Blocking field for usage

[Riko Wichmann]

Dear Project'res,

I'm currently setting up a structure for a project which consists of
several sub-project each with its own sub-project leader. The planning
is to be done with MS Project Standard 2002. The experience level with
MS Project of the people who have to create or update the initial plan
is quite different. They will get a little description paper on what to
do and what NOT to do in project, however experience shows people tend
to ignore or not read at all this kind of instructions. However, to be
able to combine the indiviual sub-project files into a master file, some
rules need to be followed.

Two of the point, I like to make sure is:

1) Resources are not assigned to summary task
2) The field "Fixed Cost" cannot be used

Is there a way to block the usage of the resource field in summary task,
so that the user can only plan in the sub-task to the summary task.

Can the fixed field be blocked or removed altogether (not just hidden in
the Gantt Chart for example)?

Thanks for any idea in that direction.

Cheers,

Riko

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi Riko,

You cannot protect individual fields.
You can control it through VBA and either highlight or even automatically
eliminate deviattions but you cannot prevent them.
HTH

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

How about doing a few days training so they actually know a bit about what
they're doing with the software? I'm a big believer in the educated
workforce.

 

[Riko Wichmann]

How about doing a few days training so they actually know a bit about what
they're doing with the software? I'm a big believer in the educated
workforce.

Me, too. However, I also believe that the following opinions are some of
the hardest to break:

1) We never did it this way!
2) We always did it that way!
3) It's just MS Software, it's intuitive so that I don't need training!

Which is ok, as long as your plans are only for single user ...

Needless to say, people will get instructions on how to use a prepared
template, but following rules will be much "easier" if the tool does not
allow you to break them

Cheers,

Riko

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Unfortunately, Project happily allows you to break many "rules" and there's
no way to enforce them. That's one of the reasons I try to focus on
principles of PM rather than software skills in my MS Project training
courses. There's a huge difference in orientation between a class on
"Introduction to MS Project" and one on "Introduction to Project Management
Using MS Project."