Re: Outlook and dates

Are those dates truly fixed, like the occurance of a solar eclipse that happens at a certain moment totally without human intervention, or are they fixed in the sense that "we need to do them on this date and its really really really really important that we don't miss it because if we do we'll all be fired!"? IMHO, the only time you use a true hard fixed-date such as a Must Start On or Must Finish On constraint gives you is the first case where it just simply will happen on that date regardless of what anyone does. The latter is a deadline, not a fixed date. We need to have that task happen then but if it turns out that for some reason it can't, I want Project to tell me when it *will* be able to happen so I can answer the boss's tough questions or when I juggle the factors that are drive its timing I can can see whether my adjustments are actually doing any good.

As far as inputting those dates, I'm a big believer that Project's role is to *predict* what is going to happen under a certain set of circumstances and NOT merely to document what you want to happen. Its job is to be a reality check. I want that task to happen the 1st of September. Project's role is to tell me if it CAN happen the first of September if I proceed with work as I've presently outlined it and if it can't, where my present work plan will put it. If that's not acceptable, I have to change the plan, not just force the chart to show me what I'd like it to be by inputting the desired dates. Finish dates in a project are ALWAYS the consequence of physical processes - one's desire has no effect on when they will happen (assuming everyone's doing their jobs, of course). Functional managers tend to think that if you just try hard enough anything is possible but thats an absurd idea. Determination, desire, and will power are not sufficient in themselves to change things and the mere act of entering a date into a planning document is not sufficient to make it so. To make the dates you achieve conform to your needs and desires, you must change the processes that drive them.

If a task positively can only take place on the first of the month, create a calendar that shows the first of each month as the only working day and assign that calendar as the task calendar for the task of interest. Then the only days it will be scheduled on will be the first of the month - if its predecessor finishes the 15th of August, that task will be scheduled the 1st of September. IF its predecessor finishes the 25th of August, it well happen the 1st of September. If its predecessor finishes the 2nd of September, it will happen the 1st of OCtober. If the contract requires you to ship on the 1st of September, it's up to you to arrange the predecessors and schdule their resources so its possible to ship on schedule - merely fixing the ship date to September 1 won't make it happen. Project's role is to tell you if you'll succeed or if you'll fail.

--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs





"Jitesh" <Jitesh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:8E77E741-8963-4CFC-A6F4-E91C726E3C07@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Thanks Mike and TBH

These projects do have very fixed defined process times and the company
would like it but if its not possible then i am sure they will just have to
manually input the dates as they currently do in a excel spread ***.

Appreciate the time you took for replying to my problems. Looks like i will
have to learn vba :-( but first i will try TBHs' solution

"Mike Glen" wrote:


Hi Jitesh,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup :)

1. I don't know of a way to do this, though it might be possible using vba.

2.  Months are of varying lengths and Project doesn't handle this well,
defining a month as 20 working days.

However, you would probably do better to use deadline dates for your
shipping dates, as fixing those dates in your project won't necessarily make
that happen!. Finish-based projects are always touchy for this reason. Do
you really have projects that are so definable? As I understand it, every
project is unique with clearly defined start and finish dates, and to
regularly have the sort of fixed dates to which you are referring does not
sit comfortably with project management.

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

 TBH wrote:
> Jitesh, Im going to piggyback a question on yours. my apologies, I
> know its rude.  Can I export a Project calender to Outlook?(and can
> outlook email a daily schedule to a fancy cell phone or hand held?)
>
> And in an attempt to answer your second question, in my "Microsoft
> Project for 2003 for Dummies" book, I remember reading about the
> suffixes for dates. Project adds a "d" automatically when you put a
> number in, but you can a "w" for week, or a "m" month, or even an "h"
> for hour.  A start to finish -3m might work for you.  Although -3m
> might land on a Sunday, and the smartypants program might move it to
> the Tuesday after tomorrow. Anyway, Im sure my answer aint even
> close, so hopefully a smart guy will jump on this to show the world
> what a dumbass I am, and give you an answer you can take to the bank.
> TBH
>
> "Jitesh" wrote:
>
>> Hi guys and gals
>>
>> First time poster been ready all your useful hints and advise.
>> Two things i need help with:-
>>
>> 1) Is it possible to have dates that are already within an outlook
>> calender to be input automactically into project?
>> What i am trying to do is set up a project where the dates for
>> approval meetings have been inputed ito outlook i wanted project to
>> look up when that date is for that week and have the task set for
>> that date.
>>
>> 2)The project is finish date based and the penultimate task is
>> always 3 months before the ship date which is 1st of a month but the
>> penultimate task is also the 1st of the month ie is the end task is
>> 1 dec 2005 the penultimate task is 1sept also this is as you see is
>> not exatly a set number of days it can vary from month to month
>> depending on the number of days in the month. is is possible to
>> automate this too that project sets the date to the begining of that
>> month
>>
>> I hope that makes sense
>>
>> Thanks in advance
>>
>> Jitesh





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