Microsoft Project: Allowing Lag and Lead Times - Part 19 of 55

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We have seen how to create task dependencies and create four different kind of dependencies. These four types are shown in this project on the screen, Finish to start, Start-to-start, Finish-to-finish and Start-to-Finish.

When you set up task dependencies, there may be some successor tasks that cannot be started until after a delay that follows the conclusion of their predecessor tasks. These types of delays are more common in Finish to start and Finish to finish tasks.

Such a delay is called as a "Lag time". This is a delay between two tasks that are linked by a dependency.

For example, in the first case let us assume that there will be a 5 day delay between the first task to get a budget approval - and the second task i.e. initiating the project. Let us see how to reflect that lag time.

We will first select the task on the table - and then go over to View tab. Then click on the Details checkbox to open up the Task Form. Here I can see a column called Lag.

I will enter 5d there to mean the 5 day delay and click OK.

Now you can see in the Gantt Chart, that the Lag time has been neatly replicated by the arrow and the second task has been pushed accordingly to a new date.

There is one more situation that we need to consider and that is Lead time. This is an overlap between two tasks that are linked by a dependency.

For example let us look at one more case here of which are linked by a Finish-to-start dependency. Let us say, in this case that I can actually start the second task i.e. Database design after a part of the first task i.e. Interface Design has started.

What that means is that I don't have to wait for the first task to completely finish before I start the second task. In this case, what I will do is I will again open the task Form like this - and in the Lag column, enter a negative lag. A negative lag is nothing but a lead time.

I will enter 2 days here.

And when I click OK, we can see that an overlap has been created between the two tasks on the Gantt chart. And this shows the usage of Lead time.

There are another few points to note.

Instead of setting lag and lead times in days or hours - you can do so by percentage. For example to say 1 day out of 4 - you can instead write 25%. And in this case Project will calculate accurately and reflect it in the schedule.

Secondly, leads and lag times can only be set between 2 tasks. You can not do this with more than 2 tasks at a time.

Finally, there is a an easy shortcut to set lag times. Just double-click on the link arrow in the Gantt Chart - and you can directly set a lag time.

So this is how lag and lead times can be used to fine tune our schedule in Project 2013.