Task Constraints

[Lowkey]

How do I remove constraints from a Task in Project 02 without deleting the
task and creating a new one.

 

[JackD]

Double click on the task. This bring up the task dialog box. Go to the
advanced tab and set the constraint type to be "As soon as possible".
You can also insert the constraint type column into any task view and set
the type there.
If you want to remove all the constraints at once, select all the tasks, hit
SHIFT+F2 to bring up the task dialog box and set the constraint type as
described above. It will apply to all selected tasks.

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

Go to the task information form, advanced tab and change the constraint to
As Soon As Possible.

 

[Lowkey]

Thanks. Is there any way to set the tasks constraints in hours, instead of
the using the default calendar? I have a task that must start no later than 9
am because it must be finished in the same day.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Any date in Project can always be entered in hours and minutes.
Just enter 8/4/5 09:25 for instance.

If moreover you want all dates to be displyed like that, change Date Format
in Tools, Options, View
HTH

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

I assume the idea here is to insure the task will finish the same day it
starts regardless of what day that happens to be. There's no way to use a
constraint to do that - you can say "Start No Later Than 15 Apr at 9am" but
you can't "Always Start Before 9am" by using constraints. The work around
is to create a calendar that show hours of work from, say, 07:59 to 08:59.
Insert a task with 1 minute duration and put it in the middle of the link
between the task you need to start before 9 and its predecessor. Set your 1
hour calendar to be that task's task calendar. Now regardless of when the
predecessor ends, the pseudo task can only happen between 7:59 and 8:59am
and the one you're trying to control will follow immediately after.
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

 

[Lowkey]

This is exactly the situation you interpret, Steve. The work around is pretty
complex and will take a bit to figure out. I think it's an opportunity for MS
to make an improvement by changing the forced date selection to an hours
option. I am working in Project 02, so maybe it's already changed in newer
versions.

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

Nope, still the same. The idea is that a successor will usually be able to
start as soon as its predecessor allows it to. Most tasks allow for that
just fine. Imagine Task A as predecessor to 8-hour task B, and we use the
conventional work calendar. If Task A finishes at 5pm, Task B will start
the next morning at 8am. But if Task A finishes at noon, most of the time
you can go ahead and start B without having to wait for the next day, doing
4 hours today and the balance tomorrow. It's relatively uncommon that the
nature of the work is such that a task MUST be done in a single continuous
time period. Consider a 3-day task with one person assigned - the person
working on it is going to go home each evening most of the time <grin>.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi Lowkey,

But this is installed since I know Project (version 3)!
You can always, anytime, anywhere, enter a moment in time as f.i. 8/8/5
13:34
I don't think users would appreciate the OBLIGATION to enter it that way.
That is why there is a default start and a default finish hour in the
options.

Greetings,