Can't unlink groups of tasks

[Mark P.]

I am setting up a Project 2003 file for a project involving inspections of 30
facilities. I would like to track them a decrete groups of tasks in the same
file. Each facility consists of the same tasks repeated with only the start
date different. I created the tasks and timelines for the first facility, got
the dependencies and constraints straight, formated the bars and labels, etc.

I then copied that group of tasks, changed the facility label for each
facility. When I tried to adjust the start date for the second and third
groups of tasks, ALL the start dates changed. I checked and can't find any
dependencies to other groups of tasks. I tried unlinking and relinking them.
They are all outdented as far as they will go.

Anyone have any ideas how to get these 30 groups of tasks to operate
independently? Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Rob Schneider]

I'm sure there is a reason, but nothing obvious occurs to me right now
since you say that there are no dependencies. Probably would be a "slap
on head" once noticed. Probably related to how you copy/pasted the
tasks. It would probably take a few minutes to figure it out by looking
at the file, so if you want to email it to me I'll take a look. (figure
out email from above).

That being said, the way I would have set this up would to be to create
Project Template. This use that template to create 30 MPP files--one for
each facility. And then work with each file individually. Would gather
these subproject files into a linked master file for overall and more
productive access to all at once.


--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[sai]

I am setting up a Project 2003 file for a project involving inspections of 30
facilities. I would like to track them a decrete groups of tasks in the same
file. Each facility consists of the same tasks repeated with only the start
date different. I created the tasks and timelines for the first facility,got
the dependencies and constraints straight, formated the bars and labels, etc.

I then copied that group of tasks, changed the facility label for each
facility. When I tried to adjust the start date for the second and third
groups of tasks, ALL the start dates changed. I checked and can't find any
dependencies to other groups of tasks. I tried unlinking and relinking them.
They are all outdented as far as they will go.

Anyone have any ideas how to get these 30 groups of tasks to operate
independently? Thanks in advance for any help.

Looks like changing the start date of one task, affects the start date
of other independent tasks automatically. It could be because you
could have done Paste Link (in Paste Special menu item); you can find
the difference easily. If you see a small grey colored triangle on the
bottom right most corner in the start/finish date, then it indicates
the start/finish date is driven by another task's start/finish date.

To remove this link, select all the tasks (rows) with grey colored
triangles on dates column and choose Edit | Links and clear the links.

Hope this helps.

Sai, PMP, PMI-SP, MCT, MCTS
http://saipower.wordpress.com

 

[Jim Aksel]

Also look for predecessors on summary tasks, remove if present.
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Jim Aksel, MVP

Check out my blog for more information:
http://www.msprojectblog.com