Setting Deadline Reminders


Suppose you want a task or milestone to be completed by a certain date, but you don't want to limit the schedule calculations by setting a date constraint. Set a deadline instead. A deadline appears as an indicator on your Gantt chart as a target or goal, but does not affect the scheduling of your tasks .

To set a deadline, follow these steps:

  1. Select the task for which you want to set a deadline.

  2. On the Standard toolbar, click Task Information and then click the Advanced tab.

  3. In the Deadline box, enter or select the deadline date.

The deadline marker appears in the chart area of the Gantt chart (see Figure 5-17). Repeat Steps 1 “3 to change or remove a deadline if necessary. If you're removing a deadline, select the date and press the Delete key.

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Figure 5-17: The deadline does not affect scheduling but simply provides a guideline for important dates.
Tip  

Use the Project Guide to set deadlines       On the Project Guide toolbar, click the Tasks button. In the Project Guide pane, click the Set Deadlines And Constrain Tasks link. Read the information under Set A Deadline and use the controls provided to set deadlines.

You can show deadlines in your task sheet as well, by adding the Deadline field as a column. Follow these steps:

  1. Right-click the column heading to the right of where you want your new Deadline column to be inserted, and then click Insert Column.

    Or you can click the column heading and then click Insert, Column. The Column Definition dialog box appears.

  2. In the Field Name box, click Deadline. You can type the first one or two letters to go straight to it in the list.

    The Deadline field shows any deadline dates that are already set and shows "NA" for tasks without deadlines. You can enter deadlines directly in this field.

If the schedule for a task moves beyond its deadline date, either because of normal scheduling calculations or because of actual progress information entered, an alert appears in the Indicators field, specifying that the task is scheduled to finish later than its deadline (see Figure 5-18).

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Figure 5-18: If a deadline will be missed, the deadline indicator provides the details.

You can set deadlines for summary tasks as well as individual tasks. If the summary task's deadline conflicts with the finish dates of any of the subtasks, the deadline indicator specifies a missed deadline among the subtasks . You can also set deadlines for milestone tasks as well as for normal tasks.

Inside Out: A deadline might affect scheduling after all
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There are two instances in which a deadline can indeed affect task scheduling. The first is if you enter a deadline that falls before the end of the task's total slack . The total slack is recalculated using the deadline date rather than the task's late finish date. If the total slack reaches 0, the task becomes critical.

The second instance is if you set a deadline on a task with an As Late As Possible constraint. Suppose the task is scheduled to finish on the deadline date. However, if any predecessors slip, the task could still finish beyond its deadline.

Cross-References  

For more information about the critical path, slack, and late finish dates, see "Working with the Critical Path and Critical Tasks".

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Microsoft Office Project 2003 Inside Out
Microsoft Office Project 2003 Inside Out
ISBN: 0735619581
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 268

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