Templates from Planned Start vs. Planned Completion Date

HI Karen, The simplest way I like to describe projects that are scheduled from completion date is a project where you know the deadline and would like the schedule to tell you when work needs to occur in order for you to finish on time. If your durations and predecessors are all accurate, the timeline should tell you when the work should begin. I'm interested to hear the pros/cons from those in the community who rely heavily on timelines in projects. Thanks, Narayan Narayan Raum Workfront Delivery Lead - SunTrust Bank https://wf-pro.com for Text Mode & Solutions

I almost always plan from planned completion for my company's projects. We're a national retailer so we're almost always working towards something like a new product/brand launch, seasonal/quarterly promos, etc. I have various project templates built based on what project category I designate the request to be (we group all of our projects into 3 categories and that's how I determine staff requirements - aka can this be accomplished only with a designer and project manager or does this need an art director/creative director, strategist, etc.) Planning from completion also helps me with resource scheduling because it gives me a guard rails around what I can effect without putting the project delivery date in jeopardy. The only time I ever plan from start dates are for exploration or prototyping projects or one-off requests like "can you update this flyer from store X to store X?" Hope that helps! Aya Elsoukkary Floor & Decor

I'm not a fan of planning from completion date. Because it looks at a drop-dead deadline and then works back to achieving it, every task defaults to starting as late as possible. You need the widgets installed two before opening? Then even if everything else is finished early, you'll still only install them widgets two days before opening and not a day before. Of course, tasks that are delayed still have a knock-on effect, but you loose the ability to show you might actually come in early. And while I know this rarely happens, it's not uncommon to gain a little ground at the start, which you may need later. It's also possible to create the 'perfect' plan that hits your target date spot-on, only to find a number of tasks should have been done a month ago and you haven't even begun them or assigned a resource. In theory, all projects should have an end date (it's part of the definition of a project, after all). I think it's more realistic to say "Here we are now. What can we do from today?" and if it doesn't hit the deadline, agree what scope you're going to change or extra resources you need. Barry Buchanan - WMA Work Management Australia

Despite all the advice to the contrary I only use "from completion date" except for on projects that don't really have a hard deadline and can thus be malleable ("I need a new email footer" type of requests). The only "Must Finish On" task in my projects is the last task and everything else is "As Soon As Possible." I'm not able to really use the other constraints, as they don't ever do what I think, so I avoid them, but that is likely training over usability. I do have one extra "Must Finish On" task toward the end that has to be on a Wednesday so I can't autocalculate it, and it has no predecessors or successors but sometimes, weirdly, if that task is set too early, the tasks around it don't calculate properly. It makes no logical sense, but when I fix that task to be due on a date close to the tasks next to it, the project calculates correctly. (I know this can't be true but it just is.) I don't know if because I use this type of plan that it makes it different or more necessary to calculate backwards sometimes – but I find it very useful in many cases to use the duration type where I count backwards from a future task – ie to make a task due 10 days before than the planned due date of row 42: "42ff-10d." You can get into an unacceptable endless loop using this so both tasks can't be in the critical path or it won't work. What I like, when I launch a project, is that I can update the Durations and then watch the start date change until I have a project that starts either today or in the future, and it always ends on time, and that is crucial. I use the Status Icons to watch out for tasks that don't have enough time in the durations. During the course of the project if something gets off track (which is literally always), I restart the plan using Must Start On for the next Critical Path date in the project and make sure all the Critical Path icons are green. I have no problems using this method, and I'm still not sure why it's frowned upon. I've been very happy with it. I did try to do some plans using Start From and then make the last date Must Finish On and I found it much harder to adjust the plan without running into a lot of dates that had durations that were too long, adjusting them, and fuddling with it to make the plan work and be all green. I find this method much quicker to launch a project.

We use Completion Date for almost all projects because of hard deadlines, and our tasks are set to As Late As Possible because of availability to various physical resources required by the people assigned can change if done too early. Pros: When setting up the project, the start date (based on template) will tell me if we have enough time or if adjustments need to be made. It also shows if someone's vacation is in the middle of the project (we have preset assignments where we do not have teams). If it causes the start date to be "late", I will reach out to them or their manager to see if there is someone who can help out from a different brand, or if I need to reach the project requester to see if the end date can be moved. It also allows us to set up projects far into the future without having to guess what the start date should be. Cons: If a project deadline changes, you have to make the adjustment at the project level which can cause all open tasks to shift. Then, if the purpose was to add more time to a specific task, you need to fiddle with them to make sure it all aligns correctly again. By using Start Date, you can add to the duration of the task which will push out the deadline without much effort. (We use Start Date projects that do not have hard deadlines.) The other reason we use As Late As Possible for tasks is if someone is out of the office, it keeps the tasks more in realistic alignment. When we had them set to As Soon As Possible, the vacation that's in the middle of it would cause all the tasks to start too early and many people hollering about why their tasks are showing up so soon. Michelle Jackson Colony Brands, Inc.