Successors

[Aloew]

Is it possible to see all successors throughout the life of the project? For
example. . .I am working with a large project with many depencies. I want
some way to click on a task and see not jsut its direct successors, but the
successors of its successors. Is there any way to easily do this?

Thanks

Anthony

 

[Jim Aksel]

Network Diagram view

 

[Aloew]

Hi Jim:

Thanks for your help, the problem with this is that the project is too big
for this to be effective. I can barely tell what I'm looking at when I use
this view (I don't normally use this software and I did not design this
project).

Thanks!

 

[JulieS]

Hi Anthony,

You may like to check out fellow MVP Jack Dahlgren's Trace Macro. It
may be found at:

http://masamiki.com/project/macros.htm


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

Julie

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

 

[Aloew]

Hi Julie:

The trace macro is great and a good start, I found it through some trolling
of the boards already. Unfortunately it only seems like it tracks DIRECT
successors, whereas I want to see the daisy chain go all the way fwd (ie: A
successor of a successor). I'm sure I could code a way to do this in the
macro (of course I have no VBA experience), but I wonder if there is just an
easy way to do it.

Thanks for your help!

Anthony

 

[JulieS]

Hi Anthony,

You're most welcome for the help I have provided -- although it sounds
as though you already found Jack's macro

I'm afraid I don't know of an "easy" way to do any further tracing than
Jack's macro and I'm afraid, like you, my VBA experience is on the light
side.


Julie

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

 

[Jim Aksel]

The challenge here is the fanning of successors. For example, it is one
thing if the chain does 6-->8-->45-->154. However, many projects are going
to fan open with multiple successors: 6-->8--> 45 and 51 and 97. In turn
each of those may fan to one or more. This can probably be solved
recursively with a routine, but would take a bit of effort. If you can
guarantee that each item had exactly 0 or 1 successor, you could probably
tackle a modification to the existing macro.

Consider reposting this to to the developer side and see if someone takes a
nibble on it. Reference the macro code and explain the constraints on
"fanning" and see what happens.

My solution to this problem in the past was to print the network diagram on
a plotter and hang it on the wall. I then marked it with a yellow marker.

Also, if you open the file in Microsoft Project 2007 Beta 2, if you change
one of the successors, the program will automatically highlight all the
rippled effects. You may want to consider something like changing the
duration of a task by 1 day and then seeing what P2007 highlights for new
dates (if any successors walk in time, their start date would highlight).
Might that be a work around? [Caution: I am currently having trouble with
P2007/P2003 file format compatibility ... so be careful and save a backup
copy]

 

[davegb]

Hi Julie:

The trace macro is great and a good start, I found it through some trolling
of the boards already. Unfortunately it only seems like it tracks DIRECT
successors, whereas I want to see the daisy chain go all the way fwd (ie: A
successor of a successor). I'm sure I could code a way to do this in the
macro (of course I have no VBA experience), but I wonder if there is just an
easy way to do it.

Thanks for your help!

Anthony

It's been a long time since I downloaded the Trace macro but unless my
memory is failing me badly, which happens, it traced all predecessors
and/or all successors to the selected task. I know that the one I wrote
years ago did. Are you sure there isn't an option or something you're
missing? (I don't have Project here at work to try it myself).