In NetPoint, activities may be scheduled wherever they are placed, which can be anywhere within their total float range. Because activities are scheduled on planned dates, GPM no longer depends on early and late-dates to calculate float. As a result, GPM float attributes continue to refresh for actualized activities left of the data date. This is called forensic float, and it can be particularly useful when analyzing a schedule for delays after the project has started or finished
By default, float attributes will be displayed according to CPM, where all floats are necessarily zero.
To display forensic float attribute values, first make sure floats and drifts are enabled for actualized objects by clicking .
This allows float, drift, buffer and total float to be selectively displayed for actualized activities. If float and drift values aren’t being displayed, make sure they’re turned on for the desired object.
To turn them on for an activity, double-click or right-click on the activity to open the Activity Object window.
In the Displays tab, click the appropriate checkbox to display Drift, Float, Buffer and Total Float.
Either buffer or total float may be displayed at the same time, but not both. If all the values are displaying as zero, they are being calculated according to CPM algorithms. To view forensic values, click from the menu bar.
Drift, float, buffer, and total float are displayed in that order below the activity bar on the same line. They may be distinguished from one another by the shape of their bounding boxes: drift points to the left, or project start; float and buffer point to the right, or project completion; and total float points in both directions. In this example, drift is equal to 30, float is equal to 70, and buffer is equal to 5.
NOTE: For an in-progress activity, float and drift calculations ignore links to and from embeds on the left side of the data date. In other words, an actualized embed does not take part in the float or drift calculation of its host activity.
Negative Drift of Actualized Objects
For un-actualized or partially-actualized activities, float calculations ignore the data date. However, the data date does effect the calculation of drift for un-actualized or partially-actualized activities. Essentially, drift is measured from the data date, while float, undisturbed by the data date, calculates from the project completion or an interim finish milestone or constraint date. Therefore, an activity’s drift will become negative when a data date is dropped until it is actualized.