Plans often change and need to be adapted. Update your plans by inserting breaks, extending allocations or adding new project phases.
When not working with project phases, you can still use the functions described here to extend parts of a project or the entire project.

• Required User Rights
• Extending a Single Project Phase
• Extend with Allocations (Within a Project)
• Insert Project Break
• Extending all Project Phases
• Stretch
• Extending a Project's End (Without Project Phases)
• Extend without allocations
• Extend with Allocations
• Effects of the Project End Extending Options

Required User Rights

To extend a project, you need to have the following rights:

• Under Edit Project and Programs, you need to have 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

Extending a Single Project Phase

Extend with Allocations (Within a Project)

If the team takes longer than expected and the following project phases will be delayed, you can simply extend the project phase with all allocations and move the associated milestone to a later date.

This option is useful to:

• extend an existing project phase with all resource allocations
• add a new project phase with the same allocations by adding an additional milestone that concludes the new project phase

Before a Milestone

If you want to enter different allocations values for each project phase, you can split allocations at the milestone before extending the project phase before the milestone.

To extend a project phase with all allocations directly before a milestone, hover over the milestone of the selected project and click the three dots to open the milestone context menu. Select Extend with Allocations Before Milestone:

Milestone Date
Milestones occur at the end of the day, but allocation segments end at the beginning of the day. If you use the option above, allocation segments with a start date that matches the milestone date will be extended through the end of the day. You can change the start date of the allocation extension if necessary.

At a Specific Date

To extend a project phase with all allocations 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 Extend with Allocations:

Enter the start and finish date of the extension.

Result

The project phase will be extended with all allocations for the time period specified, the project duration will be increased, and the following project phases will be moved to a later date. Only financial events with a custom date will remain unchanged. 

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.

Insert Project Break

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 a break into the project. This increases the project duration but not the allocations and pushes the following project phases into the future.

Also use this option to:

• add a new project phase by adding a milestone at the end of the extended time period and replacing the zero allocations of the break with allocation values
• extend 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

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 has not yet been completed, hover over the milestone of the selected project and click the three dots to open the milestone context menu. Select Insert Project Break After Milestone:

At a Specific Date

To insert a project break at a specific date, hover over the project bar of the selected project and click the three dots to open the project context menu. There, select the option Insert Project Break:

Result

The project will be extended for the set time period and the following project phases and milestones will be moved to a future date respectively. Only financial events with a custom date will remain unchanged. All resource and role allocations for that project and time period are automatically set to 0, which is visualized by a thin project bar:

You can still add milestones within the project break, or change the value of one or more allocations, for example, when there are a few tasks to be completed during the break. When you change the value of one of the zero allocation segments, the project bar will no longer be visualized as a thin line.

Extending all Project Phases

Stretch

Stretching a project extends all project phases equally and increases the project duration. Allocations remain the same but are distributed over the increased project length.

• 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 all milestones.
• Allocations will remain the same with respect to the total hours or days assigned to the project. The FTE value, however, will be reduced, because the same amount of hours or days is distributed over an increased time period.
• Financial events with custom dates remain unchanged.

To stretch a project, click the arrow at the end of the project bar and select the Stretch option. 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:

Snapping by Zoom Level

All extension modes use the same grid as for moving projects and programs, depending on your zoom level. When extending while your zoom level is set to month or week, the finish date will snap to the start of each month or week or to the original end date.

Extending a Project's End (Without Project Phases)

To extend a project at its end without changing the project phases, you can select between two options: Extend without Allocations and Extend with Allocations.

Snapping by Zoom Level

Learn here which grid is used for extending projects.

Extend without allocations

Extending a project without allocations will increase the duration, but not the allocation.

• Milestones and associated financial events will remain unchanged.
• Allocations will remain unchanged.
• Financial events with custom dates will remain unchanged.

To extend a project without allocations, click the arrow at the end of the project bar, select the desired option 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:

Extend with Allocations

Extending a project with allocations at the end will increase the duration of a project 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 period.

• Milestones and associated financial events will remain unchanged.
• Allocations will be extended.
• Financial events with custom dates remain unchanged.

To extend the allocation of a project, click the arrow at the end of the project bar, select the desired option 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:

Effects of the Project End Extending Options

See here a comparison of the different extension options: