Numerous problems - don't know where to turn - start dates wiped o

[swell estimator]

I'm sorry to say this as several people have responded to my posts but this
forum is just not working for me. One respondent admonished me not to start
new subjects as it made it difficult for others to follow the thread. That
makes sense, but it also true that the only way I can get someone to respond
is to post a new subject. If I reply to an answered post with another
question I usually don't get a response back to my follow-up question.

I have been working an insane number of hours now for 3 days in a row NOT to
build a schedule but to try and recover the critical path that disappeared on
a formerly successful schedule that I merely revised. It's clear that I'm not
going to be able to this revised schedule for my client as promised tomorrow
morning. And it's going to be a big deal!

I've tried everything I've been told to try. My latest problem would not be
a big deal if there were not 20 other problems too and I'm overly tired.

My latest problem is that half my tasks reverted to the start date of the
project. It’s possible that this was the result of my group selecting all
the tasks and setting “As Soon as Possibleâ€. Some of the tasks may not have
had predecessors and my action caused them to start at the beginning. I
don’t know, I’m too much of an intermediate to understand the implications of
trying what I’ve been told to told to try. But if someone is going to
suggest a remedy, could they also state the cautions as well? Otherwise all
hell can break loose.

I have been begging since early this morning for someone to let me send them
my schedule. 2 people kindly offered me yesterday this privilege but I
missed their cut-off times because I was trying remedies others had suggested
to me.

Which brings me back to my quarrel with this forum. If one asks a couple of
questions, usually only one is answered and then as aforementioned there is
not continuity in the response. When I follow up an answer with another
question, 90% of the time it is not answered.

 

[JulieS]

Swell estimator,

My comments are inline.


in message

I'm sorry to say this as several people have responded to my posts
but this
forum is just not working for me. One respondent admonished me
not to start
new subjects as it made it difficult for others to follow the
thread. That
makes sense, but it also true that the only way I can get someone
to respond
is to post a new subject. If I reply to an answered post with
another
question I usually don't get a response back to my follow-up
question.

[Julie] Perhaps you don't understand the nature of this forum. All
of the people who have responded to you are **volunteers**. We try
to help as many people as we can, but like you, we have other
committments -- namely *our* jobs which are *not* this forum.

Everytime you post another question in a new thread you are making
it much more difficult for anyone to help. I cannot weed through
all of the other posts to find what others have suggested that
hasn't worked for you. Believe me, we truly do want to help you --
but you are making it much more difficult. The volunteers who
answer questions on this forum are from all over the world -- so
when you post a follow up question the original responder to your
question may be sound asleep or off at their job and not able to
follow back with you immediately. I don't wish to sound harsh but
if you want someone to be available to answer your questions
immediately, it may be time to find a project consultant in your
neighborhood and pay for the assistance.

I have been working an insane number of hours now for 3 days in a
row NOT to
build a schedule but to try and recover the critical path that
disappeared on
a formerly successful schedule that I merely revised. It's clear
that I'm not
going to be able to this revised schedule for my client as
promised tomorrow
morning. And it's going to be a big deal!

[Julie] I'm sorry that you will miss your deadline with your
client. I suggest trying to recover the "formerly successful
schedule" from backup and before you start revising -- you need to
spend some time learning how Project works. As I am sure several
people have suggested -- take a class, read Mike's tutorials. MS
Project is *not* a product that you can learn by trial and error.
As you have discovered -- there is too much error.

I've tried everything I've been told to try. My latest problem
would not be
a big deal if there were not 20 other problems too and I'm overly
tired.

My latest problem is that half my tasks reverted to the start date
of the
project. It's possible that this was the result of my group
selecting all
the tasks and setting "As Soon as Possible". Some of the tasks
may not have
had predecessors and my action caused them to start at the
beginning. I
don't know, I'm too much of an intermediate to understand the
implications of
trying what I've been told to told to try. But if someone is
going to
suggest a remedy, could they also state the cautions as well?
Otherwise all
hell can break loose.

[Julie] As I am sure others have told you, when you type in dates
you are setting constraints. You should drive the schedule through
links. If you have place constraints and remove them and there are
no predecessor/successor relationships -- the tasks will go back to
the start date of the project.

I have been begging since early this morning for someone to let me
send them
my schedule. 2 people kindly offered me yesterday this privilege
but I
missed their cut-off times because I was trying remedies others
had suggested
to me.

Which brings me back to my quarrel with this forum. If one asks a
couple of
questions, usually only one is answered and then as aforementioned
there is
not continuity in the response. When I follow up an answer with
another
question, 90% of the time it is not answered.

[Julie] I'm sorry you have a "quarrel" with the forum. I
understand you are frustrated but honestly, I think your
expectations that volunteers can teach you MS Project in a forum
through a series of posts is unrealistic.

Julie
Project MVP

 

[JulieS]

Swell estimator,

My comments are inline.


in message

I'm sorry to say this as several people have responded to my posts
but this
forum is just not working for me. One respondent admonished me
not to start
new subjects as it made it difficult for others to follow the
thread. That
makes sense, but it also true that the only way I can get someone
to respond
is to post a new subject. If I reply to an answered post with
another
question I usually don't get a response back to my follow-up
question.

[Julie] Perhaps you don't understand the nature of this forum. All
of the people who have responded to you are **volunteers**. We try
to help as many people as we can, but like you, we have other
committments -- namely *our* jobs which are *not* this forum.

Everytime you post another question in a new thread you are making
it much more difficult for anyone to help. I cannot weed through
all of the other posts to find what others have suggested that
hasn't worked for you. Believe me, we truly do want to help you --
but you are making it much more difficult. The volunteers who
answer questions on this forum are from all over the world -- so
when you post a follow up question the original responder to your
question may be sound asleep or off at their job and not able to
follow back with you immediately. I don't wish to sound harsh but
if you want someone to be available to answer your questions
immediately, it may be time to find a project consultant in your
neighborhood and pay for the assistance.

I have been working an insane number of hours now for 3 days in a
row NOT to
build a schedule but to try and recover the critical path that
disappeared on
a formerly successful schedule that I merely revised. It's clear
that I'm not
going to be able to this revised schedule for my client as
promised tomorrow
morning. And it's going to be a big deal!

[Julie] I'm sorry that you will miss your deadline with your
client. I suggest trying to recover the "formerly successful
schedule" from backup and before you start revising -- you need to
spend some time learning how Project works. As I am sure several
people have suggested -- take a class, read Mike's tutorials. MS
Project is *not* a product that you can learn by trial and error.
As you have discovered -- there is too much error.

I've tried everything I've been told to try. My latest problem
would not be
a big deal if there were not 20 other problems too and I'm overly
tired.

My latest problem is that half my tasks reverted to the start date
of the
project. It's possible that this was the result of my group
selecting all
the tasks and setting "As Soon as Possible". Some of the tasks
may not have
had predecessors and my action caused them to start at the
beginning. I
don't know, I'm too much of an intermediate to understand the
implications of
trying what I've been told to told to try. But if someone is
going to
suggest a remedy, could they also state the cautions as well?
Otherwise all
hell can break loose.

[Julie] As I am sure others have told you, when you type in dates
you are setting constraints. You should drive the schedule through
links. If you have place constraints and remove them and there are
no predecessor/successor relationships -- the tasks will go back to
the start date of the project.

I have been begging since early this morning for someone to let me
send them
my schedule. 2 people kindly offered me yesterday this privilege
but I
missed their cut-off times because I was trying remedies others
had suggested
to me.

Which brings me back to my quarrel with this forum. If one asks a
couple of
questions, usually only one is answered and then as aforementioned
there is
not continuity in the response. When I follow up an answer with
another
question, 90% of the time it is not answered.

[Julie] I'm sorry you have a "quarrel" with the forum. I
understand you are frustrated but honestly, I think your
expectations that volunteers can teach you MS Project in a forum
through a series of posts is unrealistic.

Julie
Project MVP

 

[Jim Aksel]

Treveor, thanks for stepping in. Your resonse posts as
Trevor Rabey 0407213955 61 8 92727485 PERFECT PROJECT PLANNING
www.perfectproject.com.au


You may want to post a real email using (at) instead of @ and (dot) instead
of "."

Bless you for your assistance.

Jim Aksel, MVP

 

[Jim Aksel]

Bless you my firend.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, MVP

Check out my blog for more information:
http://www.msprojectblog.com

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

You pretend to have tried everything.... except send your file to one of two
people (of which me) who offered to help you.
Do it now if you still want help.
--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[swell estimator]

Julie, I absolutely agree with you – below is the reply that I added to my
several separately posted questions, even before I read your post. Do you
know how to break any person, no matter whom, no matter how well-trained,
whether a Navy Seal, a Marine-Black Beret, even Nietzsche’s Superman? It’s
quite simple: deprive him or her of sleep and EVERYMAN will devolve into a
hysterical mess. All sleep deprivation studies prove it so. (Hope this is
considered an explanation and not an excuse.)

“First let me apologize for letting my tiredness and anxiety over an
encroaching deadline get in the way of good judgment. Online support from
the MS community is an extremely valuable service and what’s more there’s no
charge for it, there’s no service contract required.

I posted several different questions even tho I was admonished not to do so
as it prevented members from following the thread. This made sense but I
needed replies and I wasn’t getting them unless I posted a new question. This
discontinuity for which I was responsible for was why you missed one of my
posts in which I explained that 2 people “kindly offered me to send them my
schedules†– referring to you and Jim, “but I had missed their deadlines
because of trying things others had suggestedâ€.

I very much appreciate all the help that you and others have given me. Are
there any things to do, a privilege that should not be exercised too often,
where one needs a quick response?

Here is where I stand today. After removing the milestone/deadline 5 days
after last activity I made the last activity the deadline and adding more
predecessors, I came up with a feeble critical path, feeble in the sense that
only 8 of my 152 tasks showed up in red on the tasks table and Gantt chart.
I’m confused but this. Isn’t there at least one critical path, an unbroken
line for the critical path from the beginning to the end no matter how the
schedule is put together? In my latest S, the 8 cp tasks are preceded by
numerous gaps both fore and aft.

After I insert the slack column a large amt of slack shows up for many
tasks. I’m planning to go back and make sure I added predecessors and
successors as much as possible. Is that the right to do? SWELLâ€

Swell estimator,

My comments are inline.


in message

I'm sorry to say this as several people have responded to my posts
but this
forum is just not working for me. One respondent admonished me
not to start
new subjects as it made it difficult for others to follow the
thread. That
makes sense, but it also true that the only way I can get someone
to respond
is to post a new subject. If I reply to an answered post with
another
question I usually don't get a response back to my follow-up
question.

[Julie] Perhaps you don't understand the nature of this forum. All
of the people who have responded to you are **volunteers**. We try
to help as many people as we can, but like you, we have other
committments -- namely *our* jobs which are *not* this forum.

Everytime you post another question in a new thread you are making
it much more difficult for anyone to help. I cannot weed through
all of the other posts to find what others have suggested that
hasn't worked for you. Believe me, we truly do want to help you --
but you are making it much more difficult. The volunteers who
answer questions on this forum are from all over the world -- so
when you post a follow up question the original responder to your
question may be sound asleep or off at their job and not able to
follow back with you immediately. I don't wish to sound harsh but
if you want someone to be available to answer your questions
immediately, it may be time to find a project consultant in your
neighborhood and pay for the assistance.

I have been working an insane number of hours now for 3 days in a
row NOT to
build a schedule but to try and recover the critical path that
disappeared on
a formerly successful schedule that I merely revised. It's clear
that I'm not
going to be able to this revised schedule for my client as
promised tomorrow
morning. And it's going to be a big deal!

[Julie] I'm sorry that you will miss your deadline with your
client. I suggest trying to recover the "formerly successful
schedule" from backup and before you start revising -- you need to
spend some time learning how Project works. As I am sure several
people have suggested -- take a class, read Mike's tutorials. MS
Project is *not* a product that you can learn by trial and error.
As you have discovered -- there is too much error.

I've tried everything I've been told to try. My latest problem
would not be
a big deal if there were not 20 other problems too and I'm overly
tired.

My latest problem is that half my tasks reverted to the start date
of the
project. It's possible that this was the result of my group
selecting all
the tasks and setting "As Soon as Possible". Some of the tasks
may not have
had predecessors and my action caused them to start at the
beginning. I
don't know, I'm too much of an intermediate to understand the
implications of
trying what I've been told to told to try. But if someone is
going to
suggest a remedy, could they also state the cautions as well?
Otherwise all
hell can break loose.

[Julie] As I am sure others have told you, when you type in dates
you are setting constraints. You should drive the schedule through
links. If you have place constraints and remove them and there are
no predecessor/successor relationships -- the tasks will go back to
the start date of the project.

I have been begging since early this morning for someone to let me
send them
my schedule. 2 people kindly offered me yesterday this privilege
but I
missed their cut-off times because I was trying remedies others
had suggested
to me.

Which brings me back to my quarrel with this forum. If one asks a
couple of
questions, usually only one is answered and then as aforementioned
there is
not continuity in the response. When I follow up an answer with
another
question, 90% of the time it is not answered.

[Julie] I'm sorry you have a "quarrel" with the forum. I
understand you are frustrated but honestly, I think your
expectations that volunteers can teach you MS Project in a forum
through a series of posts is unrealistic.

Julie
Project MVP

 

[swell estimator]

Dave, I absolutely agree with you – below is the reply that I added to my
several separately posted questions, even before I read your post. Do you
know how to break any person, no matter whom, no matter how well-trained,
whether a Navy Seal, a Marine-Black Beret, even Nietzsche’s Superman? It’s
quite simple: deprive him or her of sleep and everyone will devolve into a
hysterical mess. All sleep deprivation studies prove it so. Hope this is
considered an explanation and not an excuse.

“First let me apologize for letting my tiredness and anxiety over an
encroaching deadline get in the way of good judgment. Online support from
the MS community is an extremely valuable service and what’s more there’s no
charge for it, there’s no service contract required.

I posted several different questions even tho I was admonished not to do so
as it prevented members from following the thread. This made sense but I
needed replies and I wasn’t getting them unless I posted a new question. This
discontinuity for which I was responsible for was why you missed one of my
posts in which I explained that 2 people “kindly offered me to send them my
schedules†– referring to you and Jim, “but I had missed their deadlines
because of trying things others had suggestedâ€.

I very much appreciate all the help that you and others have given me. Are
there any things to do, a privilege that should not be exercised too often,
where one needs a quick response?

Here is where I stand today. After removing the milestone/deadline 5 days
after last activity I made the last activity the deadline and adding more
predecessors, I came up with a feeble critical path, feeble in the sense that
only 8 of my 152 tasks showed up in red on the tasks table and Gantt chart.
I’m confused but this. Isn’t there at least one critical path, an unbroken
line for the critical path from the beginning to the end no matter how the
schedule is put together? In my latest S, the 8 cp tasks are preceded by
numerous gaps both fore and aft.

After I insert the slack column a large amt of slack shows up for many
tasks. I’m planning to go back and make sure I added predecessors and
successors as much as possible. Is that the right to do?â€

Actually you have had outstanding input to your problems on this forum.
I can recall few occasions when a poster has had input from so many if
not all of the forum's most knowledgeable and experienced contributors.

In addition to technical help regarding your actual issues, you have had
several offers for people to look at your schedule (basically do the
work for you) and you have had options to create a temporary work around
put forward.

I get the impression that the basic problem is your lack of experience
on the tool (I apologise if that is incorrect). If that is the case
then trying to resolve your problems here is unrealistic and akin to
trying to learn to drive via a correspondence course.

Using this application is not straightforward and to use it well takes
literally years of experience.

In simple terms:
- You should remove all constraints from your project (this may cause
some tasks to revert to the start of the project)
- You should then move all uncompleted work shown in the past into the
future (Tools/Tracking/Update Project). This will cause "Start no
earlier than" constraints with today's date but that is valid.
- You then need to level in order to ensure that the work in any given
week is consistent with the resource available to do that work. This
assumes your schedule is loaded with resources.

Once you've completed those steps you will have a realistic schedule and
can expect Project to calculate the critical path for you.

Julie makes some very good suggestions regarding furthering your
knowledge and you could also get one of the many books available.

She also points out the nature of the contributors on here and it is
worthwhile understanding that. Ranting about the outcome of the advice
is generally a guaranteed way of alienating people although most people
on here don't tend to take umbrage.

Everybody here will recognise the frustration you are encountering and
that situation won't be helped by the pressure of your deadline. I
would suggest that even if you miss your deadline that you persevere to
a resolution of the problem as the learning experience will be
invaluable. I am sure that most of the contributors to the forum are
keen to understand what the problems actually are.




Dave, I absolutely agree with you – below is the reply that I added to my several separately posted questions, even before I read your post. Do you know how to break any person, no matter whom, no matter how well-trained, whether a Navy Seal, a Marine-Black Beret, even Nietzsche’s Superman? It’s quite simple: deprive him or her of sleep and everyone will devolve into a hysterical mess. All sleep deprivation studies prove it so. Hope this is considered an explanation and not an excuse.

“First let me apologize for letting my tiredness and anxiety over an
encroaching deadline get in the way of good judgment. Online support from
the MS community is an extremely valuable service and what’s more there’s no
charge for it, there’s no service contract required.

I posted several different questions even tho I was admonished not to do so
as it prevented members from following the thread. This made sense but I
needed replies and I wasn’t getting them unless I posted a new question. This
discontinuity for which I was responsible for was why you missed one of my
posts in which I explained that 2 people “kindly offered me to send them my
schedules†– referring to you and Jim, “but I had missed their deadlines
because of trying things others had suggestedâ€.

I very much appreciate all the help that you and others have given me. Are
there any things to do, a privilege that should not be exercised too often,
where one needs a quick response?

Here is where I stand today. After removing the milestone/deadline 5 days
after last activity I made the last activity the deadline and adding more
predecessors, I came up with a feeble critical path, feeble in the sense that
only 8 of my 152 tasks showed up in red on the tasks table and Gantt chart.
I’m confused but this. Isn’t there at least one critical path, an unbroken
line for the critical path from the beginning to the end no matter how the
schedule is put together? In my latest S, the 8 cp tasks are preceded by
numerous gaps both fore and aft.

After I insert the slack column a large amt of slack shows up for many
tasks. I’m planning to go back and make sure I added predecessors and
successors as much as possible. Is that the right to do?â€

 

[swell estimator]

Forum members

I hope that by now that everyone who was offended by my rudeness has read my
apology posted to other questions of mine. For those who are interested in
this kind of thing, as I am, since I once had a serious problem with it, do
you know what studies have revealed is the minimum amount of sleep that
ANYONE can get by with? 4.5 hours. Bag those apocryphal-urban myths: Thomas
Edison, two 20-minute naps a day, that kind of thing.

For those who know what I am talking about, I’m making sense – for others it
will be nothing but a lame rationalization and excuse – so let me just say
AGAIN: I mean it as an apology. I knew I had done the wrong thing before
anyone chastised me.

Certainly, it’s a learning-curve matter. I did go through all the tutorials
for Project 2003 in MS Online and it was enough to get me in trouble. Since
I’ve already roiled the waters let me open another controversy. I ordered 3
books on Project last week. What do forum members think are the best (as in
accurate, comprehensive, readable) books on the subject? I know from other
threads, like the one from the woman who asked for recommendations on
tutorials, that this kind of question stirs debate and rowdy difference of
opinion. Since that thread was 2 ½ years ago perhaps an update of this issue
will be welcome.

Thanks again to everyone helping me. I am learning fast. Julie’s comment
that entering dates sets a constraint finally broke through the bore in my
thick skull. Others said something similar but I interpreted as I shouldn’t
enter the finish date, but I thought I had to enter the start date.

And now I will return to my humble position as a student fairly early on the
learning curve. Swell

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

The critical path does not necessarily run unbroken from start to finish.
Even if there is just a single linear chain of tasks, if there is a
constraint somewhere in the middle that creates a condition were the tasks
leading up to the constrained task could be delayed by any finite amount
without pushing out the constrained task and those following it, the
critical path will start at the constrained task.

 

[Dave]

The only book I have ever used is Microsoft Project Step-by-Step 2003.
There may be updates to it now.

I suggest that you continue to read this forum and work through the
problems that are reported and the answers that are given as well.