Constraint Types in Gantt View

Steven Munsey

Requesting the ability to use constraint types in a project (Gantt view), similar to the options in MS Project:

As Late as Possible

As Soon as Possible

Finish No Earlier Than

Finish No Later Than

Must Finish On

Must Start On

Start No Earlier Than

Start No Later Than

Randal Ketchem

The lack of this functionality is causing our Project management team to not use Smartsheet as their primary platform. This is a must-have functionality.

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DanR

Out team manages a comprehensive schedule listing 30 or more projects. It tracks the progress on hundreds of items through our fabrication shop which consists of nine or more departments that all have a hand in producing the items. Each project has shipping deadlines. When deadlines are linked using dependencies, a change of a scheduled date in its predecessors automatically changes the deadline date. Without some kind of constraint on the deadline, it's too easy to mistakenly extend an item's shipping date inadvertently. While all the constraints listed in the original post would be great, I'd be happy if we could at least click a checkbox that would trigger a warning to the user that the pending date change would alter the date a the flagged task line.

kevin b

Fully support this request. The lack of this functionality, especially "finish no later than" will likely require that we stop our subscription and move to another platform. It's critical for our projects that certain milestones have locked in dates that help shape the overall project plan AROUND them.

Boris Djordjevic

It will be good to have the option to set firm constraints dates (deadlines) in the Gantchart so when you start adding duration for tasks, timelines do not move and pass deadlines requiring everything to be manually calculated backwards.

MonV

Any update on adding this constrain types to the smartsheet Gantt? I am about to move back to microsoft project, smartsheet is a nice product by its limitation in the Gantt chart feature is killing me :(

DW6

Seconding all comments above, though I don't personally need all the options listed in the original post. But being able to fluidly set fixed dates within a project and schedule around them is essential to nearly any project I can imagine. Here is a very basic example of the best workaround I have come up with but it is still lacking:

Let's say I have two tasks preceding a fixed date milestone that is three weeks away. Task 1 starts today and has an estimated duration of 1wk. Task 2 also has a duration of 1wk and its dependencies are set as SF to the milestone and FS to Task1. So far, so good as there is a 1wk gap between the two tasks.

But, let's say the situation changes and now each task will take 2 weeks. When I enter the new durations, Task 2 is now finishing a week after the fixed milestone with no indication that there is any problem. In this simple example, it is easy enough to see the issue. However in a complex project with multiple individuals working on it, there are two problems. First, it is quite challenging and non-obvious to set up the dependencies this way and to check that they are correct. Second, without the software indicating that a duration change busts the schedule, it is all too easy to miss the implications of a change.

Smartsheet should have controls such that it will not allow me to enter values that do not satisfy the defined dependencies & constraints without at least flashing a big warning that I am asking for something impossible.

Kathryn Wells

Fussing around with trying to set a nonadjustable date, like the last date of allowed billing on a grant, that has adjustable predecessors (deliverables) introduces one more frustration on the part of project managers and makes adoption of Smartsheet tools that much harder. Please keep working on this issue. I agree with others that a warning would be helpful in the meantime, but ultimately, introducing constraints on a cell would be ideal. Or maybe allow locking of a cell rather than a whole row or column?

KimPhil

This is a must have feature for me as well. Not being able to set 'as soon as possible' and 'as late as possible' is creating a real headache for me. I have to faff around with helper columns and manual workarounds that are just not feasible to maintain. It is also impossible to calculate a project backwards from a fixed deadline.

Without this feature Smartsheet is not really an alternative to MS project, sadly.

Ken Van Liew

WOW, this is interesting news! Are you kidding? I just stumbled on this while updating my schedule that lost float, jumped on chat for guidance and can't believe what I just read.

scales23

Big gap in functionality here, and surprising it seems so far off being implemented.