Task Constraint overview: Earliest Available Time

Last update: June 7, 2023

Topics:
Work Management

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Earliest Available Time is a Task Constraint that schedules a task to begin at the earliest available time after considering any predecessor relationships.

For information about how to update the Task Constraint on a task, see Update the Task Constraint of a task.

The difference between Earliest Available Time and As Soon As Possible

The Earliest Available Time constraint differs from the As Soon As Possible constraint when all of the following criteria exist:

The project is scheduled From Completion
Tasks in the project have a predecessor relationship
The predecessor task has a flexible task constraint

In this situation:

Earliest Available Time: Using the Earliest Available Time constraint on the successor task gives priority to the predecessor’s flexible constraint.

EXAMPLE

Task A is a predecessor to Task B. Task B has the Earliest Available Time constraint and Task A has the As Late As Possible constraint. In this situation, Task B is scheduled as close to the completion of the project as possible.
As Soon As Possible: In this scenario, using the As Soon As Possible constraint on the successor task gives the priority to the successor task.

EXAMPLE

Task A is a predecessor to Task B. Task B has the As Soon As Possible constraint and Task A has the As Late As Possible constraint. In this situation, Task B is scheduled as close to the start of the project as possible.