Playbook | Slack/Criticality Across Projects

Slack/Criticality calculations can be performed across projects. There are two options.
Option 1: Drive Start Only = the predecessor drives the successor's start date but the successor is not used to determine the predecessor's slack.
1. In this example, the start date of the successor [EB Backpanel Schematic] is driven by the predecessor's [Design Review] end date, however, its slack is not determined by the successor and, hence, is unknown.
2. Instead, the slack would be determined using a Major Milestone in the predecessor's project.
Option 2: Drive Start and Slack = the predecessor drives the successor's start date and the successor is used to determine the predecessor's slack.
1. In this example, the start date of the successor [EB Backpanel Schematic] is driven by the predecessor's [Design Review] end date, and the successor determines the predecessor's slack, hence, it is zero (0) (Critical Path).
Drive Start Only is the default, however the option can be changed via the Links page in Task Properties.
When creating a new cross-project link, a warning appears with a helper to convert it to Drive Start and Slack.
When moving tasks to another project, their criticality might change because the tasks’ original project will not drive the slack by default.
The Warnings List can be used to find tasks with cross-project links.
Driving slack calculations across projects may adversely impact performance. If so, consider using the Update Slack option on the Other page to disable them from automatically updating every time a change is made.
To learn more about how to load multiple projects in the Game Plan at the same time, click here.
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