Redundant Task Dependencies

[Prasad]

Is there any option in MS Project for identifying all redundant task
dependencies in a project? In another forum, somebody is looking for
such an option to remove redundancy in a project involving 4,000 tasks
with out going line by line. Although our add-in tool can do it while
generating a spaghetti network diagram, a built-in option in MS
Project is preferable.

Thanks,
Prasad ( www.optisol.biz )

 

[JulieS]

Hello Prasad,

Not to the best of my knowledge. The Task Driver pane and the Task
Form showing predecessors and successors will certainly show all
dependencies but it would require selecting each task in turn.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project

 

[Prasad]

How do you define "redundant task dependencies"?
A task is either a predecessor of another Task or it isn't.
Just because a Task has multiple predecessors, and any or all of them may
not be on the critical path, does not mean that they are "redundant".
How can the software know whether a Task is a predecessor or not?
Isn't that for the planner to know?

Trevor,

Redundant task dependency has nothing to do with critical path
analysis. If we state that task A precedes task B and the task B
precedes task C, then the statement that task A precedes task C is
redundant. In large projects, people are likely to create some
redundancy in task dependency relations.

Julie, thanks for the information.

Regards,
Prasad

 

[Prasad]

Prasad,
Ok, so explicitly making Task A a predecessor of Task C might be a little
bit unnecessary, or even, as you say, "redundant", and perhaps the network
could be cleaned up a bit by removing it, but it is not incorrect and it
does no harm.
So apart from general housekeeping is there any imperative to find it and
remove it?
--
Trevor Rabey
0407213955
61 8 92727485
PERFECT PROJECT PLANNINGwww.perfectproject.com.au

Trevor,

You are right. There is no real harm with redundancy which can reduce
clarity in Gantt chart and network diagrams. The redundancy may also
indicate a possibility that the planner could not fully grasp the task
dependencies and the related workflow in the project.

Regards,
Prasad

 

[vanita]

Hi Prasad

To my knowledge MSP does not have the functionality that you are looking for.

But, for large projects, I suggest first use task based 'Design Structure
Matrix' tool, which is a two dimensional matrix and helps us in understanding
direct dependencies between activities. In this, first team members would
assign dependencies between activities, where some redundant dependencies
might also be assigned. Then these redundant dependencies or transitive links
would be removed and then the DSM matrix can be converted to a network
diagram. There are DSM software which would do this exercise of removing
redundant dependencies automatically. Excel also has an add on for DSM.

I hope it helps.
Vanita

 

[Prasad]

Hi Prasad

To my knowledge MSP does not have the functionality that you are looking for.

But, for large projects, I suggest first use task based 'Design Structure
Matrix' tool, which is a two dimensional matrix and helps us in understanding
direct dependencies between activities. In this, first team members would
assign dependencies between activities, where some redundant dependencies
might also be assigned. Then these redundant dependencies or transitive links
would be removed and then the DSM matrix can be converted to a network
diagram. There are DSM software which would do this exercise of removing
redundant dependencies automatically. Excel also has an add on for DSM.

I hope it helps.
Vanita

Hi Vanita,

Thanks for the information. DSM is quite powerful for analysis of
complex systems. According to http://www.dsmweb.org/, the Design
Structure Matrix (DSM) is also known as the Dependency Structure
Matrix. The same web page also says:

As a management tool, DSM most commonly applied in project management,
and it provides a project representation that allows for feedback and
cyclic task dependencies. This is extremely important since most
engineering applications exhibit such a cyclic property. As such, this
representation often results in an improved and more realistic
execution schedule for the corresponding design activities.

One of the DSM-based tools is ProjectDSM. DSMweb.org says that the
tool can be used only for small to medium sized projects. Moreover, I
could not see how DSM can be used for removing redundancy in task
dependencies. Has anybody practically ever used a DSM tool to
automatically remove transitive links and redundant task dependencies
particularly in a large project consisting of thousands of tasks?

Regards,
Prasad

 

[vanita]

Hi Prasad

If task based DSM is used, one of the steps is removing transitive links. To
my knowledge, in India L&T is using DSM as a lean PM tool. But, I am not
clear that to what extent it is being used.

Vanita

 

[Rob Schneider]

If the algorithm could be defined, VBA code to do this could surely be
developed. Perhaps you have a developer near you?

--rms

www.rmschneider.com