Task Start & Finish Date

Question

Anybody know why I cannot change a task start or finish date past a certain date? Even after removing the constraint  and using "As soon as possible" and deleting constraint date from the Advance Tab, I still cannot change the start or even finish date past a certain point. It automatically adds a constraint whenever I change the dates. I have deleted the task and added a new one but having the same issue. I am thinking a global default or some options is causing this in the project file. Any help or insight will be appreciated.

Answer 1

BJAdeisa,

Sounds like you may have a corrupt file. Try saving as XML and then re-open the XML in Project. Does that help?

John

Answer 2

John,

Thanks for the feedback. Task has no predecessor or successor. When I enter predecessor, it ignores the predecessor dates and instead changes the original date of the predecessor task. It's not allowing me to go back past 11/2/20. But I can enter any date after this. Thanks

Answer 3

Dale,

Thanks for the feedback. I am well aware of the recommended practice of scheduling and have used MS. Project for many years now. While I might not be an advanced super user, I have come across some kinks with Project, Project online and know when project is having issues.

Task & whole project file is auto scheduled instead of manual and has a predecessor. Project is ignoring this predecessor. Mind you that this has happened in the past but was able to reset by removing predecessor or deleting dates and duration or entering a new task after deleting the old one.  But this time, it isn't working and producing some funky results. When I use the previous tasks above as predecessor, it changes the previous task date from 11/12/20 to 10/30/20 but doesn't change the task in question date to align with the finish date of the previous task.

But I appreciate your insight and help. I thought maybe there is a global setting causing this. Doesn't look like the case. I will keep investigating to see what works.

Answer 4

BJAdeisa,

Well first of all, directly entering a date in the Start or Finish field will automatically set a constraint. A "start-no-earlier-than" will be set for Start field entries and a "finish-no-earlier-than" for Finish field entries.

What is the "certain point" (i.e. date) that the task won't go beyond? In Project 2010 and earlier, the latest possible date is 12/31/2049. In Project 2013 and above it is 12/31/2149. Are you trying to go beyond either of those dates?

You may also want to take a look at this Wiki article:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/30143.ms-project-why-a-successor-task-s-start-date-may-not-directly-follow-a-predecessor-task-s-finish-date.aspx

Does the task in question have any predecessors or successors? If so, are there constraints on the linked task(s)?

If you can, a screen shot might help.

John

Answer 5

BJ --

Manually entering task Start and/or Finish dates is NOT a recommended practice.  This is because Microsoft Project will ALWAYS add a constraint to the task when you do so.  When you manually enter a Start date, Microsoft Project will always add a Start No Earlier Thank constraint.  When you manually enter a Finish date, the software will always add a Finish No Earlier Than constraint.  So, the behavior you are seeing is by design, and is NOT a bug.

The recommended scheduling best practice is to enter task Duration values and to specify dependencies on all of the tasks and milestones in your project schedule to allow Microsoft Project to automatically calculate the Start date and Finish date of every task.  Also, an additional best practice is to always use Auto Scheduled tasks and NOT Manually Scheduled tasks because Auto Scheduled tasks allow Microsoft Project to automatically calculate the Start and Finish date of every task.  This is how the software is designed to work the best, and I would recommend you conform you usage practices to these best practice recommendations to get the most benefit out of using this powerful scheduling tool.

Hope this helps.