Remove tasks from Critical Path calculation

[Robin Roe]

Hi

On almost all of our Programmes we include admin tasks such as Project
Management. These tasks need to last the entire programme even though actual
time may be put against it only once a week. Unfortunately Project for
obvious reasons calculates this to be the critical path, which in real life
it isn't. I have tried using a recurring task but it isn't suitable for our
needs. Is there a way that project can ignore certain tasks when calculating
the critical path or is there another method we can use?

Thanks

 

[Dale Howard, MVP]

Robin --

You might consider putting admin tasks in a separate project. Just a
thought. Hope this helps.

--
Dale A. Howard [MVP]
Enterprise Project Trainer/Consultant
http://www.msprojectexperts.com
http://www.projectserverexperts.com


"We wrote the book on Project Server"

 

[Robin Roe]

Thanks Dale.

Unfortunately that won't work as the admin tasks are specific to each
project and need to be in the same project.

 

[Jan M.]

Robin,

I don't think there is a feature in Project that does what you want. However
there are a few workarounds that you could use:

1) Make a custom filter to mask those hammock tasks in certain views.
2) Change the duration of the task: Suppose project duration is 100 days,
adjust the duration of your task to 99.99 days. This will create a 0.01 day
slack which is just enough to mark the task as non critical.

Jan M.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Robin:

Jan's post alludes to the correct technique. Creating a hammock task that's
hooked to a near-completion milestone at the end of the project will keep
the admin tasks off your critical path. These are a little tricky to manage
in Enterprise projects, but do provide a good workaround.

 

[Robin Roe]

Yes that will work.
Thanks to everyone for their input, much appreciated.