Re: Work based scheduling instead of duration based scheduling.
- From: "Mike Glen" <glenATmvps.org>
- Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:01:40 -0000
You're welcome, Tony :-)
Well, nobody can stop you from entering dates, but be aware that if you do,
Project will set constraints on them which will reduce the flexibility of
your project. Have you tried to do what you're asking? Try it on a copy or
set up a new simple project. Note that if you keep the start date static,
any movement you make to the finish date will automatically result in the
duration changing whether you like ot or not! You might like to have a look
at my series on Microsoft Project in the TechTrax ezine, particularly #11 on
task types. There is a table in the middle which gives you the effect of
changes you make. It's at this site: http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc or this:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMFrame.asp?CMD=ArticleSearch&AUTH=23
(Perhaps you'd care to rate the article before leaving the site, :)
Thanks.)
Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for Project Tutorials
Tony K wrote:
Mike,
I may not have been clear on the work flow aspect of the management of
multiple projects.
We will have multiple projects for example six projects with
deadlines and milestones unigue to each project that will follow
conventional MSP sequential scheduling. The unigue aspect that I am
after is instead of entering days or hours in the duration field of a
project to drive the finish date of each task. I would like to
manipulate the finish date of a task without changing the start date
with resources allocated to the task, thus the resource allocation
will adjust by requiring more or less time spent by the resources on
the task. I realize that I still have a duration of time for the
task, but at the same time I am not scheduling by entering duration
of time to control the finish date. I would be manipulating the
finish date manually.
I have created a resource pool file linking my resources to each
project so that when resources are allocated to the six projects the
work load for the resources is reflected in the resource pool file.
Thanks for your advice!
"Mike Glen" wrote:
Hi Tony,
Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup :)
It sounds to me that you are just trying to schedule a group of
resources so that their time is filled week by week. Well, a
project could be defined as a unique undertaking which has a clearly
defined start and finish and requires the management of resources,
time and money. It is the uniqueness of the undertaking and its
start and finish that makes it a project rather than production.
So, first, you need to define your project in terms of its objective
and create a network of all the tasks necessary to meet the end
product. Then you can list the tasks in Project and link them
logically by defining the precedence relationships between them.
Then you can enter the Duration of each task in hours of work.
Project will then give you a schedule, calculating all the start and
finish dates, including the project finish date.
Finally, you assign resources to the tasks and level them to give
you a schedule. If the end date is unacceptable, you will have to
amend the assignments or work estimates to bring it in line.
Thus, your proposal of working week by week filling all the time,
does not work well with Project or any other project management
package for that matter. There may well be times when a particular
resource has no scheduled work to do on that project. You might be
better off using Excel to plan and monitor each resource's workload.
FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be
seen at this web address: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm
Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on :)
Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for Project Tutorials
"Tony K" <TonyK@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:EF16AF70-DF21-47FC-ABB5-4A665A299EF7@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I work for a company that provides engineering services to multiple
clients which is billed at an hourly rate to our clients.
We have recently purchased the MSP 2003 software to provide
scheduling management of our multiple projects based on hours
(work) available from our
four resources.
Our intent is to schedule our projects based on a fixed length of
time for example one week. Our four resources are available for 45
hours each per week
which totals 180 hours. (work)
What advice can be shared for the set up of our project tasks that
will allow me to enter the start and finish dates for one week?
Then assign our four resources (work) to the task for that week?
Then if I shorten or lengthen the finish date of the task the
percentage of our four resources will adjust automatically
increasing or decreasing based on the work I assigned originally?
Basically I want to schedule based on (work) hours of the four
resources not
by duration hours. In fact the duration based column and
functionality does
not work with our work flow. We know that we have 180 hours per
week to schedule and if a task requires more resources then we can
assign our resources accordingly.
I hope this makes sense to someone that understands how MSP 2003
works. Again I am new to this software and have been attempting to
learn it on my own with more frustration than progress.
Thanks in advance!
.
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