How do i track tasks that...

[DerekM]

never happen as planned or happen out of order from my plan.
I have a software schedule that has many books for our documentation dept,
in the beginning I entered all the tasks for all the books with resources and
could easily see the end date of any resources. Now as the project has moved
along I've found that resources move to different tasks out of order and
complete tasks as % every week. Its becoming a nightmare to see how much
work is left/end date for each resource because the predecessors are not
lined up anymore.
HELP!!!!

 

[Reid McTaggart]

First look in Tools > Options > Calculation
Examine and learn about the first five check boxes. You will probably want
to check several of them.
Then look at Tools > Tracking > Update Project
Examine the choice to Update uncompleted work to start after:

With the right settings and commands, you can get your schedule to at least
reflect reality, even if reality is messy due to out-of-sequence work.

Good luck!

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

IMO, if it's even possible that the tasks CAN be performed in an arbitrary
sequence, then they are not related to each other by predecessor/successor
dependency links. Removing the links will show all the tasks running in
parallel starting together. This would actually be true if you had
unlimited resources. But since you don't, assigning resources creates
overallocations which can then be resolved with leveling, the end result
being the tasks staggered out in a sequence based on resource requirements
and availability instead of precedent links. If it's preferrable that some
tasks be done first, assigning them a higher priority than the others takes
care of that. Now when you post in actual work on the tasks on the actual
dates it took place and then run the "reschedule incomplete work" tool to
move the un-worked portions forward I think you'll end up with what you're
looking for.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Exactly.
The complete update process is
Fill in actuals
Clear leveling
Reschedule uncompleted work
Level Now.

The clear leveling is necessary, if not tasks initially planned beyond today
will not be affected by the resheduel work and leveling may then weel place
tehm before today.
HTH