changing the activity links and lags

Taher,

You're correct; MSP stores links as objects contained in the two connected tasks, not in a separate table.  You can get all the information you need from just one side of the tasks, however.

If you are using a recent version of MSP, then the easiest approach is to use the "Compare Projects" tool on the Project ribbon.  This tool automatically compares the current project with another (previous version) and identifies changed values in a table that you specify.  Just be sure to specify a table that includes "Unique ID Predecessors" as one of the columns.  Differences between the two projects will be flagged. (If you want to get fancy, you could also include "Unique ID Successors" in the table.  Then in the new "Comparison Report" project, create a custom flag field that flags EITHER predecessors or successors being changed.  Filtering by this flag will list all tasks with changed logic.)

You could do the same thing in a spreadsheet after exporting the same data (including Unique ID, Unique ID Predecessors, and Unique ID Successors fields.)

In both cases, the comparison key must be the "Unique ID" task field.  If your contractor has used techniques that re-populate or obscure this field (e.g. by wholesale deletion and replacement of tasks), then no standard comparison technique will work.

Good luck, tmb

Thank you Tom

Taher