Schedule Project Plan
Explanation
The
project schedule is established when the planned dates, i.e. Early Start and
Early Finish dates, have been determined for all project activities. The dates
can be set either manually or through a scheduling calculation.
To
manually establish the project schedule, values for early dates and total work
days are directly entered for each activity. It is also possible to update early
start dates, early finish dates and/or total work days by dragging or moving
activity bars in the Gantt chart.
Alternatively, a scheduling calculation
can be performed in the IFS/Project Gantt to determine the activity start and
finish dates. Logical dependencies are created
between activities to form an activity network, which is used as input into a
scheduling calculation. Scheduling will result in updated activity start and finish
dates, and critical activities, i.e. activities with Total Float less than or
equal to zero, will be indicated.
Schedule Button in the
Gantt header offers two ways to perform
the schedule calculation.
Schedule with
Start Date: Enter a start date to
schedule activities to begin on the project’s start date and calculates the
project’s finish date based on the last activity to finish.
Schedule with
Finish Date: Enter a project finish
date to calculate the project’s start date. Use this method to determine when a
project must start so that it finishes on a specific required date entered.
The scheduling calculation takes the following into account:
- The project calendar (working and non-working
days)
- The project start date or if none, the earliest
activity early start date
- The total work days value for each activity, together with the Hours per
Work Day value for the project
- The project schedule network consisting of activity dependencies
(predecessor, successor, dependency type and lag) including the activity
dependencies from other projects.
- Activity constraints
- Actual start and finish dates
Scheduling considers all the projects that are populated in Gantt for
calculation. Schedule date (start/finish) provided are taken to schedule
calculation. The scheduling calculation is done to the minute. The selected
timescale in the Gantt does not affect the scheduling calculation but is used
for display purposes only.
Activity network diagram in Gantt is visualized based on early dates.
In Aurena, to enhance analysis capabilities Project Scheduler offers; A summary
of the changes to the activities as a result of the calculation, Scheduling Log
to present warnings and information messages which would be a result of the
calculated schedule, Additional constraint types to give the project planner
more scheduling flexibility and Multi Projects Scheduling to schedule multiple
projects simultaneously.
Prerequisites
- Activities must exist.
- For scheduling in the Gantt, the user must have access to the entire project.
System Effects
- When activity early start and finish dates are
updated, either manually or through scheduling, the Gantt chart is updated.
- If activity bars in the Gantt chart are dragged or
moved, the corresponding activity early start and finish dates are updated.
- Any changes in the Activity List area is updated in Gantt Chat area upon
save.
- If a scheduling calculation is performed, the
following values are updated:
- The activity early start and early finish
dates.
- The activity late start and late finish dates.
- The free and total float for each activity.
- The project planned start date.
- The project planned finish date.
- Changing activity early start and finish dates,
either manually or through scheduling, can affect objects that may be
connected to the activity, for example:
- The required date for a miscellaneous demand or a
connected project delivery item is based on the activity early finish date.
- Project exceptions may be created.
- The period to which resources are assigned follows
the activity early start and early finish dates.
- Employee allocations with specific Date From and
Date To and that are not fixed, follow the activity early start and finish
dates. Fixed allocations will not be moved. Employee allocations without specific Date From
and Date To follow the activity early start and early finish dates as
allocation dates.
Window
Gantt
Project Navigator
Activity
Related Window Descriptions
Gantt
Project Navigator
Project Navigator/Planning
Activity/Planning
Procedure
To manually update activity early start dates, early finish dates and/or total
work days:
- In windows with activity information, change the
value of the early start date or the early finish date, alternatively the
number of work days. Save the changes.
- In the Gantt Header,
select the option Pointer Mode. Change the length of the activity
bar by dragging the ends of the bars or drag the entire bar to another
date. Save the changes.
- Alternatively, select Activity List check box
in Gantt Settings panel and
update details in the Gantt Activity List area.
To create a project network:
- In the Gantt Settings
panel, select the Dependencies check box.
- Select the Create
Dependencies Mode in the Gantt Header. Note
the cursuor icon change to a pen like. Now you can draw dependencies between
activities directly in the Gantt.
- Alternatively double clicking on Gantt Chart area brings you to the
Create Dependency Mode as well.
- Alternatively select two activities and press Ctrl+D or
click Link button that pops up to create a Finish-to-Start
dependency.
- Drag the pointer from one (predecessor) activity
to another (successor) activity to create a Finish-to-Start dependency. Save
the changes.
- To view or update the dependency information point to a dependency,
right-click and select the Dependency Details menu option. In the
Dependency Details
dialog, it is possible to change the dependency type, add a value for lag,
or delete the dependency.
In the Project Navigator or Activity windows:
- Dependencies information can also be added,
updated or deleted in the Planning/Predecessors or
Planning/Successors tabs.
- Information about constraints can be added in the
Planning/Constraints tab. To visualize
the constraints in Gantt Chart, check the
Constraints check box in Gantt Settings
panel.
To schedule a project:
- In the
Project Gantt window, query for
the project that you wish to schedule.
- Click the Schedule button in the Gantt header.
- In the Schedule Date in the Gantt Settings
area, enter either
Start Date or the End Date for the
project.
- The results of the scheduling calculation can be
previewed in the
Project Gantt window.
- Save the changes to commit the results of the scheduling calculation.
Note: Before the scheduling starts the data is automatically reloaded into
the Gantt to ensure that all data is up to date.
Note: After moving an activity, manually or through scheduling, some sub
project summary bars are updated only after the changes are saved and the
project is reloaded.