Multiple predecessors

Krzysztof Żebruń

Hello

I have tried to find a solution for one functionality, but nothing is working for me now.

I'm trying to make 3 tasks

Task A - is a task with fixed start and end dates.

Task B - dates taken from A and C like described below

Task C - is a task with fixed start and end dates.

I would like to make task B that:

- take finish date of task A and set it for start date of task B

- take start date of task C and set for end date of task B

When I set predecessors (task A FS; task C SF) task length is always one day. Can it automatically set dates like I have described above and task will have full length between task A nd C?

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Comments

J. Craig Williams

Krzysztof,

I don't think so.

Task A FS and Task C SF can be any variable length duration between A's end date and C's start date and still satisfy the finish-to-start and start-to-finsih relationship.

Smartsheet does not handle constraints in quite the same way as some other PM tools do.

If the dates for A and C are truly fixed (no predecessors), the B is fixed too, isn't it?

Craig

Krzysztof Żebruń

Hello Craig

this is an example.

https://app.smartsheet.com/b/publish?EQBCT=8a578c75d1e54ab582472edf93f8b629

In my project I have predeccesors for task A and C, but this do not have influance on behave of task B.

As You can see, task B always have 1 day. Can amount of days be counted somehow by sheet? between tasks?

J. Craig Williams

Krzysztof,

The durations can be calculated, but not added to the Duration column as we are not yet allowed to add our own formulas there. Probably never will be.

I assume the problem is not the initial planning, as you of course just change the duration from 1d to 8d manually during that stage.

Note that you can change the Duration but not the start or end dates - changing those removes your Predecessors

Off the top of my head, here's a few aids to add:

1. Add a column to trigger a Notification on completion of Task A - and have that Notification go t othe owner of Task B and the PM.

- this will let the person know they can begin even though the date on the schedule is still in the future

2. Add a column to calculate date differences and trigger off them

since Task B is on line 7, something like this

=IF(OR(ABS(Start7 - Start6 - 1) > 0, ABS(Finish7 - Finish8 + 1) > 0), "check", "")

will show "check" if the dates do not line up (the +/- in the formula accounts for the date offsets due to dependencies). Other results may make more sense to you.

- this will allow a trigger if the dates for Task A or C move and result in a different gap between them - meaning you'll need to update the Duration column again.

I can think of a few more, but those should get you started.

I hope this helps.

Craig

Krzysztof Żebruń

Hello Craig

Thank You for help. I will try Your solution with additional columns and see how this will work for me.