Hi
(in a short sentance - no!) ... however, ...
this is an interesting question because basically the only start dates that
should be entered in a project file is the project start date - all other
tasks should generally take their start dates from their relationship to
other tasks.
When you're scheduling a project, even customer related tasks are generally
related to something else in the project, and therefore the start date for
the customer input is the finish of the previous tasks. However, it is
often the case that the duration of the customer related activity is not
fixed ... and therefore the start date of this tasks is therefore somewhat
"unknown". The way i handle this is to ensure that the customer related
activity is listed as a task
e.g.
Draw Plans
Customer Review
Adjust Plans
and a duration is assigned to the customer review - giving a nominal start
date for the adjust plans task. However, i also format the text and bar of
the customer review task differently so that it really stands out that this
particular task is outside of my control and although a nominated duration
has been entered if the project is delayed because this "blows out" it is
easy to track and identify.
I hope that this helps
Cheers
JulieD
