Predecessors across projects and sub-projects

[Ken Steinhoff]

I am fairly new to MS Project and I am trying to figure out how to set up links between tasks in a project that contains a sub project.

My main project contains tasks that require selections and ordering to occur in advance of the task.

I have created the main project including all of the tasks, and have created a sub-project for the selections and ordering.

The intent is to provide the customer with dates to make their selections by, which then control the date of the materials/services to be ordered and in turn meets the timeline in the master project for the task to be completed.

The ordering needs to be controlled by the task date in the master, and the selections controlled by the order date.

For example:

Cabinets to be installed on Sept 1st have a lead time of 8 weeks.
The order must be placed by July 1st for the cabinets to be delivered and installed on Sept 1st.
The customer must have made the cabinet selection by June 15th to allow for double checking and order placing on July 1st.

Is it possible to use Unique IDs and Unique ID Predecessors for this, or is there another way?

Or should I abandon the attempt to use a sub project and put the selections and order tasks into the main project?

Any help would be very much appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Ken, if you have a master project with a sub project then the predecessors are pretty simple. This means that they both are viewable in the same schedule. Just select the predecessor in one project and the successor in the other project and then select to link the tasks (Task ribbon, Schedule group, Link).

It is still possible as separate project schedules. Easiest way to link tasks between projects is to create a temporary master project. From a blank project, select the Project ribbon, Subproject. Find the first project and insert it. Do the same for the second project. Now you have both in the same schedule, and follow the steps above to link tasks. After that, close that project, select No to save changes, and the Yes To All to save changes to the sub projects.

There are a few considerations with this and may be a bit challenging to a beginner, but at least worth testing to start. If this is too much I might suggest combining the two schedules. That’s the simplest solution.

Hope that helps…Larry

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