Default link type

[makcam]

Does anyone know how to change the default link type?

 

[JulieD]

Hi

AFAIK you can't and i'm surprised that you would want to anyway. If you'ld
like to outline the nature of the project and why you think a FS link type
isn't appropriate i'm sure a number of people here will be more than
willing to offer suggestions & ideas.

Cheers
JulieD

 

[makcam]

Hello,

Thanks for the response. The reason why I wanted to change this is because
I'm doing a schedule where I know the due date of the project and the
durations of the tasks. What I wanted to do is have links from the task
after to the task before, and have the SF type. I didn't want to have to
change all of tasks within the project schedule. This way it will give me
the date that is needed to start the project by back dating it.

Thanks for your help,
Makyla

 

[JulieD]

Hi Makyla

i'm hoping that some of the other people to this forum stop by to give their
opinions ... however, here's mine: -
you CAN schedule from a finish date (project / project information -
schedule from & then put the finish date in), in this way you can still use
the default link types and still achieve what you're after.

However, there has been a number of posts saying that scheduling from a
finish date can product unreliable results and it is always better to
schedule from a start date ... and see what you need to change to achieve
the desired finish date. Unfortunately, i don't know the ins and outs of
the topic but it has something to do with how the critical path is
calculated.

When it comes to SF relationship types there is also a problem with how this
relationship type works when you have more than one predecessor - try this
for an example
(scheduling from a start date) set up a project file as follows:
task 1 - 1d
task 2 - 2d
order materials - 2h
task 5 - 2d - predecessor task 1 FS
task 6 - 2d - predecessor task 2 FS


now what we want to achieve is the ordering of materials to be done before
the start of task 5 or 6 - which ever one comes first .. so we can use a SF
relationship with Task 5 as the predecessor and order materials as the
sucessor .. .and as you notice, project will schedule the order materials
before task 5.

Change the predecessor of order materials to task 6 and project will move
order materials to the start of task 6 - all good .. now make 5 & 6 both
predecessors to the order materials task and notice that project moves it to
the start of the latest one not the start of the earliest one as one would
(possibly) expect.

so basically taking all these things into consideration the recommendation
is that you always schedule from a start date using FS relationships (and
SS / FF & SF were really applicable) and then you look at your project
schedule ... if you're finishing before your deadline, change the start date
.... everything will automatically "adjust", if you're finishing after your
deadline - display the critical path and do what you need to do to bring it
in line.

Hope this helps
Cheers
JulieD