Add Predecessors to Each Task

Quick reference

• 00:05 Just as we've asked our team to estimate the tasks in our project and
• 00:09 the duration in our project,
• 00:11 we also need to ask them to tell us how all these tasks link together.
• 00:16 Now, as you can see in the Gantt chart graphical view,
• 00:19 all these tasks right now start at the same exact time.
• 00:23 What we want to do is have these be pushed out based on a predecessor
• 00:27 relationship for the tasks.
• 00:29 Now, I mentioned before that Microsoft Project uses constraints in
• 00:34 order to schedule tasks.
• 00:35 Well, there is actually a feature in Project called Constraints as well.
• 00:40 So for example, if I want this task to start on 11/2/2015,
• 00:46 I can go ahead and type that.
• 00:48 And what's happened is Microsoft Project created this thing called the constraint.
• 00:52 You can see that in the indicator column over here on the left side of
• 00:56 the screen it says this task has a start no earlier than constraint.
• 01:01 Changing this date here is essentially the equivalent of just
• 01:05 trying to manage your project in Excel, where you're just typing dates and
• 01:10 trying to make sure that things line up.
• 01:12 We do not want to use that.
• 01:14 So I'm going to do a Ctrl+Z or Undo and remove that constraint date.
• 01:19 We want Project to calculate the dates for
• 01:22 us based on the predecessor column, and we start linking the tasks.
• 01:27 Now, task number one is actually the start of the project, so
• 01:30 we don't need to link that one.
• 01:32 We do want to link task number two to task number one.
• 01:37 Why is that?
• 01:38 Because when we create this architectural design,
• 01:41 we're rarely not doing that until we know we have the land.
• 01:44 I'm not going to pay engineers to do that work until I actually have the land
• 01:48 acquired.
• 01:49 So I'll go ahead and type 1.
• 01:52 And then these progressively go down in a kind of waterfall fashion,
• 01:56 where we're linking all of the tasks.
• 01:58 And you can see this on the Gantt chart.
• 02:01 You can see now that tasks are being moved out based on
• 02:06 the linkage to the tasks and the duration that the tasks have.
• 02:11 Now, there's times when you don't just want to link tasks one after the other.
• 02:15 For example, if I come here to install cabling, I link to that.
• 02:21 But there's no reason for why we can't install cabling and
• 02:26 plumbing at the same time.
• 02:28 So I'll type 8ss.
• 02:30 And what that's done is it's created a predecessor relationship
• 02:35 to install cabling.
• 02:36 And the ss means start to start.
• 02:40 So if you take a look here on the Gantt chart,
• 02:42 basically these two tasks are going to happen at the same time.
• 02:46 Now, if task line seven changes, if the duration changes, I'll go ahead and
• 02:51 just do this real quick, change it from 15 days to 20 days.
• 02:55 Watch what happens over on the Gantt chart.
• 02:57 The tasks move out, but they're still happening at the same time.
• 03:02 I'm going to undo that change, so task seven still is at 15 days.
• 03:07 Now, I'm going to go ahead and finish linking these tasks.
• 03:11 But before we review those, I want to just point out a few things.
• 03:15 Not all our tasks happened in a perfect sequence.
• 03:18 For example, this hire interior designer.
• 03:22 But we can be looking for
• 03:23 that interior designer while work is being done on the house.
• 03:27 Probably makes sense after that install house frame task is done to find
• 03:31 ourselves the interior designer.
• 03:34 So you can see on the Gantt chart how that lines up differently than the other
• 03:39 tasks surrounding it.
• 03:40 You might want to move hire interior designer up, but it kind of makes sense to
• 03:45 have that interior designer with other tasks around it.
• 03:48 So we'll leave that task where it belongs.
• 03:52 Now, we are trying to create a critical path.
• 03:55 And this critical path is defining the list of tasks that perform the longest
• 03:59 sequence from beginning to end of the project.
• 04:02 We can't do that if all of our tasks aren't properly linked.
• 04:05 Now, there's a few ways to decide whether all these tasks are linked.
• 04:09 One way is to quickly look at the Gantt chart.
• 04:12 As you can see, this task doesn't seem to be attached to anything.
• 04:16 There's another way I can do that.
• 04:18 If I right-click on the Start column and choose Insert Column,
• 04:23 I can start typing the word successors.
• 04:26 And what you can see is that there is a successors column.
• 04:29 And if I press the Enter key on my keyboard,
• 04:32 what's happening is Microsoft Project automatically filled out this field for
• 04:37 us as we were entering the predecessors.
• 04:40 And one of the easiest ways to find missing tasks that are unlinked
• 04:44 is to come through here and look down the predecessors and
• 04:49 then look back up the successors.
• 04:51 And you can see there's blank lines.
• 04:54 Now, there's a way I personally like to link these tasks up, and
• 04:58 that's to use the network diagram.
• 05:00 l will cover linking these tasks together with a network diagram in the next lesson.
• 05:06 If you happen to be using Project 2019 or Project Online,
• 05:10 you might have noticed this little pick list item here.
• 05:13 If you click it, you'll see that you can actually select multiple tasks
• 05:18 without having to type them.
• 05:20 Now it's easy as selecting a few tasks and
• 05:23 then just clicking the pick list item there, and it updates.
• 05:27 You can do that with successors, too.
• 05:32 So this is a minor enhancement you can enjoy if you're using Project Online or
• 05:37 Microsoft Project 2019.
• 05:39 Because this was just a demonstration exercise,
• 05:44 I'm going to undo all of my changes that I made here so
• 05:50 that you can continue with the course.

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