Scheduling back from a milestone date

[Warner]

I am using a contractors Programme of key delivery dates to setup a
commissioning programme for our company. Basically I am working back from
these key dates to look to what needs to be done, the relationship I have
been using is a start to finish relationship which seemed to work fine.

I was however also using a late as possible constraint to move my tasks
forward to this date. This is fine for a simple programme but I found that
for our contractors programme the sub task which drive the completion date
defaults to the larger hammock on the contractors programme.

Any suggestions, was on the right track at the start?

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi Warner,

As late as possible constraints push tasks to their late start (in other
words, make them critical tasks) this also pushing their successors to that
date.

What I would do to see the late dates is neither of your two options.
Instead, I would use normal finish to start relationships (after all they
are the ones that truly model your project, a tak can't start until the
result of a predecessor task is available), but I would insert in my table
the columns Late Start and Late Finish (which are the values you would see
with an ALAP constraint.
You se, you don't have to force Project to calculate late dates. They're
always there whatever option: just show them.

Now look what you have: a true management tool. Start and Finish (which are
set to Early Start and Early Finish) tell you when you COULD begin, Late
Start when you ABSOLUTELY HAVE to. You have a decision margin shich is
called Total slack.
And management is about taking decisions.

If you want to see all that graphically, View, More Views, select detail
gantt.
HTH

 

[Warner]

Thanks Jan,

How would you suggest that I view this early and late finish? It is best for
the workers to see a visual relationship in my company.

Warner

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

There are two suggestions in my post. Didn't you try them or didn't you find
them suitable?
The visual relationship can be viewed in the Detail Gantt.
I forgot to mention that there you have to go to Format, Bar Styles and on
the line called "Slack" change in the "To" column "Free Slack" into "Total
Slack"
HTH