Microsoft Project Schedules Tasks in the past

Question

I have a project Plan in Microsoft project. While working today, I updated a task's scheduling to be "as soon as possible". Project then scheduled the task for last month. That would be fantastic - but clearly not a reality.

I have my status date and current date in project info set to today. The task is assigned to a resource that would have been available two weeks ago - So I guess I see mathematically why it would schedule then. I opened a new project to demonstrate this, and it seems to constrain tasks to starting today. The date that it seems to be scheduling for is the project start date.

• Is there a setting I need to change?
• Is there a way to put in a global constraint that says newly schedule tasks can't begin before today?

Answer 1

Found it!

In File -> Options -> Scheduling, there is a default that controls whether new projects are scheduled to the start date, or to today's date. Updated, and good to go!

Answer 2

Tasks in Microsoft Project can show their forecast start and finish dates prior to today's date and the project's status date. This is a feature, not a bug. It's important to know that the dates you see in the Start/Finish fields are the currently forecasted dates of the task. If a task actually occurred prior to your status date, you need to supply the actual dates to the task (the dates your task actually started and finished). Without the actual dates entered in, Microsoft Project has no way of knowing if your task actually occurred, or if you plan to move it's forecast dates past the status date.

If you have tasks that start prior to your status date with no actuals recorded, it's a sign that the task's status is invalid and needs to be updated by whoever is in charge of the schedule. This process is known as "statusing" the schedule. I recommend checking out the Planning and Scheduling Excellence Guide's section on Statusing to Time Now