Task Start Time

[Blur]

I have several tasks that start on the same day. I want one particular task
to start at 3:00AM and the others on that day to start at 7:00AM. I am
having trouble getting that to work.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Just enter it like this
22/3/05 07:00
Project always works by the minute and will readily accept this
If you want to visulalise time of day in views go to Tools, Options, View
and select a Date Format that includes time of day

Stil, I owe you the standard piece of advice: Project is made for
calculating start times of tasks so why bother entering any?
Hope

 

[blur]

Jan:
Thanks for your hrlp here. I "forced" the start time for the first task
(3:00AM task). I changed all the days working time to 7:00AM to 7:00PM. I
now have a :start no earlier than" constraint on that first 3:00AM task. Is
that correct? Is that what Project does when I force the start time to 3:00
AM for one task (the first one)?

 

[JulieD]

Hi blur

i would have used a MUST START ON constraint - rather than a SNET one ...

Cheers
JulieD

 

[blur]

Hi JulieD:

Project defaulted to SNET? That was not something that I selected. I
changed it to "must start on" and did not see any effect.

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Blur,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

You are advised against entering dates and times as Project will apply a
constraint which might affect the flexibility of your project. Enter
Durations and precedence links and let Project do the calculations for you.
For the first task, in Project/Project Information enter the project date
with a start time and Project will schedule your tasks from then.

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on )

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Your postings are a little contradictory.
First you complain that project set a SNET constraint, than you claim
haveing introduced a constraint yourself.
When you enter a date directly in a start field, Project defaults to a SNET
constraint.
(BTW I deeply regret the makers of Project simply allow people to use the
start field. It would be much better if it weren't accessible)
When you put an MSO constraint, you will see an MSO constraint.
HTH

 

[DavidC]

Hi,

I think I understand what you are trying to do. The problem may well be the
calendar applied to the task. The default calendar will likely have a day
starting at 8:00am so any new task will not start before then. If you need
to set tasks that can start outside normal hours, then you need either to use
the 24hr calendar if the task and resources can work those times, or make a
new calendar to refelct the working time that the task will use. Having done
that the other answers are correct, it is best to let Project set the start
times based on the logic you apply, unless the task starting at 3:00am is the
first task. Using logic to get a task starting at 3:00am on a calendar which
allows work to start at that time, will require setting the link to the
previous task as an 'FS' with lag. If the previous task finishes at 4:00pm
and the task in question is to start at 3:00am then set the link to FS+11hrs.
This will then shift the start time relative to the finish of the previous
task. If the task is one which cannot start until 3:00am, but is linked then
certainly set the constraint to Start no earlier than , or if it must start
at 3:00am and no earlier or later then set a must start on constraint. The
problem though will arise if there is delay in any preceeding tasks which
impinge on that task.
Another option is to set a deadline on that task, then if the logic pushes
the time to start out past that deadline, the total slack will go negative,
and you can then check what needs to be done to make the process work. It
may be that you need to then start the task the next day. Sounds convoluted,
but there are many possible combinations and reasons for wanting to do what
you want and to fully answer it will be necessary to understand why the task
'must' start at 3:00am.

First though try setting the task calendar.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

I feel I need to clarify some here.

I quote:

If you need
to set tasks that can start outside normal hours, then you need either to
use
the 24hr calendar if the task and resources can work those times, or make a
new calendar to refelct the working time that the task will use.

This is not entirely true.
Once you assign a resource to a task the scheduling of the task ignores the
project calendar.
If the resource calendar extends into project nonworking time, than the
resource (and hence the task) will happily be scheduled into this nonworking
time. The resource calendar takes absolute priority, no need for a task
calendar here.
Hope this helps.

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

The calendar determines what are legal start and end times - essentially it
says when people will be there to do the work. If your calendar says your
hours of work are 7am to 7pm and you enter a task with a SNET constraint of
3am, Project realizes that even though the task *could* start as early as
3am, there's not going to be anyone there to actually do it so it moves it
later until it gets to a time when someone is going to show up who can do
the job.

Whenever you enter something in the Start column Project sets a SNET
constraint of the entered date. Similarly, if you enter something in the
Finish column, Project sets a FNET constraint. In general, you should
never, ever, enter start and finish dates except in those special cases
where you really do need to set a constraint for some reason. Project's job
is to calculate the schedule - you don't tell it the start and finish of
tasks, it's there to tell YOU what they should be.

 

[DavidC]

Thanks, I implied in my answer that the task and resource must be able to
work that time. I did neglect to add later that the calendar to be set would
need to be for the task and/or the resource. Quite right it is a trap easily
fallen into not following the calendar precedences used in Project. Even
worse is the one I found the other week, where start and finish dates are
calculated on the calendar and the de isecond equivalent of the duration.
Causes a real headache when working in days and having resources on different
calendars yet one day means that resources working day.