Does anyone know of MS Project tools that help to identify redundant dependencies? I inherited a project plan with over 4000 tasks and wish to find & remove redundant task dependencies with out having to gothough line by line.
Thank-you
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Prasad VelagaExecutive| OptisolCollege Station, Tx, United States
Please let me know if you do not find any tool for your needs. We have an add-in tool for generating a spaghetti network diagram. It can automatically identify and remove all redundant task dependencies. I can use it to help you.
Thanks,
Prasad
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Huw EvansSenior Manager, Projects and Partnerships| Vicinity CentresMount Waverley, Vic, Australia
What do you classify as a redundant dependency? Surely the purpose of making tasks dependent upon one another is to maintain that relationship as the project progresses and changes. For example, if task C is dependent upon tasks A and B, however task A is due to finish way earlier than task B, you could view the dependency between A and C as redundant. Which may be true, until task A becomes delayed and in fact pushes forward past task B. Now task C is being delayed by the late task A. If you'd removed this dependency, then you lose this functionality.
Also, why do you wish to remove these?
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Prasad VelagaExecutive| OptisolCollege Station, Tx, United States
Huw,
Redundant task dependency has nothing to do with project progress. Let me clarify it. If we state that task A precedes task B and the task B precedes task C, then the statement that task A precedes task C is redundant.
The redundancy can reduce clarity in Gantt chart and network diagrams. It may also indicate a possibility that the planner could not fully grasp the task dependencies and the related workflow in the project. It could also be an indication of errors in some links.
Regards,
Prasad
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Huw EvansSenior Manager, Projects and Partnerships| Vicinity CentresMount Waverley, Vic, Australia
Prasad, that makes sense - I wasn't thinking along those lines.
The tool you mention, is it a MS Project add on?
- Huw Saving Changes...
Prasad VelagaExecutive| OptisolCollege Station, Tx, United States
Huw,
The tool mentioned in my first reply is a tiny, standalone Visual Basic application that can have Excel import from MS Project. It is not yet converted into an add-in for Project. It generates a spaghetti network diagram for a project as shown at
http://www.optisol.biz/network.htm . It can also check for redundant task dependency as part of the process. This check is however computationally intensive for large projects.
Regards,
Prasad
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Andrew MakarProgram Manager| AMAKAR LLCOakland Township, Mi, United States
I'd be interested in playing with the tool as well.
From a delivery perspective, what is the impact of having redundant dependencies?
The Gantt chart can become a mess to review depending on the level of detail. However, I typically see a different milestone chart to depict timeline status as the Gantt chart isn't a customer friendly graphic.
Using the A to B to C predecssor logic, A and C would still be on the critical path.
Prasad VelagaExecutive| OptisolCollege Station, Tx, United States
Andrew,
The redundancy which occurs during the determination of task dependencies does not impact project schedule. A spaghetti network diagram (with small icons for tasks) should be quite useful to grasp the overall task dependency structure of a large project.
Thanks for your interest in our tool for automatic redundancy check and the construction of spaghetti network diagram. We need to do some testing before offering it to anyone since it involves implementation of a rigorous algorithm. I would try to offer you a limited version by next week.
Regards,
Prasad
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Anonymous
Don't worry about them. They might cause clutter, but they won't alter the schedule. Saving Changes...
