Projects should have a non crtical task (i.e. reference task)

[Neil]

I want to enter a reference task. There is a show the end of next year, and
it is the latest date in my project. But it is only a reference the project
should be completed well in advance of it. Yet critical path sees it and
only changes it to red. The multi. critical path option goes to deep into
the sub tasts and almost everything goes red. With the reference show
removed the crtical path looks fine.

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[Jim Aksel]

By definition I believe your show is on the critical path. You need to have
everything ready "x weeks" prior to this show so you will have a lag on some
other task ... for example "Pack Up All Material for Show" that would have
negative lag FS prior to milestone "Show"

Since the project schedule defines "All roads lead to Rome" ... you need
that final milestone.

 

[Neil]

I agree if I was shooting to have the project done by the show which is in
November. But instead I want the project done back in March or April and the
show is just a reference point. It may become critical if the project slips
but at this point it is not. Yet at this time I do not want to set a dead
line for project completion and put an unnecessary risk to the projects
success.

These are non critical milestones that have no bearing on the project end
date. They are nice to know about and see in the project time line, but
should have no effect on the critical path.

 

[Jim Aksel]

Consider a task "Trade Show" as a milestone with a hard coded data. Link
nothing to it, it should just show up as a decoration on the schedule.

 

[Neil]

I was playing with that and it wasn't working, and I didn't have anything
linked to it. However I finally got it to work.

Under the Advanced Task Information, set the dead line date and the
constraint type to "As Late As Possible". Milestone is not needed. This is
only combination that I found to work. Setting to a milestone and hard
coding in the dates didn't work.

This task still shows up as critical, but so does the crictical tasks within
the project, even though it finishes well in advance of the trade show.

Thanks for the help.