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:

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

System Effects

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Alternatively, select Activity List check box in Gantt Settings panel and update details in the Gantt Activity List area.

To create a project network:

  1. In the Gantt Settings panel, select the Dependencies check box.
  2. 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.
  3. Alternatively double clicking on Gantt Chart area brings you to the Create Dependency Mode as well.
  4. Alternatively select two activities and press Ctrl+D or click Link button that pops up to create a Finish-to-Start dependency.
  5. Drag the pointer from one (predecessor) activity to another (successor) activity to create a Finish-to-Start dependency. Save the changes.
  6. 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:
  7. Dependencies information can also be added, updated or deleted in the Planning/Predecessors or Planning/Successors tabs.
  8. 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:

  1. In the Project Gantt window, query for the project that you wish to schedule.
  2. Click the Schedule button in the Gantt header. 
  3. In the Schedule Date in the Gantt Settings area, enter either Start Date or the End Date for the project.
  4. The results of the scheduling calculation can be previewed in the Project Gantt window.
  5. 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.