single task with combine SS and FF dependencies

[Blobb]

Hi,
I searched the forum without finding an appropriate exisiting post. Here is the (simplified) context and my question:

I have a series of FS tasks and I want to set a new task outside this series which is a monitoring activity of this complete series, running from the first day of the first task until the last day of the last task of the series. To do so, instinctively, I combined 2 dependencies on the monitoring task: a SS with the first task of the series and a FF with the last task. And so,my idea was that the duration of my monitoring should be automatically defined and equal to the duration of the series.

The problem is that it's not working, it's not automatic, and I need to set the duration of the monitoring activity manually to match the complete duration of the series; otherwise the start or finish date of my monitoring will not match with, respectively, the start date of the first task or the finish date of the last task of the series.

It looks like the SS or FF dependency is overruled by the duration of my monitoring that I need to set manually, and not the opposite, which I would like.

Is there a way for the duration of my monitoring to be automatically adapted without any manual adjustments?

(hope it's more or less clear, or don't hesitate to ask for more details)



Looking forward for your advises and knowledge exchange, thanks.

[JulieS]

A hammock task is what you are searching for. See:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/141733

[Blobb]

Thank you Julie, it was indeed what I was looking for.
I would add that it's working for a task type which is not fixed duration

[JulieS]

True - you can't use fixed duration tasks as hammock tasks - as the duration is recalculated based upon the change in start and finish dates.