Wrong start date

[JillAc]

I'm having trouble with my calculated dates. I suspect that Thanksgiving is somehow to blame as I have blocked out Nov 22-23 in my Default Schedule. I calculate from Completion Date not the start date. These are the last 2 tasks in the project. I'm trying to get Task 55 to be Nov 19 but it refuses to calculate -- it always goes to either Friday or Tuesday, skipping Monday no matter how many Duration days I put in. I checked my setup and Nov 19 is not a a holiday in the Default schedule. The default (fs) should make the start date of Task 56 Nov 21 but it insists on staying Nov 20 even though the predecessor ends Nov 20 5:00pm why would the next task start Nov 20 9:00am? Any ideas what to check? It's driving me batty. (Is this screenshot visible? Seems very small on the submission screen). "https://s3.amazonaws.com/higherlogicdownload/WORKFRONT/UploadedImages/rgzWBbmiRBCTZ5RsZTvp_start date wrong.JPG" target="ThumbnailFullImage" title="Image link"> Jill Ackerman

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Hi Jill, In the contention between the fs relationship from Task 55 to 56, the (stronger) restriction that Task 56 Must Finish On Tues Dec 4, 2018 is winning the argument, forcing the start date of the 9 day duration Task 56 to start earlier than you'd like. By counting on your fingers and working backward from that Must Finish On of Dec 4 (at 5pm), Task 56 will take: Dec 4 itself (Tues, 8am - 5pm) Dec 3 (Mon) Nov 30 (Fri; after skipping Dec 2 Sun and Dec 1 Sat) Nov 29 (Thur) Nov 28 (Wed) Nov 27 (Tues) Nov 26 (Mon) Nov 22 (Wed; after skipping Nov 25 Sun, Nov 24 Sat, plus Nov 23 Fri and Nov 22 Thur as your Scheduled Thanksgiving days) Nov 21 (Tues at 8am)...just as Workfront is showing to you Put another way: there simply isn't enough time for a 9 day Task that starts at 5pm on Nov 20 and have it finish by 5pm on Dec 4: it has to start at 8am. If you can shave that duration to 8 days (or have folks work an extra hour per day, or only take 1 day for Thanksgiving, or push the Must Finish on to Dec 5, etc.), you could Make It Fit...but perhaps knowing now that it's going to be tight is Good Enough. Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore Got Skills? Lend a hand! https://community.workfront.com/participate/unanswered-threads

[JillAc]

Hi Doug I get what you mean and it makes sense, except that if I make the duration 10 days it should calculate back for Row 55 to start and end one day earlier -- Monday Nov 19 but it skips back to Friday Nov 16. No matter what I do, it refuses to calculate Row 55 to end on Monday Nov 19 which is what I need it to be. I've tried messing with the times too. Any ideas what else might be controlling this? Here are the screen shots:

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Hi Jill, If I'm following... Since all you are doing is changing the duration of Task 56 from 8 to 9 to 10, when the change to 10 happens, the ASAP Planned Start Date of the Preceding Task 55 "jumps earlier". Since Task 55 itself has a predecessor (Task 44), I'd suggest you monitor it in each of these cases, too. Since I believe you mentioned Plan From Completion Date, my suspicion is that Task 55 should be ALAP (rather than ASAP), which in my experience is a more natural pairing, and then resolve to the later date you seek. Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore Got Skills? Lend a hand! https://community.workfront.com/participate/unanswered-threads

[DanPe]

Hi Jill - Does the user who is assigned to the task have any specified time off for Nov. 19? Kind regards, Dan Dan Perkins Workfront

[JillAc]

Ha. ALAP worked! I don't quite understand why, but there it is.

[Dr_DougWi]

Point to ponder. When planning from completion, the planner needs to walk the predecessors backwards to make them work correctly. This means that each predecessor will be planned with as late as possible (ALAP) to ensure the calculations go from the completion date. There are some wonderful help articles on this predecessor topic on the support.workfront.com site. Doug Williams Working to balance how technology supports the integration of people and process.

[JillAc]

Fascinating. All advice previous has been to stick to ASAP and it has been working very well, for the most part. I am going to play around with this and see how I fare with it. Thanks so much.