AlanStotty said:
Hi,
I want a project to run from 01/09/06 and finish on 30/09/06. How do I
set it so tasks do not go out of these dates?
I have been to Project Information but I can only stipulate project
start or end date.
Thanks in advance.
Project is not really designed to do what you're trying to do with it.
The software recognizes that no matter how badly someone might want a
project to complete in a given amount of time, it may not, in reality,
be possible. So It tries to discourage what you're trying to do and
encourages scheduling what will really happen, rather than scheduling
your fondest hopes and dreams.
The way in which project is intended to work is that you set the start
or end date, then create a list of tasks, estimate the durations for
those tasks and create the dependency relationships between them. The
software then calculates the duration of the project and the other
date, start or finish, based on the tasks, durations and dependencies.
It's called Critical Path Method Scheduling. With experience, most of
us have found it's a far better way to schedule projects than to set 2
dates and then try and make the project happen in that amount of time.
But it takes time and effort to learn to do it this way.
Of course, you can do as suggested, and just set the start date and put
a "Finish No Later Than" constraint on the final task.
Hope this helps in your world.
