Path Tracker

One of the hardest things for people new to MS Project is to figure out what's causing dates to be what they are. For this reason the ItMakesSense application gives you several ways to trace through a simple schedule and even a large master schedule.

One way is Path Tracker. It is the fastest way to trace task dependencies since it only reads MS Project data and does not have to write it back for reporting. Instead, it writes the data to a stacked bar chart which makes it exponentially faster. If this isn't a factor you can use Path Analysis (below) to do the same thing, with a few less features. Find immediate, critical or all dependencies. Critical uses the Driving Slack Method that is described here.

As you trace, you can select Lock Trace and this will hold the tasks in the list of tasks to display.

Touch Screen Support
One of the advantages of tracing using Path Tracker and the Classic Trace is touch screen support. With one finger you can see task dependencies. In Path Tracker one touch will show you predecessors, successors and critical tasks without changing your MS Project View. Yes, it's only a stacked bar chart, but it allows someone with no scheduling experience to trace tasks with one finger and a copy of MS Project. In the Classic Trace double clicking shows you immediate logic (one level) and most pertinent custom field information. Path Tracker and Classic Trace can be paired together to create an extremely powerful tracing tool, even for novices.

Holding down your finger on a task will attempt to find the task in MS Project. If More Info is the click 'Click Action' the Classic Trace will be opened on the held task. 'Lock Trace' will allow you to Trace one predecessor/successor at a time and keep the previous tasks in the chart. 'Show In View' can be used to display the list in the chart directly in MS Project.

Demo

You can also run as many Path Tracker instances as your computers memory will allow you to. This allows you to branch off when running into multiple tasks you want to evaluate. Clicking the Dock checkbox at the top left will make the chart full screen, maximize the window for even more area. The Show In View button at the bottom left will show the tasks in this screen in MS Project.

Note: Right Clicking any task attempts to find the task in the active view. This uses your Find Other setting in Application Settings. This defaults to Task Name and not UID because many people have to find tasks in a Master. UID in a Master does not match the UID in a Subproject. When Tracing MS Project requires you to select the Subproject Task Object and not the Master Task Object. (A Master has a long integer value and the sub is usually a much shorter integer value) If you're using a single project, feel free to change this field to UID. A better field to choose in a Master is a field that is Unique in all situations. An example of this is a formula that combines [Project]&[Unique ID]. Plug this formula into a custom field and change the Find Other setting and you will have a field that is unique in all circumstances.

Make sure that all tasks are visible when doing a trace. Use Show All to quickly do this.

Classic Trace

The Classic Trace only displays immediate predecessors and successors to the selected task. The active task is shown at the top. Right clicking any task (Main, Pred, or Succ) will attempt to find the task in MS Project. You might have to Show All if the task is filtered. Double clicking a task will find the next set of predecessors and successors. The right side shows many fields at once including all Baseline and Estimate Dates, all text, number and duration fields. This screen can also be accessed with Path Tracker by selecting More Info and selecting the task you want to see More Info. This becomes very powerful when paired together to find the information you are looking for.

Demo

Note: Right Clicking any task attempts to find the task in the active view. This uses your Find Other setting in Application Settings. This defaults to Task Name and not UID because many people have to find tasks in a Master. UID in a Master does not match the UID in a Subproject. When Tracing MS Project requires you to select the Subproject Task Object and not the Master Task Object. (A Master has a long integer value and the sub is usually a much shorter integer value) If you're using a single project, feel free to change this field to UID. A better field to choose in a Master is a field that is Unique in all situations. An example of this is a formula that combines [Project]&[Unique ID]. Plug this formula into a custom field and change the Find Other setting and you will have a field that is unique in all circumstances.

Make sure that all tasks are visible when doing a trace. Use Show All to quickly do this.

Path Analysis

Note: this process is not nearly as fast as analyzing task dependencies using Path Tracker. It writes data back to a Flag and Number field you define in Application Options.

This utility is very similar to Path Tracker but it writes the data to MS Project which can increase processing time. You can display all predecessors, immediate predecessors, all successors, immediate successors, driving successors and critical predecessors. Again, Critical Successors runs a quick Driving Path Critical Path (For Just Path 1). More info is here. There is also an option there to see how to run a quick Deadline Method Critical Path if you prefer that to the Driving Slack Method. Make sure you have Longest Path selected in the Critical Path Settings if you want the Critical Predecessors process in this section to always attempt to go back to time-now (Status Date).

Demo

Reminder: For a quick deadline method critical predecessor check refer to the Deadline Method section here.

Tip: You can add any button to your Quick Access Toolbar by right clicking. This is very useful for this section of buttons.

Create Temporary File

There are countless reasons you would want to create a temporary version of a project. Doing what-ifs, risk analysis or running functions within this tool you just might be more comfortable performing tasks in a test environment. Create Temporary Project does exactly that. Click this button and a copy of the saved active project will be put in your Temp directory and named Delete.mpp. It is extremely fast and overwrites the file each time so you don’t have a bunch of copies taking up space. This is very useful when tracing tasks within project in the section below, Path Analysis.

This does not work in Project Server unless you save a copy of the project to the file system.

Driving Slack

Driving slack is free slack to a tasks immediate predecessors. It does not take into consideration any other relationship that may exist in any of those predecessors.

Take the following example.

Trace Task has 4 predecessors. Task Example 1 has 0 Total Slack and 0 Free Slack. How does it have 65 days of driving slack? The answer is Task Example 1 has another direct successor that will move if the duration is increased at all. An increase in duration, up to 65 days, wouldn't affect the traced task. Notice that Example 2-4 even has 10 days of Total Slack and have 0 Free Slack to the Trace Task. Driving slack is just another clue as to the driver. Without it, one might assume Task Example 1 would be the driver. Like we mention above, Path Tracker takes this a step further and visually shows you what's happening.

MS Pro Export

Export summary schedules and any paths to MS Pro. Since there is no need to write back to MS Project, Critical Path and all sub-critical paths can be exported in as little as five seconds. This does require you to have a copy of Milestones Pro. If you don't, you can still take advantage of alternative methods to do Critical and Driving Path Analysis.

Settings

You can define a field to export Summary Schedules. Populate this number with the row you would like to see the Task or Milestone on in Milestone Pro. It there are duplicates they will be placed on the same row.

Up to 10 columns can be chosen and exported to MS Pro. 5 columns on the left side of the GANTT and 5 on the right side. You can choose to hide these columns by selecting the Hide check box next to the Column Name. All of the columns can be hidden if you only want the GANTT.

Export Vertical Links exports one link to the first successor it encounters. It is set up this way to ensure that when viewing multiple paths you can visually tell where the paths intersect.

Sort by Finish then Start (Including Multiple Paths) allows you to see the alternatives paths visually (different colors) serially vs. each path grouped.

Export Max Path And Path 1 (2 Paths Total) allows you to export the Critical/Driving Path and another path of your choosing (e.g. the tertiary path).

Trace tasks in a standalone or Master/Subproject then view and send them off to stakeholders who need to visually understand how the schedule is built. With the "Show MS Pro" check box selected, click Show (both in bottom left corner), and the items in the chart will be exported in the more professional looking MS Pro. Show without "Show MS Pro" checked display the tasks in MS Project.

The check box to export to MS Pro and colors are defined in the Critical/Driving Path Options screen.

The following example shows five paths being exported from a 4000 line IMS in less than 5 seconds (time from click to MS Pro). This can also be achieved with MS Project without MS Pro but it has to set a field and takes less than one minute. The advantage is that the paths will be flagged and can be returned to at a later time.

Once exported the MS Pro file can be modified in many ways. Smart columns can be assigned for better formatting, date ranges changed for better fit, adjust columns widths, etc. Once it looks the way you want it to, you can save as PDF or PowerPoint. MS Pro has many options to deliver professional looking reports to management or your customer.