Constraint Type & Constraint Date

Question

I have noticed that Project automatically adds a default constraint type and date to task other than As soon as possible after one enter duration and start date. Even when the constraint type is changed back to As soon as possible and the constraint date is removed, as soon as the date is changed, constraints type such as Start no earlier than or Finish no earlier than is added. I have noticed this after the last 2 updates to project. Is there a way to change this default or make all task in the project file As soon as possible? What if I don't want any constraint, is it possible to leave it without any constraint? Thanks all.

Answer 1

BJAdeisa --

What you are seeing is the default behavior in Microsoft Project.  Whenever you manually enter a Start date for a task, the software automatically adds a Start No Earlier Than constraint.  Whenever you manually entered a Finish date for a task, the software automatically adds a Finish No Earlier Than constraint.  We recommend as a best practice that you NEVER manually enter a Start date or Finish date for a task.  Instead, let Microsoft Project create the schedule of your project by setting task dependencies on every detailed task and milestone, and by entering a Duration value for each task.

Also, it is not possible to change the default behavior of Microsoft Project, so I would recommend you stop manually entering Start dates for the tasks in your projects.  Hope this helps.

Answer 2

I suggest that you do some background study about the Critical Path Method (CPM) to support your use of MS Project. CPM is built in to the scheduling engine in MSP and many people are confused by how MSP works because they don't know this. Once you have a good understanding of CPM you will get so much more out of MSP.

Some of the basic principles of CPM are:

The plan has a start date, and this is the only explicit date.

All tasks are scheduled to start as soon as possible.

The inputs to the method are the task durations and their predecessor/successor relationships with other tasks.

The algorithm (not you) will calculate the earliest start, earliest finish, latest start and latest finish for each task, and all of these are displayed in the schedule table, along with the free slack and the total slack.

Every date field in MSP is either a start or finish date.

There is no such thing as a date without a time, even if the time is not displayed. If you don't input a time, MSP will use the default start time or the default finish time, depending on whether you are inputting a start date or a finish date.

Try this example with a new file.

Make a task (auto scheduled, of course) and give it a duration of, say, 5 days.

Every new file starts with a project start date of today.

Enter a start date for the task which is, say, 2 days later.

You have just imposed a start no earlier than constraint, and you will see a little calendar icon in the indicators column.

Now input a finish date which is a bit later than whatever is displayed.

You have now just imposed a finish no earlier than constraint.

That's how it works but although you have the option of inputting the dates and imposing constraints, they are best avoided.

Any help?

Answer 3

BJ --

Assuming that my reply answered your question, would you please mark my reply as the answer?  Thanks!

Answer 4

Dale,

Thanks for the feedback. Good to know...