Need opinion on Project test questions and calculations

[KC]

The following two questions, with answer key and explanations, were on a
recent quiz over MS Project and assigning resources. I have queried the
author(s) of this quiz, who are supposedly are qualified project
consultants, but have yet to get any explanation as to the validity of their
statements/correct answers. Here are the questions with the answer keys:

1. If you have 400% allocated for Builder, what ways can this be represented
in Microsoft Project using a weekly duration? For this question, you will
choose more than one option for your answer.

4 resources at 100% for 1 week CORRECT ANSWER
2 resources at 100% for 4 weeks
1 resource at 100% for 2 weeks
8 resources at 50% for 1 week CORRECT ANSWER
1 resource at 100% for 4 weeks CORRECT ANSWER

Instructor Explanation : In project, the allocation % is the total available
allocation based on the calendar week settings in Microsoft project. So, in
typical default Microsoft Project Settings, there is a 40h week, so 100%
allocation of 1 resource is 40h. If you have 4 resources, then it is 400%.


2. Select the exact resources hour allocation available to the ACME
Construction project based on the resource allocation percentage. For this
question, you will choose more than one option for your answer. HINT: from
the Resource Sheet, take the Max. Units and multiply this by 40 hours.
Points:
Architect - 120 CORRECT ANSWER (Note: Max units is 300%)
Engineer - 250
Electrician - 100
Builder - 80 CORRECT ANSWER (Note: Max units is 200%)
Landscaper - 240 CORRECT ANSWER (Note: Max units is 600%)
Purchasing - 20

Instructor Explanation : In project, the allocation % is the total available
allocation based on the calendar week settings in Microsoft project. So, in
typical default Microsoft Project Settings, there is a 40h week, so 100%
allocation of 1 resource is 40h. If you have 4 resources, then it is 400%.

Any comments? or are both questions answered correctly and explanations
accurate?

 

[Rod Gill]

Both your instructor explanations are the same which doesn't seem right!

For the first question the first two correct answers are OK but 1 resource
at 100% for 4 weeks is 100% allocation for 4 weeks, certainly not 400%. It
is however 4 man weeks, so what exactly does your instructor mean by 400%
allocated?

If the question said what solutions assign 160 hours of work, then the
correct answers seem correct. But 400%allocated by 1 resource only, I don't
get it.


For the second question, if your max units are correct, then the answers are
correct.,

I think the problem here is one of jargon. In MS Project the word allocation
is not used. Max Units, remaining availability and so on are. SO I don't
think anyone here can say definitively correct or not without your
instructor clarifying exactly what they mean by allocated using MS Project
terms.

-

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see:
http://www.projectvbabook.com

The following two questions, with answer key and explanations, were on a
recent quiz over MS Project and assigning resources. I have queried the
author(s) of this quiz, who are supposedly are qualified project
consultants, but have yet to get any explanation as to the validity of
their statements/correct answers. Here are the questions with the answer
keys:

1. If you have 400% allocated for Builder, what ways can this be
represented in Microsoft Project using a weekly duration? For this
question, you will choose more than one option for your answer.

4 resources at 100% for 1 week CORRECT ANSWER
2 resources at 100% for 4 weeks
1 resource at 100% for 2 weeks
8 resources at 50% for 1 week CORRECT ANSWER
1 resource at 100% for 4 weeks CORRECT ANSWER

Instructor Explanation : In project, the allocation % is the total
available allocation based on the calendar week settings in Microsoft
project. So, in typical default Microsoft Project Settings, there is a
40h week, so 100% allocation of 1 resource is 40h. If you have 4
resources, then it is 400%.


2. Select the exact resources hour allocation available to the ACME
Construction project based on the resource allocation percentage. For this
question, you will choose more than one option for your answer. HINT: from
the Resource Sheet, take the Max. Units and multiply this by 40 hours.
Points:
Architect - 120 CORRECT ANSWER (Note: Max units is 300%)
Engineer - 250
Electrician - 100
Builder - 80 CORRECT ANSWER (Note: Max units is 200%)
Landscaper - 240 CORRECT ANSWER (Note: Max units is 600%)
Purchasing - 20

Instructor Explanation : In project, the allocation % is the total
available allocation based on the calendar week settings in Microsoft
project. So, in typical default Microsoft Project Settings, there is a
40h week, so 100% allocation of 1 resource is 40h. If you have 4
resources, then it is 400%.

Any comments? or are both questions answered correctly and explanations
accurate?

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[KC]

Thanks for your reply, Rod. I must admit that I disguised myself in that I
am the professor of this undergraduate class, having taught Project
Management for nearly 20 years. But recently, as is the current rage, my
institution has outsourced the content of the class and now I am required to
use an outside consultant's material, including labs. Needless to say I ask
the authors of these labs for the same interpretation, but have yet to
receive any. I knew there was problems when the authors stated in the very
first lab where students entered their tasks/WBS to change all task types
(changing the defaults in the Project Options) to fixed duration because
"most tasks are fixed duration".

That aside, they seem to be emphasizing to students that the assignment
percentages are based upon a week, has opposed to work. That is why the one
answer on the first question (400% means 1 person at 100% for 4 weeks)
defies explanation As to the second question, I usually explain to students
that max units indicates the availability of resources for assignment to a
task (or at any point in time). Also the second question keeps emphasizing
the "week" as if all percentages are based upon a week. That's why I have a
problem with the wording of the second question. Except for the issue of
over-allocated resources (and I believe that's why some believe the
resources then are "allocated"), the second question could have just as well
used an 8-hour day scenario (300% max units would be 24 hours of work in an
8-hour day). But to be honest, I have never had the occasion to multiply max
units times anything (in the resource sheet). I always preferred to explain
the process of how work, duration, and units (percentage) interact with each
other and always the difference between work and duration. I guess I am
still baffled on the emphasis with these labs on a "week" for calculations.
Like you, the term "percent" can be used for anything, but the authors of
these labs have yet to make it clear what they are "measuring" or
calculating. Finally, I will say that none of the labs even explain the
concepts of work=duration * units and how it relates to task types (which
they never explain) and the effect of effort-driven.

Oh, well, just wish I could use labs which I had written and used for
several years which were based upon Microsoft's materials, such as the
Step-by-Step books. I wish I could post all these "new" labs on line to get
a honest, outside opinion of their quality, but it is an internal battle
which I will continue to wage.

 

[Rod Gill]

To start with, fixed duration is responsible for more warning messages and
confused users than all other settings added together, especially if
Calendars are edited to show non-working time (as they should). I always
strongly recommend only using fixed duration when editing assignments (if
its needed then resetting to the most flexible setting, Fixed Units. I would
further hazard a guess they have never scheduled a large project!
For time constrained projects the duration should be entered and resources
needed calculated. For Resource Constrained (majority of projects) units and
work should be entered and duration calculated.

As for the rest I support your methods. Get your administrators to talk to
us, most of the more experienced people here have scheduled many large
projects. The last big one I scheduled was a 1.2 million hour refinery
upgrade. Fixed duration in that project would have been unworkable, even
though it was a tight timeframe and time constrained project.

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see:
http://www.projectvbabook.com

Thanks for your reply, Rod. I must admit that I disguised myself in that I
am the professor of this undergraduate class, having taught Project
Management for nearly 20 years. But recently, as is the current rage, my
institution has outsourced the content of the class and now I am required
to use an outside consultant's material, including labs. Needless to say I
ask the authors of these labs for the same interpretation, but have yet to
receive any. I knew there was problems when the authors stated in the very
first lab where students entered their tasks/WBS to change all task types
(changing the defaults in the Project Options) to fixed duration because
"most tasks are fixed duration".

That aside, they seem to be emphasizing to students that the assignment
percentages are based upon a week, has opposed to work. That is why the
one answer on the first question (400% means 1 person at 100% for 4 weeks)
defies explanation As to the second question, I usually explain to
students that max units indicates the availability of resources for
assignment to a task (or at any point in time). Also the second question
keeps emphasizing the "week" as if all percentages are based upon a week.
That's why I have a problem with the wording of the second question.
Except for the issue of over-allocated resources (and I believe that's why
some believe the resources then are "allocated"), the second question
could have just as well used an 8-hour day scenario (300% max units would
be 24 hours of work in an 8-hour day). But to be honest, I have never had
the occasion to multiply max units times anything (in the resource sheet).
I always preferred to explain the process of how work, duration, and units
(percentage) interact with each other and always the difference between
work and duration. I guess I am still baffled on the emphasis with these
labs on a "week" for calculations. Like you, the term "percent" can be
used for anything, but the authors of these labs have yet to make it clear
what they are "measuring" or calculating. Finally, I will say that none of
the labs even explain the concepts of work=duration * units and how it
relates to task types (which they never explain) and the effect of
effort-driven.

Oh, well, just wish I could use labs which I had written and used for
several years which were based upon Microsoft's materials, such as the
Step-by-Step books. I wish I could post all these "new" labs on line to
get a honest, outside opinion of their quality, but it is an internal
battle which I will continue to wage.



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signature database 4634 (20091124) __________

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[rgraja]

Free ' SEO ' (http://www.seodoom.info)toolkit

 

[Steve House]

I concur with Rod's comments regarding "Fixed Duration." IMHO, this is the
most misused task type of the three in that it is often used to try to force
the schedule into some predetermined timetable that the PM thinks it ought
to be, a "we've budgeted 10 days for this to take place so I'm going to make
it stay at that duration in the schedule, no matter what" approach to
scheduling. IMHO, it really should only be used when it reflects a
certainty as to the physical reality, not a desire for a certain timetable.
A 24-hour burn-in test on a new computer component is fixed duration. The
24-hours of LeMans is fixed duration. But there aren't really many events
like that in most projects. Making tasks fixed duration really cripples the
scheduler's ability to control the project's timetable by discovering the
optimal deployment of the resources since no matter what resources you add
or remove, the timetable remains the same.

 

[profkc]

Again, thanks Steve and Rob. I may be back with a few more of statements
made by these authors. For now, I am slowly trying to document all the
inaccuracies, if not wrong information, being presented in the design of
this course (not just labs on MS Project). I will admit that even after
quite a few years around MS Project I do learn something new, but experience
is a great separator between correct information and wrong. (Note: prior to
my teaching days, I manage projects for EDS and AT&T among others...back in
the days when critical path was often determined using paper and pencil,
when I would have killed for software as MS Project). Aside, the other half
of my battle with this course is that it does not follow PMI/PMBOK
terminology or approach (the assigned textbook even admits it).

 

[Rob Schneider]

Are students paying for this course?

--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[profkc]

I will say this, that according to "managers" of this course curriculum is
that the author is a "Project Manager and MS Project Certified"

 

[Rod Gill]

Your point is? Here we have many project managers and skilled schedulers and
many of us are not Project certified: we get asked to help write the
questions! I also note that passing a multi-choice test does not prove
competence.

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see:
http://www.projectvbabook.com

I will say this, that according to "managers" of this course curriculum is
that the author is a "Project Manager and MS Project Certified"



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signature database 4647 (20091129) __________

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[KC]

I meant it as "sarcasm". ( Agreed certification does not always equate to
competence).