July 2005

By Gus Cicala, Project Product Advisory Council

Applies to:
Microsoft Office Project 2003

In this article

Defining the project start date

Finding the latest task in the critical path

Setting an end for a project milestone

Triggering a scheduling message

If you base your project schedule on the project start date (start date: The date when a task is scheduled to begin. This date is based on the duration, calendars, and constraints of predecessor and successor tasks. A task's start date is also based on its own calendars and constraints.) — which is the most common and usually the most useful way to proceed — Microsoft Office Project 2003 does not allow you to directly specify a firm project finish date (finish date: The date that a task is scheduled to be completed. This date is based on the task's start date, duration, calendars, predecessor dates, task dependencies, and constraints.). But sometimes, even though you are scheduling in this way, you may want to make sure that if any adjustment in the schedule changes your target end date, you are notified of the change.

This article presents a technique that you can use to cause a scheduling message to appear if your target finish date changes.

Defining the project start date

To set a start date for your project, click Project Information on the Project menu to open the Project Information dialog box.

If you choose to schedule your project by using the Start date field in this dialog box, then when you enter that date, Project turns the text in the Finish date field gray — you cannot enter a date in this field. Instead, Project sets a finish date that is the same as the finish date of the latest task in your project plan.

If you have a specific finish date in mind, schedule your project as you normally would, and then optimize the schedule so that all of your tasks are completed by that desired finish date. Then, on the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the View tab. Toward the bottom of the tab, select the Show project summary task check box.

When the Show project summary task check box is selected, the first line of your Gantt Chart will display a summary task that shows you the overall start and finish dates for your project.

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Finding the latest task in the critical path

Once you have finished scheduling your project, you can view the tasks on the critical path (critical path: The series of tasks that must be completed on schedule for a project to finish on schedule. Each task on the critical path is a critical task.). These tasks determine the project's finish date.

On the Project menu, point to Filtered For, and then click Critical to see only the tasks in the critical path. Scroll down to the latest task on the critical path. In our example, this is Task 23, "Document system requirements," which is scheduled to end on April 14, 2004.

If any task on the critical path is delayed (delay: The amount of time between the scheduled start of a task and the time when work should actually begin on the task; it is often used to resolve resource overallocations. There are two types of delay: assignment delay and leveling delay.), the project finish date will change. Now, how can you force Project to notify you of such a change?

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Setting an end for a project milestone

Add a milestone (milestone: A reference point marking a major event in a project and used to monitor the project's progress. Any task with zero duration is automatically displayed as a milestone; you can also mark any other task of any duration as a milestone.) after the last task in your project's critical path, and name it "End of Project." Link this milestone to the last task on your project's critical path, in a finish-to-start relationship.

Now you must ensure that this milestone does not change. Select the "End of Project" milestone task, and then click the Task Information button on the Standard toolbar. Then, in the Task Information dialog box, click the Advanced tab. Select Must Start On in the Constraint type field, and then enter the desired date in the Constraint date field.

Click OK in the Task Information dialog box, and the Planning Wizard opens. Click the Continue. A Must Start On constraint will be set option, and then click OK.

Now, if any task on the project's critical path is delayed, you will receive a warning.

 Note   You will receive these warnings only if you instruct Project to show scheduling messages. To confirm this option setting, on the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Schedule tab. At the top of the tab, ensure that the Show scheduling messages check box is selected. You can select this setting at any time, and you will immediately start to see scheduling messages.

Next, click the General tab, and ensure that all of the Advice from Planning Wizard check boxes are selected.

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Triggering a scheduling message

Now, what do you think will happen if a task on the project's critical path is delayed? To find out, add two days to the duration (duration: The total span of active working time that is required to complete a task. This is generally the amount of working time from the start to finish of a task, as defined by the project and resource calendar.) of Task 23, "Document system requirements." Because of the conflict between the task's link to the "End of Project" milestone task and the Must Start On constraint, Project warns you of the potential schedule conflict. As you can see in the following Planning Wizard message, this date change will impact the project's critical path and therefore will also impact the project's finish date.

Now you have a choice — to override the constraint, or to change your plan so that the constrained milestone is not rescheduled.

You can use this same technique to set Must Start On constraints for all of the milestones in your project. Then, anytime there is a change that impacts the milestone's start date, Project will warn you of the potential impact to your project schedule.

Conclusion

By linking constrainted (constraint: A restriction set on the start or finish date of a task. You can specify that a task must start on or finish no later than a particular date. Constraints can be flexible [not tied to a specific date] or inflexible [tied to a specific date].) tasks to predecessor (predecessor: A task that must start or finish before another task can start or finish.) tasks, you can prompt Project to provide warning messages when key tasks in your project are changed. In this way, you can use Project to warn you when things are not going as planned.

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About the author

Gus Cicala is the President, CEO and co-founder of Project Assistants, Inc., a Project premier partner and leading provider of consulting services, custom development, education, and products for enterprise project management solutions. Mr. Cicala is also a popular speaker and writer on project portfolio management and the use of Project as an enterprise project management technology platform, and he serves on the Project Product Advisory Council.

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