Manually scheduling a Change

You can manually schedule a Change in the Graphical Scheduling application. Most often, you manually schedule a Change after the CPM has failed to find a scheduling solution automatically. To manually schedule a Change, you schedule tasks individually, and you can manually schedule a task that has been added to a Change. There are several ways in which you can perform manual scheduling.

About this task

As you begin the task of manually rescheduling a task, note that the Gantt chart is non-shaded if there are no blocking constraints, but the task is too long to fix in that space. The Gantt chart displays green for the task if there is enough time without resource constraints to fix the current task length.

Resizing a task in the Gantt chart

About this task

You can manually schedule a task by resizing the task to fit within a non-shaded region on the timeline; a non-shaded region is a time slot that is available for the task. Use the following guidelines:

The right edge of the task bar represents the Scheduled Finish date of the task. Click and drag the right edge to change the finish date and duration of the task.
You can also stretch the left end of the task bar to a preferred start date to modify the duration of the task.
You can change the scheduled dates in the Gantt chart by clicking the start or end dates for a task and editing the text. After you click outside of the editable field, the new date is displayed in the corresponding row of the Gantt chart.

Moving a task in the Gantt chart

About this task

You can drag the task bar to a non-shaded region. To do so, click the middle of the task bar, and drag the bar to a new start and finish date on the timeline. This preserves task duration.

Rescheduling a task from the Resource Constraints chart

About this task

You can use the Resource Constraints chart to move a task bar to a non-shaded availability region in which you want the task performed.

Procedure

With the task selected in the Gantt chart, right-click the green constraint bar on the top row of the Resource Constraints chart, in the non-shaded region where you want to schedule the task.
Select Use for Schedule from the popup menu that is displayed. The task bar moves to the non-shaded availability region in which you right-clicked.

Rescheduling multiple tasks as a group

About this task

You can select multiple task records at the same time and reschedule them as a group. For example, you might want to move work that has not been started from a prior schedule to the next planning window. You can select multiple tasks in the Gantt view in the following ways:

Click outside of the tasks, then group them with a bordering rectangle.
Use Ctrl-click to select individual tasks of a noncontiguous group.

The tasks that you selected have edit markers visible on both the start and finish of each bar. The corresponding task rows in the Gantt chart is highlighted. When multiple rows are selected, only the start and finish dates can be moved, preserving duration. Dragging any of the selected rows moves them all proportionally. Moving a group of tasks or child records moves the parent record with them.

Ignoring the effect of a resource constraint

You can instruct Graphical Scheduling to ignore selected resource constraints when scheduling a task. By doing so, you disable the effect of the constraints on the schedule. For example, you might discover that a blackout period constraint can be disabled without serious repercussions across the infrastructure. Ignoring a resource constraint often enables you to successfully schedule a task that could not previously be scheduled.

Before you begin

Before you ignore a resource constraint, view the details of the constraints that are in effect for the task that you want to schedule. Viewing the details of a constraint enables you to identify the exact constraint or constraints that are preventing an available time slot from opening up for a task. To view these details, expand the constraint category until the particular constraint is shown, highlight the row that contains the constraint, and click the arrow beside the constraint name. You are launched to the corresponding application (for example, the Change Window Calendars application) to view details about the constraint; when you want to return to Graphical Scheduling, click Return in the other application window.

About this task

Ignoring a resource constraint does not affect the record for that constraint. For example, ignoring a change window constraint does not remove that change window from the Change Window Calendars application. You are simply disabling the effect of the change window constraint for the purposes of your current schedule.

If the Enforce box is checked for a resource constraint category, the constraint effect of the category contributes to the parent category. If you clear the Enforce box, the resource constraint bars for that constraint category are colored gray, and the effect of the resource constraint no longer contributes to the parent category.

For example, disabling the Blackout Periods category causes any blackout periods that are in the calendar to turn gray; blackout periods no longer contribute to the Resource Constraints category. If you expand the Blackout Periods category and disable a single blackout period, that blackout period no longer contributes to the parent Blackout Periods category. Disabling an entire category disables all of the individual instances of that category; disabling an instance disables only that instance. You can disable a subset of the instances of a category.

Procedure

In the Gantt chart, select the task for which you want to disable a constraint.
After identifying the resource constraint that you want to disable, clear the Enforce box for that constraint. You can disable an entire constraint category or an individual instance within that category.
Click to run the CPM on the task. If the resource constraint that you identified and disabled was preventing the task from having an availability region, the task is now scheduled successfully.

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