In MS Project 2010, how to I schedule a task to finish when the first of a series of tasks finishes?

e.g.



Task A
Task B
Task C

Task D
I want to schedule Task D to start after whichever of Task A, B, or C finishes first.

Hi
The easiest way to do this is to set a Milestone task in the first group of tasks that is dependant on all of the tasks in the first group. Then Task D can be linked to this milestone. This willl give you what you are after.
Good luck.
Tony(OTPM)

Tony, when I do this, Task D is dependant on all three Tasks A, B, and C finishing. I want task D to start after the first one finishes.

Hi Jody
In that case you need Task D to have a Finish to Start dependency on the first to finish scheduled task in the first group. If this is not clear then send me a sample mpp file and I will set it up for you to show what I mean.
Tony(OTPM)

Thanks Tony. Doesn't that mean I have to know which task of A, B, C finishes first? I would like MS Project to determine this.

Attached Files

First to Finish.zip (28.4 KB, 10 views)

Hi Jody
MS Project will determine the finish date of tasks based on their dependent tasks (if any) and the durations set against each task. Once you have populated your plan with both of these items of information then you will know which task to link Task D to.
Tony

Hi Jody
Your task numbers 8,9,10 and 15,16,17 are entered as manually scheduled which is fine. If it is correct that the two sets of three tasks can start at the same time then you just need to link task D to the earliest finishing task which you have done in the first section.
What you need to bear in mind is that even when tasks have a duration and resource assigned to them they could still finish earlier or later than the originally scheduled finish dates. To this end you would have to update your dependency's for Task D accordingly. There is no way Project can do this automatically for you.
The other option as explained earlier is to use a Milestone task at the end of each group and link all three tasks to the Milestone. When any of the finish dates for the dependant tasks get changed the Milestone date will change automatically. Then Task D should be linked to the Milestone and that date will also change automatically.
Hope this helps.
Good luck.
Tony(OTPM)