Reverse Planning
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Do you have a project that must finish on a certain date, and now you need to figure out when you must start the work? This requires Reverse Planning
Traditionally projects are planned from start to finish.
With Microsoft Project Online you can reverse that thought process and start with the end in mind. Microsoft Project can help you plan from your goal date, back to the start.
Reverse Planning may be referred to by other terms such as Block Planning, Backward Planning or Reverse Scheduling.
You want to hit an end-date, how will you schedule for that? There are four methods.
The first is to build a normal waterfall, finish-to-start project, and then to adjust dates until you hit the desired end-date. That can be cumbersome.
There are three more scientific ways to do Reverse Planning in Microsoft Project:
• You can use the “As Late As Possible” constraint type for preceding tasks,
• You can use Start-to-Finish relationships on preceding tasks, or
• You can get Microsoft Project to schedule the project from the end-date.
The best method is probably the “Schedule the Project from the End-Date” option. It is more “normal” than the others, and allows you flexibility to return to the “Schedule from the Start,” which once again makes the plan easier to understand and use.
NEXT STEPS
Western Principles is a Microsoft Gold certified Project & Portfolio Management partner.
We know Microsoft Project. We can help you with program selection and visibility, Microsoft Project, and other work management solutions like Azure DevOps and JIRA, and other parts of your project & portfolio management system.
Let’s get started together. Visit us on the web at www.WesternPrinciples.com, call us at 1-800-578-4155, or email us at info@westernprinciples.com.
We look forward to helping you.
