How do you auto update finish dates based on current date?

[Ed]

1) I am working with VP of IT who has used project in the past and wants
to see the project dates slide automatically (no manual finish date change).
Currently these tasks types are defined as fixed units. Will changing them
to duration based tasks enable this funcitonality?
2) Also, is there a method of changing the task font color to red in
the Gantt Chart when this happens?
I personally don't remember that functionality existing in the product
but I have always used fixed units as the task type.
3) Last question: Showing slack on the Gantt Chart results in a very
hard to read small line, and forcing task critical if the remaining days are
less than xx days will work to force the tasks critical.
Do you have a configuration recommendation on how to show critical
path slipping, or slack being depleted without setting changing that critical
task day(s) slack variable to a ?? number of days.

 

[davegb]

1) I am working with VP of IT who has used project in the past and wants
to see the project dates slide automatically (no manual finish date change).
Currently these tasks types are defined as fixed units. Will changing them
to duration based tasks enable this funcitonality?

The task type has no effect on the rescheduling of the task, at least
not directly. It determines what happens as you assign and remove
resources from the task.

2) Also, is there a method of changing the task font color to red in
the Gantt Chart when this happens?

If you mean change it to red when the task slips, I don't know of any
way to do that except to use a macro.

I personally don't remember that functionality existing in the product
but I have always used fixed units as the task type.
3) Last question: Showing slack on the Gantt Chart results in a very
hard to read small line, and forcing task critical if the remaining days are
less than xx days will work to force the tasks critical.

I'm not following you here. Please elaborate, or possibly someone else
can answer this one. As far as the fine line goes, you can change that
in the "Bar Styles" dialog box under "Format" in the menu.

Do you have a configuration recommendation on how to show critical
path slipping, or slack being depleted without setting changing that critical
task day(s) slack variable to a ?? number of days.

See above.

 

[davegb]

I meant to add to my above remarks when I posted it:

What determines which tasks slip when another task slips are the links.
If this isn't happening, your schedule is probably not completely
linked. Make sure every task on the project has both a predecessor and
a successor. To make this possible, create a Start and a Finish
milestone. These are the only working tasks that don't have to have
both predecessors and successors. Summary lines should not be linked at
all.

The other thing that can cause the schedule not to slip is if enough of
the tasks have constraints. If your linking is complete, it doesn't
take many. Go through your schedule, find all constrained tasks (they
have a little calendar icon in the Indicators column) and remove all
but those that reflect a real world outside constraint. Could be a
delivery from a vendor or subcontractor over which you have little
control. There shouldn't be many of these in most cases.

Once you've linked your tasks properly and removed unneccessary
constraints, you should see your end date slipping when it's supposed
to.

Hope this helps in your world!