4x10 calendar problem

[Hadi]

Hi,

I have a problem with a custom calendar I created. I went to tools-->change
working time and created a 4x10 calendar with MTWTH as 10 hr working days. I
also went to tools-->options-->calendar and changed the figures there to
match that. The new working day is from 7Am to 6PMM with an hour lunch.
everthing seems OK so far. After I created nearly 20000 tasks i found out
that alot of the tasks dont start and finish like i told it. for example,
lets say I have task1 @ a 4 day duration. I thought the taks would start
monday @ 7AM and finish on Thursday @ 6PM but whaat i found out is the some
of the tasks start @ 7Am and finish at @2PM or 3PM not 6. so alot of my
resource hours are screwed up since I used units when i assigned resrouces to
these tasks and not hours. I am not sure why it did that?? any thoughts of
how the problem originated and how to fix it

many thanks

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

Hadi,
Did you assign this custom calendar to each resource in the resource Sheet?
Gérard Ducouret

 

[Hadi]

Yes I did

Hadi,
Did you assign this custom calendar to each resource in the resource Sheet?
Gérard Ducouret

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

Hadi,
Are your task "Effort Driven" ?
Have you several resources on the same task ?
If yes, how did you assigned these ressources ?

Gérard Ducouret

 

[Hadi]

My tasks are not effort driven, I have a resource pool that am using for my
tasks. usualy i use the split screen method when i assign resources and I
just enter units and it calculates the hours.

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

Hadi,
Do you always set the units *before* clicking the OK button, or do you
(sometime) correct the default 100% unit to another value after?
Gérard Ducouret
..

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

Take a look at the FAQs entry on Default Working Hours at the URL in my
signature.

Durations are always stored in hours (well, minutes to get technical). The
entry on the Tools Options Calendar page labels "Hours per Day" is the
conversion factor that Project uses to convert a entry typed in in "days"
into the required hours to store in the database. So if your working time
calendar has hours of work 7am to 6pm MTWT with an hour for lunch but you
have left the "hours per day" at the default 8 and you enter a task with a
duration of "4 days," that task duration is converted to 4x8 or 32 hours.
Then starting Monday at 7am, Monday at 6 is 10 hours, Tuesday at 6 is
another 10, Wednesday at 6 is another 10 - that's now 30 so far leaving 2
still to go - and so the task will finish Thursday at 7am+2 or 9am.
Another 4-day task linked as a successor to that one will then be able to
start and so it will show a start of 9am Thursday and will finish 32 working
time hours later or the following Wednesday at 11am. And so forth throughout
your project.

The default start and ends times on the calendar options page don't affect
any of this - in fact, they don't affect the calendars at all. All date
fields in Project are really date/time fields. If you manualy enter a date
and don't type the time, depending on whether you are entering a start time
or finish time field Project uses the entry in the default start or default
end field to supply the time it assumes you mean.

 

[Hadi]

Steve,
great stuff but i do have the hours/day set to 10 hrs

 

[Hadi]

Gerard,
most of the time i adjust the units to something other than 100%. also,
sometimes i just enter the hours and it calculates the units

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

Two things further to check. Look at the Project Start date and see what
time it shows. If you set the Project Start *before* you created your new
calendar it may be showing 8am instead of 7. If that the case and you enter
the first task in the project as a 4 day task starting Monday, the task will
start at 8, an hour after the workday starts and end the following Monday at
8am. And of course that offset will ripple down the line.

What do the resource calendars look like? Could it be that their entrys in
the resource sheet are showing their base calendar to be the original 8-hour
Standard Calendar instead of your new custom 10 hour calendar so they are
scheduled for hours of work other than 7am to 6pm? The rule of thumb is the
task schedule will adjust to conform to the resource's schedule as defined
in his resource calendar regardless of the Project calendar. If your
Project calendar is 10 hours per day, 7am to 6pm, when you enter a 4 days
task starting Monday at 7am it will end Thursday at 6pm. But if you then
assign a resource whose work calendar shows 8 to 5 Mon to Fri to that task,
the schedule will change to show starting Monday at 8 and finishing Friday
at 5.


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