Delaying a task start

[Dave MP]

I am attempting to delay the start of a task such that it
will only start if there is enough time to finish before a
weekend. For Example: The task duration is 72 hours long,
therefore the task must start on a Monday or Tuesday to
prevent a stop on Friday at 5:00 PM and a restart on
Monday at 8:00 AM.
Any adice would be appreciated.
Thank You

 

[Steve House]

There's not a direct way to accomplish that but there is an indirect way.
For you example, create a calendar that shows hours of work only on Monday
or Tuesday. In the link leading into your 72 hour task, insert a milestone
task and set it to use the calendar you just created as its task calendar.

 

[Guest]

Thanks, I'll try it.

-----Original Message-----
There's not a direct way to accomplish that but there is an indirect way.
For you example, create a calendar that shows hours of work only on Monday
or Tuesday. In the link leading into your 72 hour task, insert a milestone
task and set it to use the calendar you just created as its task calendar.

--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer/Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs




.

 

[davegb]

Steve,
I hadn't thought of that one. Pretty clever for a Canadian who drinks weird beer!

Dave B

 

[JulieS]

Hi all,

Just one small point of clarification. The "milestone"
task really cannot be a true milestone with zero duration
as task calendars have no effect on zero duration tasks.
I think you need to set the duration to 1 minute or
something equally small to get the schedule change.

Julie

-----Original Message-----
Thanks, I'll try it.

-----Original Message-----
There's not a direct way to accomplish that but there

is
an indirect way.

For you example, create a calendar that shows hours of work only on Monday
or Tuesday. In the link leading into your 72 hour

task,
insert a milestone

 

[Steve House]

Thanks for pointing that out - should have mentioned it.

--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer/Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Hi all,

Just one small point of clarification. The "milestone"
task really cannot be a true milestone with zero duration
as task calendars have no effect on zero duration tasks.
I think you need to set the duration to 1 minute or
something equally small to get the schedule change.

Julie

 

[Sarah]

Julie,

I just tested Steve's suggestion, and it does indeed move the
milestone task to the days specified in its calendar, even though it
has zero duration. The task calendar affects the Start Date of a task,
which a milestone has. Test it yourself if you doubt! ;-)

Sarah
sarah_kiko@(removethis)cinfin.com

 

[JulieS]

Hi Sarah,
I did try it out both before posting my reply and just a
moment ago.
In Project 2003 with SP2:
Create 3 tasks
A, B, C all linked F to S.
Task a starts today at 8:00 am(start date of project)and
has a duration of 2.5 days - end date - 8/18/04 12:00 pm.
Task B is milestone with zero duration start and end date
8/18/04 12:00 pm.
Task c start date 8/18/04 1:00 pm.
Created a task calendar where only working days are
Mondays and Tuesdays.
Assigned the task calendar to task B - the milestone. No
change in schedule.
Change duration of task B to one minute - and task
calendar forces the task to start next Monday - the next
working day.
Change duration of task B back to zero - task moves back
to 8/18/04 which according to the task calendar is
nonworking.
Went through exact same process in Project 2002 SP1 -
same result. Am I missing something?
Thanks,
Julie