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Level 9
August 26, 2016
Question

Estimated Due Date Calculation

  • August 26, 2016
  • 13 replies
  • 2007 views
I think this may be basic, but, when we show the project plan, we include the Estimated Due Date on the view because we believed this was the most accurate date of when a task would be completed based on current information. However, as a test, I created a simple project with 10 tasks, each taking 8 hours (1 day duration). Each task is a predecessor of the following task, so the project runs 10 business days, as expected. I then set all tasks to 50% complete. I had assumed the estimated due dates would change such that task 1 would be 4 hours from now, task 2 would be 4 hours from then, etc. so in essence the project would be done in 5 days instead of 10. However, all tasks now have an estimated Due Date of 4 hours from now. I'm using contraints of ASAP and duration type of Simple. What do I need to do to have it reflect my expectation?
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13 replies

GregBe1Author
Level 9
September 9, 2016
Adam, Thanks for the reply. I don't understand why it would through out the predecessor logic once a task has started, but since it does, I will definitely submit a feature request. Based on what I've described below, it seems Workfront can't handle this real-world example. I'm hoping the Workfront team can see the issue and address this quickly. Thanks. Greg
Level 10
September 11, 2016
HI Greg, I think your feature request would be useful in some cases. Specifically, you want Workfront to calculate the remaining duration of the chain of tasks, even though they are in progress, and on the assumption that all tasks will be worked on by the same resource who can't complete them all in parallel. In other scenarios however, the tasks could be assigned to different resources and therefore could actually complete in parallel. I guess Workfront would have to be smart enough to look to see if the tasks have the same resource/s assigned and if so, apply the logic you outlined. Interesting..... :)
GregBe1Author
Level 9
September 12, 2016
Actually, if there are predecessors assigned, I'd want to keep the logic they are doing now as if the task didn't start, regardless if the tasks were assigned to different people or not. the predecessors are there for a reason, and even if one was started, you'd still wouldn't want to ignore the predecessors. Sometimes someone might do a small portion of the task where the predecessor isn't required, but for the majority of the task, the predecessor would be in effect. if you didn't want to use the predecessor in the calculation, then you'd remove the predecessor from the task.