(1) Explain your problem, don't simply post "This isn't working". What were you doing when you faced the problem? What have you tried to resolve - did you look for a solution using "Search" ? Has it happened just once or several times?
(2) It's also good to get feedback when a solution is found, return to the original post to explain how it was resolved so that more people can also use the results.
I have milestones within my programmes which represent capital approvals meetings. These meetings are monthly so I have created a calendar for these milestones with only 1 working day per month. If the activities preceeding these milestones are late, then the next available approval milestone is in the next month, and so on.
A total float problem occurs when I add relationships. The total float for its predecessors has a negative value, which appears to be the difference in days since the last months milestone date, despite the fact that it would not be achieved, if looking at the critical path.
I'm not sure of a way around this, and I do not want to start manually adding the approvals dates instead if it can be helped.
Any ideas on whether there is a solution or a setting in P6 to sort this issue out?
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Hi Ranjiv
That is plain rubbish - negative float is a sign of poor planning methods and has no place in a proper responsive programme.
Best regards
Mike Testro
Adrian - it is an interesting example to explore how P6 calculates dates during forward and backward scheduling passes. The negative float is useful as it indicates the number of days the activity will miss the previous approval date. So it represents an opportunity to compress the schedule by the amount of negative float. Explore this by exposing the "Negative Float Bar" and the "Late Bar". When you set the approval date milestone as a finish milestone, the Late Finish(Lf) date is the approval date in the previous month and the system is calculating total float from this earlier Lf date.
Check it out!
Hi Adrian
A proper programme should not have any constraints at all - they always distort the function of the logic.
Keep them out of your programmes and you will never have these problems again.
Best regards
Mike Testro
Thanks for the quick responses - the problem seems to be with the use of Finish milestones. I have modified these to Start Milestones and the float discrepency has gone away.
The problem also went when I altered the meeting to an activity with 1 day duration instead of a milestone event.
My appreciation to all for offering solutions.
Regards,
Adrian
Suggest using a separate milestone for each approval instead of for each meeting. Each meeting can discuss several approval milestones that you do not know in advance to which meeting belongs and do not want to fix. Just suppose one activity is delayed then approval might be rescheduled to following month making it a different meeting.
If the meeting is re scheduled or any individual approval is delayed for next month or a re-scheduled meeting you will be able to make the adjustments.
Also you will be able to create links to successors after approval meetings and if your software has conditional scheduling it can cancel successors if not approved.
This shall also fix your float issues.
The following figure is not P6 but might help.
Hi Adrian
Your use of calendars for this situation is the correct approach so it should work
Do you have any must end by constraints on any tasks?
Are there any successor links to the meeting milestone?
Another possibillity is that a milestone has zero duration but you have given it a day to move around in.
Best regards
Mike T.
Email: PPadmin@planningplanet.com
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