# Bug OP-12336 - Distance between related Work Packages is no longer maintained when re-scheduling FS-related work packages

Project: OpenProject
Status: rejected
URL: https://community.openproject.org/work_packages/OP-12336

## Open points

_No work packages_

## Details

| Attribute | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Date |  |
| Priority | Medium |
| Module |  |
| Target versions |  |
| Observed in versions |  |
| Sprint |  |
| Backlog bucket |  |
| Bug found in version (deprecated) |  |
| Found in mobile app version |  |
| Follow-up feedback e-mail |  |
| Requires doc change | No |
| Accessibility | No |
| Pull preview |  |
| List |  |
| Labels |  |

## People

| Attribute | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Assignee |  |
| Accountable |  |
| Product manager |  |
| Developers |  |
| Designer |  |
| Ordered by |  |
| Signed off by |  |
| Interest by |  |

## Planning

| Attribute | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Relevance |  |

## Costs

| Attribute | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Votes |  |
| Work |  |
| Labor costs |  |

## Description

### Note

This (partial) functionality was broken as part of a recent feature implementation, ref <mention class="mention" data-id="44053" data-type="work_package" data-text="#44053">\#44053</mention> 

### Steps to reproduce

1.  Create two work packages with a Finish-Start relationship, and a non-zero time delay between the finish and start schedule
2.  Reschedule the early task (either earlier or later)

### What is the buggy behavior?

  - The 2nd (following/later) task does not update it's scheduled start/finish time relative to the schedule change 

### What is the expected behavior?

1.  The 2nd task should (at least give the option to) reschedule dependent tasks by the relative amount - allow a user to choose the behaviour they would like to see

This could be configured as a modal dialog on change, or a project level configuration option

### Important note

Business Use Case from our Planning Team:

> The problem is when a project's individual tasks are building on the finish date of its predecessors, not on a set date. This is the case for most steps in our project.
> 
> As an example: an artwork should be briefed with a supplier as soon as we have the final version. If the finish date of the final artwork task comes ahead, so should the start date of the briefing task. This example is an easier one to keep track of, however if you have a look at a task that needs to be done 3 months after a production (where distance is always the same) but the production task finishes a month earlier, we are going to miss an important trigger if the task does not automatically readjust with the predecessor.
> 
> We have built our workflows and triggers using this exact feature and with it suddenly changing makes following our timelines and deadlines very hard.
> 
> The below is our typical project structure. About 25 tasks and milestones that would need manual readjusting in case one of the first few ones finishes early (or the urgency on our project changes).   
> It takes about 18 minutes to work through readjusting everything if the first task is moved.   
> We currently have about 200 projects open. Not all use the same template but all have time sensitive tasks.  
> To handle that many projects at the same time between multiple people we use the finish dates as deadline triggers to define daily/weekly tasks. If the finish dates are not updated dynamically, we will (and have since the update) miss important steps.
> 
> While it is understandable to have an option for predecessors to not automatically update followers' dates in certain types of projects, having that as the only option is disregarding types where it is crucial.
> 
> It is also important to note that ultimately this dynamic feature was the one that led to the selection of Open Project as our current management tool.

<img class="op-uc-image op-uc-image_inline" src="/api/v3/attachments/54065/content">

### Environment information

*Please check and fill out the following details to help us identify in what versions and distributions of OpenProject the error occurs*

**OpenProject installation type**

- [ ] Hosted cloud edition
- [x] Packaged installation
    - RHEL/Rocky 8.7
- [ ] Docker All-in-one container
- [ ] Docker-compose installation
- [ ] Other (please specify)

**OpenProject version**

v12.4.5

**Browser**

- [x]  all

**Language**

N/A