Start Finish dates

[Saviz]

Easy question:
I have a task that starts on Monday and ends on Friday, and when I add a
successor to this task the start of this task becomes Friday.
I want the Start of this task to be on Monday.

I know this can be done by changing the duration of the predecessor etc
however where can I change the settings so that the successor tasks alway
start the next business day and not the same as finish date of its
predecessor?


Many Thanks,

 

[Derrick Robinson]

I think you have to create a sequence or dependency or link using the link
starts button on the tool bar or link tasks on the edit menu. The second
task must occur after the first-sequence, or the second can only occur if
the first is completed-dependency

 

[Dave]

If you want it to start the next working day, you create a 1 minute task
with no work. Apply a task calender so that this task can only be
carried out in the first minute of each working day. Then insert this
task between your actual tasks.

Dave

 

[Manmeet Chaudhari]

The start date of the successor all depends on the duration of predecessor.
It also depends on the hours per day setting.

In order to dealy the task you can also use lag time.
Hope this helps


Manmeet Chaudhari

 

[danhattan]

Hi Saviz.

Mahnmeet had the answer that works for me. You can add the lag time on the
Predecessors tab on the Task Information screen.

 

[Steve House]

The successor task will always start on the next working minute after the
predecessor ends. If your workday is 8 to 5 and your predecessor ends
Friday at 5pm, the successor will start Monday. But if your predecessor
ends anytime on Friday BEFORE 5pm, the successor will start on Friday. Go
to the Tools, Options meny, View tab, and set the date format to one that
shows date and time and you'll see how this behaviour is influencing your
schedule. To make sure your successor starts as you feel it should, make
sure the entry 'hours per day' in the Calendar Options page conforms the the
working hours set in your working time calendar. The sort of thing you're
describing often comes up when the calendar says the workday is 8am to 5pm,
for example, while the 'Hours per day' setting is, say, 7 hours. If that
was the case and you said a task began on Monday and lasted 5 days, you'd
find it started Monday at 8am and would finish Friday at 11am, 35 working
hours of an 8 to 5 calendat later. Then the successor you thought should
start on the following Monday will instead start Friday morning at 11.

 

[Randy]

Steve: I've a problem that's similar to the one outlined below; I use MSP
standard 2003. I have set my working time to 8am to 5pm, 8-hour days, 40-hour
weeks, 20-day months. Then I've created a simple schedule consisting of 10
tasks, each with 5-day duration, F-S dependencies. In all cases, the tasks
start and end at 8:30am which causes most to start and end on the same day of
the week (eg., Monday and Monday) rather than, say, Monday to Friday. Nowhere
in my calendar have I indicated a daily start time of 8:30. Is it possible
that a calendar setting in the Global.mpt file could be overriding the
settings in this particular schedule, and if so, what would be the best way
to override the global.mpt (if that can be done)?
Thanks.
Randy

The successor task will always start on the next working minute after the
predecessor ends. If your workday is 8 to 5 and your predecessor ends
Friday at 5pm, the successor will start Monday. But if your predecessor
ends anytime on Friday BEFORE 5pm, the successor will start on Friday. Go
to the Tools, Options meny, View tab, and set the date format to one that
shows date and time and you'll see how this behaviour is influencing your
schedule. To make sure your successor starts as you feel it should, make
sure the entry 'hours per day' in the Calendar Options page conforms the the
working hours set in your working time calendar. The sort of thing you're
describing often comes up when the calendar says the workday is 8am to 5pm,
for example, while the 'Hours per day' setting is, say, 7 hours. If that
was the case and you said a task began on Monday and lasted 5 days, you'd
find it started Monday at 8am and would finish Friday at 11am, 35 working
hours of an 8 to 5 calendat later. Then the successor you thought should
start on the following Monday will instead start Friday morning at 11.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Easy question:
I have a task that starts on Monday and ends on Friday, and when I add a
successor to this task the start of this task becomes Friday.
I want the Start of this task to be on Monday.

I know this can be done by changing the duration of the predecessor etc
however where can I change the settings so that the successor tasks alway
start the next business day and not the same as finish date of its
predecessor?


Many Thanks,

 

[Steve House]

You didn't mention exactly HOW you set the working times, hours per day,
hours per week, and days per month and that's important. If you used the
Tools, Options menu, Calendar page - and when you mentioned hours per week
and days per month it sounds like you might have for at least some of the
settings - be advised that that page doesn't set the working time calendar
at all. To set up the working time hours, you need to use the Tools,
ChangeWorkingTime menu and modify the calendar. Although that options page
alleges that it's calendar settings, it's actually a set of conversion
factor settings and nothing on that page influences the calendar in any way.

Do this -- set a date format to one that includes date and time in the
Options, View page. Then go to the Project, ProjectInformation page and
take a look at the Project Start Date field. Now that you can see times,
I'll bet you dollars to donuts that it shows the Project starts at 08:30,
thirty minutes into the workday. That will cause the first task's start to
be 08:30, not 08:00 and the 30 minute offset will ripple down through the
finish dates/time and successor starts as well.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Steve: I've a problem that's similar to the one outlined below; I use MSP
standard 2003. I have set my working time to 8am to 5pm, 8-hour days,
40-hour
weeks, 20-day months. Then I've created a simple schedule consisting of 10
tasks, each with 5-day duration, F-S dependencies. In all cases, the tasks
start and end at 8:30am which causes most to start and end on the same day
of
the week (eg., Monday and Monday) rather than, say, Monday to Friday.
Nowhere
in my calendar have I indicated a daily start time of 8:30. Is it possible
that a calendar setting in the Global.mpt file could be overriding the
settings in this particular schedule, and if so, what would be the best
way
to override the global.mpt (if that can be done)?
Thanks.
Randy

The successor task will always start on the next working minute after the
predecessor ends. If your workday is 8 to 5 and your predecessor ends
Friday at 5pm, the successor will start Monday. But if your predecessor
ends anytime on Friday BEFORE 5pm, the successor will start on Friday.
Go
to the Tools, Options meny, View tab, and set the date format to one that
shows date and time and you'll see how this behaviour is influencing your
schedule. To make sure your successor starts as you feel it should, make
sure the entry 'hours per day' in the Calendar Options page conforms the
the
working hours set in your working time calendar. The sort of thing
you're
describing often comes up when the calendar says the workday is 8am to
5pm,
for example, while the 'Hours per day' setting is, say, 7 hours. If that
was the case and you said a task began on Monday and lasted 5 days, you'd
find it started Monday at 8am and would finish Friday at 11am, 35 working
hours of an 8 to 5 calendat later. Then the successor you thought should
start on the following Monday will instead start Friday morning at 11.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Easy question:
I have a task that starts on Monday and ends on Friday, and when I add
a
successor to this task the start of this task becomes Friday.
I want the Start of this task to be on Monday.

I know this can be done by changing the duration of the predecessor etc
however where can I change the settings so that the successor tasks
alway
start the next business day and not the same as finish date of its
predecessor?


Many Thanks,

 

[Randy]

I had set those same criteria in both the calendar and in the
ChangeWorkingTimes dialog. And yes, I did change the date format to display
hours/minutes and yes, each task starts at 8:30 as I'd mentioned in my first
note. Then I changed the time in the Project Info dialog, created another new
task and that took care of it. Thank you. I'd been struggling with this one
for awhile.
Thanks again.
Randy

You didn't mention exactly HOW you set the working times, hours per day,
hours per week, and days per month and that's important. If you used the
Tools, Options menu, Calendar page - and when you mentioned hours per week
and days per month it sounds like you might have for at least some of the
settings - be advised that that page doesn't set the working time calendar
at all. To set up the working time hours, you need to use the Tools,
ChangeWorkingTime menu and modify the calendar. Although that options page
alleges that it's calendar settings, it's actually a set of conversion
factor settings and nothing on that page influences the calendar in any way.

Do this -- set a date format to one that includes date and time in the
Options, View page. Then go to the Project, ProjectInformation page and
take a look at the Project Start Date field. Now that you can see times,
I'll bet you dollars to donuts that it shows the Project starts at 08:30,
thirty minutes into the workday. That will cause the first task's start to
be 08:30, not 08:00 and the 30 minute offset will ripple down through the
finish dates/time and successor starts as well.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Steve: I've a problem that's similar to the one outlined below; I use MSP
standard 2003. I have set my working time to 8am to 5pm, 8-hour days,
40-hour
weeks, 20-day months. Then I've created a simple schedule consisting of 10
tasks, each with 5-day duration, F-S dependencies. In all cases, the tasks
start and end at 8:30am which causes most to start and end on the same day
of
the week (eg., Monday and Monday) rather than, say, Monday to Friday.
Nowhere
in my calendar have I indicated a daily start time of 8:30. Is it possible
that a calendar setting in the Global.mpt file could be overriding the
settings in this particular schedule, and if so, what would be the best
way
to override the global.mpt (if that can be done)?
Thanks.
Randy

The successor task will always start on the next working minute after the
predecessor ends. If your workday is 8 to 5 and your predecessor ends
Friday at 5pm, the successor will start Monday. But if your predecessor
ends anytime on Friday BEFORE 5pm, the successor will start on Friday.
Go
to the Tools, Options meny, View tab, and set the date format to one that
shows date and time and you'll see how this behaviour is influencing your
schedule. To make sure your successor starts as you feel it should, make
sure the entry 'hours per day' in the Calendar Options page conforms the
the
working hours set in your working time calendar. The sort of thing
you're
describing often comes up when the calendar says the workday is 8am to
5pm,
for example, while the 'Hours per day' setting is, say, 7 hours. If that
was the case and you said a task began on Monday and lasted 5 days, you'd
find it started Monday at 8am and would finish Friday at 11am, 35 working
hours of an 8 to 5 calendat later. Then the successor you thought should
start on the following Monday will instead start Friday morning at 11.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs


Easy question:
I have a task that starts on Monday and ends on Friday, and when I add
a
successor to this task the start of this task becomes Friday.
I want the Start of this task to be on Monday.

I know this can be done by changing the duration of the predecessor etc
however where can I change the settings so that the successor tasks
alway
start the next business day and not the same as finish date of its
predecessor?


Many Thanks,

 

[Steve House]

Just remember, the ChangeWorkingTimes dialog IS the calendar - that Options
page is not. The default start and end times are the times Project supplies
when you manually type a start (or end) date without typing a time while the
HoursPerDay etc fields are a set of conversion units telling Project how
many minutes you mean when you enter that a task has "X Days" or "Y Weeks"
or "Z Months" duration. While those figures should generally agree with the
Project Calendar, changing them does not change the calendar at all. What
probably happend here was that either whichever base calendar was the
Project Calendar when you first set up the project called for the workday to
start at 08:30 and you picked a kickoff date from the pulldown calendar in
the Project Start Date field, or the Default Start Time entry on the
Calendar Options page said 08:30 and you actually typed the character string
"05/05/07" or whatever into the Project Start Date field when you first
setup the project file. There are a couple of other ways a task can end up
with a start later than the start of a workday offsetting everything that
comes later, but those two are the most common.

I had set those same criteria in both the calendar and in the
ChangeWorkingTimes dialog. And yes, I did change the date format to
display
hours/minutes and yes, each task starts at 8:30 as I'd mentioned in my
first
note. Then I changed the time in the Project Info dialog, created another
new
task and that took care of it. Thank you. I'd been struggling with this
one
for awhile.
Thanks again.
Randy

You didn't mention exactly HOW you set the working times, hours per day,
hours per week, and days per month and that's important. If you used the
Tools, Options menu, Calendar page - and when you mentioned hours per
week
and days per month it sounds like you might have for at least some of the
settings - be advised that that page doesn't set the working time
calendar
at all. To set up the working time hours, you need to use the Tools,
ChangeWorkingTime menu and modify the calendar. Although that options
page
alleges that it's calendar settings, it's actually a set of conversion
factor settings and nothing on that page influences the calendar in any
way.

Do this -- set a date format to one that includes date and time in the
Options, View page. Then go to the Project, ProjectInformation page and
take a look at the Project Start Date field. Now that you can see times,
I'll bet you dollars to donuts that it shows the Project starts at 08:30,
thirty minutes into the workday. That will cause the first task's start
to
be 08:30, not 08:00 and the 30 minute offset will ripple down through the
finish dates/time and successor starts as well.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Steve: I've a problem that's similar to the one outlined below; I use
MSP
standard 2003. I have set my working time to 8am to 5pm, 8-hour days,
40-hour
weeks, 20-day months. Then I've created a simple schedule consisting of
10
tasks, each with 5-day duration, F-S dependencies. In all cases, the
tasks
start and end at 8:30am which causes most to start and end on the same
day
of
the week (eg., Monday and Monday) rather than, say, Monday to Friday.
Nowhere
in my calendar have I indicated a daily start time of 8:30. Is it
possible
that a calendar setting in the Global.mpt file could be overriding the
settings in this particular schedule, and if so, what would be the best
way
to override the global.mpt (if that can be done)?
Thanks.
Randy

:

The successor task will always start on the next working minute after
the
predecessor ends. If your workday is 8 to 5 and your predecessor ends
Friday at 5pm, the successor will start Monday. But if your
predecessor
ends anytime on Friday BEFORE 5pm, the successor will start on Friday.
Go
to the Tools, Options meny, View tab, and set the date format to one
that
shows date and time and you'll see how this behaviour is influencing
your
schedule. To make sure your successor starts as you feel it should,
make
sure the entry 'hours per day' in the Calendar Options page conforms
the
the
working hours set in your working time calendar. The sort of thing
you're
describing often comes up when the calendar says the workday is 8am to
5pm,
for example, while the 'Hours per day' setting is, say, 7 hours. If
that
was the case and you said a task began on Monday and lasted 5 days,
you'd
find it started Monday at 8am and would finish Friday at 11am, 35
working
hours of an 8 to 5 calendat later. Then the successor you thought
should
start on the following Monday will instead start Friday morning at 11.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs


Easy question:
I have a task that starts on Monday and ends on Friday, and when I
add
a
successor to this task the start of this task becomes Friday.
I want the Start of this task to be on Monday.

I know this can be done by changing the duration of the predecessor
etc
however where can I change the settings so that the successor tasks
alway
start the next business day and not the same as finish date of its
predecessor?


Many Thanks,

 

[davegb]

Just remember, the ChangeWorkingTimes dialog IS the calendar - that Options
page is not. The default start and end times are the times Project supplies
when you manually type a start (or end) date without typing a time while the
HoursPerDay etc fields are a set of conversion units telling Project how
many minutes you mean when you enter that a task has "X Days" or "Y Weeks"
or "Z Months" duration. While those figures should generally agree with the
Project Calendar, changing them does not change the calendar at all. What
probably happend here was that either whichever base calendar was the
Project Calendar when you first set up the project called for the workday to
start at 08:30 and you picked a kickoff date from the pulldown calendar in
the Project Start Date field, or the Default Start Time entry on the
Calendar Options page said 08:30 and you actually typed the character string
"05/05/07" or whatever into the Project Start Date field when you first
setup the project file. There are a couple of other ways a task can end up
with a start later than the start of a workday offsetting everything that
comes later, but those two are the most common.

Great explanation, Steve!

I had set those same criteria in both the calendar and in the
ChangeWorkingTimes dialog. And yes, I did change the date format to
display
hours/minutes and yes, each task starts at 8:30 as I'd mentioned in my
first
note. Then I changed the time in the Project Info dialog, created another
new
task and that took care of it. Thank you. I'd been struggling with this
one
for awhile.
Thanks again.
Randy

You didn't mention exactly HOW you set the working times, hours per day,
hours per week, and days per month and that's important. If you used the
Tools, Options menu, Calendar page - and when you mentioned hours per
week
and days per month it sounds like you might have for at least some of the
settings - be advised that that page doesn't set the working time
calendar
at all. To set up the working time hours, you need to use the Tools,
ChangeWorkingTime menu and modify the calendar. Although that options
page
alleges that it's calendar settings, it's actually a set of conversion
factor settings and nothing on that page influences the calendar in any
way.
Do this -- set a date format to one that includes date and time in the
Options, View page. Then go to the Project, ProjectInformation page and
take a look at the Project Start Date field. Now that you can see times,
I'll bet you dollars to donuts that it shows the Project starts at 08:30,
thirty minutes into the workday. That will cause the first task's start
to
be 08:30, not 08:00 and the 30 minute offset will ripple down through the
finish dates/time and successor starts as well.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visithttp://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htmfor the FAQs
Steve: I've a problem that's similar to the one outlined below; I use
MSP
standard 2003. I have set my working time to 8am to 5pm, 8-hour days,
40-hour
weeks, 20-day months. Then I've created a simple schedule consisting of
10
tasks, each with 5-day duration, F-S dependencies. In all cases, the
tasks
start and end at 8:30am which causes most to start and end on the same
day
of
the week (eg., Monday and Monday) rather than, say, Monday to Friday.
Nowhere
in my calendar have I indicated a daily start time of 8:30. Is it
possible
that a calendar setting in the Global.mpt file could be overriding the
settings in this particular schedule, and if so, what would be the best
way
to override the global.mpt (if that can be done)?
Thanks.
Randy
:
The successor task will always start on the next working minute after
the
predecessor ends. If your workday is 8 to 5 and your predecessor ends
Friday at 5pm, the successor will start Monday. But if your
predecessor
ends anytime on Friday BEFORE 5pm, the successor will start on Friday.
Go
to the Tools, Options meny, View tab, and set the date format to one
that
shows date and time and you'll see how this behaviour is influencing
your
schedule. To make sure your successor starts as you feel it should,
make
sure the entry 'hours per day' in the Calendar Options page conforms
the
the
working hours set in your working time calendar. The sort of thing
you're
describing often comes up when the calendar says the workday is 8am to
5pm,
for example, while the 'Hours per day' setting is, say, 7 hours. If
that
was the case and you said a task began on Monday and lasted 5 days,
you'd
find it started Monday at 8am and would finish Friday at 11am, 35
working
hours of an 8 to 5 calendat later. Then the successor you thought
should
start on the following Monday will instead start Friday morning at 11.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visithttp://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htmfor the FAQs
Easy question:
I have a task that starts on Monday and ends on Friday, and when I
add
a
successor to this task the start of this task becomes Friday.
I want the Start of this task to be on Monday.
I know this can be done by changing the duration of the predecessor
etc
however where can I change the settings so that the successor tasks
alway
start the next business day and not the same as finish date of its
predecessor?
Many Thanks,

- Show quoted text -