Stage Gate: How to automatically adjust future start dates with prior task early completion

Dan73594

Hi there,

I am trying to determine with a stage gate gantt flow how I can have task start dates update when prior tasks are completed ahead of schedule. Do you need to apply a workflow that time stamps the completion or do you have to always manually adjust the future task start dates? The task durations and predecessors are all incorporated. I'm trying to pilot a mid-stage project to "catch up" to where we are at in the process and want to avoid manually adjusting start date times.

Genevieve P.

Hi @Dan73594

If you're using Predecessors, then instead of adjusting the next row's Start Date, you'll want to adjust the actual End Date of the current task to be the date that the task ended early. See: Enable Dependencies and Use Predecessors

For example:

• My task on Row 1 was set to be 5 days long
• The task on Row 2 has the Predecessor of row 1 (with a Finish-to-Start relationship)
• Row 1 actually finished within 4 days, instead of the original 5
• Instead of changing the Start Date of Row 2, I change the End Date of Row 1 to be the new, actual End Date (a day earlier)
• Now my Row 2 task automatically adjusts to an earlier date (and so do all the other rows that are dependent on Rows 1 or 2)

Does that make sense? If you want to keep a record of the original dates along with the Actual dates, you can add a Baseline to your sheet which will keep the original dates in two columns and show you the Variance as your timeline shifts. See: Set Baselines on a Project Sheet

Cheers,

Genevieve