2 Gantt Items: child rows and working backwards

Claire Diener

Hello!

I'm working on a sheet where I want to include sub-tasks via child rows, but the sub tasks do not all start at the same time, nor are they dependent on one another (and happen to be date dependent) but I need dependencies enabled for the sheet. I can't seem to figure out how to have these items start on a date other than the date of the parent row and thus can also not get them to "stick" to the date I need.

Additionally, is there a way to work backwards in building a Gantt? When starting a timeline project, I work backwards from the goal date but can't seem to get the Gantt functionality to let me work backwards (aka, with dependencies enabled, I'd like to just select the end date and then have everything move to the appropriate dates).

Help??

Thanks,

Claire

A. DuBose

Default predecessors are FS (Finish of different task to Start of current) task.  By putting "FF" then it changes to Finish to Finish so the two task complete at the same goal date (ie 13FF where 13 is the previous task).  Another option is "SF" so the current task finishes at the start date of the desired task (IE 13SF).

Parent start/finish dates are dependent on children.  Not sure how yours is setup differently.

Adam 

IFCC

I use as suggested in the above post. As well as using negative numbers to count back.

A. DuBose

@IFCC - Good point, adding a "-5" or "+5" would shift the start start date accordingly.  For instance your target date is a desired delivery date (Task 12) and shipping (Task 13) is suppose to take 5 days but you want a 2 day buffer.... then 13's duration is 5 days, but predecessor is "12FS-2d"

Claire Diener

the negative numbers are a great suggestion to creating pre-dating connecting tasks, but that doesn't help me when, for instance, i have a full timeline that ends on x date, but then something changes and i want the full timeline to end on y date - is there a way to change the end date of the full timeline that will then shift the full gantt sheet??? does that make sense?