Predecessors and Critical Path

Aimee Colton

Hello,

I work in the events industry and use Smartsheets for our project plans.

As we work to a set date (Event Date) and the post-work afterwards (usually completed within 6 wks), our Predecessors tend to be minus (i.e. event date - 20wks to scope venue). This also affects our critical paths, usually rendering the critical path useless.

I realise this is probably not the best way to set up our plans, but I don't see how we can do this?

Would you have any advice?

Thanks

Aimee

Dale Murphy

@Aimee Colton I have built multi-month projects where the key date was "Store Grand Opening" and every milestone before that date was a predecessor as you described (GO - 20wks, etc.)

That should work for you, but maybe I missed your question.

** I built groups of tasks (usually based on departments). Each department identified how far before Opening they needed to start. The first task for that department was GO - [start date]. Then the subsequent tasks for that department went forward from there.

The tasks post-GO were built "normally" with predecessor = GO +1wk, etc. as required.

My observation is that the critical path functionality still works fine.

dm

Aimee Colton

@Dale Murphy

Thank you for your comments. Can I check when you say GO-20wks, you mean for example row 200-20wks?

Dale Murphy

@Aimee Colton Yes, sorry for the cryptic note.

"GO" = Grand Opening = the task at a certain row (e.g., row 200).

So the predecessor entry for an earlier task that referenced "GO" would be "200FS - 20w" as you articulated ...

Cheers,

dm