Re: Schedule from End Date
- From: "Hadi" <Hadi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2005 08:28:28 -0700
Steve, Thank you for your excellent post. I switched between having MS
project schedule from the start date and the finish date and saw the latest
date I can start the project. I want to be able to change the deadline for
the last task and see the start date moving as I change the deadline but that
does not seem to change as I change the deadline.
"Steve House [Project MVP]" wrote:
> It sounds like what you want to do is see what the latest possible date you
> might start would be and still finish the project by a certain end date.
> Remember you can switch the "schedule from" entry in the Project Information
> menu back and forth between scheduling from start and scheduling from finish
> as many times as you want. I'd lay out my schedule from the start date and
> let the finish fall where it may - I find it's easier to think about what
> needs to be done and what order to do them if you're thinking start to
> finish. After I've created the project task outline itlself and linked the
> tasks into the order they need to be done, I'd switch to "schedule from
> finish", enter the required finish date, and see where it put the start
> date. Now switch back the "schedule from start" and you'll see that it will
> have reset the start date for you to the latest possible date you could
> start and still meet the required finish. That would be the theoretical
> latest possible start date but I'd never wait until that date to begin work.
> If you did, and something caused any task to get delayed - and you can count
> on the fact that something will always get delayed - it would mean that your
> project would finish late. So I'd pick a reasonable start date sooner than
> the latest possible start date reset the start to the date I'd picked.
> Meanwhile I'd put a deadline on the finish task of the required finish date
> so if something happens that will make me miss that deadline it'll get red
> flagged early enough for me to do something to fix it.
>
> There's some differences of opinion about this but I'd never, ever, use a
> "must finish on" or "must finish no later than" constraint to represent the
> date the project needs to be done. The reason is that the constraint DOES
> NOT mean "this is when it is supposed to happen." Rather, it means "this is
> when it WILL happen" and instructs Project to lock it onto that date and
> display it happening then regardless of anything else we do in organizing
> the schedule! Since the reason for using scheduling software in the first
> place is to figure out how to organize your project to meet your business
> objectives, I suggest it's usefullness is severely compromised if you
> disable its ability to tell you if you're succeeding or failing. It seems
> logical to me that if you've screwed up and organized the work in such a way
> as to have the project finish several weeks past your required finish date,
> the software should tell you that you blew it by placing the calculated
> finish where your plan will have it fall and not lie to you and tell you
> it's on time when it won't be. Using a constraint instead of a deadline in
> effect tells Project to lie to you by locking the displayed finish date to
> the date you said you wanted. So why is the constraint option even there?
> Because there might be things happening in the project that really do happen
> on a certain timeframe that is fixed and not influenced by anything in the
> project schedule. Christmas Day really is a fixed date that happens on 25
> Dec and nothing we do in arranging our project's work is going to change it.
> Constraints lets you model that reality. But you simply can't say that the
> project actual finish is not going to be influenced by the way the project's
> work is organized and I suggest the plan should predict what you're going to
> get and not just parrot back what you want to get.
> --
> Steve House [MVP]
> MS Project Trainer & Consultant
> Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs
>
>
> "Hadi" <Hadi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:46174EB0-E133-4405-AA3E-DBDCD5C32485@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >I want to build a schedule. I want to build it like this:
> >
> > - Have a task at the end of the project that has a must start constraint.
> > - I want to be able to move the this last task around and see what would
> > be
> > the latest date I can start the project to meet the start date i set. Is
> > there a way of doing that without setting up project to schedule from the
> > finish date. I thought I can do that by showing the late start date on
> > all
> > the activities and have it change as I move the last task around. help
> > plz I
> > have a deadline next tuesday and I would like to have an idea of how to do
> > this.
>
>
.
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