Plans often change and need to be adapted. Update your plans in Meisterplan by adding breaks, extending project phases or inserting new project phases, within or at the end of a project.
- Required Rights
- Inserting Zero Allocations within Projects
- Extending Allocations within Projects
- Extending Projects at the End
Required Rights
To extend a project, you need 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
Inserting Zero Allocations within Projects
If you need to pause a project for a set time period, for example, because another project is taking longer, then you can simply insert zero allocations into the project. This adds time within the project without allocations and pushes the following portion of the project into the future.
Also use this option to:
- add a new project phase by adding a milestone at the end of the zero allocation period and replacing the zero allocation with allocation values.
- extending an existing project phase but with different allocation values; for example, when only a few team members continue working on the project with reduced capacity.
Inserting Zero Allocations at Any Date
To insert zero allocations, right-click any place on the project bar in the Portfolio Designer's Gantt chart to open the context menu. There, select the option Insert Zero Allocations:
In the following dialog, enter the Finish date of the zero allocations and confirm with Add. If needed, you can also change the Start date of the zero allocations in this dialog.
Inserting Zero Allocations after a Milestone
If you need to add a project break directly after a milestone, for example because required preliminary work for the following project phase is missing, right-click the milestone in the Portfolio Designer to open the context menu. Then, select Insert Zero Allocations After Milestone:
In the following dialog, enter the Finish date of the zero allocations and confirm with Add. Milestones lie at the end of a day, so the Start field displays the following day by default. If needed, you can change the date in this dialog.
Result
The project bar will be extended for the set time period, and the following project phases and milestones will be moved to a future date by the respective time. All resource and role allocations for that project and time period are automatically set to 0:
If you insert zero allocations within a project, all of the following milestones, project phases, and financial events will be moved to a later date. Only financial events with a custom date will remain unchanged.
You can still add milestones within the zero allocation, or change the value of one or more allocations, for example, when there are a few tasks to be completed during the break.
Extending Allocations within Projects
Even with careful planning, the team may take longer than expected and the following project phases may be delayed. Adapt your plans in Meisterplan by extending your resources' allocations within a project.
This option is useful to:
- extend an existing project phase with all allocations.
- add a new project phase with the same allocations by adding an additional milestone that concludes the new project phase.
Extending Allocations at Any Date
To extend the allocations of all resources and roles of a project, right-click any place on the Portfolio Designer's project bar in the Gantt chart to open the context menu. Then, select Extend Allocations:
In the following dialog, enter the Finish date of the allocation extension and confirm with Add. If needed, you can also change the Start date of the allocation extension in this dialog.
Extending Allocations before a Milestone
If you would like to extend the allocations of all resources and roles of a project directly before a milestone, right-click the milestone and in the context menu, select Extend Allocations Before Milestone:
In the following dialog, enter the Finish date of the allocation extension and confirm with Add. If needed, you can also change the Start date of the allocation extension in this dialog.
Milestone Date
Milestones lie at the end of a day, but allocation segments end at the beginning of a day. If you use the option above, allocation segments with a start date that matches with the milestone date will be extended through the end of the day. You can change the start date of the allocation extension if necessary.
Result
The project will be extended with all allocations for the time period specified, the project duration will be increased and following project phases moved to a later date. If you used Extend Allocations Before Milestone, this milestone will also be moved to a later date.
For example, if a resource is allocated with 1 FTE directly before the start of the extension, then this allocation will be extended to continue throughout the extended time period with 1 FTE.
If you increase the project duration, either by inserting zero allocations or by extending allocations, all of the following milestones, project phases, and financial events will be moved to a later date. Only financial events with a custom date will remain unchanged.
Extending Projects at the End
To extend a project or project segment at its end, you can select between three options: Zero Allocation, Extend Allocation and Stretch. The Stretch mode can also be used to shorten a project or project segment. Learn more about shortening projects in the Shortening and Stopping Projects article. 
This is how you select the desired option for extending a project:
- If you want to extend a project to a date not shown in the Gantt chart, select a wider date range before extending. Next, click the project in the Gantt chart to select it.
- Hover over the arrow icon at the end of the project bar to open the menu with the three extension options.
- Click the desired option. The arrow icon will change to display the selected option, and the option will still be selected when you next log in to Meisterplan.
Snapping by Zoom Level
All three extension modes use the same grid as for moving projects and programs, depending on your zoom level. When extending by month or week, the end date will snap to the start of each month or week as well as to the original end date.
|
Zoom level
|
Snap behavior
|
Snap behavior holding [SHIFT]
|
|---|---|---|
| Year | To month | To month |
| Quarter | To month | To month |
| Month | To day | To month |
| Week |
To day
|
To week
|
Extending with Zero Allocation
Extending a project or project segment with zero allocation will increase the duration, but not the allocation.
- Financial events with custom dates will remain unchanged.
- Milestones and associated financial events will remain unchanged.
- Allocations will remain unchanged.
Once you have extended a project or project segment, you cannot decrease its duration with this operation. You may, however, stop a project in the context menu. This will delete any associated data after the selected date.
To extend a project or project segment, click the arrow at the end of the project bar, hold the mouse button and drag the bar to the right.
While you drag, Meisterplan shows you the new project duration and the new overall allocation, as well as the difference between the new and the old values:
Release the mouse button.
Extending the Allocation
Extending the allocation of a project or project segment will increase the duration and the allocations for each role or resource as in the previous segment. For example, if two resources were last allocated for 1 FTE each, those two resources will remain allocated to the project for 1 FTE each in the extended time-span.
- Financial events with custom dates remain unchanged.
- Milestones and associated financial events will remain unchanged.
- Allocations will be extended.
Once you have extended a project or project segment, you cannot decrease its duration with this operation. You may, however, stop a project at a selected point via the context menu, deleting any associated data after this point.
To extend the allocation of a project or a project segment, click the arrow at the end of the project bar, hold the mouse button and drag the bar to the right. While you drag, Meisterplan shows you the new project duration and the new overall allocation, as well as the difference between the new and the old values:
Release the mouse button.
Stretching
Stretching a project or project segment increases the project duration, but not their allocations. Allocations remain the same but are distributed over the increased project length.
- Financial events with custom dates remain unchanged.
- Milestones and associated financial events will be shifted such that their relative distance to the start and finish date stays the same. Therefore, stretching will postpone milestones that are after the start of the stretched time period.
- Allocations will remain the same with respect to the total hours assigned to the project. Stretching a project will reduce the allocation per period, expressed by the FTE value, because the same amount of working hours is distributed over an increased time period.
When you have stretched a project or project segment, you can decrease its duration with the same option. Learn more about shortening projects in the Shortening and Stopping Projects article.
Project segments may be stretched independently of the rest of the project or other project segments. By stretching the first of two project segments, you can merge them again.
To stretch project or project segment, click the arrow at the end of the project bar, hold the mouse button and drag the bar to the right. 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:
Release the mouse button.
Result
See here a comparison of the different extension options:
