Assigning dates and duration to WBS elements

You can assign expected start and finish dates, and duration to leaf-level WBS elements (elements that do not have any child elements). You can enter values for any two of the fields - start date, finish date, and duration - and the third field is calculated and displayed. Calculation of dates and duration is done based on the available working days specified in the project calendar.

Before you begin

Use the Schedule Gantt viewlet to perform this task. In the navigation bar, click Work, and click the Schedule tab.

About this task

When you create a WBS element, the element inherits the default start date from the parent element. If the parent element start date is the current or a future date, the default start date of the element is the parent element start date. If the parent element start date is already past, the default start date of the element is the current date. If the current date is marked as an exception in the project calendar, the next working date is set as the start date. The default finish date is the same as the start date, and the default duration is one day.

You can assign dates and duration to WBS elements that do not have any child elements. If an element has a child element, the dates and duration of the parent element cannot be edited, and are determined by the dates and duration of the child elements.

If a task has a constraint date, then the task dates must be in compliance with the constraint date. For example, if a finish date exceeds the Finish No Later Than constraint date for a work item, then on saving, a message is displayed, and you must either remove the constraint, or modify the dates or duration so that the finish date is equal to or earlier than the constraint date.

Procedure

  1. Ensure that the WBS Schedule Gantt viewlet is in your view. In the WBS tree, expand the project to view the WBS elements.
  2. From the WBS tree, click the element and enter the following values:
    • To enter the start date, double-click the Start (Exp) field, and enter the date or select it from the calendar. If the selected date is marked as an exception in the project calendar, the next working date is set as the start date.
    • To enter the finish date, double-click the Finish (Exp) field, and enter the date or select it from the calendar. If the selected date is marked as an exception in the project calendar, the previous working date is set as the finish date.
      Note: When you enter the start date and finish date, the Duration is calculated and displayed based on the available working days between those dates in the project calendar.
    • To enter the duration, double-click the Duration (Exp) field, and enter the duration in number of days.
      Note: If you increase the duration of an element, the Finish date is extended to meet the increased duration. If you decrease the duration, the Finish date is brought forward to meet the decreased duration. If the new Finish date falls on a day that is an exception in the project calendar, the next working date is set as the finish date, leaving the duration unchanged.
  3. Click Save.

What to do next

You can now apply constraints to task dates, and create dependencies between project tasks.

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