Re: Schedule from End Date
- From: "Steve House [Project MVP]" <sjhouse.remove.this@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 5 Sep 2005 11:46:53 -0400
Don't change the deadline date. Instead, change the project finish date in the project information screen.
--
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:295817B9-E0F4-4513-AF7F-D47690F034DC@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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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