Gantt Chart - Is there a way to manually adjust a tasks start date without breaking dependencies ?

Tara Factor

I'm creating a project schedule for the design and build of a new restaurant. The only concrete date that I know is the Tender date which is part way through the schedule.  I filled out all the tasks and entered in the durations and predecessors for all the tasks. The problem is if I enter the date for Tender it only automatically fills out the rest of the dates for the tasks that come after Tender not the tasks that come before.

 

So I went to the very first task on the schedule and filled in my best guess at the start date. I was close but the Tender date was still off by a few days. If I try to enter in the correct Tender date manually it just breaks the dependencies. 

 

Am I missing something? Or do I really just have to keep adjusting my start date to get the tender date to land where I want it to?

Jason

Unfortunately there isn't a direct way to constrain a Task's start or end date at this time. 

 

You can however set the Duration of a Task to 'TBD' and set the Start and End dates as best guess. Any changes to predecessors won't be enforced on a Tasks End date in this state. 

 

So in your case you could take the Task that is the predecessor to your Tender date and set its Duration to 'TBD' and then any changes upstream won't change its end date, and thereby keeping the Start of your Tender date task unchanged.

 

Hope this helps!