Start a successor the next day?

[JHJ]

I have a block of tasks that take less than a day to finish. The last of
those tasks is the successor to the next day's block of tasks. Project
automatically starts the next successor on day 1 if there's time left in the
day. I know that I can force the date and time for day 2, but if I do that, I
then have to manually update every task if the day 1 date changes. Any ideas?

 

[JulieS]

Hello JHJ,

What you describe is not normal Project behavior. If a predecessor task
finishes at 3:02 in the afternoon, the successor task (assuming Finish
to Start relationship with no lag) should start at 3:02 in the
afternoon.

What is the working time set in the project calendar or the resource
calendar?

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional information
about Microsoft Project

 

[JHJ]

You're right. it is doing exactly that. However, I don't want it to. I want
it to wait until the next morning before it starts the next block of tasks,
and keep all tasks in the group on the same day, iven if there's time left to
start the next one. While maintaining automation, of course.

 

[JulieS]

Hello JHJ,

Sorry for the confusion, I misread your question and thought things were
not working well. Now I understand that what you are trying to do is to
prevent the sucessors from starting until the next day. One method that
has been successful before:

Create a custom calendar (Tools > Charge Working Time) that only allows
working time Monday through Friday from 5:01 pm to 5:02 pm (or one
minute after the end of the working time in your project calendar.)
Create a 1 minute task ("Block end" or similar) as the successor to each
task in first block of tasks. The one minute task is then the
predecessor to the next block of tasks. Assign the custom calendar to
the one minute task. As there is only one minute of working time the
task will be scheduled for 5:01pm . The successor tasks should start at
the beginning of the next working time period.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional information
about Microsoft Project