Start dates have changed

[Jim Jones]

Some help needed for a Project novice.

I am using Project to plan the the administration of a nationakl school
examination. At the moment, my plan is not much more than a 'to do list'
containing about 250 tasks. However, I have ambitions to use Project in a
much more productive way.

At the moment, I am stuck with a problem. I am experiencing problems with
some of my start dates which seem to change for no reason. For example, this
moring, although my plan starts on 01/01/08, about 6 dates had changed to
dates in 2005 and 2006 (and they were all Saturdays!). I have been sorting
using Resource Names and Start Dates, and I have the "permanently renumber
tasks" box ticked, but otherwise I have been nothing more than adding tasks
and writing in the Notes field.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Jim Jones

 

[Jim Aksel]

Dates are driven by several things. First, is a keyed in date which should
be avoided at all costs. A keyed date creates a constraint of "Start No
Earlier Than".

Predecessor links drive successor activities. A change in duration of a
predecessor will move the date of the successor as you would expect it to.
If you delete a predecessor, an activity with no predecessors or other holdng
logic will revert to the project start date.

Enterring a %Complete or a date in the Actual Start column will fix the
start date.

A constraint, usually set unintentionally, could force "Start no earlier
than", "Finish no earlier than", Start no later than... There are a total of
eight of them.

Check a few things: Under Project/Project Information verify the project
start date and that you are scheduling from the program start date. While
you are there, check to see what calendar is applied, it should be
"standard". You can look at the "standard" calandar (Tools/Change Working
Time....) to make sure your work days are what you are expecting. I think
not if you have Saturday starts showing up.

You can insert the "Constraint Type" and "Constraint Date" columns into your
view. You can then scan the two columns for unusual entries and make
adjustments. I use the auto filtering for that. You want your constraint
type to be "As Soon As Possible" with a constraint date of NA as much as
possible. This lets Project drive the schedule.

I question why you would want to permanently renumber the tasks on sorting.
In the past five years, I think I have used that feature once.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

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

 

[Jim Jones]

Dear Jim

Many thanks indeed for such a comprehensive and helpful reply. I will now
investigate each of the possible causes which you have listed.

Jim Jones