How to move whole project forward?

[pjelliott]

Using Project 2007 SP2 I have a project that has a significant number of
tasks, a number of which are dependent on others, and which is currently
scheduled to finish on 04/01/2011.

Following review, I need to move the whole project forward such that the
revised finish date is somewhat earlier on 08/10/2010.

I have tried dragging the final task back in the hope that all preceeding
tasks would go back with it but, of course, Project will not allow this as it
will cause a scheduling conflict.

Is there an easy way that I can pull back the whole project based on the
revised completion date please?

Many thanks

Kind regards

Peter

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

It is YOU to say how this can be done. Project has no way to know whether
you will have more resources, whether automagically all durations will
shrink, whether your dependencies were useless, whether you will no longer
do certain tasks...
You have given Project a lot of calculation rules, and without changing the
rules, the result of the calculation will be the same!
HTH
--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[Steve House]

As Jan has said ... the finish date is a consequence of the cumulative
properties of the events leading up to it, not just a date plucked out of
thin air and set arbitrarily. To get Project to change the finish date, you
have to change the events that are driving it. One of the project's tasks,
Task X, is taking three weeks and you need it done in one in order to pull
forward the project completion date by a couple of weeks? There are
physical forces at work that drive its completion completely independent of
what you might want it to be. To get it done sooner, you gotta put more
resources on it. You don't have more resources and can't hire more? Then
you have to live with the original 3 week duration and there's nothing you
can do about it.

 

[pjelliott]

Thanks for the responses. Obviously I failed to communicate my issue
adequately. The overall duration of the project is fine; I have no problems
with individual task durations etc. The only thing that I want to change is
the finish date - I want the whole project (including task durations etc) to
move forward to finish on 08/10/10 instead of 04/01/11.

I am not trying to lengthen or shorten the project per se, I just want to
lift the whole project from one point in time to another - does this make
sense?

Kind regards

Peter

 

[Rob Schneider]

I think you are thinking that you can drag the completion milestone
backward in time (from 4 Jan 2011 to 8 Oct 2010) to "push" the whole
network backwards. Project won't do that. In fact, to do so will mess
up the schedule by imposing constraints.

Simplistically, change the tasks which start the project to a date which
show the recomputed end-date as 8 Oct 2010. Since you are happy with the
task durations, then hopefully you won't have to change them in order to
get a new schedule which ends at the earlier date.

This will work just fine assuming you set up the plan correctly by
having a full network of predecessors/successors and did not "hard code"
any tasks start or finish dates by entering dates into [Start] or
[Finish] fields.

If you did enter task [Start] and/or [Finish] dates, then Project will
imposd constraints at that moment with constraint types other than "As
soon as possible". Until you change those constraints types and dates,
Project will respect those constraints (after all, you may have entered
them) and not reschedule as you expect. You can quickly see the state
of the schedules constraints by displaying the fields [Constraint Type]
and [Constraint Date] in columns on the view table.

--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Peter,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

Try the Adjust_Dates macro on the Analysis Toolbar. Make a guess at an
earlier start, see when it now finishes, then re-adjust until you get what
you want.

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials

 

[JasonHik]

If your program is set up with good logic then you should have only on
task that is fixed (Contract Award or something similar)

It would then be a matter of changing the one start date. If MSP doe
not allow you do do that then you may need to go into Project propertie
and change the starting date of the project

If you have a number of fixed items (for example you have hard date
some start and/or finish dates) then MSP will seek to make the logi
work, and will fail. This is the main reason why one should rarely i
ever hard code dates without very good reason

 

[pjelliott]

Many thanks Rob

I think you are thinking that you can drag the completion milestone
backward in time (from 4 Jan 2011 to 8 Oct 2010) to "push" the whole
network backwards. Project won't do that. In fact, to do so will mess
up the schedule by imposing constraints.

Simplistically, change the tasks which start the project to a date which
show the recomputed end-date as 8 Oct 2010. Since you are happy with the
task durations, then hopefully you won't have to change them in order to
get a new schedule which ends at the earlier date.

This will work just fine assuming you set up the plan correctly by
having a full network of predecessors/successors and did not "hard code"
any tasks start or finish dates by entering dates into [Start] or
[Finish] fields.

If you did enter task [Start] and/or [Finish] dates, then Project will
imposd constraints at that moment with constraint types other than "As
soon as possible". Until you change those constraints types and dates,
Project will respect those constraints (after all, you may have entered
them) and not reschedule as you expect. You can quickly see the state
of the schedules constraints by displaying the fields [Constraint Type]
and [Constraint Date] in columns on the view table.

--rms

www.rmschneider.com

Thanks for the responses. Obviously I failed to communicate my issue
adequately. The overall duration of the project is fine; I have no problems
with individual task durations etc. The only thing that I want to change is
the finish date - I want the whole project (including task durations etc) to
move forward to finish on 08/10/10 instead of 04/01/11.

I am not trying to lengthen or shorten the project per se, I just want to
lift the whole project from one point in time to another - does this make
sense?

Kind regards

Peter

.

 

[pjelliott]

Many thanks Mike

Hi Peter,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

Try the Adjust_Dates macro on the Analysis Toolbar. Make a guess at an
earlier start, see when it now finishes, then re-adjust until you get what
you want.

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials





.

 

[Mike Glen]

You're welcome, Peter Did it work for you?

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials

 

[Steve House]

The project's Finish Date is a consequence of the Start Date plus the
project's duration. If the duration remains the same, the only way to have
the finish date change is to effect a corrspeonding change in the Start
Date. It's unclear if your dates are DDMMYY or MMDDYY format but assuming
US MMDDYY standard, you're asking to have the project finish 8 months
earlier than presently scheduled. The only way that can happen without
changing its duration is to start work 8 months earlier. To shift the
start, the Change Date macro and pick a new start date 8 months earlier than
the present one.

 

[JulieS]

I've been interested to read the responses on this one. I have
another suggestion that I would be interested to hear everyone's
reaction to. Assuming Peter's project file is created from a fixed
start date set in Project > Project Information, and he has not used
anything except duration, links, calendars, and resources to drive
the dates will the following not work?

Open the Project Information dialog. Switch the "schedule from" to
project Finish date. Enter the new finish date 08.10.11 click on OK
to let project recalculate the start date. Go back to Project >
Project Information, switch the "schedule from" back to Project
Start date. Consider moving the start date forward a week or two.

What say you fellow readers?

Running with scissors.....

Julie

 

[Rob Schneider]

Gosh. That setting new to me. Project continues to be full of
learnings. That's why i continue to find it interesting.

At first glance, seem to work. I've never looked for such an option
before as I always schedule from beginning and look at computed end
date. If it's not what I want, I go back to the beginning and re-think
and re-schedule.

That being said, doing it from finish date in this way doesn't appear
really save anything (I think) as one has to go back and look at the
computed start date and if it's no good, e.g. before today or some other
acceptable start date, then have to do it again. It's probably just a
preference to someone as to which way they wish to think.

I tend to think forward, not backward.

--rms

www.rmschneider.com