levelling & the status line

[Syd Millett]

All,

I desire to keep my project plans up to date with respect the status line. I have checked the "move start of remaining parts before status date forward to status date" option checked on the Calculation tab of Options. We utilize Project Server to have individual resources enter their actual working times on day-by-day and task-by-task basis with PWA, which allows myself (Project Manager) to apply these updates nicely to the updated project plan (usually weekly). I use leveling extensively to re-balance the project based on actual work completed on the various tasks during the week. To have greater control over leveling I used a Priority, Standard scheme such that I have the ability to fine-tune the affects of leveling by modifying task priorities.

Two problems I have are as follows:

1. If a resource does not book any time against a given task, and that task was scheduled to be worked on that week, leveling does not cause the task to be brought forward past the status date. If the resource books even 1 hour against the task, project re-schedules the remaining work after the status line and everything works great – how do I force project to move all unfinished remaining tasks forward past the status line?

2. Partially related to (1), if I have a resource who is sick on say Tuesday, the do not book any time during Tuesday so their weeks' tasks will slip, causing ~8 hours (average) to get moved forward in front of the status line and be rescheduled / relevelled accordingly. If one of their future tasks (assume no dependencies) has a duration of 1 day, say, then leveling will say "this task fits on Tuesday, so lets put it there" – meanwhile Tuesday has come and gone and the task was not worked on and hence should never be scheduled in the past. Currently to avoid this I mark Tuesday as non-working time which seems to help, but is a bit of a maintenance nightmare when resources are pulled onto other obligations for portions of their day/week. I feel if there is an absolute way to solve (1), then (2) will become a non-issue.



Syd.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Syd --

Open the project in question and then do the following:

1. Click Tools - Tracking - Update Project
2. Select the task(s) for which no actuals were entered in the past
reporting period
3. Click Tools - Tracking - Update Project
4. Select the "Reschedule remaining work to start after" option
5. Select the date one day BEFORE the next reporting period
6. Select the "Selected tasks" option
7. Click the OK button

This will move uncompleted work to the next reporting period for the
selected tasks only. Hope this helps.

 

[Syd Millett]

Dale,

Thanks so much – this feature does exactly what I wanted.

Syd.

nntp://news.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.project/<#[email protected]>

Syd --

Open the project in question and then do the following:

1. Click Tools - Tracking - Update Project
2. Select the task(s) for which no actuals were entered in the past
reporting period
3. Click Tools - Tracking - Update Project
4. Select the "Reschedule remaining work to start after" option
5. Select the date one day BEFORE the next reporting period
6. Select the "Selected tasks" option
7. Click the OK button

This will move uncompleted work to the next reporting period for the
selected tasks only. Hope this helps.

All,

I desire to keep my project plans up to date with respect the status line.
I have checked the "move start of remaining parts before status date
forward to status date" option checked on the Calculation tab of Options.
We utilize Project Server to have individual resources enter their actual
working times on day-by-day and task-by-task basis with PWA, which allows
myself (Project Manager) to apply these updates nicely to the updated
project plan (usually weekly). I use leveling extensively to re-balance
the project based on actual work completed on the various tasks during the
week. To have greater control over leveling I used a Priority, Standard
scheme such that I have the ability to fine-tune the affects of leveling
by modifying task priorities.

Two problems I have are as follows:

1. If a resource does not book any time against a given task, and
that task was scheduled to be worked on that week, leveling does not cause
the task to be brought forward past the status date. If the resource
books even 1 hour against the task, project re-schedules the remaining
work after the status line and everything works great &ndash; how do I
force project to move all unfinished remaining tasks forward past the
status line?

2. Partially related to (1), if I have a resource who is sick on say
Tuesday, the do not book any time during Tuesday so their weeks' tasks
will slip, causing ~8 hours (average) to get moved forward in front of the
status line and be rescheduled / relevelled accordingly. If one of their
future tasks (assume no dependencies) has a duration of 1 day, say, then
leveling will say "this task fits on Tuesday, so lets put it there"
&ndash; meanwhile Tuesday has come and gone and the task was not worked on
and hence should never be scheduled in the past. Currently to avoid this
I mark Tuesday as non-working time which seems to help, but is a bit of a
maintenance nightmare when resources are pulled onto other obligations for
portions of their day/week. I feel if there is an absolute way to solve
(1), then (2) will become a non-issue.



Syd.

[microsoft.public.project]