(1) Explain your problem, don't simply post "This isn't working". What were you doing when you faced the problem? What have you tried to resolve - did you look for a solution using "Search" ? Has it happened just once or several times?
(2) It's also good to get feedback when a solution is found, return to the original post to explain how it was resolved so that more people can also use the results.
Greetings of the day!!
I have come across a terminology "Open End Activities". As far as P6 is concerned , i am able to decipher only the activities which are not having any relationships i.e. no predecessor and no successor..
What is the significance of open end activities and how can they be averted while scheduling..
Eagarly awaiting reply,
Regards,
Abhishek
Printer-friendly version
Send to friend
Mike,
Good definition (uncertainty and not flexibility).
"Uncertainty Buffer" - I like it. It only proves that "nothing is certain in real life".
Hi Anoon
An open ended activity provides uncertainty - not flexibility.
Something must follow and if it is still uncertain create a buffer task and call it Uncertainty Buffer and link it up FS.
Best regards
Mike Testro
Miklos,
Something must follow, but still not determined (or not decided yet), that's why you can leave it open (provides flexibility).
Why don't you just make it endless? or you just want to retire?
Anoon,
"Consider a project like a puzzle, where you group it part by part, and each part has its own end."
Check one of your plan, and check all your finish activities. Is that really true, that they do not have a follower?
do not forget it means (as there is no path from tthis activities to the end) that there is no any logical dependancy (direct or indirect) between an activity like this and the project finish.
If the logic is direct then you can omit of giving these relations, just because in the applications backward calculation is set on that way that late finish times cannot be greater than the project duration, This means that the programmers put a virtual FF0 relation from all the end activities to a virtual end node that represents the project duration.
The best is that you give all the relations if they are exist to make the logic as complete as it can be
last note: in case of infrastructural projects when they can be cut into snall pieces and these sectionscan be done independently more finish activities can arise when you schedule a high rise building.
Miklós
Nicos,
what you have mentioned are called dangling activites. (just type it into google)
There are start danglers (a start dangler has a predecessor but only into his end e.g.FF, SF)
and finish danglers (a finish dangler has a follower but only from its start eg. SS, SF relations)
I think instead of open ended it would be more accurate to use the following two terms
finish activity, and finish dangler (or dangling) activity.
An appearence of a finish or finish danglingr activity usually indicates a missing logic, which has to be add in order to make the whole logic complete.( see my previous mail what we check first)
Miklós
Practically, there will always be open-ended activities, but you can always provide artificial link (irrelevant for me) to close it.
Consider a project like a puzzle, where you group it part by part, and each part has its own end.
Open ended are considred also the activities that are linked together with a start to start relation. No matter how much you change the duration or the Finish date of the predecessor the succesor is not afetced.
Regards,
Nicos Pozatos.
In the project there will not be any open ended activity.
Even these activities are not critical for the completion of the project , but these should be connected to the project completion date.
In the project there will not be any open ended activity.
Even these activities are not critical for the completion of the project , but these should be connected to the project completion date.
Abhishek,
An open ended activity means that the activity in question, has no eny relation with the end of the project. It can be finished anytime even after the sun exploding. Fortunataly or unfortunately developers noticed that this problem arise often, so when they start the backward calculation (that is the phase for calculating late activity times) they set a maximum value which is the project end. This will result that their latest finish will be the end of the project.
What we teach, that all these activities has to be exemined carefully, because they are usually sign of a mising logic. (you simply forgot to define their successor)
Anyway the same thing when you have too many open started activities, but this occurs in a fewer case.
There are some rules which should be kept, so we teach that before going nto technical details always check the following:
If your network is OK from these points of view, you can go into details, so you can get a chemist if the network is about some medcine, but these basic checkings can be done on the basis of planning methodology.
There are other things that you have to check if you have costs, resources, etc. but this would be Off tpic.
Miklós
,
Hi Anoon
You cannot create a critical path using open end activities.
A programme without a critical path is worthless.
Best regards
Mike Testro
Open ended activities provide flexibility. For my opinion, this is useful when you are scheduling group of activities (or projects under a project group). With this you can allow for any logic that you may find practicable. Or I guess, this is what they call "soft logics".
By the way, I'm refering to the development of a schedule.
Is it bad practice Mike?
Hi Abhishek
An open end activity is one that has no outgoing link.
It is bad planning practice as it makes any criticality meaningless.
Such activities can usually be detected because both free float and total float will be the same.
Best regards
Mike Testro
Email: PPadmin@planningplanet.com
Replies