Need Help With Scheduling Certain Types of Activities Tasks In MS Project 1

[DJB7777]

Hello All - I could use some expert advice relative to best practices for scheduling certain types of activities/tasks in MS Project:

1. How can I schedule activities/tasks which are parallel to critical activities/tasks in terms of timing but are not on the main critical path?

Example - Tasks A, B, C, E, F are on the critical path. Task D is parallel to Task E (i.e., start date is the same) but is not dependent on Task C nor is it a predecessor to Tasks E or F. What's the best way to schedule Task D?

One thought I had was to simply link Task D as a successor to the project start milestone and just add sufficient lag time so that it starts on the desired date but I'm not sure that's the best approach - another obvious solution would be to hard-code the start date for Task D but again, not sure that's the best approach.

2. What's the best way to schedule administrative or project management-type activities/tasks that will need to be performed throughout the project but which are not part of the actual project work content or critical path per se?

Examples - Meetings, risk management activities, planning activities, budgeting activities, etc.

Thanks in advance for any advice/guidance you can offer on these two questions.

 

[JulieInMaine]

What is the predecessor to Task D? If it has no predecessor - it should be able to start on the start date of the project. Why is it parallel to E? Is a start to start with E appropriate?

Regarding question 2 - it depends upon what level of details you want to maintain and track in Project. Many people do not document the project management type tasks in a project plan - those are "givens" that need to be done but do not contribute to the end product. If you wish to go to that level of detail, many add level of effort tasks that span the entire project and just log the actual hours against that "bucket".

 

[DJB7777]

JulieInMaine - Thanks for your response. Relative to the first question, there is no predecessor to Task D in my example. I see where you're going with this though...if there's a predecessor, then the question is moot and if not, it could theoretically start at any time. If I really wanted it to be parallel from a timing standpoint to another activity/task (let's call that activity/task X), I could always just make Task D dependent on the same activity/task that activity/task X is dependent on or use a "Must Start On" constraint - just trying to avoid hard-coding dates so that the tool creates the schedule. But I think this exchange answers my question and your answer to my second question makes perfect sense.

 

[JulieInMaine]

Your thoughts about shying away from hard coded dates is a good one - stick by it The purpose of using a scheduling product like Project is to create a dynamic schedule that responds automatically to changes in data. By using links plus lead or lag you are avoiding those hard coded constraint dates.