Forum Discussion
Auto-adjustment of finish date
Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer.
I understand that reverse scheduling is definitely not recommended in my "situation" (= level of experience). You are right about the fact that there's definitely a contract that could be a starting point. However, things are a little more complicated than this. Whenever a contract is signed, there's also a approx. finish date we agree on, and in order to manage multiple client projects and allocate resources as efficiently as possible, my manager specifically asked me to build plannings based on the finish date. Basically, she wants as few projects as possible to be handled simultaneously and, assuming we sign 10 projects today, that would be 10 projects to launch now if we start from the contract signature date.
That being said :
- We do have "do or die" finish dates
- Tasks are all laid out with associated duration (and it was clear to me that duration and work are not the same)
- 95% of my tasks are auto-scheduled
The problem is that this planning will be used as a reference by my colleagues for each client project. Therefore, the final version of my schedule needs to require from them as few adjustments as possible (you were suggesting to make some, start earlier, re-arrange etc.).
Anyway, it is a big challenge for me because as i said I am new to this and i understood that reverse planning is not ideal here 😕
In any case, I'll take all advice i can get and i will work simultaneously on another version of my schedule based on your suggestions.
Most plans are "complicated". And yes, a contract normally has a specified or target finish and cost.
Forward scheduling DOES focus on the finish. And forward scheduling is a more natural approach to accomplishing an end goal. ALL task should be auto-scheduled, otherwise you lose the scheduling dynamics available in Project.
If you are looking for a scheduling process that will require as few adjustments as possible from colleagues who may have no or very limited experience with Project the DO NOT even attempt to use reverse scheduling. When I mentioned making adjustments to the plan to make the finish date I was referring to the planning stage (i.e. before plan execution). However, life is real and it is the rare exception when an initial plan executes perfectly, there will always be "adjustments" necessary.
Perhaps others will jump into this thread and you can get their ideas.
John