How do you set up your project to account for 6 of 8 hours a day..

[SoConfused]

....available for project work?

In other words, by default Project has an 8 hour work day. While that is
nice, we all know no one puts in all 8 hours into their assignments between
meetings, phone calls, breaks, etc.

So lets say I want 6 of 8 hours a day towards project work... As I see it,
my options are:

1) Change the project calendar to be from 8am to 3pm or 9am to 4pm, etc. so
that each day is 6 hours long
2) Change each resources max units to 75% and leave the project calendar at
8 hour days
3) Change each resource calendar to show that they only work 6 hour days,
but leave their max units at 100% and the project calendar at 8 hour days
4) Leave all the defaults and just change the resource assignment units to
75% on each task assignment

Let me know if I'm missing an option.
#1 - I don't like it as much because I prefer to always see a 40 hour week
and imagine it can be better for material resources in some cases
#2 - Seems to be the best since you can change some resources as needed if
they really can be devoted all day
#3 - Seems nice too but too much work maintaining each resource calendar and
also feels somewhat artificial
#4 - Greatest flexibility but a nightmare to maintain

What do most of you find works best to take into account a real work day?

 

[EPMIsKillingMe]

Trevor,

Isn't another option (I've not tried this so going to go check) to go into I
think it is Tools -> Options -> Calendar and change the Hours per day to be 6
instead of 8?

I realize this would be different than your project calendar, and if my
memory is right, those value are really only used for 'conversions' for when
you enter 3D into a duration field, MSP knows to change 3D into 24H.

But wouldn't that be a cleanerer solution than #4?

Otherwise, potentially the maintenance nightmare with #4 is that if you
suddenly are told you need to get say 7 billable hours for certain resources,
you need to go to every task that resource is on and change it?

 

[EPMIsKillingMe]

Note to above post - I guess it depends on if your intent is to make it so
regardless of the hours any resource can spend, you are basing it on the fact
that from a planning perspective, you are assuming 6 hours per day billable
work, than maybe #5 (the one I suggested) works?

If on the other hand you need to alternate which resources can put which
hours in on a given day, then #4 is a good choice.

 

[EPMIsKillingMe]

Ugh forget my suggestion, and I do agree #4 is probably best.

I tried the one I suggested and although it works to an extent, the gantt
display is not in synch so although if you specify 6 hours per day and enter
in a task that is 3D in duration and 18 hours of work for one resource, it
shows up as 2.5ish days visually on the gantt chart.

If you start to mess with the project calendar to put them in synch, other
side-effects can occur depending on how you manage your plan.

So yes, #4 seems best since you might find some resources can work more than
others and then adjust this as you need.

The visual display holds well (i.e. 3 days is 18 hours but for 1 FTE but
visually occupies 3 full days on the gantt, etc.)

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi EPMIsKillingMe ,

To clarify, the 'conversions' are based in what is set in
Tools/Options/calendar tab. If you make that 6hr, then entering a Duration
of 1 day for a task, Project will use that conversion to be the 6hr you've
set, and 3days would equal 18hr not 24hr. Such a conversion must also be
set up in the standard calendar for the project, otherwise all the timings
will be out of synch.

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

I always ask myself "Does it really matter?" If in the estimating process
you look at previous projects and find that on average it took 1 person 3
days to do a similar task in the past, it's probably a fair bet that it will
take 3 days this time around as well. But that 3 days the task took in the
historical record very likely was also similar to today in regard to the
amount of actual task productive time "1 day" really represents. For those
8 man-hours per day shown in the record, the resource very likely actually
worked 6 hours a day on the task and spent 2 hours a day on the
'distractions.' So our estimating process in itself has already taken into
account the fact that reasource doesn't REALLY get a full 8 man-hours of
productivity out of 8 man-hours of work attributed to the task. Since the
difference is already built in to the estimates to begin with, it can be
safely ignored. Joe will start the task Mon at 8am and finish Wed at 5pm.
The fact that those 24 man-hours are really 18 productive man-hours and 6
non-productive man-hours doesn't make any difference as far as scheduling
work is concerned - what counts is the start and end date & time.