Setting Task Contraint Date creating Scheduling Problems!

[Subramanian Vasudevan]

Hello,

I seem to have run into a possible bug in the Project Server Scheduling
Engine.

In our application, we dont maintain any scheduling information except the
Project Start Date, rest is not mandatory. Hence I've written code that
creates a Project with that StartDate and then I want to default all the
Tasks to the ProjectStartDate.

Earlier, I used to just set the ProjecTStartDate and that would be it. The
tasks would default automatically to the ProjectStartDate. That was fine
until we discovered that the PSI throws 'ProjectSchedulingEngineException's
all over, if the task work was increased to enormous values.

Hence, I started to explicitly set a constraint on each task, 'MustStartOn'
and specifying the Constraint Date as ProjectStartDate.It works fine, except
for one thing. Say I use the following code to set the Constraint Date:

TaskRow.TASK_CONSTRAINT_TYPE =
(short)PSLibrary.Task.ConstraintType.MustStartOn;
TaskRow.TASK_CONSTRAINT_DATE = Convert.ToDateTime("1/27/2009 12:00:00 AM");

Then when I open the project in Microsoft Project Professional, I see that
the Task Start Date (and Project Start Date) reads "1/26/2009". What makes it
even weird is that when I use ReadProject() to read the ProjectDataSet back,
I see that the TaskStartDate (and ProjectStartDate) is exactly "1/27/2009
12:00:00 AM". But in Microsoft Project Professional it is one day less.

My actual concern is that when a MustStartOn constraint is set, the
TaskStartDate is being set with the Time component also set as 12:00 AM
(whatever I feed in the DateTime input). I feel it is supposed to set it
based on the BaseCalendar, which dictates that Work time starts from 8:00 AM.
This, I feel is confusing Microsoft Project Professional in its calculations.

Please reply is you feel if this is a bug, and I would be grateful if you
could give me a workaround.

Thanks and regards,

Subramanian Vasudevan

 

[Jack Dahlgren MVP]

Try setting the constraint during scheduled working times - like 8:00AM
instead of midnight.
Project makes some assumptions on when to start tasks if you give it a time
which is not within the working hours (I think it generally goes to start of
day for start dates and end of day for finish dates). Avoid those issues by
setting valid times.

-Jack Dahlgren

 

[Dean C]

Getting back to your "bug", verify that the Options (Schedule tab) New Tasks:
is set to "Start On Project Start Date". Also, I think the Calendar on the
server overwrites the project calendar when you import an mpp file. The
Calendar on the server may not be set to the default 8:00 AM Start.

 

[Subramanian Vasudevan]

Hi Dean,

I verified that the Start on Project Start Date is set. I edited the server
default calendar, only to see that the working times are defined in the
proper way as 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

I also tried setting the Task Constraint (Must Start On) date as '01/27/2009
10:00:00 AM', and this gets saved as 10:00 AM but in Project Professional the
Task Start Date is still showing up as '01/26/2009'. It shows the correct
value of '01/27/2009' once I remove the Must Start On constraint.

Regards,

Subramanian

 

[Subramanian Vasudevan]

Hi Jack,

I verified that the Start on Project Start Date is set. I edited the server
default calendar, only to see that the working times are defined in the
proper way as 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM.

I also tried setting the Task Constraint (Must Start On) date as '01/27/2009
10:00:00 AM', and this gets saved correctly as 10:00 AM but in Project
Professional the Task Start Date is still showing up as '01/26/2009'. It
shows the correct value of '01/27/2009' once I remove the Must Start On
constraint.

Regards,

Subramanian