Steve
Mon Oct 30 13:41:44 CST 2006
You don't need to do anything to "setup" such a calculation. Start a new
project with the Project start date of your choice and set it to schedule
from start date forward. Enter a task, just the name. Project "calculates"
the task start date as the project start date. Enter the duration of 20
days. Project calculates the task finish date 20 working days later. Enter
a second task that the first one feeds product into. Link it to the first
in a FS relationship. Projects calculates the start date of task #2 to be
the finish date of task #1, the earliest date it can occur according the the
link. Set the duration of task #2 to 10 days. Project calculates the
finish date to be 10 working days after it starts. And so forth down
through the project. What you are trying to so is exactly what the default
behavior of Project does automatically.
It sounds like you are scheduling from finish date backwards though. While
it makes an intersting academic exercise, this is an incredibly bad idea for
real world projects. If you do it that way, Project schedules each task as
late as it could possibly start for the project to finish on the desired
date. But if anything goes wrong to make a task run late - and one thing
you can absolutely count on is at least one task will finish late - you will
blow past the required project finish date. Far better to schedule from the
start date forward, scheduling each task to start ASAP and work with the
schedule until it shows you'll finish a reasonable amount of time BEFORE the
required finish date. This way you have a cushion to absorb the inevitable
delays and duration underestimates.
HTH
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit
http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs
"sb" <sb@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:370FBF83-55E4-4886-AB38-124EEADA3FF8@microsoft.com...
> For example, if I have a task setup with an estimated duration of 60 days
> project will automatically calculate my start date. How do I setup a
> calculatation for a finish date that is 20 days after my already
> calculated
> start date?
>
>
> "Steve House" wrote:
>
>> As you describe it here, your "end date" is not the end date. What you
>> are
>> calling the end date is probably the cutover date to the converted
>> whatever
>> towards the end of your project and that is likely an important milestone
>> with a deadline on it, but the actual project "end date" is DEFINED as
>> the
>> date when the absolutely last little bit of work on the very last task,
>> is
>> completed and everyone goes home never to work on any part of the project
>> again. With MS Project (and CPM scheduling in general) you can never,
>> ever
>> fix BOTH the project start and project end dates. You have to pick one
>> or
>> the other to set and then it's the software's function to calculate the
>> other date for you along with the shortest schedule that will achieve it.
>> Along that pathway you'll have, as I said, a milestone that represents
>> what
>> you're presently calling the end date. Set the start of the process with
>> the Project Start date in the Project Information dialog. Set the
>> required
>> competion ne cutover by using the Deadline field on the advanced tab of
>> the
>> Task Information dialog for the milestone. Note that the date shown for
>> the
>> milestone will be the calculated date that Project concludes it will be
>> able
>> to take place IF the work leading up to it is organized the way you have
>> input it. If it calculates it to be after the required deadline, you
>> can't
>> just wave a magic wand and set it to the required date - you have to
>> actually reorganize the work leading up to it so Project's calculated
>> date
>> will pull forward to lie on or before the required deadline date. The
>> idea
>> of the plan is not just to document the requirements and your
>> intentions -
>> it's to provide you with a dynamic model of the project that you can use
>> to
>> do "what-if" kinds of analysis in order to predict the probable impact of
>> the management and deployment decisions you make, ultimately allowing you
>> to
>> create a plan that has a higher probability of meeting your business
>> objectives than you'd get flying by the seat of your pants.
>> --
>> Steve House [Project MVP]
>> MS Project Trainer & Consultant
>> Visit
http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> "sb" <sb@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:7C1CE50D-8A98-40D7-85CD-E669502C2FE6@microsoft.com...
>> > We work with conversions and can take 30, 45, 90 days to complete a
>> > conversion. How do I setup the project plan template to adjust for
>> > different
>> > end dates? However, we have tasks that start and finish prior and after
>> > the
>> > conversion end date. The start and finish dates are setup within the
>> > lag
>> > field.
>>
>>