Alerts?

[confused]

If a 'Finish No Later Than' date has been set, and the task is not completed by that date, is there some sort of alert to tell me that task is slipping. I can only get it to give an alert if I enter an 'Actual completed' date. Shouldn't this also show up on the 'Slipping Task' report?

 

[JackD]

One possibility is that you have set project so that tasks do not obey their
constraints. Go to tools menu, options, schedule tab and make sure that the
"tasks will always honor their constraint dates" box is checked. Another
possibility is that automatic calculation is turned off. Go to tools menu /
options/ calculation and set it to automatic (or hit the F9 key to
recalculate).

-Jack

If a 'Finish No Later Than' date has been set, and the task is not

completed by that date, is there some sort of alert to tell me that task is
slipping. I can only get it to give an alert if I enter an 'Actual
completed' date. Shouldn't this also show up on the 'Slipping Task' report?

 

[Steve House]

The slipping tasks report does not look at constraints at all. It looks to
see if the task is not finished, the task has a baseline finish saved for
it, and the currently projected finish is later than the original baseline
finish. IMHO that is an improper use of the constraint - it's not a limit
on what the task should do, a constraint is a limit on Project's engine's
ability to move the task. With that constraint, even if it's slipped and
CAN'T start on time, Project will still show that it IS starting on time
because you've basically told it to always lie to you.

Steve House
MS Project MVP

If a 'Finish No Later Than' date has been set, and the task is not

completed by that date, is there some sort of alert to tell me that task is
slipping. I can only get it to give an alert if I enter an 'Actual
completed' date. Shouldn't this also show up on the 'Slipping Task' report?

 

[confused]

So basically what you're saying is that Project will not display any type of warning if I am coming up on a dead line, and no work has been done on the given task.

 

[Steve House]

You are correct - it does not warn you IF your designate the deadline
with a Finish No Later Than constraint - that's why I maintain so
strongly that constraints are not there to be used to force the schedule
to conform to the project's objectives and your use of this constraint
is incorrect. There is another field in the task information form in
Project 2000 or later labeled "Deadline" and that is exactly what it is
there for. If you specify the deadline date in that field and remove
the constraint, if conditions force the task to be delayed past the
deadline date Project will indeed red-flag it for you. BUT in no case
does it compare the scheduled date with the current date. You have to
have some condition - a predecessor that is late and posting its actual
forces the dependent tasks into the future or running the Reschedule
Uncompleted Work After ... tool moves the tasks in the schedule into the
future - to move the task in the Gantt chart to show it is now falling
after the deadline.

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

So basically what you're saying is that Project will not display any

type of warning if I am coming up on a dead line, and no work has been
done on the given task.