What is the best practice for changes in task order, dates and predecessors?

Expeditor

I work for a residential construction remodeling company and one of the things I use smart sheets for is keeping track of the jobs progress. Before we start a job I set durations and a predecessors for the tasks that will be involved in the project. The problems I am having are the order of the project will change and the amount of time that it takes to do each task will change from my initial projections. Any suggestions for best practice on how to address the changing of the length of time a task will take and the order changing? Not sure how to indicate it because we would like to have a clear view of what we projected the dates and time to be versus the actual.

Paul Newcome

Have you looked into baselining?

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/2482093-baselines

Expeditor

Yes, I reset the baseline when I start the projects. But once I start the project and things change not sure how the base line will help me track the changes?

Paul Newcome

The You should have the baseline columns separate from the columns being updated as the project proceeds. This will allow you to see the original vs the updated.

Expeditor

ok Thanks, I think initially it was not clear but now that I have looked at it closer, it does. As for the second part of my question... if the order of the tasks gets changed and I put Predecessors in... how do I adjust and indicate that clearly?

Paul Newcome

You would have to use either the row comments or a column that has notes that you can manually record. Either way, that piece is a manual process.

Andrea0123456789

Is manual comment in row still the best solution for this? I am building a complex schedule with Predecessors. As we add, remove, or move tasks it is cumbersome to manage Predecessors manually.