7.1.3. The Scheduling timeframe, and past projects

The scheduler has an implicit timeframe within which it schedules projects. This timeframe starts at the beginning of the current day and extends indefinitely into the future. Tasks are always scheduled within this timeframe. In particular this means that projects with start dates in the past will not have their schedules changed.

The scheduler will allow the user to manually schedule tasks in the past by using constraints, however, no tasks will be automatically scheduled in the past. Thus it is possible to retroactively manually build a schedule for a project that has actually started. It is not possible to let the scheduler automatically construct a schedule in the past. (Even if the scheduler were to construct such a schedule, it would be fictional, as the scheduler cannot know what has transpired in the past.)

When an explicit change is made to a task scheduled in the past, the task will be rescheduled to start after the start of the current day (constraint permitting). This happens if the change is to an attribute that affects the schedule, for instance, Constraint , Dependencies , Scheduled Start, Scheduled Finish, Estimated Effort, Squeezable, Splittable or Priority.

The schedule of a project in the past is changed in only one other instance. That is when the project is selected and Reschedule selected project(s) from today is used. When this happens, the schedules of all the selected projects are erased and they are all rescheduled. Again, they will be scheduled to start after the start of the current day. (See this section for more information)