Multitasking and prioritization in scheduling

[Chris77]

I'm totally new to MS Project so perhaps these are stupid questions.

I setup a test project to experiment with Project and I'm suprised at the
way its scheduling tasks. My test project consists of various tasks with
only one resource--me. Rather than scheduling one task, then another after
the first task is finished, Project seems to expect me to execute all the
tasks in parallel.

How can I control this? I know setting up depedencies between tasks can
force the scheduler to 'serialize' the tasks, but that's a pain.

Also, how do I express task 'priority' in Project? It seems to always
schedule tasks in the order they appear in the task list--is there an easier
way to express this?

Thanks,
-- Chris

 

[JulieS]

Hello Chris77,

If there are truly no task-based relationships (i.e. Task B cannot be
started until Task A is complete) between the tasks only resource
constraint issues you can use Resource Leveling to spread the task
schedule out. If there are task sequence requirements, you'll want to
set those through predecessor/successor relationships.

If there are no predecessor/successor relationships you can assign
priorities to the tasks, assign yourself to all tasks (except summary)
and then use Resource Leveling.

If you wish to assign priorities to the tasks, add the priority field
to the task sheet and supply priorities ranging from 0 to 1000. Then
use Priority, Standard when leveling the project.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

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