Redistributing Planned Hours when Schedule Dependencies Exist

When making any changes to a plan, including redistributing hours, you should expect that all dependencies are honored along with any options you specified on the Redistribute Hours dialog box. However, you could make selections in the Redistribute Hours dialog box that, when applied, would cause prohibited dates based on an existing dependency with a predecessor and result in broken dependencies.

Vantagepoint does not allow broken dependencies in a plan. On the Redistribute Hours dialog box, you are required to select an option that will be used only for broken dependencies that result after redistributing planned hours.

For any work breakdown structure (WBS) element at any level of the structure that has a resource assigned, you can select the Redistribute Hours option from the Labor tab of the plan to replace or change planned hours for that element. When redistributing hours, be aware that schedule dependencies may be broken in the following situations. If this occurs, Vantagepoint resolves them using the option selected for Resolve Broken Dependencies in either of these situations:

• There is a Finish-to-Start (FS) relationship and the selected options on the Redistribute Hours dialog box cause changes to the successor and the successor will start before the predecessor finishes.
• There is a Start-to-Start (SS) relationship and the selected options on the Redistribute Hours dialog box cause changes to the successor and the successor will start before the predecessor starts.

On the Redistribute Hours dialog box, Vantagepoint includes a Resolve Broken Dependencies option that specifies which action to take if a broken dependency is detected. You are required to specify an option here, but the action applies only when changes to a successor would result in a broken dependency:

• Remove Broken Dependencies: Removes dependencies that were broken after processing redistribute options.
• Repair Broken Dependencies: Repairs dependencies that were broken after processing redistribute options by adding the appropriate lead time to the dependency relationship.

Options that Could Cause Broken Dependencies

The following combinations of selected options on the Redistribute Hours dialog box could cause broken dependencies if they shifted the predecessor or successor start or end dates and the successor is now outside the allowed dates for the dependency relationship type.

1. When you set Redistribute Option to Change Planned Hours and set Selected Assignment Range to Specify Date Range

2. When you set Redistribute Option to Replace Planned with Actual Hours and select any of the following combinations:

   The Selected Assignment Range option is:	The Spread Differences checkbox is:	And the following is true:
   JTD Date Range	Cleared	The actual hours from the JTD date range fall before or after the assignment or plan dates.
   	Selected	The Spread Into option is set to ETC Assignment Date Range and Change Assignment End Date to ETC Date and Spread the Difference to That Date is selected, and: The actual hours from the JTD date range fall before or after the assignment or plan dates, and/or The difference between planned and actual hours is spread through to the new and later end of the plan level.
   	Selected	The Spread Into option is set to Specify Date Range, and: The actual hours from the JTD date range fall before or after the assignment or plan dates, and/or The difference between planned and actual hours is spread into a date range that falls after the JTD date range or after the selected assignment range.
   Specify Date Range	Cleared	The actual hours from the assignment range specified fall before or after the assignment or plan dates.
   	Selected	The Spread Into option is set to ETC Assignment Date Range, the Change Assignment End Date to ETC Date and Spread the Difference to That Date is selected, and: The actual hours from the specified assignment range fall before or after the assignment or plan dates, and/or The difference between planned and actual hours is spread through to the new and later end of the plan level.
   	Selected	The Spread Into options is set to Specify Date Range, and: The actual hours from the specified assignment range fall before or after the assignment or plan dates, and/or The difference between planned and actual hours is spread into a date range that falls after the JTD date range or after the selected assignment range.