Linking a set of tasks

[Cris]

Hi,
I have 18 publications that need to go through the exact same series of 50
tasks from beginning to end, except they have different start dates (usually
staggered by 1 week). I would like to know if there is a way to link the 50
tasks in one publication to the same 50 tasks in the remaining 17
publications, so if I had to change an aspect of a task (e.g. add one more 1
day to the duration) it would change the same aspect for each publication.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Thanks you

 

[John]

Hi,
I have 18 publications that need to go through the exact same series of 50
tasks from beginning to end, except they have different start dates (usually
staggered by 1 week). I would like to know if there is a way to link the 50
tasks in one publication to the same 50 tasks in the remaining 17
publications, so if I had to change an aspect of a task (e.g. add one more 1
day to the duration) it would change the same aspect for each publication.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated. Thanks you

Cris,
Well there are a couple of approaches. One I recommend, the other I
don't.

The method I do recommend, but it isn't for everybody, is to use a VBA
macro to adjust durations (or other parameters) when necessary. The code
is rather simple but of course it does require some knowledge of VBA or
help from someone who does have that experience.

The method I do NOT recommend is to use Paste links to tie the Duration
field of 17 of the publication task groups to a "master" publication
task group. The reason I don't recommend this is that paste links are
rather delicate and prone to corruption. They will work, but they
require a lot of diligence and discipline to stay out of trouble.

Of course there is always the "manual" approach. It's not real
convenient and it is prone to human error, but any user can do it.

John
Project MVP

 

[Cris]

Hi John,

Thank you for your thoughtful reply. I, unfortunately do not have
experience with VBA. I suppose I could go in and manually change what I need
to when the time comes. Thanks again!

Cris

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

Actually, in my opinion the best method is what you just described - treat
each case inpendently of the others and set things like durations manually.
Remeber that duration IS NOT the time you are allowing from something to be
done. IT IS an estimate that represents your "best guess" as to how long it
will take THIS task to be done BY THIS RESOURCE for this particular
occurence of the activity. You're doing publications and you have 50
different weekly editions to produce. True, each one will go through the
same set of steps. Lets say each edition requires some photography. Is
there any reason to believe that it will take the photographer exactly the
same length of time to shoot the pictures for the edition for the first week
of June that it takes him to take the photos for the edition starting the
first week of May? Remember, that's not how long you've allowed for him to
do the work, it's an estimate of how long it WILL TAKE him to do the work.
I would be very surpised of taking the pictures for each edition is that
cut-and-dried and formulaic so that you can say photogrpahy for every
edition has exactly the same duration.