Plans often change and need to be adapted. Update you project plan by removing a project section or by shortening or shrinking projects.
When not working with project phases, you can still use the functions described here to shorten parts of a project or the entire project.

• Required User Rights
• Shortening Single Project Phases
• Remove Project Section
• Shortening All Project Phases
• Shrink
• Shortening at the Project End
• Shorten
• Shorten Project at Milestone
• Result

Required User Rights

To shorten a project, your user group needs to have the following rights:

• Under Edit Project and Programs, you need at least the Projects with Logged-In User as Project Manager option
• Change Project Schedule
• Edit Plan of Record or the edit rights for the selected scenario

Shortening Single Project Phases

Remove Project Section

When your team is faster than expected and you want to delete a project phase with allocations, you can remove the project section.

This option is useful to:

• bring a milestone forward and shorten the associated project phase.
• undo a planned project break completely or partially.

Before a Milestone

When you want to remove a project section directly before a milestone, hover over the milestone of the selected project and click the three dots to open the milestone context menu. Select Remove Project Section Before Milestone:

At a Specific Date

To remove a project section at a specific date, hover over the project bar of the selected project and click the three dots to open the project context menu. Select Remove Project Section:

Result

The selected time period is deleted from the project including allocations and milestones.

• Milestones:
• Milestones in the removed section will be deleted.
• Milestones after the removed section will be moved to an earlier date.
• Allocations:
• Allocations in the removed section will be deleted.
• Allocations after the removed section will be moved to an earlier date.
• Financial Events:
• Financial Events dated based on a deleted milestone will keep the former milestone date as custom date.
• Financial Events with a custom date will remain unchanged.
• Financial Events at the project finish will be moved to the new project finish date.

Shortening All Project Phases

Shrink

If your team can invest more time than previously planned and the project progresses faster, you can shrink the project. This shortens all project phases equally but it does not shrink the allocations. Allocations are redistributed over the reduced duration. 

To shrink a project, select it, hover over the arrow at the end of the project bar and click Stretch or Shrink.

Next, click the arrow at the end of the project bar and drag the bar left to shrink the project as desired. While you drag, Meisterplan shows you the new project duration and the new overall allocation, as well as the difference between the new and old values:

Result

• Milestones and associated financial events will be shifted such that their relative distance to the start and finish stays the same; i.e., they will be moved to earlier dates.
• Allocations will remain the same with respect to the total hours assigned to the project. Therefore, shrinking a project will increase the allocation per time period, expressed by the FTE value, because the same amount of hours is distributed over a shorter time period.
• Financial Events:
• Financial Events with a custom date will remain unchanged.
• Financial Events at the project finish will be moved to the new project finish date.

Snapping by Zoom Level

Shrinking a project uses the same grid as for moving projects and programs, depending on your zoom level. When shrinking while your zoom level is set to month or week, the end date will snap to the end of each month or week or to the original end date.

Shortening at the Project End

Shorten

If you want to finish a project at a specific date earlier, for example, because your goals or needs have changed, you can shorten the project after the milestone. This will delete all allocations and milestones after the date of the selected milestone from the current scenario.

To shorten a project, select a project, hover over the arrow at the end of the project bar and click Shorten:

Next, click the arrow at the end of the project bar and drag the bar left to shorten the project as desired. While you drag, Meisterplan shows you the new project duration and the new overall allocation, as well as the difference between the new and old values:

You can also stop a project by opening the project details and changing the project's finish date to an earlier date. Any milestones and allocations after that date will be deleted.

Shorten Project at Milestone

If you want to finish a project directly after a milestone, for example, because your goals or needs have changed, you can shorten the project after the milestone. This will delete all allocations and milestones after the date of the selected milestone from the current scenario.

To shorten a project after a milestone, hover over the selected project's milestone and click the three dots to open the milestone context menu. Select Shorten Project at Milestone

Result

• Milestones after the selected date will be deleted.
• Allocations after the selected date will be deleted.
• Financial Events:
• Financial Events dated based on a deleted milestone will keep the former milestone date as custom date.
• Financial Events with a custom date will remain unchanged.
• Financial Events at the project finish will be moved to the new project finish date.