Gantt chart to 1 then back to 16? I assume it wasn't any other constraint as I didn't change any calanders - just the duration to fix it.

Thanks,

Tom

 

[tshad]

Have you looked at the Resource Usage view to see what the resource is
doing for all that time? Could it be the case that automatic levelling is
turned on and the resource is allocated to another project during that
interval?

Have you checked the calendars for that period? Also what is the task
type?

What happens if you drag the end of the bar in to be more representative?

As I mentioned in my other reply, I didn't touch the calendars - just
changed the duration back from 16 to 1 and back to 16 to fix it.

I don't know about the automatic leveling. How would I tell that? But even
so, why would the duration change fix the problem?

Thanks,

Tom

 

[Dave]

"Trevor Rabey" <[email protected]

When I set up your example with the durations and predecessor links
you specify, I agree with all of your dates down to Task 6, and the
start date for Task 7.

Then for 7, 8 and 9 I get these start and finish dates:

23/09/08 08:00 14/10/08 17:00

15/10/08 08:00 21/10/08 17:00

22/10/08 08:00 22/10/08 17:00

This is with the standard 5 day week, Monday - Friday Project
Calendar with no other Resource Calendars or Task Calendars.

Your 25/12 finish date for Task 7 is being caused by something else
apart from the information you have provided, perhaps a calendar or
a date constraint.
Perhaps (very likely) the task is split. Zoom up on it and if it is
split drag the bar back together.
Splits often happen unintentionally when waving the mouse around in
the Gantt Chart, so don't.



It did show a ... between the beginning and end of the program.

but why did it fix itself when I changed the duration on the Gantt
chart to 1 then back to 16? I assume it wasn't any other constraint
as I didn't change any calanders - just the duration to fix it.

Thanks,

Tom

It looks as though there is some reason why that resource can't work in
the 16 day interval (but they can in the shorter one day interval).
Hence my question about calendars.

To check automatic levelling, look at Tools/Tracking/Level Resources.

To try and narrow the problem down, make another task and assign Staff1
to it. Now try placing it at various intervals during the
September/December timeframe to try and identify exactly when it is that
Staff 1 cannot work. Have they got leave booked for example and that
has been shown by modifying their calendar?

Are you using a resource pool or Project Server?

 

[tshad]

Forget about all of these other possible causes, the resource leveling,
calendars, other views etc.
All fascinating, but not relevant.
The problem is the split task, indicated by the ... in the bar.
Your previous reply indicates that you have already discovered this.
You can drag it back together or (this is better) give it zero duration
(to heal the split), then put back the 16 days duration.
Problem solved, end of story.

Which is in essence what I did - just went to 1 day first.

Do you know what I would have done to create the split in the first place?
I was connecting the tasks in the Network Diagram.

Thanks,

Tom