Time references

A time reference is an umbrella term for the time references created in your project. A large part of the time references are created automatically and cleverly interlink themselves. This way, if you change one date in the schedule, you don’t have to manually move all the related dates, the time references do it for you.

You won’t find a feature directly called time references in Navigo, they are smart links that are created by setting up continuities in different parts of the plan . Navigo then makes these time references itself and you don’t have to keep track of the dates .

All time data is displayed in an automatically generated Gantt chart.

Contents

Why it is advantageous to set time references
What we can set time references for
Time references set automatically
Time references set according to your needs
Time references without a fixed date

Why it is advantageous to set time references

• Creating time references creates a linked schedule; when you move something in the schedule, all the parts where the references are set are moved.
• Thanks to time references, you don’t have to reschedule the project manually.
• Setting up time references is very simple, making changes to a project without them is challenging.
• With time references, you can maintain context even for very complex projects that take many years to complete

What we can set time references for

You can link virtually all parts of the plan in Navigo, as well as all important dates and commitments entered in the form of milestones, projected revenue, etc. This means that you can set up the sequence of activities and what they are linked to, depending on your needs.

Time references can be set on the entire project plan, on individual WBS elements, for planned revenue, subcontracts and allocations.

Parts of the plan, such as subcontracting or allocation, are always timed in the sense of a from-to period, i.e. they have a defined start and end. If we want to link these parts together, we can decide whether to link them to the beginning or the end of another part of the plan. So, for example, one sub-delivery will run with the start or end of another.

Other elements in the project – such as milestones or planned revenue – are just points in time, i.e. one date. We can link a part of the plan to them, or, conversely, this point can be dependent on a part of the plan.

Time references set automatically

If you don’t want to set up any of the time constraints in Navigo and want to keep your planning as simple as possible, Navigo is pre-set to relate everything to the start and end of the project. You always enter these dates in the schedule, and if you don’t enter any other dates, the start and end of the project will act as the basic framework to which all scheduled activities will relate.

For example, if you enter a subcontract and don’t enter an exact date for it, Navigo will automatically assume that the subcontract will start at the same time as the project starts and must be completed by the end of the project. This method of planning is suitable for very simple projects where it is not necessary to keep track of the sequence of individual activities.

If you are planning a more complex project using the WBS and you do not fill in the data for individual items, the binding to the beginning and end of a specific WBS branch (element) is set automatically.

Time references without fixed date

If you don’t know the specific date when an activity should start, you can still set a time reference. In Advanced , select the Unknown check box to set whether this activity should start before, alongside, or after a specific activity.

If the start date of the first part of the plan does not match the start date of the project to which the first activity is automatically linked, it is necessary to at least fill in a fixed date for it, thus placing the whole series of activities not only behind each other but also anchoring them in time.

Time references set according to your needs

Because, especially for more complex projects, you need the different parts of the project to build on each other, or build on important project dates and commitments, you can set more detailed time references for them. This will allow the parts to line up as you need them.

In Navigo, you have two options for setting the bindings. The simplest one is to fill in the Start + Duration for each part of the plan, for example subcontracts, allocations, etc. By also filling in the date from when to when a particular activity takes place for each project item, it will fit correctly into the overall schedule you see in the Gantt chart. The individual items of the plan will be lined up as carriages.

Attention – time reference is not created by filling in only specific dates that are related to each other. In a Gantt chart, you will see that an activity starts when the previous activity ends, but changing the end of the previous activity does not move the start of the next one. If you want the scheduled items to shift in case of a change, you must either fill in the simpler Start + Duration link or fill in the References field in the Advanced tab! With this tab, you simply set what to start before, after or with.

In case you want to set up time references in more detail, you can do it in the Advanced tab. Here you set the time reference for the start and end of a specific activity. You can set a time binding with an unknown date, with a known date, or choose to bind by reference to start the activity. You can fill in the same in the second line, which refers to the termination of the activity and again you can refer to this termination to a fixed date, define it with an unknown date or just by reference. An example of this detailed setting is for example a sub-delivery for which we cannot yet determine when it will start, but we know after what it should start, i.e. we select a reference for the start (e.g. we select after what it should start). However, we know when the sub-delivery must end, which we indicate on the End line where we select a fixed date.

Using the settings under the Advanced tab, you can create a wide range of combinations of link settings to suit your individual needs.

Attention – when creating time references, you can always refer to only one part of the schedule, so you cannot, for example, create a reference where one sub-delivery is linked to the end of two previous sub-deliveries, etc.