Duration, Calendar, and Velocity

[Normanator]

I'm new to Microsoft Project, coming from an Agile/Scrum approach.
Project's mapping of Duration to Calendar time utterly and totally confuses
me.

Scrum teams estimate tasks in "ideal days" (work-units of ~8 totally
focused, uniterrupted, in-the-flow hours). However reality brings meetings,
e-mail, legacy issues, and other assaults on our optimism, so that our
"velocity" on task is < 8 hrs/day. E.g. if we practically achieve 4hrs/day
our 3 ideal-day task should take 6 calendar days. Nothing I try in Project
allows me to express this.

I tell Tools | Options | Calendar to use 4hr days, starts 8am, ends 12p.
I enter task "Carry Ring":Frodo:2d and expect it to run M-Th in the
calendar. Instead it starts and ends on M! Setting it to 16h yields M-Tu,
still not M-Th!

I enter task "Fight Balrog":Gandalf(50%):2d, again it starts and ends M! A
50% resource should mean it takes twice as long on the calendar as a 100%
resource! I would like it to show M-F+M-W ((2d / 0.5 vel) / 0.5 avail) =
8ed. But I guess I have to do that math myself.
But when I assign "Fight Balrog" to Frodo(100%), the calendar time doesn't
shrink!

What does availability, Fixed Work/Fixed Effort, etc. mean? How do I map it
to what I'm used to?

Scrum also expects velocity to get refined in flight. If I adjust velocity
from 0.5 to 0.75, then all pending tasks should shrink automatically: 3id was
6ed now becomes 4ed. How do I achieve this re-estimation?

Thanks.

 

[JulieS]

Hello Normanator,

My comments are inline.

I'm new to Microsoft Project, coming from an Agile/Scrum approach.
Project's mapping of Duration to Calendar time utterly and totally
confuses
me.

[Julie] Actually you need to look at Duration and Work as I think
that is where your confusion stems from.

Scrum teams estimate tasks in "ideal days" (work-units of ~8
totally
focused, uniterrupted, in-the-flow hours). However reality brings
meetings,
e-mail, legacy issues, and other assaults on our optimism, so that
our
"velocity" on task is < 8 hrs/day. E.g. if we practically achieve
4hrs/day
our 3 ideal-day task should take 6 calendar days. Nothing I try
in Project
allows me to express this.

[Julie] You have a couple of options. Define a task with 8 hours
of work. Then you can either assign resources at 50% to indicate
that your resource only generates 30 minutes of work in an hour
duration. The duration of the task is 2 days -- 8 hours of work at
50% based upon the formula:

Duration = Work * Assignment units.

Another option - modify the resource's calendar to only allow 4
working hours per day and assign the resource at 100%. Then the 8
hours of work will take 2 days in duration to accomplish.

I tell Tools | Options | Calendar to use 4hr days, starts 8am,
ends 12p.
I enter task "Carry Ring":Frodo:2d and expect it to run M-Th in
the
calendar. Instead it starts and ends on M! Setting it to 16h
yields M-Tu,
still not M-Th!

[Julie] Fairly common mis-understanding. If you wish to only allow
4 hours of work per day for Frodo -- then you need to modify his
calendar. See FAQ 5 at:
http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for further details.

I enter task "Fight Balrog":Gandalf(50%):2d, again it starts and
ends M! A
50% resource should mean it takes twice as long on the calendar as
a 100%
resource! I would like it to show M-F+M-W ((2d / 0.5 vel) / 0.5
avail) =
8ed. But I guess I have to do that math myself.
But when I assign "Fight Balrog" to Frodo(100%), the calendar time
doesn't
shrink!

[Julie] Yes, because the project calendar still allows 8 hours per
day. Again FAQ 5.

What does availability, Fixed Work/Fixed Effort, etc. mean? How
do I map it
to what I'm used to?

[Julie] Fixed Work, Fixed Units, and Fixed Duration dictate what
stays stable if you alter one of the variables in the formula D = W
* U.
Help in MS Project has a very good summary in the help topic "Set
the task type Project uses to calculate duration".

Scrum also expects velocity to get refined in flight. If I adjust
velocity
from 0.5 to 0.75, then all pending tasks should shrink
automatically: 3id was
6ed now becomes 4ed. How do I achieve this re-estimation?

[Julie] Modify assignment units in a fixed unit or fixed work task.
By default, the work will remain constant and the duration will
adjust.

Thanks.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project