Dates are showing asterisks, but have no constraints.

Check external early start first, then external late finish. These are constraints created by P6 when subprojects are imported separately. This feature is intended to preserve the dates calculations between networks. In your case, because the way you are working (separate files) after you receive al subprojects, you need to recreate the relationships between them and then delete the external dates. To delete external dates, show these columns (Dates section) on the layout. Then click on the cell to edit or delete using the backspace key.

When I schedule my project the finish date is being pushed out to the following year.

Check all predecessor activities that are pushing the last activity's finish date. These activities, completed and incomplete, are going to push the last activity finish date.

Remaining Units/Time Does Not Import Correctly From Excel For New Resource Assignment

Solution

There are three ways to work around this functionality. These changes should be made prior to importing the XLS file. The options listed below can be found under Enterprise, Projects, Calculations tab.

Change the setting under 'Link Budget and At Completion for Not Started Activities' from 'Reset Remaining Duration and Units to Original' to 'Reset Original Duration and Units to Remaining.' Uncheck the setting 'Link Budget and At Completion for Not Started Activities.'

Leave the settings 'Link Budget and At Completion for Not Started Activities' and 'Reset Remaining Duration and Units to Original' turned on, but run the import twice: once to add the new assignment, and again to update the Remaining Units/Time. My Oracle Support (Doc ID 1264122.1)

Last Summarized date is different in projects in job services.

If a project has not been modified in any way since the last summarization, then the project(s) will be skipped. The job will indeed look to see if the project needs to be summarized or not and skip it if it has not been updated since last summarization.

Duration % Complete is not populating.

If activity is set to Task Dependent/Fixed Durations & Units/Duration % complete, user must remember to update the Remaining Duration in order for Duration % Complete to calculate after the project is scheduled.

User’s dates are not moving and it may be related to how project is being scheduled.

When you schedule, you have three options to choose from. When you choose Retained Logic, the remaining duration of a progressed activity is not scheduled until all predecessors are complete. When you choose Progress Override, network logic is ignored and the activity can progress without delay. When you choose Actual Dates, backward and forward passes are scheduled using actual dates.

User wants to set a constraint to an activity so that the project will not go over a specific date.

The finish constraints can be set at the activity level in the status tab. In the past I have suggested Finish On as the type for an activity that needs a hard finish date. The finish on constraint can delay an early finish or accelerate a late finish to satisfy the imposed date. There is also a project level constraint that can be used called the Must Finish By date. It’s a date constraint placed on the project end date. When you edit the must finish by date, the calendar defaults to the date and time currently in the Must Finish By field. This constraint will be the starting point for the Backward Pass (i.e. the calculation of the Late dates) when the Project is Scheduled. Project Must Finish by Constraints only affects the late dates of a Project.

Project finish date is not showing actual finish date.

The finish date in the project view will pull the latest planned finish date in the event there are unfinished activities. When all activities have been marked finished, the latest planned finish date in that activity will populate as the actual project finish date. So with that being said, if a PM hasn’t marked any activities, it will pull the planned finish date of the latest activity as the project finish date. If some of the activities are marked finished, it will still pull the planned finish date of the latest activity as the project finish date. Hopefully the screen shots help to clarify my point. Let me know if you have any questions.

Remaining Finish Date cannot be earlier than Remaining Start Date.

Cause 1: There cannot be a Remaining Duration that is less than or equal to the remaining lag on an activity. This error will appear when trying to change the duration to a number less than the remaining lag.

Cause 2: This could be due to the activities being out of sequence.

Cause 3: This can also be caused by resources having an actual or current Start later than the finish date you are trying to assign to the activity.

Solution 1:

Ensure the Remaining Lag is less than the Remaining Duration.

1. Go to the relationship tab and add a column for lag.

2. Verify that you do not have lag assigned to your resource assignment which is pushing out the remaining finish date for your resource. Check this by going to the activities  view/resource tab and add a column for remaining lag.

3. If the lag is greater than the remaining duration of the activity then you need to reduce the lag before you change the remaining finish date on the activity.

Solution 2:

Force the activity to finish on a certain date that is before the Remaining Early Start Date. Select to use progressed activities to schedule as Progress Override.

To change to Progress Override please do the following:

1. Tools. Schedule. Advanced tab

2. Select the Progress Override button

3. Close

4. Schedule

5. Change the date to required date.

Solution 3:

Add a column in the resource tab for Actual Start and Start and verify that it is before the finish date.  This only affects the date when the resource is driving

My WBS Summary activity is not pulling in the dates of the summary activities?

The project needs to be scheduled to pull in the earliest and latest planned dates.

User is showing negative float in activities with earlier latest dates than earliest starting dates.

Issue could be related to having a must finish date in the project dates tab. When this is populated during project and activities that are in progress, result can be opposite of intended effect. Suggest constraints enabled in activities versus in project dates tab.