You can apply constraints to tasks to impose a fixed start or finish
date for the task. Use the constraint types 'As soon as possible' and 'Finish
no later than'.
To perform this task, you must have the required
security permission. For more information about security permissions, see User security settings.
You specify constraints when you plan the schedule (dates and duration)
of the project tasks. 'As soon as possible' is the default constraint. If
you want to specify this constraint for a task, you do not have to make any
changes. This constraint implies that the task will start as close as possible
to the specified start date so long as the dependencies on the tasks are resolved
on schedule.
To apply the 'Finish no later than' constraint:
- Open the WBS Grid viewlet. From the WBS tree, expand the project,
and click the task to specify a constraint for.
- To change the default constraint, select Finish no later than.
- Enter the Constraint date. This is the date by which the task must
finish.
- In the WBS Grid, click Save.
The dependencies of the task are checked to ascertain if the constraint
affects the schedule of the dependent tasks. For example, Task
A and Task B have a Finish to Start dependency, so Task B is scheduled to
start only after Task A is complete. You apply a Finish no later than constraint
on Task B with a constraint date that falls beyond the planned start date
of Task B. In this scenario, the constraint is said to affect the schedule
of the dependent task. You are then prompted to keep the constraint and remove
the dependency, or to keep the dependency and remove the constraint.
If
the constraint does not affect any other task schedules, the constraint is
saved.