Using Priority and effort need to drive Gant chart, rather than start days and duration
Currently, the Gant chart will not populate unless there is a start date, and the "duration" is driven forward from the start date, not backwards from a due date. I would prefer to input a due date and duration (or effort needed) and see how the current list of projects stack up against each other. Using "start to finish" dependencies almost achieves this but is difficult to use because we are constantly changing the priority of need, and they require start dates.
Is there a good way to map out due dates, effort needed, and have a Gant chart populate the days prior? This would at least show "open days" based on scheduling and days that are over-resourced, so I can pull due dates in accordingly.
One step further (and even better) would be to give due dates, duration/effort needed, and have the Gant chart populate based on a priority level. RE: If I switch the priorities of 2 items with the same due date, it will flip them in the Gant chart, without having to manually adjust start dates. This would then build my schedule based on priority and expected machining time.
Hello Ed
The Gantt chart displays the scheduling that MindManager calculates. Maps are scheduled with or without using the Gantt view, so the features you need are not part of the Gantt function.
As you say, MindManager works on start dates. If you enter a due date and a duration, MindManager will calculate the start date, but if you change the duration the due date gets moved, not the start date. If you enter a due date only you cannot directly enter an effort without a duration. MindManager's scheduling does not take any account of priority.
One thing the Gantt can do is to schedule backwards by setting the end date of a project, but that may not be much use here. But it sounds like you are looking for a levelling function that can use priority, rather than a project network made up of dependencies. There may be a few dependencies, but where two tasks completed by the same resource do not have dependencies between them, then the levelling needs to be based on a "priority" factor.
I don't think there is any way that the existing scheduling in MindManager can do this. However it could be done with a custom extension that reads priority, effort and resource from topic properties, calculates the levelling and generates task information which can then be displayed in the Gantt chart. This would bypass MindManager's scheduling calculations and take care of the reliance on start dates.
Hello Ed
The Gantt chart displays the scheduling that MindManager calculates. Maps are scheduled with or without using the Gantt view, so the features you need are not part of the Gantt function.
As you say, MindManager works on start dates. If you enter a due date and a duration, MindManager will calculate the start date, but if you change the duration the due date gets moved, not the start date. If you enter a due date only you cannot directly enter an effort without a duration. MindManager's scheduling does not take any account of priority.
One thing the Gantt can do is to schedule backwards by setting the end date of a project, but that may not be much use here. But it sounds like you are looking for a levelling function that can use priority, rather than a project network made up of dependencies. There may be a few dependencies, but where two tasks completed by the same resource do not have dependencies between them, then the levelling needs to be based on a "priority" factor.
I don't think there is any way that the existing scheduling in MindManager can do this. However it could be done with a custom extension that reads priority, effort and resource from topic properties, calculates the levelling and generates task information which can then be displayed in the Gantt chart. This would bypass MindManager's scheduling calculations and take care of the reliance on start dates.
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