Utilizing Slack in JustDo for Project Flexibility

Project plans often require adjustments. Buffers and slack help you manage uncertainty and changes. For more information on buffers, see How to use Buffer Tasks.

Slack values help you determine how much you can adjust individual tasks without affecting the project's overall timeline.

Slack (or float) is the amount of time (in days) a task can be delayed without impacting the delivery date of the associated milestone.

Using Slack Functionality:

When rescheduling tasks that are part of a path leading to a milestone, it's helpful to know your flexibility. When the "Slack" functionality is enabled, tasks on the path to a milestone will display six additional values:

1. Early start: The earliest possible start date without affecting the milestone date.
2. Late start: The latest possible start date without affecting the milestone date.
3. Early finish: The earliest possible finish date without affecting the milestone date.
4. Late finish: The latest possible finish date without affecting the milestone date.
5. Free slack: The number of workdays a task can be delayed without delaying its successor(s).
6. Total slack: The number of workdays a task can be delayed without delaying the milestone. This considers the free slack of all subsequent tasks until the milestone.

Important Notes:

1. Tasks on the critical path always have zero slack, and their early/late values match their actual start/end dates.
2. Slack times are only shown for tasks on a path to a milestone and only consider Finish-to-Start (FS) dependencies.
3. Slack is calculated only for tasks with manually set dates (not for basket tasks with automatically calculated dates).

To enable slack functionality, an admin needs to activate it in the Gantt extension settings. It's disabled by default.