FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions
The latest versions of ProChain support Microsoft Project 2013 and later (32- and 64-bit) and interface with Microsoft Project Server. However, we do not currently support the Project web app of Microsoft Project Online.
First, make sure you have Microsoft Project installed on your computer. If you are still having problems installing the latest version, please visit our tech support page or contact ProChain Technical Support at support@www.prochain.com.
ProChain is an add-on to Microsoft Project. Installing ProChain will add the functionality required for Critical Chain project scheduling and management—none of the MS Project functionality is disabled. ProChain comes with a project scheduler (the MS Project scheduler and resource leveler is no longer used), a task update interface, analysis tools, views, and reports. Project networks and data are modeled, entered, stored, and exported just as they are when using MS Project without ProChain. The only modeling features that currently are not supported by the ProChain scheduler are split tasks, resource contours, recurring tasks, embedded and interlinked projects (replaced by ProChain Pipeline's program management functionality), and "inactive" tasks in Project 2010 or later.
No. Uninstalling will clean up old files and registry entries, but if left, won’t adversely affect anything. ProChain version 12 can co-exist with version 9 but provides an installation option to delete that version.
Yes, ProChain supports summary task links. In other words, the predecessors of the summary task will be scheduled before any of the summary’s detailed tasks, and the successors of the summary task won’t be scheduled until after all of the detail tasks. Note that the critical chain that ProChain identifies will not include summary tasks. If the critical chain does go through the summary task link, ProChain will identify only the relevant detail tasks. There biggest downside to using summary task links is that they can hide the true relationships between the detail tasks. This can make it harder to analyze the network and can make it difficult to find opportunities to shorten the schedule by changing task links.
ProChain sizes the buffer based on the amount of variability in the tasks it is protecting against—it’s a function of the variability in the tasks, not the duration of the tasks. For example, if the tasks are guaranteed to be delivered on schedule, no buffering would be needed. ProChain calculates the variability of a task as the difference between the low-risk duration (the Duration1 field is the default) and the Focus duration (the Duration field). If you do not enter a low-risk duration (or you enter an invalid one) then ProChain will assume that the low-risk duration is twice the focus duration. Let's look at an example. If you have a 10w duration task and you leave the low-risk duration at 0, then ProChain will use 20w as the low-risk duration. The variability will be 20w – 10w or 10w. 50% buffers (using the percentage sizing method) will result in 5w of buffering associated with this task. If you are pretty sure that the vendor won’t slip by more than 2w, you would set the Duration1 field to 12w. The variability is 2w and the result will be 1w of buffering—a reduction of 4w compared to not entering a low-risk duration.
To tell ProChain to schedule from backward from a due date, you should put an FNLT constraint on the last task and set the Project Start Date early enough that it will not influence the schedule. Note: ProChain always schedules the project from the Project Start Date, no matter which Schedule From option you have selected in Microsoft Project's Project Information.
ProChain considers any task that does not have a successor to be a deliverable that needs to be protected by a project buffer. By using the Network Analysis tool, you can easily see all of the "tasks without successors."
This is done to get more accurate estimates. Remaining duration is what is needed to calculate new projected times and buffer consumption. Trying to factor in your effort so far only complicates the estimate, and % Complete is subject to different interpretations. There is also a human tendency to say that you are 90% complete very quickly, and then spend just as long or longer finishing up the last 10%.
They will be able to open the file. They can also use any views and reports that have previously been used with that file, because Microsoft Project components like ProChain views and reports are automatically copied from the GLOBAL.MPT file into the individual project file when they are referenced. However, ProChain-specific functions like fever charts and resource graphs will not be available.
Microsoft Project provides an “undo” capability that can be used to undo the ProChain functions, including reschedules, schedule updates, and filtering. This capability is supported by ProChain.
Please contact us with your circumstances. We offer open courses at our Woodbridge, Virginia location that may be more cost-effective. For the current schedule, please visit the training section of our website.
Yes. For example, the Quick Start course is worth 30 PDUs. Please contact us to find out more.
Yes: You should be able to access ProChain Fusion and ProChain Enterprise through browsers on Apple phones and computers. To run ProChain Project Scheduling or ProChain Pipeline, you will need to run Microsoft Project, which requires Windows. Some Mac computers can run a Windows emulator, and Microsoft Project can run on that. However, we don’t specifically test for this. No: Apple has moved away from using Intel chips in their computers. To our knowledge, those new Apple computers cannot run Windows emulators. This means that to the best of our knowledge, they will not run ProChain Project Scheduling or ProChain Pipeline.