Fixed duration changes when resource added

[BCDS]

We are attempting to do resource availablity reporting across an enterprise.
I am using Project 2007 Standard. We send out a template with a standard
resource pool having common tasks. We want regional managers to fill out the
resource assignments on the standard tasks using resources from their pool.
Each task is 1 year long so we are using a duration of 245 working days based
on our standard calendar. All tasks are Fixed Duration and NOT Effort Driven.

We have a task called "Vacation, Training" that is 245 days in duration. We
would like to assign resources to this task but be able to specifically put
in the start and stop dates for each resource. Joe takes a week off in July
and Mary in September. We don't want to put subtasks in for Joe and another
for Mary.

Initialy we tried assigning Joe at 2% (39.2hrs) to be spread across the
entire duration. We then went into the Task Usage view, selected Joe, and
put 8 hrs on the days of July 5-9 for a total of 40. The other days, we
changed to 0hrs. The duration of the task changed to 40 hours (5 days).
This is a fixed duration task so this suprised us.

 

[BCDS]

I made a task 365 days long and loaded it 100% with a resource. I then went
into the task usage sheet and notice that the resource was "1d" on all days
for 52 weeks. I then set the 1st two weeks of the resource usage to "0d" per
day for two weeks then "1d" for 5 days, then "0d" the rest of the days. The
task duration shortened to 5 days. This makes no sense on a fixed duration
task.

The reason we don't want to put individual activites for each resource is
that it sort of defeats the purpose of resource loading activities. We have
over 1000 employees and we don't want each of them entering a bunch of
separate activities for their vacation days.

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Believe it or not, "fixed duration" does not mean the duration is locked no
matter what you do. Task type settings ONLY have any influence when you are
editing existing resource assignments. The identity W=D*U can never be
violated. The equation can be rearranged to either D=W/U or U=D/W but the
relationship between Work, Duration, and Units will always be held true.
"Fixed duration" simply means that when you have already assigned a resource
to the task and the values for Work, Duration, and Units have been
populated, If you choose to then edit Work, assignment Units will be
recalculated and if you choose to edit Units, Work values will be
recalculated. If you choose to edit Duration you can do so and then it
behaves as if it was Fixed Units and Work is recalculated. And that's ALL
the task type setting controls. Since duration is defined as the time on
the calendar between when work starts and when it's done, no matter how many
days you enter as "0d" in the resource usage view it doesn't matter, all
work is done on the last day with "1d" of work and duration stops at that
point.

Tasks produce a deliverable. Joe's vacation produces a different
deliverable (a Joe rested) than does Mary's (a Mary rested). Thus they
can't be tracked as parts of the same task, they are fundmentally different
activities with different deliverables produced by their conclusion and need
to be tracked as individual tasks.

--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

 

[Beau West - BVi]

DCDS,

I approached this in a really simple way - with other benefits.

I know you don't want too, but I create the 'people' as sub tasks to
'Vacations' and create the same 'people' as resources. Here is the thing
though; since vacation days are consumables, right? I make the resouces -
materials.
Then, assign the resouces to themselves, with 'x' amount of units. Don't
worry about the dates yet. Split your screen with Gant on top, reource usage
on the bottom and plot the work, using only '1' for each day (scheduled
vacation), actual, and make accumlative visible - if you like.
Save your baseline, compare the vacations actuals against schedules, check
over- allocations. You know the rest.
Post if you want me to sent it to you.

 

[BCDS]

I think the problem with this approach is we would not see the over
allocation of "engineer" that we want to be able to track. Not only are we
tracking Joe's vacation but also when he is working on a project. We are
trying to account for 100% of Joe's time whether he is on vacation, direct
project, or indirect OH. So, we created 3 different "tasks" to put Joe's
time. We were hoping Joe could put in start and stop dates for vacation,
project work, and when he was doing OH stuff on each of these 3 tasks. If
Joe is an Engineer 1 we wanted to see all of the Engineer 1 work availability
during the year and when Engineer 1 were over or under allocated.

 

[Beau West - BVi]

BCDS,

Would this help?

You could put Engineer 1's vacation time in place and save that as an
Interim1 plan, save Engineer 1's work into Interim2 plan, OH into Interim3
plan. Then format the tracking Gant bars for those three plans on the same
line to read together and could also flag over-allocation.

 

[BCDS]

Well, it isn't optimal nor does it make sense. I put in a task with 261
days. I then put a resource on it for the first five days and the last five
days. Duration shortened to 10 days but the ES and EF (1/1/09 - 12/31/09)
were the full 261 days. If the calculation of EF = ES + Dur how does this
work with a Duration of 10 days?

Believe it or not, "fixed duration" does not mean the duration is locked no
matter what you do. Task type settings ONLY have any influence when you are
editing existing resource assignments. The identity W=D*U can never be
violated. The equation can be rearranged to either D=W/U or U=D/W but the
relationship between Work, Duration, and Units will always be held true.
"Fixed duration" simply means that when you have already assigned a resource
to the task and the values for Work, Duration, and Units have been
populated, If you choose to then edit Work, assignment Units will be
recalculated and if you choose to edit Units, Work values will be
recalculated. If you choose to edit Duration you can do so and then it
behaves as if it was Fixed Units and Work is recalculated. And that's ALL
the task type setting controls. Since duration is defined as the time on
the calendar between when work starts and when it's done, no matter how many
days you enter as "0d" in the resource usage view it doesn't matter, all
work is done on the last day with "1d" of work and duration stops at that
point.

Tasks produce a deliverable. Joe's vacation produces a different
deliverable (a Joe rested) than does Mary's (a Mary rested). Thus they
can't be tracked as parts of the same task, they are fundmentally different
activities with different deliverables produced by their conclusion and need
to be tracked as individual tasks.

--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

I made a task 365 days long and loaded it 100% with a resource. I then
went
into the task usage sheet and notice that the resource was "1d" on all
days
for 52 weeks. I then set the 1st two weeks of the resource usage to "0d"
per
day for two weeks then "1d" for 5 days, then "0d" the rest of the days.
The
task duration shortened to 5 days. This makes no sense on a fixed
duration
task.

The reason we don't want to put individual activites for each resource is
that it sort of defeats the purpose of resource loading activities. We
have
over 1000 employees and we don't want each of them entering a bunch of
separate activities for their vacation days.

 

[Dave]

Joe's vacation produces a different

deliverable (a Joe rested) than does Mary's (a Mary rested). Thus they
can't be tracked as parts of the same task, they are fundmentally
different activities with different deliverables produced by their
conclusion and need to be tracked as individual tasks.

This simply isn't true. It is perfectly sensible to track the vacation
time as a single activity (although I would question whether or not that
forms part of the Project).

You could take the view that each resource has to carry out a particular
type of administrative activity called 'vacation' a number of times a
year and that approach is equally valid. In this context it makes
perfect sense to use a single task for that approach.

Even with your approach, the task of "delivering a rested workforce"
could be seen as a single line activity which all resources contribute to.

 

[Dave]

We are attempting to do resource availablity reporting across an enterprise.
I am using Project 2007 Standard. We send out a template with a standard
resource pool having common tasks. We want regional managers to fill out the
resource assignments on the standard tasks using resources from their pool.
Each task is 1 year long so we are using a duration of 245 working days based
on our standard calendar. All tasks are Fixed Duration and NOT Effort Driven.

We have a task called "Vacation, Training" that is 245 days in duration. We
would like to assign resources to this task but be able to specifically put
in the start and stop dates for each resource. Joe takes a week off in July
and Mary in September. We don't want to put subtasks in for Joe and another
for Mary.

Initialy we tried assigning Joe at 2% (39.2hrs) to be spread across the
entire duration. We then went into the Task Usage view, selected Joe, and
put 8 hrs on the days of July 5-9 for a total of 40. The other days, we
changed to 0hrs. The duration of the task changed to 40 hours (5 days).
This is a fixed duration task so this suprised us.

You could make the vacation activity a hammock task to two milestones
representing the start and end of the vacation year. Then it would not
change in duration.

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

The definition of a task is "An observable physical activity extending over
time, performed by a single resource or resource team working as a unit,
having identifiable beginning and ending points, and that produces a
specific, quantifiable result." In that context a "vacation" would be a
single type of task, true, but because Bill's vacation and Mary's vacation
are done by different resources, at different times, and with different
outcomes, they are two tasks, not one. We can have "paint the wall" many
times in a project but they don't run together into one task - "paint the
(north) wall" and "paint the (south) wall" are two different tasks,
especially if done by two different painters. Vacations are, IMHO, similar,
if they are considered tasks at all.

I have to say, I'm not happy with using Project for such scheduling in the
first place. Vacations are by definition non-productive activity. They
aren't work, they are non-work. They don't drive the project forward, if
anything they slow it down. Vacations as a group are ongoing - there is no
identifiable point in time when you can say that all of the vacations that
will ever be needed have been completed. Instead they regenerate themselves
ad infinitum. Unlike a project where there is a specific ending point when
the project is over and done, the team disbands, and the last one off the
job site turns out the lights, no one ever returning to that project again,
vacations go on forever and ever. Project shines as a work scheduling and
cost estimating tool for activities leading to a specific goal in a
closed-ended system. As a resource calendaring tool, it's like using a
screwdriver to apply paint - it can be used for it but it's not the best
tool for the job.

 

[Dave]

The definition of a task is "An observable physical activity extending
over time, performed by a single resource or resource team working as a
unit, having identifiable beginning and ending points, and that produces
a specific, quantifiable result." In that context a "vacation" would be
a single type of task, true, but because Bill's vacation and Mary's
vacation are done by different resources, at different times, and with
different outcomes, they are two tasks, not one. We can have "paint the
wall" many times in a project but they don't run together into one task
- "paint the (north) wall" and "paint the (south) wall" are two
different tasks, especially if done by two different painters. Vacations
are, IMHO, similar, if they are considered tasks at all.

Again, not true (at least to the degree of absolutism you are implying).
Both resources contribute to the goal of having a rested team
conformant to legal requirements on rest time. This can very easily be
modelled as one task and it is usually most appropriate to do it in that
manner.

Your analogy, if taken to its logical conclusion, would have painting
each individual brick as a separate task because they perform subtlety
different roles.