ClearPoint Initiatives that have smaller sub-projects or tasks, known as Milestones and sub-milestones, can be set to one of three Project Dependency settings to keep start and end dates aligned. Adjusting project timelines can be tedious and redundant, but Project Dependencies can be a huge timesaver, especially given the flexible nature of projects and their start and end dates.
Option 1: Manually select Initiative and Milestone Start and End date
This is the default option for all new and existing Initiatives without any Milestones.
Select Scorecards & Elements from the Control Panel
Choose Manage Elements
Open Initiatives
Select the Initiative you are going to be working with, in this example, ‘Redesign Employee Satisfaction Survey’.
Click on the edit Pencil icon
Navigate to the Edit Fields tab
The Start and End Date for the Initiative can be selected manually by clicking on the calendar icon or typing in the date.
If the Initiative does have Milestones, then the same instructions from above apply for both Initiatives and Milestones, and the Dependencies dropdown menu will default to ‘Manually select Initiative and Milestone start and end dates’.
You can configure this setting manually at any time to have full control of the Initiative and Milestone Start and End dates.
Option 2: Automatically calculate Initiative dates based on Milestone Start and End dates
This option should be used when the timeline of the overall initiative should be controlled by the timeline of the milestones and sub-milestones that are associated with it.
For example, if the end date of a milestone needs to be extended because that part of the project is taking longer than originally thought, using this setting will trigger the initiative end date to extend as well.
If this option is selected for the initiative, the same relationship is established between any sub-milestones and milestones as well.
Note: With this dependency option enabled, you will lose the ability to select a start and end date for the initiative. The initiative will never be longer or shorter than the earliest and latest milestone dates.
Select Scorecards & Elements from the Control Panel
Choose Manage Elements
Open Initiatives
Select the Initiative you are going to be working with, in this example, ‘Redesign Employee Satisfaction Survey’.
Click on the edit Pencil icon
Navigate to the Edit Fields tab
From the Dependencies dropdown menu, select Automatically calculate Initiative dates based on Milestone start and end dates
This setting will be available if the Initiative has Milestones associated with it
Once you are done, click Save
Adjust the Milestone or sub-milestone Start and End Dates by dragging and extending the bars on the Gantt chart (or any other method of editing dates in ClearPoint).
When you are done, click the green check mark to save your changes
Option 3: Automatically calculate Milestone dates based on Initiative start dates
This option should be used when the Initiative start and end date both need to be adjusted by the same duration of time and the milestones and sub-milestones should follow suit.
For example, if an Initiative is going to be starting a month later than expected, adjusting the start and end dates of the Initiative by one month will automatically move each milestone and sub-milestone attributed to the initiative forward one month as well.
This eliminates the tedious process of moving milestones and sub-milestones one-by-one when the duration of each should remain the same, just pushed a certain amount of time into the future.
Select Scorecards & Elements from the Control Panel
Choose Manage Elements
Open Initiatives
Select the Initiative you are going to be working with, in this example, ‘Redesign Employee Satisfaction Survey’.
Click on the edit Pencil icon
Navigate to the Edit Fields tab
From the Dependencies dropdown menu, select Automatically calculate Milestone dates based on Initiative start date
This setting will be available if the Initiative has Milestones associated with it
Once you are done, click Save
Once you change the Start and End Date for the Initiative, the Milestones and sub-milestones will automatically adjust.
Milestone and sub-milestones will move forward the same duration as the initiative start and end date.
With this dependency option selected, you can still make changes to individual milestone start and end dates.
When you are done, click the green check mark to save your changes.
