Re: Commenting work hours
- From: "Steve House [Project MVP]" <sjhouse.remove.this@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 06:24:15 -0400
You can always use the notes associated with a task on the back page of the Task Information Form (double click the task id number) to detail out such things. But do keep in mind that Project's primary job is plan out what you're going to do in the future so that your projects get finished on time and under budget. While it does track progress, its role is not focussed on documenting what you have done to date but rather predicting what you should be doing and when in the future you should be doing it. Put another way, its job is to determine the future, not record the past.
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs
"TSaunders" <TSaunders@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:56583E77-6C2C-4B57-AFFF-3D1B4DE289E6@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
We have a similar issue. We create project plans and every one agrees to the
timelines. Then each week we need to record the number of hours actually
worked and summarize what we did. We are able to report the time elements,
but not attach a summary of work (notes) to a given week. For example - a
task is "Create Data Model" with estimated work = 50 hours to occur 6/13 -
6/24/2005. For the week of 6/13 I worked 25 hours and created 10 tables in
the model. In week 6/20 I worked 25 hours and completed the remaining 15
tables. A sample report would be:
TSaunders 6/13 - 17/2005 Create Data Model 25 hours Created 10 tables
And the followoing week report
TSaunders 6/20 - 24/2005 Create Data Model 25 hours Created 15 tables, data
model complete.
MS Project has all that we need except for tying notes to a date. "Steve House [Project MVP]" wrote:
Not really - if your activity doesn't fit into the realm of a true project
being managed through the Critical Path Methodology I'm afraid MSP is of
limited usefulness.
-- Steve House [MVP] MS Project Trainer & Consultant Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs
"Vlad Wax" <VladWax@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:14F70B75-3CF7-41CC-9A0B-B7C367A86F04@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Steve, thank you for such a detailed answer.
> My question was put in such way because our company has support > projects
> as
> well as development ones. If we receive a request from the client to > fix
> something and it takes just 10 minutes, MS Project will make us spend
> another
> 5 minutes creating a new task and commenting it.
>
> Well, may be you're right, support is not a project, but does MS > Project
> offer anything to deal with such cases?
>
> --
> Vlad
>
> "Steve House [MVP - MS Project]" wrote:
>
>> A "task" in project management - not just as far as MS Project is
>> concerned
>> but the PM discipline itself - is defined as a *single* specific >> activity
>> performed by a resource, with definite beginning and end points, that
>> results in a single deliverable. So if Joe Resource spends today >> taking
>> 2
>> hours debugging module X, 1 hour meeting with a client, 2 hours >> designing
>> module Y, 2 hours coding module Y, and 1 hour debugging module Y, he >> has
>> worked on 5 tasks, not just one or three. If your tasks are broken >> out
>> properly before pubishing the work plan to the server you don't need >> an
>> additional note field to detail what the resource did specifically
>> because
>> each task is cohesive single activity in its own right and the task >> name
>> itself serves that purpose. To help them keep focused on that >> principle,
>> I
>> teach my students to begin each task name in their task list with an
>> action
>> verb - dig the hole, paint the wall, write the report, etc. So yes, >> you
>> should be creating a sub-task for every specific activity the resource >> is
>> doing.
>>
>> I'm confused though because the tone of your post suggests that you >> are
>> doing the task lists after the fact. Project planning software - or >> for
>> that matter creating project plans with paper and pencil methods, not
>> even
>> using software - is future oriented. It's designed for the manager to
>> *plan* what the resources are supposed to be doing when, plotting out
>> what
>> needs to be done when in order to complete a project and not simply
>> accumulating information about what they have been doing. The plan
>> should
>> be sufficiently detailed before publishing that if it was followed to >> the
>> letter, the end result would be the successful completion of the >> required
>> deliverable. All of the work that needs to be done to complete the
>> project
>> should be detailed (that's the project scope) and nothing should be
>> listed
>> that's not part of the work required to produce the project's
>> deliverable.
>> Viewed another way, if the resources do nothing else except what is
>> detailed
>> in the task list, they still will get done everything that is needed.
>> -- >> Steve House [MVP]
>> MS Project Trainer & Consultant
>> Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs
>>
>>
>>
>> "Vlad Wax" <Vlad Wax@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>> news:029B64EE-C9B7-46AC-A0AE-CA35D01A4B30@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> > Hello, everyone.
>> >
>> > Say, as an IT project manager, I use Project 2003 to publish project
>> > info
>> > on
>> > a Project Server. Developers use Web Access to log actual time >> > they've
>> > spent
>> > on a task, but they also need to indicate what they've spent those
>> > hours
>> > for.
>> > Thus, there is a great need for something like a text field, logging
>> > data
>> > in
>> > time. When presenting a report to a client it is required to show >> > what
>> > hours
>> > were spent on what.
>> >
>> > To my mind, this is a very natural task and it seems strange that it
>> > doesn't
>> > have a simple solution, like a text field near Act.Work field in the
>> > right
>> > table at the Task page of the Project Web Access. Comments (notes) >> > are
>> > not
>> > the way out, since time of a comment is not recorded.
>> >
>> > May be the MS Project approach requires to create a new sub-task >> > every
>> > time
>> > for every small sub-problem? If so, it is not very effective.
>> >
>> > Maybe I just miss something?
>> > I would greatly appreciate any ideas.
>> > Thanks in advance
>> >
>>
>>
.
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