Managing external deadlines
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Tuesday, August 07, 2012 12:20 PM
I'm doing a long term "rough-cut" capacity planning, a year or two in advance, for a project with external deadlines set by the customer. When setting up the project in MS Project, I would like to start with these external deadlines. Once they are specified all the other tasks should be dependant on the deadlines. I.e. the external deadlines are rock hard from a project point of view - no dynamics what so ever.
I'm new to Project and can't get this seemingly simple thing to work.
I've tried marking a task as milestone and given it a deadline (Deadline1). Then setting Task1 as predecessor to Deadline1 but Task1 stays put, and Deadline1 is moving - should be the other way round!
I'm missing something obvious, right?
All Replies
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Tuesday, August 07, 2012 4:24 PM
Yep. But maybe it's not so obvious. If you bring your own ideas about how it should work you miss seeing how it does work.
MSP is a software tool that is designed to work best if used in the way it is designed to be used. Work with it, not against it, or it bites back.
MSP has the critical path method built in. CPM is all about scheduling forwards from the start date, building a network of tasks from the start date and finding out when (how soon) tasks can start and finish and when the project can finish. If you already know the dates, you don't need the software. Ignore the external deadline because it has nothing to do with how long it takes to do the project. It's not so much about what you want, it's about finding out first what you can have. Schedule forwards from the start date and find out when the project can finish. Only then check this against the deadline to see if meeting the deadline is feasible. If you can meet it that's great. If you can't, then find some way to shorten the critical path. -
Tuesday, August 07, 2012 5:10 PMModerator
The way I would handle this is as follows:
- Put in your Task 1
- Put in your "Due Date' milestone (dont enter a date for it yet just let it sit there)
- Link them
- Double click on the 'Due Date' milestone and on the Advanced Tab enter the drop dead date for this milestone in the Deadline field. Click OK
you now have the basic structure built. The finish of task 1 is driving the start of the 'Due Date' milestone. This means that if task 1 finishes early then you can see that you are hitting your 'Due Date' early. If task 1 finishes AFTER your 'Drop dead' date then you will see a red indicator on the 'Due Date' milestone indicators column telling you that your schedule shows that you will miss your Due date.
Brian Kennemer - Project MVP
DeltaBahn Senior Architect
endlessly obsessing about Project Server…so that you don’t have to.
Blog | Twitter | LinkedIn- Marked As Answer by Greymane Wednesday, August 08, 2012 1:56 PM
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Wednesday, August 08, 2012 1:17 AMModerator
Yes, absolutely as Brian said! Deadlines are the way to go. They also affect the critical path (great) and the red diamond provides immediate exception reporting.
In fact if you copy the total slack for all milestones with deadlines into Excel (new column each week) you then get a trend report on time for each deadline. (Rapidly reducing total slack is obviously very bad news, but stable or increasing total slack is great news.
Rod Gill
The one and only Project VBA Book
Rod Gill Project Management
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Wednesday, August 08, 2012 1:56 PM Thanks, Brian - working!
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Wednesday, August 08, 2012 2:03 PM
Being new to MSP I'm sure I don't have the full picture of it's functionality and potential. However, since the only things I'm in control of are the start date and resource allocation, I figure I want the software to tell me how to optimize them, keeping the finish date as a constant.Yep. But maybe it's not so obvious. If you bring your own ideas about how it should work you miss seeing how it does work.
MSP is a software tool that is designed to work best if used in the way it is designed to be used. Work with it, not against it, or it bites back.
MSP has the critical path method built in. CPM is all about scheduling forwards from the start date, building a network of tasks from the start date and finding out when (how soon) tasks can start and finish and when the project can finish. If you already know the dates, you don't need the software. Ignore the external deadline because it has nothing to do with how long it takes to do the project. It's not so much about what you want, it's about finding out first what you can have. Schedule forwards from the start date and find out when the project can finish. Only then check this against the deadline to see if meeting the deadline is feasible. If you can meet it that's great. If you can't, then find some way to shorten the critical path.
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