critical path not showing

[swell estimator]

what kind of conflicts should I be looking for in tasks information that
would prevent the critical path from displaying?

Jim of MS responded to a similar post of mine with a suggestion that I
double-check my entries as I should be letting Project set the dates. That
alerted me to how these kind of conflicts have the effect of shutting down
the CP display entirely.

I did what he suggested including setting the constraints to 'as much as
possible". I also created the last task as a milestone with zero duration as
he suggested. But I haven't stumbled on the solution yet.

Any suggestions would be appreciated - yours, Swell

 

[John]

what kind of conflicts should I be looking for in tasks information that
would prevent the critical path from displaying?

Jim of MS responded to a similar post of mine with a suggestion that I
double-check my entries as I should be letting Project set the dates. That
alerted me to how these kind of conflicts have the effect of shutting down
the CP display entirely.

I did what he suggested including setting the constraints to 'as much as
possible". I also created the last task as a milestone with zero duration as
he suggested. But I haven't stumbled on the solution yet.

Any suggestions would be appreciated - yours, Swell

swell,
It's not so much conflicts as it is slack in your schedule. The default
setting for critical path in Project is zero days of total slack. The
default setting can be changed under Tools/Options/Calculation tab but
normally you don't need to change it.

Many things can affect the critical path but you won't see it if you
don't have the correct view display. The normal view that displays
critical path is the Tracking Gantt but the critical path can be added
to any task view by setting up the Gantt bars under Format/Bar Styles.
If you're not sure how to do that, use the Gantt bar settings for the
Tracking Gantt view as a template.

Tasks that are on the critical path will show "0 days" (or less) in the
Total Slack field. If you "jammed" in the dates, (i.e. entered them
manually), such that every task has at least 1 day of total slack, then
you effectively won't have a critical path. However, it sounds like you
already addressed that issue using Jim's advice and removed all
constraints.

SO, make sure you a view that will display the critical path and take a
look at the Total Slack field.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[swell estimator]

John thank you for replying. Please help me get down to Basics because I
think I am doing some small thing wrong. I say that because I've built
several schedules that show the critical path. After several relatively
minor changes , additions, et. al., the critical path disappears - happened
with two schedules. And I don't know how to get it back! I've been trying
everything and I have hours, literally several 16 hr days pursuing this and
I'm getting increasingly confused. My tiredness is adding to the bewilderment.

I went to "More Views" and clicked on "Tracking Gantt" and the default red
CP doesn't show. I checked on Bar styles and everything looks in order - the
CP red with a pattern, same as it does when I go to the Gantt Chart Wizard
and it prompts me as to how I want the CP to look with the default as red.

I'm also confused as to why task dependencies are not the culprit. Why else
would Jim tell me to check them implying that if I manually set the dates
rather than letting Project set them, that somehow shut down the CP? How else
to explain what he suggested as a solution? After what he told me I spent a
half-day going through all the tasks to check on the date entries.

I sense something very simple is at work here. I say that because recently
I had a similar protracted struggle with getting text to print out large
enough to be read
after I printed to Adobe PDF. I couldn't understand why Page set-up was
forcing my document to 2 pps after I set it up as 1 x 1. Several of your
associates tried to help me after a bunch of posts from me. What did it
finally prove to be, discovered at some insane early hour in the morning? A
page break had somehow gotten into the 1st line of the schedule!

I think some similarly small thing is preventing me from being able to see
and print the critical path. It won't even display when I select 'cp" in the
Group drop-down menu.

I would appreciate any more help you can give me. I think it's some small
thing but you're the expert, so I look to you. thank you, Swell

 

[swell estimator]

John thank you for replying. Please help me get down to Basics because I
think I am doing some small thing wrong. I say that because I've built
several schedules that show the critical path. After several relatively
minor changes , additions, et. al., the critical path disappears - happened
with two schedules. And I don't know how to get it back! I've been trying
everything and I have hours, literally several 16 hr days pursuing this and
I'm getting increasingly confused. My tiredness is adding to the bewilderment.

I went to "More Views" and clicked on "Tracking Gantt" and the default red
CP doesn't show. I checked on Bar styles and everything looks in order - the
CP red with a pattern, same as it does when I go to the Gantt Chart Wizard
and it prompts me as to how I want the CP to look with the default as red.

I'm also confused as to why task dependencies are not the culprit. Why else
would Jim tell me to check them implying that if I manually set the dates
rather than letting Project set them, that somehow shut down the CP? How else
to explain what he suggested as a solution? After what he told me I spent a
half-day going through all the tasks to check on the date entries.

I sense something very simple is at work here. I say that because recently
I had a similar protracted struggle with getting text to print out large
enough to be read
after I printed to Adobe PDF. I couldn't understand why Page set-up was
forcing my document to 2 pps after I set it up as 1 x 1. Several of your
associates tried to help me after a bunch of posts from me. What did it
finally prove to be, discovered at some insane early hour in the morning? A
page break had somehow gotten into the 1st line of the schedule!

I think some similarly small thing is preventing me from being able to see
and print the critical path. It won't even display when I select 'cp" in the
Group drop-down menu.

I would appreciate any more help you can give me. I think it's some small
thing but you're the expert, so I look to you. thank you, Swell

 

[John]

John thank you for replying. Please help me get down to Basics because I
think I am doing some small thing wrong. I say that because I've built
several schedules that show the critical path. After several relatively
minor changes , additions, et. al., the critical path disappears - happened
with two schedules. And I don't know how to get it back! I've been trying
everything and I have hours, literally several 16 hr days pursuing this and
I'm getting increasingly confused. My tiredness is adding to the
bewilderment.

I went to "More Views" and clicked on "Tracking Gantt" and the default red
CP doesn't show. I checked on Bar styles and everything looks in order - the
CP red with a pattern, same as it does when I go to the Gantt Chart Wizard
and it prompts me as to how I want the CP to look with the default as red.

I'm also confused as to why task dependencies are not the culprit. Why else
would Jim tell me to check them implying that if I manually set the dates
rather than letting Project set them, that somehow shut down the CP? How else
to explain what he suggested as a solution? After what he told me I spent a
half-day going through all the tasks to check on the date entries.

I sense something very simple is at work here. I say that because recently
I had a similar protracted struggle with getting text to print out large
enough to be read
after I printed to Adobe PDF. I couldn't understand why Page set-up was
forcing my document to 2 pps after I set it up as 1 x 1. Several of your
associates tried to help me after a bunch of posts from me. What did it
finally prove to be, discovered at some insane early hour in the morning? A
page break had somehow gotten into the 1st line of the schedule!

I think some similarly small thing is preventing me from being able to see
and print the critical path. It won't even display when I select 'cp" in the
Group drop-down menu.

I would appreciate any more help you can give me. I think it's some small
thing but you're the expert, so I look to you. thank you, Swell

swell,
Sorry you are having such a hard time. Project can sometimes do bad
things to good people.

I didn't read Jim's response but I'm sure what he was driving at is that
the user should NOT enter dates for tasks manually. Doing so sets a
constraint (start-no-earlier-than) and that can effectively nullify task
links such that there essentially is no critical path.

You mentioned that you checked the view to make sure the Gantt was set
up to actually show critical tasks. However the second thing I suggested
is to add the Total Slack field to the view. Do any tasks show a "0" or
negative value in that field? If so, then you should see a critical
path. If all values are positive, then you don't have a critical path.
If you do have "0" or negative values in the Total Slack field and you
still don't see a critical path, then we need to dig deeper. It may be
file corruption.

John
Project MVP

 

[swell estimator]

John, I inserted the "Start Slack" column and it showed some of the tasks
as O
and some with many days of start slack, as much as 305 days in a 15 month
schedule. Not sure as to how to interpret this.

Can you refer me to a more comprehensive discussion on the subject of slack?

 

[swell estimator]

Is there anyone available to whom I could send my schedule ? 2 people have
kindly offered this to me but I missed their deadlines as I was insanely busy
trying the various things people have told me.

Thank you - Swell

 

[swell estimator]

To all those helping me:

I inserted the "Total Slack" column and it doesn't look good and I'm
uncertain as to how to change it. Several sections of my schedule have total
slack almost as long as the entire project with no zero days at all. Is that
why I have no critical path?

In my ignorance I may have erased too many dependencies in the effort to
remove as many constraints as possible. I did this indirectly or perhaps
inadvertently after the advice I received about constraints.

Before I spend another insane 4 hours not knowing what I'm doing, what do
you suggest for the next step? Don't I have to get rid of slack and produce
enough zero days to have a critical path? "Swell"

 

[swell estimator]

To all those helping me:

I inserted the "Total Slack" column and it doesn't look good and I'm
uncertain as to how to change it. Several sections of my schedule have total
slack almost as long as the entire project with no zero days at all. Is that
why I have no critical path?

In my ignorance I may have erased too many dependencies in the effort to
remove as many constraints as possible. I did this indirectly or perhaps
inadvertently after the advice I received about constraints.

Before I spend another insane 4 hours not knowing what I'm doing, what do
you suggest for the next step? Don't I have to get rid of slack and produce
enough zero days to have a critical path? "Swell"

 

[swell estimator]

To all those helping me:

I inserted the "Total Slack" column and it doesn't look good and I'm
uncertain as to how to change it. Several sections of my schedule have total
slack almost as long as the entire project with no zero days at all. Is that
why I have no critical path?

In my ignorance I may have erased too many dependencies in the effort to
remove as many constraints as possible. I did this indirectly or perhaps
inadvertently after the advice I received about constraints.

Before I spend another insane 4 hours not knowing what I'm doing, what do
you suggest for the next step? Don't I have to get rid of slack and produce
enough zero days to have a critical path? "Swell"

 

[swell estimator]

To all those helping me:

I inserted the "Total Slack" column and it doesn't look good and I'm
uncertain as to how to change it. Several sections of my schedule have total
slack almost as long as the entire project with no zero days at all. Is that
why I have no critical path?

In my ignorance I may have erased too many dependencies in the effort to
remove as many constraints as possible. I did this indirectly or perhaps
inadvertently after the advice I received about constraints.

Before I spend another insane 4 hours not knowing what I'm doing, what do
you suggest for the next step? Don't I have to get rid of slack and produce
enough zero days to have a critical path? "Swell"

 

[swell estimator]

To all those helping me:

I inserted the "Total Slack" column and it doesn't look good and I'm
uncertain as to how to change it. Several sections of my schedule have total
slack almost as long as the entire project with no zero days at all. Is that
why I have no critical path?

In my ignorance I may have erased too many dependencies in the effort to
remove as many constraints as possible. I did this indirectly or perhaps
inadvertently after the advice I received about constraints.

Before I spend another insane 4 hours not knowing what I'm doing, what do
you suggest for the next step? Don't I have to get rid of slack and produce
enough zero days to have a critical path? "Swell"

 

[swell estimator]

To all those helping me:

I inserted the "Total Slack" column and it doesn't look good and I'm
uncertain as to how to change it. Several sections of my schedule have total
slack almost as long as the entire project with no zero days at all. Is that
why I have no critical path?

In my ignorance I may have erased too many dependencies in the effort to
remove as many constraints as possible. I did this indirectly or perhaps
inadvertently after the advice I received about constraints.

Before I spend another insane 4 hours not knowing what I'm doing, what do
you suggest for the next step? Don't I have to get rid of slack and produce
enough zero days to have a critical path? "Swell"

 

[swell estimator]

To all those helping me:

I inserted the "Total Slack" column and it doesn't look good and I'm
uncertain as to how to change it. Several sections of my schedule have total
slack almost as long as the entire project with no zero days at all. Is that
why I have no critical path?

In my ignorance I may have erased too many dependencies in the effort to
remove as many constraints as possible. I did this indirectly or perhaps
inadvertently after the advice I received about constraints.

Before I spend another insane 4 hours not knowing what I'm doing, what do
you suggest for the next step? Don't I have to get rid of slack and produce
enough zero days to have a critical path? "Swell"

 

[swell estimator]

To all those helping me:

I inserted the "Total Slack" column and it doesn't look good and I'm
uncertain as to how to change it. Several sections of my schedule have total
slack almost as long as the entire project with no zero days at all. Is that
why I have no critical path?

In my ignorance I may have erased too many dependencies in the effort to
remove as many constraints as possible. I did this indirectly or perhaps
inadvertently after the advice I received about constraints.

Before I spend another insane 4 hours not knowing what I'm doing, what do
you suggest for the next step? Don't I have to get rid of slack and produce
enough zero days to have a critical path? "Swell"

 

[swell estimator]

To all those helping me:

I inserted the "Total Slack" column and it doesn't look good and I'm
uncertain as to how to change it. Several sections of my schedule have total
slack almost as long as the entire project with no zero days at all. Is that
why I have no critical path?

In my ignorance I may have erased too many dependencies in the effort to
remove as many constraints as possible. I did this indirectly or perhaps
inadvertently after the advice I received about constraints.

Before I spend another insane 4 hours not knowing what I'm doing, what do
you suggest for the next step? Don't I have to get rid of slack and produce
enough zero days to have a critical path? "Swell"

 

[swell estimator]

To all those helping me:

I inserted the "Total Slack" column and it doesn't look good and I'm
uncertain as to how to change it. Several sections of my schedule have total
slack almost as long as the entire project with no zero days at all. Is that
why I have no critical path?

In my ignorance I may have erased too many dependencies in the effort to
remove as many constraints as possible. I did this indirectly or perhaps
inadvertently after the advice I received about constraints.

Before I spend another insane 4 hours not knowing what I'm doing, what do
you suggest for the next step? Don't I have to get rid of slack and produce
enough zero days to have a critical path? "Swell"

 

[John]

To all those helping me:

I inserted the "Total Slack" column and it doesn't look good and I'm
uncertain as to how to change it. Several sections of my schedule have total
slack almost as long as the entire project with no zero days at all. Is that
why I have no critical path?

In my ignorance I may have erased too many dependencies in the effort to
remove as many constraints as possible. I did this indirectly or perhaps
inadvertently after the advice I received about constraints.

Before I spend another insane 4 hours not knowing what I'm doing, what do
you suggest for the next step? Don't I have to get rid of slack and produce
enough zero days to have a critical path? "Swell"

Swell,
First of all quit hitting the post button repeatedly. There are no less
than 10 duplicates for your latest post and there were three duplicates
for your post yesterday. Multiple posts will not get you a quicker
answer!

I agree, it sounds like your schedule is pretty hosed up. Constraints
are NOT corrected by deleting dependencies. Constraints are generally
"corrected" by making sure the Constraint Type field says
"as-soon-as-possible". However if you do that in the absence of logical
dependencies between tasks, all your tasks will "slam" back to the
project start date.

Tell you what, I suggest you go to our MVP website at,
http://project.mvps.org/links.htm, and click on Mike's tutorials. Read
through the lessons to learn the basics of how to use Project correctly.
Then if you still have some problems, post back.

John
Project MVP

 

[Jim Aksel]

Swell - I'll bet you are a swll person (don't know if you are a swell guy
or a swel lady.. I really don't need to know)

How can I help you? Gee, my e-mail box is empty. It's 11:45PM for me here
in Los Angeles. I'd help you if I could, but I have no schedule to look at.
I am here reading your post at this time.... what does that tell you about
dedication of people on this forum?

Again, all non-summary tasks shoud have a FS relationship with something
else. Eventually something should tie to a milestone "I am done with this
project". If you follow every path through your network, all paths lead to
the finsih milestone, corrrect?

Do not "ever" key a date, let the software calculate it for you.

I can check for posts the morning of 24 OCT 2008 between 7AM and 10 AM Los
Angeles time. I will also check my e-mail jeaksel at yahoo dot com. Sorry,
don't have the time to wade through all the post to get to you.... they make
me work for a living.

Sir, I have to be honest. There are at least 10 posters to this forum on a
regular basis. We are all volunteers (not Microsoft Employees). We all want
you to be successful and are very good at what we do.

It is nearly impossible to track all your posts and numerous duplications of
posts. Trust me, I have been where you are. You are frustrated and we
understand. Yes, you are correct, it is probably somethng simple.

Gee, we'd all LOVE to help you. Trust me on that. Send us e-mail, we'll
eventually look at it. Just keep in mind we have other people who pay us and
we do this as volunteers, there are no Microsoft employees here! Just
volunteers. We all have "day jobs" and work this forum to the best of our
abilities. I read Julie's posts.... take them to heart. Yes, we have MVP
after our names and that makes "us" smart... but we all have day jobs too.

Nowhere in your posts did I see your location or other way to help you. My
inbox is siient and you have my email. Again, we want you to be successful.
We've told you what we know and this collective community is pretty smart
(except for me).

OK, not to be vain, but all your responses come from extremely competent
folks (including me). Send us something and we WILL look at it. Sorry if it
doesn't meet your time frame, what do you expect for free? I can't push off
my paying customer to help ... I have a big mortgage payment and this econmy
stinks.

I suspect your problem relates to artificial constraint dates (keyed in
dates) and lack of apprpriate predecessors/successors. You may want to
consider hiring a consultant to assist you... I am not selling me because I
have no clue as to your locaion. Hey, if I can help, send me send me a
purchase order! Julie is in Portland, Maine, I am in Los Angles, John is in
Phoenix, Jan is in Belgum, Glen is in England, Vladimir is in Moscow, Dale is
in Denver, Trevor is in Australia, Rod is in New Zealand. The world stands
ready to help you for free, consistent with the fact that we all have
employers and "day jobs." We are here as volunteers. I'll bet we have your
time zone covered.

Even if you miss our "deadlines" I would think you could at least send us
something... just becasue we look at it late at night does not make our
response useless.

I wish you success. If you have problems with your management, tell them
even the MVPs are having trouble. Pass us along a file and see what happens.
With that in mind, I know you have Jan's e-mail and mine. Jan is Central
European time, I am Pacific Daylight time. I am driving to Phoenix on Friday
morning and can help you before I leave. Don't expect weekend help, we all
have families.. Sorry, but do you have any clue how many phone calls I'd get
if I posed my phone number? Actually, if you look really hard, you can find
it but I won't post it here.

Sir, keep in mind it will take "us" a little while to figure out what is
wrong with your file. So, if I wake up Friday morning with a post from you
and I give you a "Heck I dunno" response, please remember a thoughtful
response takes more than a few minutes and I may not have that long.

Whew, long day. I will check this post and my email in the morning (my time).
--
Jim Aksel, MVP

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

 

[John]

Swell - I'll bet you are a swll person (don't know if you are a swell guy
or a swel lady.. I really don't need to know)

How can I help you? Gee, my e-mail box is empty. It's 11:45PM for me here
in Los Angeles. I'd help you if I could, but I have no schedule to look at.
I am here reading your post at this time.... what does that tell you about
dedication of people on this forum?

Again, all non-summary tasks shoud have a FS relationship with something
else. Eventually something should tie to a milestone "I am done with this
project". If you follow every path through your network, all paths lead to
the finsih milestone, corrrect?

Do not "ever" key a date, let the software calculate it for you.

I can check for posts the morning of 24 OCT 2008 between 7AM and 10 AM Los
Angeles time. I will also check my e-mail jeaksel at yahoo dot com. Sorry,
don't have the time to wade through all the post to get to you.... they make
me work for a living.

Sir, I have to be honest. There are at least 10 posters to this forum on a
regular basis. We are all volunteers (not Microsoft Employees). We all want
you to be successful and are very good at what we do.

It is nearly impossible to track all your posts and numerous duplications of
posts. Trust me, I have been where you are. You are frustrated and we
understand. Yes, you are correct, it is probably somethng simple.

Gee, we'd all LOVE to help you. Trust me on that. Send us e-mail, we'll
eventually look at it. Just keep in mind we have other people who pay us and
we do this as volunteers, there are no Microsoft employees here! Just
volunteers. We all have "day jobs" and work this forum to the best of our
abilities. I read Julie's posts.... take them to heart. Yes, we have MVP
after our names and that makes "us" smart... but we all have day jobs too.

Nowhere in your posts did I see your location or other way to help you. My
inbox is siient and you have my email. Again, we want you to be successful.
We've told you what we know and this collective community is pretty smart
(except for me).

OK, not to be vain, but all your responses come from extremely competent
folks (including me). Send us something and we WILL look at it. Sorry if it
doesn't meet your time frame, what do you expect for free? I can't push off
my paying customer to help ... I have a big mortgage payment and this econmy
stinks.

I suspect your problem relates to artificial constraint dates (keyed in
dates) and lack of apprpriate predecessors/successors. You may want to
consider hiring a consultant to assist you... I am not selling me because I
have no clue as to your locaion. Hey, if I can help, send me send me a
purchase order! Julie is in Portland, Maine, I am in Los Angles, John is in
Phoenix, Jan is in Belgum, Glen is in England, Vladimir is in Moscow, Dale is
in Denver, Trevor is in Australia, Rod is in New Zealand. The world stands
ready to help you for free, consistent with the fact that we all have
employers and "day jobs." We are here as volunteers. I'll bet we have your
time zone covered.

Even if you miss our "deadlines" I would think you could at least send us
something... just becasue we look at it late at night does not make our
response useless.

I wish you success. If you have problems with your management, tell them
even the MVPs are having trouble. Pass us along a file and see what happens.
With that in mind, I know you have Jan's e-mail and mine. Jan is Central
European time, I am Pacific Daylight time. I am driving to Phoenix on Friday
morning and can help you before I leave. Don't expect weekend help, we all
have families.. Sorry, but do you have any clue how many phone calls I'd get
if I posed my phone number? Actually, if you look really hard, you can find
it but I won't post it here.

Sir, keep in mind it will take "us" a little while to figure out what is
wrong with your file. So, if I wake up Friday morning with a post from you
and I give you a "Heck I dunno" response, please remember a thoughtful
response takes more than a few minutes and I may not have that long.

Whew, long day. I will check this post and my email in the morning (my
time).

Jim,
Man do you get wordy and repetitive when your tired

John