45 weeks per year

[kel]

Hi, we want to set up Project Pro to schedule us only for
45 weeks out of the year. This would account for sick and
vacation time as well as other interruptions. So far,
we've just entered all of the resource working times in
with the vacation dates we know, etc. But we don't want
to overcommit to our stakeholders and we want to make the
default at 45 hours. Any ideas? Kel

 

[Gary Chefetz [MVP]]

kel:

Folks typically handle this by discounting default resource availability.
Setting your maximum availability to 85% would have the net affect of saying
you'll get 45 weeks of work from a resource that works 52 weeks a year.

 

[Kel]

Thank you, I will try this.

When we discount resource availability, won't this
conflict with the vacation days we've already entered per
employee? We want to accomplish two things:

1) schedule all employees' known days off in resource
calendar so they won't be scheduled for tasks those days.

2) account for estimated actual time available, which our
program director has set at 45 weeks/year, as a pad for
conservatively scheduling future projects.

thanks for clarification

kel

 

[kel]

To be more specific, we want the 7 weeks/year pad to
INCLUDE the scheduled vacation and other away time. Will
discounting default resource availability take this into
account, or is there a setting that would accomplish this?

 

[Dominic]

FWIW here is my input.

The Enterprise Global file gives you the chance to promote a calendar which
is configured to support both public holidays and the "contracted" working
hours observed by your organisation. Using Microsoft Project Server Accounts
each author of a project plan can be provided with the same customised base
calendar.

Project Web Access provides for resources to notify managers of non working
time, such as vacations, this information can then be updated in the
Enterprise Resource Pool. Blocking out windows of time for individuals in
their "Base Calendar" will, if you are using Fixed Unit scheduling, impact
on any schedules where tasks for a person are scheduled whilst they are on
vacation - I find this feature of Resource Driven Scheduling very useful as
projects can change but most people will have booked their vacation in a
fixed window of time. If a resource is unavailable to work on a task due to
their being on vacation Project will schedule their tasks to occur as soon
as they return, this can result in the resource being severely overloaded on
their first day back from vacation, most people will agree that this is the
downside to taking a vacation - having to come back to work and an
overflowing in tray!!. By using baselines and interim baselines you can
review how resource availability impacts on your schedule.

Blocking out a 7 week window of time could cause problems as it is
effectively saying that your company does nothing for a 7 week period, the
most any company is likely to shut down for is maybe just over a week over
the Christmas-New Year season.

If people go sick they tend to do so at inopportune times, you can update
tasks with interruptions attributable to team members being off sick or
deployed elsewhere - sometimes this will not matter if the task is
non-critical, it will matter if the task is critical. If you have a
realistically structured schedule and circumstances change Microsoft Project
will inform you of the impacts of the change and provide you with
information allowing you to make appropriate decisions to address any
schedule problems that may have arisen in an informed and effective fashion
rather, working pro-actively not reactively.

There is a document on my Website, Duration Vs Work - different approaches
to scheduling, which explores the options available to you and how to
interpret the information Microsoft Project presents you with.

--
Dominic Moss

www.projectability.co.uk

Helping people achieve more with Microsoft Project

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