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Planview Customer Success Center

"Move successor task" option is cleared upon linking the project to MSP and removing the link

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Symptoms
We have a situation when linking two tasks:

1. When we link two tasks in MSP and edit the End Date of a predecessor task then automatically the Start Date of the successor moves to the End Date (next working day) of the predecessor task.

2. The same behaviour is observed in project worksheet.

3. If we create the link in MSP, however, and save the project to Changepoint, and then remove the link and edit the tasks in project worksheet, Start Date of the successor task is not moving.

In order to recover from this situation we have to set the "Move successor task date" option in Manage Links dialog again. If we have more than a thousand tasks then what should be the solution?

Reason
Changepoint clears the “Move successor task” option when linking a project in MSP, and does not set it back upon removing the MSP link. The reason behind this design preference is to avoid date shifts in the project plan upon removing the link. MSP allows 0 duration tasks with 0 lag to have the same date for the predecessor finish and successor start, while Changepoint does not. Changepoint has no concept of a 0-duration task and will always set the successor start/finish date to be 1 day later than the predecessor. By not setting this option automatically, upon removing MSP link, Changepoint avoids potential differences/date shifts between the MSP plan and the Changepoint plan.

The “Move Successor Task” option can still be set for linked tasks after removing the link. Be aware that Changepoint may shift the planned dates in that case. For example, there may be milestones that used to have the start date of the successor be the same date as the finish date of the predecessor, which starts/finishes one day later after ticking this option (as the start date of the successor will be one day later than the finish date of the predecessor, or even 3 days later if the start date used to be a Friday).

Workaround

Select the linked tasks in project worksheet via Ctrl+Left click, and open the “Manage task links” dialog afterwards. This will allow handling the task linking options for several tasks in one window. Click on the field and use Space + Down arrow to set this option quickly for several lines.