assign start dates to tasks

[Julie]

I am trying to manage many jobs on a Project - Job have subtasks - but cannot
change the start date of the main task...or in this case 'job' - for example
Job 394
Task 1
Task 2
Job 395
Task 1
Task 2
I cannot change the start date of Job 394 or Job 395 - Completion of these
jobs may or may not be dependent of each other....
Any suggestions would be helpful

 

[JackD]

Summary tasks (which is what job 394 is) take their start date from the
earliest start of any tasks which are indented below them. They take their
finish date from the latest finish of any tasks indented.

So set the start of task 1 and you will set the start of job 394

 

[Steve House [MS Project MVP]]

If the start date cannot change either forward or backward, put a Must Start
On constraint on Task 1 under each job. FYI - this is contrary to the usual
use of MS Project, which is to determine when the tasks would be able to
take place. Generally speaking you don't tell Project the dates when tasks
will take place; instead, it calculates the schedule based on what needs to
be done, how long each task will take, and when the resources required would
be available and then tells you the dates you can have. But there can be
exceptions where external conditions impose a start or end date and applying
constraints is how they can accomplished in the schedule.