Is there a way to start a task as soon as possible with a FF dependency?

Miles G

What I'm looking to do is create a finish-to-finish dependency where the end date is extended but not the duration for a given task. This way a task can start immediatly but it may finish later than the duration. This way the duration of the task can outgrow the FF dependency but never be less than the FF dependency end date. For example, I'm looking for this:

Smartsheets currently will backdate the start for tasks with a FF dependency like this:

I'm assuming this can be changed by a project setting but I can't seem to find it.

Miles G

Thank you for the quick reply Brian.

Unfortunately, that is not what I'm trying to accomplish. Work can be started asap for this project but cannot finish until another project finishes. Therefore, the start of the subtask can start immediately, the duration of the actual work is less than the end date (unless the duration extends beyond the FF end date). This should NOT backdate the start date from the end of the FF project but begin as soon as it can but not finish until the FF. Other software (MS Project) allows for this and is the default functionality for FF.

I can see the benefit of backdating the start from the FF dependency end date based on duration. That way one does not begin work until the two pieces of work are expected to end at the same time. Therefore, I feel that this is a preference thing or even a new feature "finish-to-finish-End"?

Anyways, I've been able to hack Smartsheets into accomplishing this by creating another task, setting that task as dependent on the prior task and FF on the other task with a duration of 0.

Brian_Richardson

The duration is always the difference between start and end, not including nonworking days. You cannot change that calculation. You also cannot use a formula to drive duration or the dates, it's calculated on the backend and rolled up to parents.

If you have a FF dependency in place, and change the duration of the task, the start date will slide earlier to accommodate the new duration while holding the end date fixed. Is that what you're trying to do?

Miles G

Thank you for the quick reply Brian.

Unfortunately, that is not what I'm trying to accomplish. Work can be started asap for this project but cannot finish until another project finishes. Therefore, the start of the subtask can start immediately, the duration of the actual work is less than the end date (unless the duration extends beyond the FF end date). This should NOT backdate the start date from the end of the FF project but begin as soon as it can but not finish until the FF. Other software (MS Project) allows for this and is the default functionality for FF.

I can see the benefit of backdating the start from the FF dependency end date based on duration. That way one does not begin work until the two pieces of work are expected to end at the same time. Therefore, I feel that this is a preference thing or even a new feature "finish-to-finish-End"?

Anyways, I've been able to hack Smartsheets into accomplishing this by creating another task, setting that task as dependent on the prior task and FF on the other task with a duration of 0.

Brian_Richardson

Oh, nice hack :-)

Smartsheet is duration-based scheduling, not effort. If I understand your reply correctly, it sounds to me like you would like to use Duration to represent effort of work rather than dates, but that's not an option natively nor is it a preference thing. They'd have to add a bunch of options and calcs to do effort-based scheduling like MS Project does.

You might want to submit an enhancement request for effort-based scheduling in the Features request.