My work week starts on Saturday Why won't Project do the same?

[Azer Nazair]

I work in Saudi Arabia where the work week is Saturday
thru Wednesday. In fact, it is this way in many countries
in the Middle East, northen Africa and western Asia. In
MS Project, I can set the week to start on Saturday but
the calendar view shows the week to start on Monday.
(In the Gantt Chart view, the calendar begins on Saturday
as it should, but still shows it as a non-working day.
See below.)

What do I change in Project so the Calendar view starts
on Saturday, not Monday. Do I need a macro? It is a
problem because in calendar view, Saturday & Sunday occur
at the end of the week.

Problem #2: I schedule work concerning oil & gas
drilling. For those who may not know, drilling rigs work
24/7 with no exceptions.

In MS Project, I set the calendar to the 24-hours
calendar. But, in Gantt Chart View, it shows Saturday &
Sunday in grey, implying a non-work day. Saturday and
Sunday are checked as 'editied working hours' on the
TOOLS/CHANGE WORKING TIME menu, but not 'Working'.

How do I change this? I can change the color easily
enough on the Gantt Chart view but does that change the
program everywhere so that I have a 24/7 calendar?

I am learning a great deal when I read the FAQ and all
the notes that are posted. Thanks to everyone who is
posting and answering.

 

[Mike Seddon]

Hi,

Not sure what version of Project you are using, but my advice is for
Project 2000.

From Gantt chart, select Tools then Change Working Time.

Form here you can set weekends to be working days.

To change your calendar so that Saturday is the first working day,
select Tools then Options. Select the Calendar tab and you can change
the week start date from Monday to Saturday.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Mike


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[Azer Nazair]

Thank you Mr Seddon;
Your advice worked to fix the Saturday & Sunday as non-
working days in the Gantt chart. However, I had the 'Week
Starts on" set to Saturday already but the Calendar view
still show it tp start on Monday. I am using Project
2003. I will look at Project 2000.
Thank you very much for showing how to fix my problem.

 

[Steve House]

IMHO, the working time calendar designated as the Project Calendar does NOT
necessarily reflect the total hours that your business is in operation. The
Project Calendar governs the placement of tasks when resources have not been
assigned to them (either you haven't done it yet or won't be doing it for
some reason) and no task calendar (exception calendar) has been designated
for it. But that's not the whole story. Tasks only proceed when the
resource is present to work on it so when resources are assigned the task
moves in the calendar to follow the resource's availability. But a fully
detailed WBS breaks the project work down to the level of each task = 1
resource's work. So what does that mean? If "waxing widgets" is going to
take 24 hours of duration to complete, it is NOT going to proceed 24 hours
continuously, even if our company works 24/5. The company (drilling
platform, etc) may be running 24 hours solid, but the ONE GUY or ONE TEAM
that is *working together* on that single task will come to work at some
time, work for an 8 hour shift, go home, come back the next day and work on
it another 8 hours, go home, come back the next day and work the final 8
hours on it. If we has put that task in the project starting monday at 8am
and said its duration is 24 hours, the plan would show it finishing Tuesday
at 8am if the Project Calendar is the 24 hour calendar. But that's not what
is going to actually happen. What is really going to happen is the task
will get interrupted for the period the ONE GUY working on it is home
sleeping and it will really finish Wednesday at 5pm, not Tuesday at 8am and
that's the way I like to see it show up in the plan before I get around to
assigning resources. IF I actually need it to finish Tuesday I can assign a
resource on Day shift, then add another on Swing shift, and another on
Graveyard giving each of them 8 man-hours of work and 100% effort and
although its duration will not change, the combination of the resources
working hours will move its completion up to the required Tuesday morning.