Dependencies / Predecessors

[DanaHenke]

I am struggling with how the dependency/predecessor functionality works, I have looked through the help site and found what I thought I needed, but it seems to not be working correctly, so looking for some quick advice? Scenario: Task 45 and 46 are dependent on Task 44 Task 44 was due on 1/14, but completed on 1/17; Task 45 and 46 do not update to Start On 1/18 Tasks 45 and 46 are set to start "As soon as possible" and the predecessors are set to "enforced" Any ideas on what I/we should be doing differently? Dan Lema Blue Cross of Idaho Health Service, Inc.

[DavidTa1]

Dan, Everything in your scenario is working correctly and as designed. You also set it up correctly, although, you don't need to enforce the predecessors for what you are doing. The key for what you are trying to have happen is to be looking at the "Projected Dates". "Projected Dates" will move based on the predecessors and duration and actual completion dates of the predecessor task(s). Something to keep in mind is that "Planned Dates" are the plan and they must not change based on a task being completed late. If planned dates started changing because of tasks being completed late, the world would stop spinning, the sky would be falling, and no project would ever be completed on-time because we would never know what on-time was. I use (and train all PM's to use) the "All Dates" view which gives you the best view of where the project may be experiencing a potential delay. Then we look at ways to make up the delays to get the project back on track by adding people, removing roadblocks, or finding a way to streamline a process to get something approved faster. I hope this helps. David
DAVID A. TAYLOR Founder & Managing Consultant

[Rick_MacDuffie]

This confused me at first too. If you're like me, you might be used to working in Microsoft Project. MS Project's planned dates DO auto-update, and baseline dates DO NOT. Workfront dates don't map to Microsoft Project dates. It seems that Planned dates in Workfront are essentially the Baseline dates in MS Project and they do not change unless there is manual intervention. Projected dates in Workfront do change and operate more like Planned dates in MS Project. Rick MacDuffie Symetra Life Insurance Company

[VicAl]

As stated in different ways, a simple rule I follow is: when you complete a Task in WF I update the Planned Completion Date to whatever the true completion date is. Then your successor tasks will fall in line accordingly. This is true whether the task is early, late, or on time. Now true completion date could be your "actual" completion date. But say it was due last Friday and completed on time last Friday, but you didn't update your plan until today. You would still want last Friday as your Planned Completion Date. Also how you update the Planned Completion Date can be important depending on how rigorous you want to be with your plans. For example, if your task finished 5 days late, you could simply change your Panned Completion Date to the new date. But that would also change the Start Date (to the Planned Completion Date minus Duration). So if you want to maintain that Start Date, I would add 5 days to the Duration to properly adjust the Planned Completion Date. Hope that makes sense.

[JillAc]

I've been struggling with something similar about how the planned dates work. I plan from completion date as that is hard and fast for me, the end date is not negotiable but everything in between is. I can set up a good new project plan, very nice, not a problem. However, when I have a project that has some tasks already 100% and the end date changes (ok not always hard and fast! but it's a serious decision) the planned dates for uncompleted tasks don't update properly (ie they don't calculate back from the end date). What I keep hoping for is that the project will update itself because it's based on completion date but the only way I can get the unfinished tasks to recalculate is to put in a Start Date at the beginning of the chain of tasks that leads to the end date. This is difficult because there may be many chains leading up to the end date and i have to find them (not so easy) and then start them all at today's date, and then using my fingers and a wall calendar, change the durations in order to get me to the end date on time. This is laborious and manual and I'm sure there's a better way for WF to be working for me. Also, we really only look at the planned dates. The projected dates don't always calculate in a way that makes any sense to me, and the actual dates don't matter, those are in the past and I'm more interested in the future of this project. Is there a better way? I feel I am missing a key piece of knowledge on how the dates calculate and how to replan a partially complete project, but I can't see it. Any advice would be amazing. Jill Ackerman

[DavidTa1]

Jill, There is a way to make this work for you in Workfront but I feel it will be too hard/confusing to try to explain here, and I also feel that I may be missing a few key pieces of information. If you would like, we can get on a screen share and spend 20-30 mins going over what is happening and why and how to make it work best for you. Feel free to send me a direct email with a few times that work best for you if you like. If you are wondering or concerned about any costs, don't be and I am not going to try and sell you anything either. Thanks! David
DAVID A. TAYLOR Founder & Managing Consultant

[VicAl]

I'm sure David will be able to help. But in short I'll just say, EVERY date is negotiable (whether we want it to be or not). Reality always wins. So in general, avoid locking an end date. And definitely don't work a project backwards from the end date. What was the analogy posted here? "It's like trying to drive in reverse." Yeah it can be done, but it's confusing and difficult (and sometime dangerous �� ). If you're doing that now I'm sure your predecessors need to use the opposite Task Constraints in order to work for you. Disclaimer: apologies to those of you that work from the Project End Date. I fear your evil genius. I just haven't found the cost-benefit worth it. It's much easier to set the tasks up from the Start date. You know the due date of your final task already (that non-negotiable date). You want your plan to show you whether you're going to hit it or not. So when your plan shows it's hitting that date, you know you're on schedule. If it's late, you know by how much. Then you can adjust critical path tasks to attempt to bring it back in. But you know where you stand. If you lock the date into place, you don't know how far behind you are until it's usually too late and you're scrambling. Let the project plan tell you when you're in trouble as quickly as possible. Then you have a better chance to adjust and make your date. Sorry if I've said all this before, but you want the project plan to tell you where you're going, where you are currently, and when you're going to get there. If you lock that end date, you're only displaying when you hope to get there.

[JillAc]

Thank you Vic, you have said this before. Now that I know more about the platform I may try some projects by start date and see how they go. What flags do you use to see that something isn't planned properly? I use the icons and look for them turning yellow and red but they seem inconsistent in what they are telling me about my project plan.