Re: Working with task durations of minutes

Adding to John's comments, one of the pitfalls of your approach is that Project is best used to figure out the schedule you need to follow, not just to document what you've already decided will be the schedule and check off performance against it. If Joe is to be updating the server with module X, do you really need to document each individual miniscule step he must take? If I were Joe, I'd be really ticked off at you for not trusting me to know how to do my job. Just tell me I'm responsible for updating the server, everything will be "go" for me to do it starting Tuesday afternoon, and then get out of my way and let me do my job <grin>. From a project managment perspective it's usually enough for the PM to say "Update Server with Module Package X, 5 hours duration, starting Tuesday 1pm" and leave it up to Joe how he organizaes the details. We could care less if he copies File XYZ between 14:00 and 14:10 or between 14:42 and 14:57. All that really matters from a planning standpoint is the server will be down for upgrades starting Tuesday 13:00 and back online with the upgrades done Tuesday about 18:00. Especially in IT projects many PMs use what is called the "8/80 Rule" as a guideline - if you're working with tasks much under 8 hours duration you're micromanaging way too much, losing sight of the big picture in a morass of pointless detail, and if your tasks are longer than about 80 hours you're probably erring in the opposite direction, not decomposing the work into enough detail.

I like to approach it from the standpoint of detailing the tasks down to a one task - one resource correspondence, "resource" meaning in this context a skill package of one or more individuals. If I'm painting a room and the painter and his assistant (one skill package with two individuals) will box up the computers in it, move the furniture out, remove fixtures from the wall, mix and apply the paint I'll just list it as one task "Paint the Room." But if people from IT are coming in to box up and move out the computer equipment, a team of laborers to move out the furniture, union rules require it is a carpenter who takes down the wall fixtures, then the painter mixes and applies the paint, "Paint the Room" becomes a summary task with those individual activities detailed under it.
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs



<paul.innes@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:1117630374.435332.24950@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
Hi guys,

Thanks very much for your replies. I'll try to cover both points that
have been raised.

1.  Yes I am a relative newbie to using MSProject (and also
micro-managing). However, as they say, "the devil is the detail".  To
give a bit more background, We are currently getting regular (2 weekly)
releases from our software supplier. This is a big implementation of a
new line of business system (I work for a big Life Insurance Company).
On the plan there are about 250 tasks (including summaries) that need
to be completed when installng each of these releases.  The plan was
initially intended as a 'check-list' to make sure that all the little
things that needed to be done were, in fact, done.

However, documenting this list as a project plan gave a number of
benefits in terms of parallel tasking and duration estimates.

I can certainly roll up some tasks, but I really need to see them as
individual items so they can be checked off.

2.  Thanks for the info on how to set up the plan to display all
durations in minutes.  What I was really looking for though was how to
input 'actual' start
and end times (rather than dates).  In the Task Information screen I
can only enter dates (I think).  I've tried add "15:00" next to the
date, but am unsure of the impact/effectiveness of this.

Thanks again,

Chewie


.

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