Checlist items instead of subtasks

[Greg]

Is there any way to have subtasks _not_ drive the start and end date of their
summary task? Such as having all the subtasks be milestones?

Here's what I'm trying to accomplish from a big picture view:

We have a web application that has a very scaled-down project schedule
manager for home builders. We provide two "outline levels" (that's what MS
Project calls them) in our schedule: Phase and Task. The Phases are the
outermost summary tasks, and Tasks are subtasks to Phases. Phases derive
their start and end date from their subtasks (like MS Project).

In addition to these two outline levels, we provide a third level of
"Checklist Items". These items are _almost_ subtasks to Tasks, but have no
start date, end date, or duration. They are simply a list of information to
remind the builder of all the things that need to be complete for the Task to
be considered complete. There are some other bits of business logic
surrounding this, but essentially, that's it. Checklist Items are tasks
without start or end date and without duration.

In MS Project, I noticed that if I define a third outline level of tasks,
the second outline level tasks become "summary tasks", which means I cannot
control their start and end dates directly. I can only affect the deepest
outline level tasks (level 3, in this case).

So, after all that explanation, I'll restate my question: Is there a way in
MS Project to have "checklist items" that have no duration and that do not
directly control their summary task's start and end date?

Thanks very much!

 

[Ed Morrison]

You could use Issues in Project Server. If you are not using Project Server
you can use the hyperlink field. Create spreadsheets that contain your
checklists and create a hyperlink to the file in the task.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi Greg,

You should ALSO create a 3rd level task that represents tha work, in other
words, that is a copy of your original task.
BTW, for your zero duration task I would (in Task Info, Advanced) check of
"mark task as milestone".
HTH

 

[Greg]

Thanks to Jan and Ed for your suggestions.

I guess I'm moving in a slightly different direction than either of you are
suggesting, though.

Our situation is that we have a J2EE web application that implements a
scheduler that's _similar_ to MS Project. We're trying to allow our
customers to import their MS Project schedules into our application. Now,
the importing part is easy. We're requiring that our customers who wish to
import use MS Project 2003. That way, they can "Save as" XML. We then
import that XML file.

The only thing I'm trying to do (and this may be trying to fit a square peg
in a round hole) is to have our customers set up their MS Project schedules
to act a little more like our application's schedule.

So far, the only impedence to making this all work is that third level Task.
In MS Project, if a second level Task has one or more third level subTasks,
then the subTasks drive the start and end date of the second level Task.

In our application, the third level is really just a checklist of things
that should be done in order to complete the second level Task. However, the
third level tasks have no start or end date and no duration. They're just a
list of things to get done. While the second level Task has it's own
(seemingly independent) start and end date and duration.

This might not be doable in MS Project. I was just hoping I had overlooked
something. For the time being, I'm using the Custom Fields of a task. I can
override specific custom fields to be Checklist Items. The only problem is
that the user cannot see those anywhere without viewing the details of the
Task (i.e., cannot see them printed out anywhere).

Anyway, thanks again to Jan and Ed for quick responses!

 

[Ed Morrison]

The easiest way is to throw away that J2EE web application and start using
Project Server! Well what else would you expect in this news group?

A more difficult way is to link the start and finish dates of tasks
together.
1. Create a control task at the same level as the work tasks.
2. Set this control task's start and finish dates to the desired dates
either manually or (preferred) using linkage.
3. Now we want to bind the checklist items to this task by copying the
start date of the control task and special pasting a link to the control's
start date. (Right click on the checklist's start date, select paste
special, select paste link, click OK).
4. Repeat for the finish date.

Change the start and/or finish date of the control task and you'll see the
checklist's tasks change.

I don't know how this will work after you export it to XML.

Of course you could always manipulate the XML file prior to importing into
your application, but you are on your own for that logic.

Let us know how it works.
--
Ed Morrison
msProjectExperts
"We wrote the books on Project Server"
http://www.msprojectexperts.com

 

[Greg]

Hahaha! That's good. Throw away the J2EE app. Glad to see the other side
of the fence has a sense of humor. I get sick of all this animosity between
J2EE and .Net. It's refreshing to see some humor.

Okay, down to business. Thanks a bunch for your suggestion, Ed! I'll try
it out and let you know how it worked for me in my situation.

Btw, I love the fact that all the office apps support a (fairly well
documented) xml format now. It's so cool for us on the J2EE side to say we
can support office apps. I hope that other J2EE developers start doing the
same. Let's bridge the gap!!