Dangling Activities issue is one of the most influential defects of time schedules, especially for

big projects. The reason behind that is due to lack of tools for detecting them from time schedule,
and accordingly, for fixing them. Just imagine that scheduling software like Primavera and MS
Project have no available filters to check dangling activities or extract them from the activity list.
Therefore, such activities have more probability to stay and distort the program with inattention
of the scheduler.  

 “Dangling activities plague many schedules, and their presence in an active schedule
causes inaccuracies which potentially result in wrong critical paths and incorrect
milestone and completion dates.” (F. Saddik, 2015)

A dangle activity is an activity has a predecessor and a successor but still dangling from at least
one end. It could be considered as a type of Open-Ended Activities, but it is more complicated
due to it is already linked with relations to other activities, with the fact that these relations do
not govern it. This allows Dangle Activity to act similar to Open-Ended activity in spite of
existed relationships.

I have created an Excel Macro in order to provide a solution for this issue in an easy way as
explaining below. But before proceeding, we have to clearly define the meaning of dangling
activities to ensure that we are talking about the same term. 

Dangling Start Activity

It is an activity with a “Start End” not dominated by the predecessor relationships. In other
words, it is not linked with (FS) or (SS) with its predecessor such as activity (B) shown in figure
(1) below.

Figure (1) Dangling Start Activity (B)

It could have (SS) or (SF) relation with its successor such as activity (B1) in figure (2) but it is
still dangling start because no activity in the network controls its start. The concern here is about
the relation with the predecessors.
Figure (2) Dangling Start Activity (B1)

Dangling Finish Activity

Same, it is an activity with a “Finish End” not dominated by the successor relationships. In other
words, it is not linked with (FS) or (FF) with its successors such as activity (E) shown in figure
(3) below.

Figure (3) Dangling Finish Activity (E)

It could have (FF) or (SF) relation with its predecessors such as activity (E1) in figure (4) but it
is still dangling finish because it can finish anytime without affecting other activities in the
network. The concern here is about the relation with the successors.

Figure (3) Dangling Finish Activity (E1)

As aforementioned, any delay or expedition for a Dangle End (finish or start) will not impact the
project because it is not linked to the workflow sequence, which will lead to fake results of the
expected project completion date and/or project critical path.

For more information about Dangling Activities and its impact on the project time schedule, you
may refer to the following link:

http://www.projectrisk.com/white_papers/The_Problem_with_Dangling_Activities_in_Proj
ect_Schedules.pdf

http://www.saddikandassociates.com/articles/10142015_SchedulingBestPracticeRemedyDanglin
gActivities.pdf

How to use attached Excel Macro (Dangling Activities Detector)?

1- Export “Activity Relationships” from Primavera as per the following selected options and
same sequence.
2- Copy relationships from the exported worksheet and paste them in the sheet “Relationships”
in the “Dangling Activities Detector” file.
3- Press “Detect Dangling” icon in the upper-left of the sheet, 
The macro will extract any dangling activities in the program and provide them in two new
sheets, one for dangling start and the other for dangling finish. 

4- Study them carefully to ensure the results are correct.

You may stop here and link these activities in your way to fix them.

 5- If you want the macro to provide suggestions for relationships linking dangles, then press
“Link Dangling” icon.
6- The macro will provide new suggested relationships to link dangles in two new sheets as
previous. You have to check these new relations carefully to ensure they are in proper and
realistic order. You may modify or replace some of them.

7- Once you feel satisfied with the results, press “Add New Links” icon. The macro will add
these new links to the “Relationships” sheet. 
8- Copy relationships from the sheet “Relationships” in the “Dangling Activities Detector” file
and paste them in the exported worksheet again.

9- Import this sheet again to Primavera and run schedule. Note That the project completion date
may be impacted by adding these new links, so you have to study activity sequence and duration
again to fix that.

You may save a copy of your project as a backup before re-importing relationships to primavera.

Finally, I hope you find this article and the attached sheet useful. And I appreciate receiving your
feedback.

ِAddendum:

The new versions of P6 have some filters that can be used for detecting Dangling Activities but
of course not to fix them.

If you need a copy of the "Dangling Activities Detector" Excel Macro, you may write your email
in a comment and I will send it to you.