Duration of task & subtask, assigned to resources % of their time

[Reb T]

Hi all!
Getting very frustrated with project and time calculation.
Doing my marketing plan in it.

I need to achieve the following:
- different campaigns need to be listed and I need to specify the duration
eg. 1/1/06-3/3/06 (I used start and finish day and it keeps telling me that
this is not best practice- WHY)
- within that I need to have subtasks that are within that period but not
necessarily dependent (I know otherwise I can use lag time)
- I need to show each resource's workload in a certain timeperiod ( they
are only helpers and have work of their own)
I need people to help with some of the things e.g. writing an article but i
want the duration of this process (e.g. press release A) to be 1 week and one
person to spend 4 hours over that week and another person 6 hours- BUT not
all in one day... Project keeps recalculating the duration- I don't want this
as I need the time span to stay fixed

What is best practise when:
A I know the time period a task is to happen (with subtasks)
B Resources need to be assigned but don't spend all their time on the task-
only 15% a day and I know how long it would take them to complete their part
of the task e.g. 4 hours.


Can anyone help?
Much appreciated!!!

 

[DavidC]

Hi,

First the activity you describe as a task, will in fact be a summary task if
you make other tasks a sub set of it. When you do that then project
calculates overall durations etc on the start and end dates of the tasks
under the summary. It will also calculate this on the project calendar which
may differ from the resource calendar and task calendars.

In answer to your question about why allocating dates to tasks is not good
practice. The main aim of scheduling is to optimise the project based on
resource allocation. The more resources allocated generally the shorter the
task/project duration. Project can assist through levelling but only if the
tasks are allowed to 'float based on strict logic between the tasks'. If one
task is dependant on another then show the dependency and allow project to
provide the start and finish dates. The only contsraint dates (which you are
wanting to apply) should be reserved for milestones or known dates when a
task cannot start untill or must be finished by (deadlines). Let the logic
of doing the project determine the start and finish dates, and allocate
durations to the tasks.

the other feature you may need to change is how project does the calculation
on work, units and duration. There are a number of options for the resoruce.
Effort driven (duration changes with resource and work allocation changes)
and three other options "fixed duration', 'Fixed Units'and "Fixed Work".
Fixed work is always effort driven. You may be looking for the tasks to be
fixed units and not effort driven.

Try these out and see if that helps

regards

DavidC

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

A project produces a specific output. The duration of a project (and the
tasks within it) is whatever time it takes to produce that output. The more
resources you have and the harder they work, the less time it will take to
produce that output with the rare exception of physical processes that take
a specific time, like the time it takes concrete to harden. The planning
process is one intended to help you get the required output completed in the
shortest time and lowest consistent with the quality objectives you need to
achieve.

Notice that my focus here is on the output. You don't start with a defined
block of time - 3rd quarter of 06, for example - and then fill it up with
activity. Instead you start with the knowledge that you have to generate a
marketing plan that involves shooting 6 30-second TV commecials, placing
weekely ads in 15 national magazines, and hosting a customer appreciation
conference in the Bahamas. When you sit down with project, you're seeking
to answer the question "If I start the whole process next next Monday, when
should I tell the production company to start shooting the 4th ad in the
series, when should I schedule the meeting with the ad agency to finalize
selecting the photos for the print campaign, and what dates do we need to
reserve at the hotel in the Bahamas?" When you input what is essentially
the flow chart of the process of the campaign along with your estimates of
how much work each step of the process will require, MS Project calculates
those dates for you. Note that the purpose is not to document dates that
are predetermined. Rather it is to compute dates that are NOT yet known.
You have certain targets that are known, true enough, but Project's job is
not to list the targets, it's to help you figure what concrete steps you
must take to achieve those targets.

HTH