Pulling in tasks based on early completion (100%)

[JPhil]

After exhaustively searching within the Project feature set, I can't
seem to find a way to have Project automatically pull in the remainder
of the scheduled (all linked, F to S) tasks when one reaches 100%
completion. Alternately, can I configure it to update the
Finish/Actual Finish field automatically when 100% completion is
reached?

-Phil

 

[JackD]

If you put in an actual finish of May 1 for a task that was scheduled to
finish May 25, then the task will be marked complete (100%). All future
tasks dependent on that task will be recalculated and may pull in earlier if
there are no other dependencies which would limit it.

For the way you seem to want to work, I'd recommend that you go to the view
menu and select the task usage view.
That way you can directly enter the work and when remaining work goes to 0
the actual finish will be automatically noted.

-Jack

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi Phil,
What you ask for is normal behaviour of Project UNLESS you gave in start
dates for tasks manually
HTH
Jan

 

[JM]

Is this actually a bug? I'm experiencing this in Project 2003, but did not in
Project 2000. I just posted a question on this actually. I adjust a task to
100% complete, in a fixed work, effort-driven schedule, but Project does NOT
pull in the duration or the finish date!

Phil - did you ever figure this out? I'd love to hear if you found a
workaround.

Thanks,
-JM

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

JM --

When you enter 100% complete for a task, Microsoft Project assumes that the
task started and finished as scheduled. How would it know otherwise? As
Jan clearly stated, if you wish to show an early finish for a task, you
should enter the finish date in the Actual Finish field in the task Tracking
table. In fact, in this table you will see that the first three columns
after the Task Name column are: Actual Start, Actual Finish. and %
Complete. You can use the columns in this table to show an early/late start
or an early/late start. A methodology I recommend for tracking projects
using the % Complete method of tracking is as follows:

1. Enter the date the task started in the Actual Start field
2. Enter the estimated percent complete in the % Complete field
3. When the task is finished, enter the date in the Actual Finish field

Using the above method, you will never need to enter 100% in the % Complete
field unless a task actually started and finished as scheduled. Hope this
helps.