I admin there are many esoteric ways to implement Project Scheduling within the framework of Best Practices. THANK YOU - Thanks again to everyone for their great ideas, I hope y'all find your work faster and easier!įriar referenced the 3rd party tool with regard to Critical Chain not Critical Path, and then only to say it may not be a good idea to jump into it Critical Chain. WHAT FLAVOUR IS YOUR PROJECT - I hope it works well for users that have projects that are more dependant on the Network Diagram (subject of this thread) than the Gantt chart view of the project. I've used this system for a while, and it works for software implementations. NETWORK DIAGRAM - To make the critical path work effortlessly within MSP, users can simply use Milestones (Tasks with a Duration of 0") and Tasks with predecessors. Indenting and Outdenting Tasks makes summing the critical path problematic in my work, it is essential that we have an accurate count of the maximum duration of a given project. IDEA - Regarding the topic at hand, I hope my post gives users an easy-to-use system for resolving the red critical path problem. >)įirst of all, brilliant people like you make it a joy to participate in knowledge forums such as this. I prefer not to re-post the same info in the forum. I have suggested by methods for developing schedules in prior posts. Also, to suggest that "ALL other Tasks have predecessors" creates redundant links in a Gantt chart that becomes difficult to trace. If they have a 0 Duration, then they are milestones, not tasks. Of your suggested method to "CAPITALIZE & BOLD all primary tasks with a Duration of 0", what are you referring to as "primary tasks"? Summary tasks? I've never read of a reference to "primary" tasks. It's worthly of a separate discussion, as others have more knowledge of it that I. Maybe it is in certain situations/conditions. I'm yet to be convinced that Critical Chain is superior to Critical Path Method. I've read about it, and I've tried a demo version of a third party Critical Chain add-on that was buggy and would not function properly. Also, I am neither for, nor against, Critical Chain as a method. I only pointed out, to those without knowledge of Critical Chain, that it is a scheduling method that is not native to MS Project. Http:/ Opens a new window / įor the record, I did not recommend use of a third party software. Please Submit a Reply if you have other brilliant ideas to add. Ta da! Within this scenario, MSP correctly calculates the red Critical Path of the incomplete Tasks in the Network Diagram, including the 0 day Tasks (which are Milestones). * The topmost Task has no predecessor ALL other Tasks have predecessors. * Use sentance case for all sub tasks, with a Duration of more than 0 days (e.g. * CAPITALIZE & BOLD all primary tasks, with a Duration of 0 (this creates a special shape in the Network Diagram). To wit, how about this for an easy-to-use Microsoft Project solution: In the 2003 version anyway, this functionality still needs a bit of improvement, eh?įurthermore, I think Friar could have continued to recommend an elegant solution WITHIN the functionality of MSP, rather than recommend a third party vendor(!). I definitely agree with Friar about this "feature" driving people batty. Initially, I was a bit surprised that Glen would imply recommending the use of indent and outdent features of Microsoft Project for Tasks and Sub Tasks. However, if you have slack in your schedule (sayĥ days), you can still identify the Critical Path by defining theĬritical Path as anything <= 5 days it in Options.īTW - you may want to investigate Critial Chain as an alternative to By default, the Critical Path is any task with zero or Path will show automatically (provided you have identified it in Bar When you have every task in your schedule properly linked, the Critical Take them out and put them on a sticky note or something. If the tasks have no bearing on the schedule, why have them in there?. Schedule and thus you will not have any indication of schedule impact. The effort - good or bad - regarding those tasks, will not impact the If you have tasks in your schedule that are not linked, then Note also that you MUST have all tasks linked to have a credible The color and symbol/line identified in the Bar Styles format. The red color indicates that the task is on the critical path.
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