Task dates before and after a due date

[Rex]

Our business has a due date for various client projects with tasks that need
to be completed x amount of days before this due date and some that need to
be completed y amount of days after this due date.

For example:

Task 1 needs to be done 7 days before the the due date (-7 days).
Task 2 needs to be done 3 days before the due date (-3 days).
The due date (0 days).
Task 3 needs to be done 30 days after the due date (+30 days).
Task 4 needs to be done 90 days after the due date (+90 days).

The due date is what drives all other task dates.

Other than making Task 4 the end date and backing up the other tasks
accordinly (including the due date), I'm wondering if there's a way to do the
above in Project 2002.

I've done a fair amount of research and tested different ways to try and
accomplish this but am admittedly not a Project power user and don't have the
time right now to become one so I'm posting this to the power users.

Thank you for your help and understanding.

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

There are a few vital pieces of information missing. How long is each task
estimated to require from start to finish and how do they relate to each
other? Does task 1 have to complete before task 2 can start or are they
independent? What happens in the three days between the end of task 2 and
the due date? Is that a lag time where nothing is happening?

 

[Jim Aksel]

Generally, the use of Lag is not the best way to solve this type of problem.
It is possible to use lag (and negative lag) to achieve an answer but it
would not be a best practice.

As Steve implied, what is going on during the lag periods? Due Date+30
days. What happens during those 30 days? Usually it is something like
"Customer review period" or the like. In most cases positive lag is simply
unidentified work, just make them tasks: "Watch paint dry"

Negative lag is something different. You are taking action 3 days before
something happens. Oh? You know this event will happen in 3 days with
certainty? Probably not... maybe a good guess but not certainty. "Send
Agenda 3 days prior to meeting" .... And there has never been a meeting
canceled or moved?

What we due in cases like this is use a Deadline. The deadline is set to
when the negative lag period must start.... So submit Agenda would be
scheduled normally along with other items such as prepare agenda. This way,
the task is scheduled and you are given an indicator if the task misses the
due date. However, the only drawback of this method is that if the real task
(Conduct Meeting) changes, then you have to manually change the deadline on
the predecessor task of "Send Agenda"

Although we normally schedule these tasks ASAP, they can be set to start As
Late As Possible (ALAP). Using ALAP pushes them up to the deadline date. If
you leave them ASAP and schedule them left to right (as they taught us), then
few customers will complain of they receive that information early.
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Jim

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