Project Dependencies

Strategic initiatives often contain various milestones and sub-milestones. Dependencies make it easy to align all project start and end dates in logical and easy-to-use ways! Learn more about the Project Dependency options below.

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. If the initiative has no milestones, the Start Date 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 set the manual setting 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.

To enable this option, click on the edit pencil for the initiative and navigate to the Edit Fields tab. If the initiative has milestones associated with it, then the Dependencies dropdown menu will be enabled. From the menu, select the second option listed – Automatically calculate Initiative dates based on Milestone start and end dates.

Once the setting has been saved, you can adjust the milestone or sub-milestone Start Dates and End Dates by dragging and extending the bars on the Gantt chart (or any other method of editing dates in ClearPoint). When you click the green check mark to save, the initiative date(s) will automatically adjust to match the earliest and latest milestone dates.

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.

To enable this option, click on the edit pencil for the initiative and navigate to the Edit Fields tab. If the initiative has milestones associated with it, then the Dependencies dropdown menu will be enabled. From the menu, select the third option listed – Automatically calculate Milestone dates based on Initiative start dates.

Once the setting has been saved, you can change the Start Date and End Date for the initiative. The milestones and sub-milestones will automatically adjust, moving forward the same duration as the initiative start and end date were. With this dependency option selected, you can still make changes to individual milestone start and end dates.