Must start / must end date restrictions

Lukas Bartosch

Dear community 

 

I'm a Project Manager in the field of business administration. I'm a former MsProject user.

I'm very happy using Smart Sheet. It's great and I would recommend to use it. However as 

Project Manager for projects within the administration environment I do have a desperate

need Smart Sheet does not cover. It known in MsProject as time/date restriction "must

start at [date]" and "must end at [date]". This function is a MUST for business projects as 

many tasks are set to specific dates and MUST START or END at that specific day even they

have a changing or not connecting predecessor and/or a successor with relationship to

that particular task.

 

Does somebody have a solution or did I miss the functionality in SmartSheet? It's a real  need. 

Due to that missing function the whole project team had to switch back to MsProject. I'm

aware of the Lag-days function as well as "not connecting the tasks" is a known option but not a 

valid solution.

 

Many thanks for your inputs

Lukas

 

Bob Andrews

Smartsheet does not have constraints like how you are describing. The suggestions I would give are what you already mentioned - lag days and not using predecessors on certain rows. 

Lukas Bartosch

Thank you for your comment Bob. 

 

This is a drastic functional leak - even a show stopper. 

I share know how with other Project Managers from my

site using smart sheet. The requirement is a clear need

rfahmie

Any update on this? It's a basic function that I imagine EVERY PM would need. It is a game changer for not using Smartsheet for schedules for sure. 

Lukas Bartosch

Yes, I agree!

The fact that the missing function is still not available is very disappointing and prevents the consistent use of Smartsheet as the standard tool.

Mikey

Agree, we need a fixed constraints capability.

Trying to do it using relationships/lags is a ball-ache and bad practice as it is corrupt logic.

Lukas Bartosch

Yes, this is a week workaround!

I still don't get it why smartsheet development ignores that crucial missing functionality!

 

Kurt

I think that introducing constraint functionality would be very helpful in Smartsheet.  There are many times that I have a milestone that should start no earlier than a certain date, but I still want to honor any predecessors such that if they shift out, it will force the milestone or task date to shift out as well.



How do we get Smartsheet to prioritize this??

Lukas Bartosch

Thxs for your comment. I truly have no clue why smart sheet is not introducing this vital function. Many of our departments @ Roche would be using smart sheet if that function would be there - so we still paying Microsoft Project licenses .... 

painful!