B
Beyers Konig
Hi
I have to manage 11 projects using about 14 resources. Each projec
contains about 200 tasks, giving a total of more than 1500 tasks. I us
Project Professional 2003 with its Enterprise features. The Resource
enter actual work done on Project Web interface. I use only Enterpris
Resources and have created one Global Masterproject where all the othe
projects are inserted as 'sub-projects' into this master project.
The projects range from Hardware, Firmware and Software Development t
Production planning and Installation Management. Because of the amoun
of projects running concurrently I have to use Resource Leveling, bu
major limitations in the way it works makes it virtually impossible fo
me to use.
The problems I am facing is this: (Keep in mind I have to us
Priorities as our featurelist and feature priorities are very dynamic)
A) How to handle what I call 'Monitor Tasks'.
To explain: Say for instance we order our BOM. The orders for th
hundreds of components are placed at various companies. After orde
placement, somebody has to track the progress of order delivary. Thu
the task would be "Monitor/Track Order Delivery Progress". Now, th
resource doing the tracking needs a variable amount of time each day o
say 1 to 2 hrs each day. This resource hours must of course be take
into account in Project Planning.
i) If I use a Task where the resource units are entered a sa
12% (about 1hr/day) then 'Resource Leveling...' moves task with 100
allocated units out and does a bad job of overlapping other less tha
100% unit tasks for the same resource. (I can allow for splitting o
task only for certain tasks, but not for all tasks throughout, i.e.
cannot split a code development task, and Project does not allow me t
specifay which tasks can be split and which not)
ii) If I use a "Recurring Task" then I run into the proble
that these tasks have priorities of 1000 and I cannot level
B) Our development are done on a feature by feature basis. Ever
feature has a number of tasks to complete that feature. I want t
Prioritise and Plan the development of these features (by usin
"resource Leveling"). When work on a feature starts then all th
(sub)tasks for that feature must be carried out, without delay betwee
these tasks or splitting of these tasks, untill all work on the featur
is done. Thus, "Resource Leveleing must "move" (or delay) feature
(which in essence is a summary task) rather than moving the task
themselves. Another way of saying this is: Project must allow me t
'group' tasks, and then thes groupings will be prioritised an
moved/delayed in order to Level the Resource allocations. I have foun
no way Project can do this. (Note: Other there are no dependancy link
between different features. Priorities ONLY must determine when work o
a feature must be carried out or when a work on a feature must b
delayed)
I hope someone can help.
Thanks
Beyer
I have to manage 11 projects using about 14 resources. Each projec
contains about 200 tasks, giving a total of more than 1500 tasks. I us
Project Professional 2003 with its Enterprise features. The Resource
enter actual work done on Project Web interface. I use only Enterpris
Resources and have created one Global Masterproject where all the othe
projects are inserted as 'sub-projects' into this master project.
The projects range from Hardware, Firmware and Software Development t
Production planning and Installation Management. Because of the amoun
of projects running concurrently I have to use Resource Leveling, bu
major limitations in the way it works makes it virtually impossible fo
me to use.
The problems I am facing is this: (Keep in mind I have to us
Priorities as our featurelist and feature priorities are very dynamic)
A) How to handle what I call 'Monitor Tasks'.
To explain: Say for instance we order our BOM. The orders for th
hundreds of components are placed at various companies. After orde
placement, somebody has to track the progress of order delivary. Thu
the task would be "Monitor/Track Order Delivery Progress". Now, th
resource doing the tracking needs a variable amount of time each day o
say 1 to 2 hrs each day. This resource hours must of course be take
into account in Project Planning.
i) If I use a Task where the resource units are entered a sa
12% (about 1hr/day) then 'Resource Leveling...' moves task with 100
allocated units out and does a bad job of overlapping other less tha
100% unit tasks for the same resource. (I can allow for splitting o
task only for certain tasks, but not for all tasks throughout, i.e.
cannot split a code development task, and Project does not allow me t
specifay which tasks can be split and which not)
ii) If I use a "Recurring Task" then I run into the proble
that these tasks have priorities of 1000 and I cannot level
B) Our development are done on a feature by feature basis. Ever
feature has a number of tasks to complete that feature. I want t
Prioritise and Plan the development of these features (by usin
"resource Leveling"). When work on a feature starts then all th
(sub)tasks for that feature must be carried out, without delay betwee
these tasks or splitting of these tasks, untill all work on the featur
is done. Thus, "Resource Leveleing must "move" (or delay) feature
(which in essence is a summary task) rather than moving the task
themselves. Another way of saying this is: Project must allow me t
'group' tasks, and then thes groupings will be prioritised an
moved/delayed in order to Level the Resource allocations. I have foun
no way Project can do this. (Note: Other there are no dependancy link
between different features. Priorities ONLY must determine when work o
a feature must be carried out or when a work on a feature must b
delayed)
I hope someone can help.
Thanks
Beyer