Difference between revisions of "Critical path for Version 7.0 (OnePager Pro)"

Revision as of 22:14, 17 September 2019

About Editing The Critical Path

1) A powerful feature of OnePager Pro (OPP) is the ability to display the critical path through tasks in the OnePager graph.

2) Critical Path information is generated in your Microsoft Project source plan and made available to OPP when your source plan data are imported.

3) When you enable the critical path capability, OPP displays critical path information within the displayed tasks bars.

4) Below is a sample chart with the critical path feature enabled:

Critical Path Representation

1) This feature displays critical path segments on the top of each task showing where the source plan's critical path intersects with each task on the path.

2) The critical path segments for a summary task are computed by finding sub-tasks that are on the critical path and have no sub-tasks of their own.

a) OnePager then applies the same rule to sub-tasks of sub-tasks if any.

b) OnePager repeats this search until it examines the entire work breakdown structure beneath the summary task.

c) To determine whether a given sub-task is on the critical path, OnePager can use the critical path indicator, Critical field in your Microsoft Project source plan.

d) Alternatively, OnePager can use any Flag or Number fields in your Microsoft Project source plan as a critical path indicator.

e) A virtual summary task constructed from several individual tasks in the chart with critical path segments looks like this:

Editing All Task Critical Path Properties

1) All task critical path properties can be edited without changing the settings in the current Template by using the following steps:

Chart Properties Form's Task Bars Tab

2) Click the Chart Properties button on the Home ribbon in the Settings group.

3) Next, navigate to either the Task Bars tab.

4) Ensure that the Critical-Path Segments checkbox is checked On as shown below:

Set Critical-Path Properties Form

5) You can control the critical-path segments property's by clicking the Critical Path Properties button which accesses the Set critical-path properties form shown below:

6) The default Critical-path field setting is Critical, that is, the field that OPP uses to access critical path segment information for its computations.

7) As shown below, you can select from other Microsoft Project source plan fields that are either Boolean or Numeric:

8) In the Set critical-path properties form, you can edit the color of the critical path segment represented in a task by clicking the Critical-path color dropdown button which accesses the standard Color Chooser form.

9) Additionally, you can adjust the height of the critical-path segment within the task by editing the percentage value in the Critical-path height control of the above form.

10) The Critical-path height is a percentage of the total task height. The default setting is 20 percent.

11) Here is an example of tasks with the Critical-path height set to 50%:

Import Rules for Microsoft Project Source Plan Critical Path Data

12) If you did not previously check the Critical-Path Segments checkbox On in the Task Bar tab of the Chart Properties form before importing your source plan data to OPP, you are not able to display the critical path segments because OnePager did not compute the critical path segments when importing the Microsoft Project source plan.

13) As discussed above, it is recommended that you turn on the critical-path segment display controls in the Template before importing the Microsoft Project source plan. However, you can subsequently use the controls above in the Chart Properties form to display critical-path segments in follow on snapshots.

14) This is done by checking the Critical-Path Segments checkbox On in the Task Bars tab of the Chart Properties form.

15) With this control checked On, all subsequent snapshots display critical path segments depending on the source plan data imported.

Milestone Symbols Do Not Have Critical Path Segments or Properties

1) OnePager Pro does not support the representation of critical-path segments for milestone symbols.

2) Accordingly, there are no Critical Path Segment Controls on the Milestone tab of the Template Properties form or the Chart Properties form which is shown below in the highlighted Milestone Symbols Decorations control group:

Editing Individual Task Critical Path Properties

1) The default settings for displaying critical path information for individual tasks (milestones do not have critical path segments) can be minimally edited by using the following steps:

2) Select the task and right-click to access the context menu with the Format… command or click the Format… button on the Home ribbon after selecting the desired tasks/milestones.

3) Either way, click the Critical Segments tab in the Change Task/Milestone Properties form which looks like this:

4) The Show Critical-Path Segments checkbox allows you to turn the critical path On and Off for the selected task.

5) Clicking the Use Critical-Segments Defaults button changes the selected task’s critical path segment properties to the critical path settings current in the Chart Properties form.

6) Here is an example of a chart with one task’s critical path turned Off:

Virtual Summary Tasks with Critical Path Segments Turned Off

7) When a task is edited to not display the critical path segment and that task is included in a Virtual Summary Task (VST), the task with the maverick critical path segment is still represented in the virtual summary task with the critical path displayed as shown in the two illustrations that follow:

a) Five tasks in the chart before construction in Virtual Summary Task:

b) The constructed Virtual Summary Task from the five tasks shown above is shown here:

c) Although the chart before the construction of the Virtual Summary Task shows a gap in the critical path, nevertheless, the actual critical path for the constructed Virtual Summary Task is contiguous. In effect, Virtual Summary Tasks are constructed to ignore any maverick critical path segment that are not displayed in the chart.

Individual Editing of Other Critical Path Properties

8) There are no controls in the Critical Segments tab of the Change Task/Milestone Properties form to edit other critical path properties for an individually selected tasks such as critical-path field, color, and critical-path height.

(10.7.1-70)