Task should not be started on weekend but can run continuously during weekend

[Shahram]

I have several tasks that takes 18 to 25 days in row. Those tasks should be started from Monday to Friday. I could not made a schedule for those tasks

[#2]

@Shahram,

Here's one approach.

1. Create a "start" milestone that uses the Standard calendar (M-F) for each of the continuous tasks.

2. For those tasks that may run 24/7, set their Task Calendar to the built-in "24 hours".

3. Make the start milestone the predecessor to the continuous tasks.

Note, if most of the tasks in your plan use the Standard calendar, the start milestones will automatically take on the Standard calendar, but if your plan has a separate custom calendar (e.g. 9 hour days, etc.), then set the Task Calendar for each milestone to be the Standard calendar.

Hope this helps.

John

[#3]

Hi
I think that using the milestone as a predecessor does not prevent its successor task from starting on Saturday or Sunday, because since the milestone has a duration of 0 days, it will not be affected by any calendar.

Perhaps dividing the continuous task from Monday to Sunday, with Jhon's idea, into Start task A (1d/Calendar Monday to Friday)) and Remaining task A (Dur-1/Calendar Monday to Sunday), linked Finish-Start.

Still, there may be exceptions where this approach may not be appropriate and would require review.

Regards.

Ignacio Martín

[#4]

Ignacio Martin,
Yes, you are correct, I didn't test out my approach before posting. The approach you suggest will of course work but I think a more robust solution is with a macro.

John

[#5]

John --

In response to Martin's reply, I DO think that using a milestone would be a workable solution. However, the milestone would need a custom calendar applied to it that only schedules work to take place from Monday through Thursday only, but not on a Friday. This would allow the successor task to start from Monday through Friday, but NOT on a Saturday or Sunday. Your solution was so close! Just a thought. Hope this helps.

[#6]

@Dale Howard

Yeah, I see where that would work. Thanks for jumping in.

John

[#7]

John--

This is just another example of how people like you and me "team up" to help people with their Microsoft Project questions. :)

[#8]

Hi
If I'm not mistaken, the problem is that the milestone is not affected by calendars as it has a duration of 0 days.
In other words, I think it is not reprogrammed and is not a solution.
Please join me too, if only for this opportunity.
Regards
Ignacio Martín

[#9]

Ignacio --

I hereby give you the "I Corrected Dale Howard MVP" award for catching my erroneous response to this question. I thank you for correcting my mistake. You are indeed correct that the Task Calendar has NO EFFECT on milestone tasks. Well done, my friend! I think the user should refer to your post about breaking up the task in question. Hope this helps.

[#10 · Accepted solution]

@Dale Howard,

Or......how about this "end around run"? As soon as the "milestone" takes on a non-zero value, the Monday through Thursday only custom calendar as the Task Calendar does the trick.

John :)

[#11]

John -- It makes no sense that a Task Calendar will not override the schedule of a milestone task. But if memory serves me correctly, this has been the default behavior of Microsoft Project for a long time, which Ignacio reminded me about. I would call this sloppy design, but it is what it is. :(

[#12]

Dale,
My take is a milestone should not be called task, just like a summary is are not task. Unfortunately I see many users, mostly newbies, who don't quite understand this. So I threw in the 1 minute duration "milestone" to create a true task and then your approach works fine.

Although I can see the advantage of having calendar control over a milestone, (present case in point), I can also see some logic in not having milestones responsive to calendars.

It's interesting, I haven't seen any feedback from the original poster. Maybe we confused him and now he's not sure what to do.

John

[#13]

Thank you everybody. I added tasks that take 0.5 or 1.5 days (As setup Task with standard calendar) before every task (with 24 hours calendar). It is solved now but it is not a good solution.

[#14]

@Shahram 

[#15]

Shahram179,
What exactly is "not a good solution"? Is it because the Run task starts at noon on Monday instead of at 8:00 AM Monday?

Try the approach I show in my screen shot above. The continuous task will start a minute "late" (i.e. 8:01 AM instead of 8:00 AM) on any day Monday through Friday but I think that's a good compromise, unless you want to go with a VBA approach as I mentioned earlier.

John

[#16]

Shahram
As John proposes, the predecessor task, 'Setup' in his example, should have the lowest possible value that Project allows us, and that is 1 minute. Even so, there could be an exceptional case in which this approach was not a solution, such as the 'Setup' starting at the last minute on Friday.
Ignacio

[#17]

Great. Thank you very much. It works.

[#18]

Great. Your solution works for my project.

[#19]

Thank you, Martin.
John solution is the best.

[#20]

Shahram,
You're welcome and thanks for the feedback. You might want to check out my latest reply to Ignacio for an improved approach.
John