Lesson5.1.Overlapping Tasks

Lesson 5.1. Overlapping Tasks

Figure 5-1. The Predecessors tab in the Task Information dialog box.

Figure 5-2. Overlapped tasks with lead time

Overlapping linked tasks means that you want the successor task to begin before the predecessor task ends. Therefore, you give the successor task lead time. Lead time can be entered as a duration or as a task completion percentage.

1. Navigate to your Practice folder and open Lesson 5. Save the file as Tasks.

   Right now, the "Record narration" task is scheduled to start when the "Develop interactive lessons" task is finished. But really, the narrator can begin to record narration when about half of the lessons are done.

2. Select the Record narration task. Click the Task Information button on the Standard toolbar.

   The Task Information dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 5-1.

3. Click the Predecessors tab.

   The predecessor task appears in the Predecessors list.

4. Click the Lag field and type -50%.

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   Tip: When you are entering lead time for a task, make sure it is a negative (-) value. Otherwise, Project 2003 will think you are entering lag time.

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   This means the "Record narration" task will start when the "Develop interactive lessons" task is 50% complete.

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   Note: Lead time works differently with different types of links. For example, in a Start-to-Start relationship with three days lead time, the successor task would start three days before the predecessor.

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5. Click OK.

   The start date of the "Record narration" task is rescheduled.

   The "Add narration to lessons" task is scheduled to begin when the "Record narration" task is finished, but the developers can add narration to lessons that have already been recorded. Let's try another way to add lead time to a task relationship.

6. Double-click the link line connecting the "Record narration" and "Add narration to lessons" tasks.

   The Task Dependency dialog box appears.

7. Click the Lag field and type -1 week.

   This means the "Add narration to lessons" task will start one week before the "Record narration" task is complete.

8. Click OK.

   Project reschedules the start dates of the tasks, as shown in Figure 5-2.

QUICK REFERENCE

TO OVERLAP TASKS:

1. SELECT THE SUCCESSOR TASK YOU WANT TO OVERLAP.

2. CLICK THE TASK INFORMATION BUTTON ON THE STANDARD TOOLBAR.

3. CLICK THE PREDECESSORS TAB.

4. CLICK IN THE LAG FIELD AND ENTER THE LEAD TIME AS A NEGATIVE (-) VALUE.

Or...

1. DOUBLE-CLICK THE LINK LINE CONNECTING THE TASKS.

2. CLICK IN THE LAG FIELD AND ENTER THE LEAD TIME AS A NEGATIVE (-) VALUE.