Schedule work plan or summary tasks

When you schedule a work plan or a summary task, you schedule all the tasks of the work plan or all the child tasks of the summary task forward from a start date. When the scheduler runs, it considers the scheduling constraints of each task and task dependency between tasks.

This section explains how to schedule a work plan and a summary task.

In this topic:

Before scheduling work plan and summary tasks

1. Adjust or understand the scheduling policy.

   This policies controls how the scheduler deals with the existing data of the work plan. For details, see Scheduling policy.

2. If you want to specify that a task must start on a particular date, or finish no later than a particular date, set the scheduling constraints for the task. The constraints prevent the scheduler from moving the task forward.

How to set scheduling constraints for a task

1. Open the Task Details page.

2. In the Schedule tab, Constraints section, select the constraints type and date.

   Constraints can be defined for summary tasks or their children. If a constraint is defined for a summary task, it also applies to all of its child tasks.

   

   Constraint	Description	Available to Summary Tasks?
   As Soon As Possible	The task will be scheduled as early as the work plan structure and dependencies allow. This is inferred if no constraint is defined.	Y
   As Late As Possible	The task will be scheduled as late as the work plan structure and dependencies allow.	N
   Start No Earlier Than	The task cannot start before the date specified.	Y
   Start No Later Than	The task should start on or before the date specified.	N
   Finish No Later Than	The task must finish by the date specified.	Y
   Must Start On	The task must start on the date specified.	N
   Finish No Earlier Than	The task should not finish before the date specified.	N
   Must Finish On	The task must finish on the date specified.	N

3. Click Save or Done.

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Schedule a work plan

Scheduling a work plan schedules all the tasks in the work plan except the tasks that have set scheduling constraints.

1. Open the work plan.

2. Click the Schedule Work Plan icon.

   

3. Specify the Schedule from date and Critical Path Threshold.

   Field	Description
   Schedule from date	A date from which to schedule the work plan. This is usually set in the Scheduling policy individually for each project and generally does not change unless the entire project needs to shift dates. If you are collecting actuals in your work plan, changing the Schedule from date field and rescheduling the work plan can push remaining work into the future.
   Critical Path Threshold	For details, see Scheduling policy, the Critical Path Threshold option.

4. Click Schedule.

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Schedule a summary task

Scheduling a summary task schedules the summary task and its child tasks except the tasks that have set the scheduling constraints.

1. Open the work plan and select the summary task.
2. Click the Schedule Summary Task icon.

3. Specify the Schedule from date and Critical Path Threshold.

4. Click Schedule.

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Schedule errors and warnings

Scheduling errors or warnings may happen when scheduling a work plan or a summary task.

• If scheduling errors occur, the scheduling fails with a list of errors.

  Scheduling Error	Cause	Possible Solution
  Circular dependency	The predecessors of a set of projects or tasks contains a cycle. This cannot be scheduled. Project Management detects circular dependencies while creating or editing the work plan.	Break the cycle by removing or changing a predecessor.
  No tasks to be scheduled	The work plan is complete or cancelled, so there are no tasks to be scheduled.	If tasks are missing, add them and then schedule.

• If scheduling warnings occur, the scheduling completes with a list of warnings. See Schedule warning rules.

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See also:

• Scheduling policy
• Edit task details