Behavior of Scheduling in Project Structures

Information

• PLANTA project always includes the currently selected project and its subprojects during scheduling. This is true regardless of whether the child projects are selected and displayed.
  • If the top project is selected, the entire project structure is scheduled by PLANTA project.
  • If a subproject is selected, it is scheduled by PLANTA project including its subprojects.
• After projects have been structured and the schedule has been calculated, a structure task is created automatically in each parent project. A structure task is a task which connects a parent project to a subproject.
• Durations, effort, and costs are summarized from the subproject to the structure task of the parent project.

Control Data Exchange between Main Project and Subproject

Information

• When planning with project structures, the data exchange between different project levels can be controlled via the Structure calculation with adjustment model parameter.

Notes

• If model parameters are changed in the project structures area, the entries in Planned duration, Requested start, and Requested end must be checked and corrected if necessary.
• For cost calculation purposes you are advised to enter effort and costs only at one level, like e.g. the subproject level. Entry at both structure task and main and subproject level should be avoided.
• The standard modules do not contain these data items for structure calculation. If you want them to be displayed, they can be included in the modules via customizing:
  • DI001123 Structure start , DI001124 Structure end , DI001140 Planned duration/structure , DI001141 Actual duration/structure , DI001142 TA Remaining duration/structure , DI001143 Planned duration/structure DI001143 Remaining effort/structure , DI001144 Actual effort/structure , DI001145 Remaining effort/structure , DI001633 Planned costs/structure , DI001634 Actual costs/structure , DI001635 Remaining costs/structure DI001636 Total costs/structure
• The actual start date is not automatically set for structure tasks with subprojects.

SF and FF Links for Structure Tasks

Objective

• To show the effects of SF and FF links on structure tasks

Information

• When carrying out the calculations for project structures, the key dates for the parent task (e.g. TA Earliest start and TA Latest end, depending on the model parameters) are copied to the subproject as its PR Requested start and PR Requested end, so that the subproject can run between these key dates.
• However, in the case of SF and FF links between structure tasks, their TA Earliest start is not known until the calculations are completed for the subproject, which is why these dates cannot be passed down before that point. Thus, there is a chicken and egg problem which causes some other PM systems to simply ban such links. In PLANTA project, SF and FF relations between structure tasks are possible. They are taken into account as follows:
  • The TA Requested start of the subproject the parent task of which is a successor of a SF or FF relation, is determined from:
    • the project start date of the higher level project, if there are no other SS or FS links pointing to this task.
    • the TA Earliest start of the parent task, if it is the successor of an FS or SS link.
  • All tasks which have no successor are moved just far enough so that the SF and FF links are complied with.