Re: MS Project as Staffing Tool

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It sounds like you're trying to use Project to manage the on-going activities of your firm rather than as a project scheduling application per se. Projects are by definition closed-ended - there comes a time in their life when all the required work is done for all time, everybody goes home, and the last person out the door locks up. Project planning software is designed to calculate the most effective work schedule that will get to that point as soon as possible. It sounds as if you're trying to use it on a week by week basis to manage employee schedules instead of having a file for each project treating it as a cohesive whole, covering its work in toto from start to finish. Reorganize the logic and I think a lot of your issues will disappear. As far as keeping allocations within their designated week, why should you? If changes to a project means that a certain task has to be delayed from one week to the next - digging the hole for a swimming pool finishing a week late means that pouring the concrete for the pool also has to be delayed a week - doesn't that mean that the hours allocated to that delayed task have to move into the week when you now expect to be able to do that work? Let the schedule requirements of the task drive when hours are allocated, not the other way around. Beyond that, it's hard to offer any suggestions because you're trying to force a square peg down a round hole to a certain extent.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs


"BrianCF" <BrianCF@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:1677BEDD-E0B3-4979-9865-94BF85DFAE1F@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
We've been using MS Project as a staff / project management tool for our
architectural firm of 20 people and 40 active projects. Is there any way to
set it up so that each week the start date moves to the next week and "chops
off" or deletes the previous week? Right now I have to "zero out" the hourly
allocations manually to reflect project changes and keep the hourly
projections in their designated week. (Deleting the previous week moves all
the projected allocations up.)

.

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