Cut off beginning of task

[Vadim Roulnov]

Hello all,

What I need is to cut off beginnig of a task up to date D, where D is
somewhere between t.Start and t.Finish. In other words, the resulting task
should look just like the original one but without its starting part from
the start to D-1. And the resulting task should start on date D. It can be
pictured like this:

O: -------===========--------
R: ------------========--------

Is there a way to do it in VBA?

The reason of such a necessity is that we have a number of projects with
_permanent_ tasks. As these projects grow, we want first to archive them and
then cut them down.

Thanks,

-Vadim

 

[John]

Vadin,
The simple answer is "yes". I have yet to find anything I wanted to do
and couldn't with VBA. However, let me offer an alternative. We had a
very similar situation with our files. As time progressed, the files
grew and some became quite unweildy. I developed with a VBA macro that
we ran periodically to pare down the file size after the file was
archived. Rather than cutting off the "front end" of the file as you
propose, I looked for summary groups of tasks that were 100% complete.
Subtasks were checked for completion, links and any other impacts
(including cost rollup) on active tasks and then systematically deleted
or reduced to a single representative substitute task (mainly for cost
rollup). It was a great way to periodically reduce the file size while
maintaining critical file parameters.

John

 

[Vadim Roulnov]

John,

Thank you for your reply. We already use the way you suggested for our plain
projects. But we also have a few projects with _permanent_ tasks (e.g.
working on support), that are not really planned, but just drawn from the
beginning of year to the end of year. So these tasks are never 100%
completed. If we don't cut off beginning of these tasks we can't shorten the
projects _in time_.

I also suppose that there should be a way to do such cutting off with VBA
but still cannot find it. The closest point I have achieved is that all the
part to be cut off became _dotted_, i.e. have _zero_ work.

-Vadim

 

[John]

Vadin,
In that case, I my suggestion is to simply create a replacement task.
Take the remaining work and cost on the on-going support tasks and put
it into new tasks that start from today's date through the end of the
year. Then delete the original task. This is a little Mickey Mouse but
it is essentially what you will end up doing anyway.

I do have a better suggestion that will avoid this problem entirely.
Instead of making your support tasks span the entire year, break them
into quarterly or monthly increments. Then you can take 100% credit as
time passes and you can include them in your periodic file reduction
scheme. It is a lot cleaner and makes more sense. Note: we have also
used this approach and found it works very well.

John