non-working time & splits

[ellebelle]

Hello,

During the last Christmas period my company closed for 1 week.

Instead of changing these days to non-wokring days in hte project calendar
my colleague just put splits in everybody's tasks.

Is it possible to now change these days to 'non-working time' without
shifting the tasks (including the splits along by 1 week?

Thanks,

Ellen

 

[John]

Hello,

During the last Christmas period my company closed for 1 week.

Instead of changing these days to non-wokring days in hte project calendar
my colleague just put splits in everybody's tasks.

Is it possible to now change these days to 'non-working time' without
shifting the tasks (including the splits along by 1 week?

Thanks,

Ellen

Ellen,
Is it possible, yes, but the exact implementation depends on several
factors. For example, since you are referring to last Christmas, I
assume there are actuals, (e.g. progress and Actual Work), and perhaps a
baseline. Tweaking the schedule to replace the splits with a custom
calendar requires careful consideration of how the historical data (e.g.
earned value metrics) is handled. If the schedule is rather involved
(i.e. many tasks with links), I would probably create a VBA macro to
implement the change. It could be done manually, but a manual approach
with lots of things to consider is prone to error and may take
considerable effort.

However, I kinda have to ask the question, is there a compelling reason
for making this change? It may turn out that making the change is more
effort than any benefit gained.

John
Project MVP

 

[ellebelle]

Hi John,

There is no reason other than that I know it is incorrect and would like to
fix it. Silly, but part of my genetic code.

If a task runs through this period a split has been created. If I change the
days to non-working time it pushes all the 1 week long splits I had over the
christmas break forward by one week. It is frustating.

Ellen

 

[John]

Hi John,

There is no reason other than that I know it is incorrect and would like to
fix it. Silly, but part of my genetic code.

If a task runs through this period a split has been created. If I change the
days to non-working time it pushes all the 1 week long splits I had over the
christmas break forward by one week. It is frustating.

Ellen

Ellen,
Whether something is correct or incorrect is in the eyes of the
beholder, but I agree, a custom work calendar is a much better approach
for extended holiday periods than split tasks. Maybe I have the same
"defect" in my genetic code ;-)

OK, I tried to scare you off by telling you what a painful process it
would be - that didn't work so let's see what we can do to make the
transition as painless as possible.
1. Does your project have a baseline set?
2. How many tasks are like this in your plan?
3. Are the tasks with splits linked to successor tasks?
4. Do the tasks with splits have actuals?
5. Are you using earned value metrics?

Not all of the above items may be important, but the answers will help
us to more easily come up with an approach. I may even get bold and
offer to fix it for you, but let's see what you have first.

John
Project MVP

 

[ellebelle]

Hi John,

Thanks for running with me on this.

In answer to your questions:

1. Does your project have a baseline set?
No
2. How many tasks are like this in your plan?
239 tasks run over teh christmas period. They all have splits.
3. Are the tasks with splits linked to successor tasks?
No links at all in the project
4. Do the tasks with splits have actuals?
No
5. Are you using earned value metrics?
I don't think so. I am not entirely sure what this is.

I hope this makes it a lot easier!
Thanks,
Ellen

 

[John]

Hi John,

Thanks for running with me on this.

In answer to your questions:

1. Does your project have a baseline set?
No
2. How many tasks are like this in your plan?
239 tasks run over teh christmas period. They all have splits.
3. Are the tasks with splits linked to successor tasks?
No links at all in the project
4. Do the tasks with splits have actuals?
No
5. Are you using earned value metrics?
I don't think so. I am not entirely sure what this is.

I hope this makes it a lot easier!
Thanks,
Ellen

Ellen,
OK, interesting, especially the answer to question 4. What I meant by
"actuals" is anything that shows what actually happened during that
period. Since you are talking about last Christmas I would expect to see
all tasks spanning the holiday break have some amount of progress (i.e.
they were actually started - maybe some were actually completed). If
there are no "actuals" then I wonder why the schedule even exists.

If you do not have a baseline, then you are not using earned value
metrics. Earned value metrics are things such as: BCWS (Budgeted Cost of
the Work Scheduled), BCWP (Budgeted Cost of the Work Performed), ACWP
(Actual Cost of the Work Performed, SPI (Schedule Performance Index) and
CPI (Cost Performance Index). You can read more about earned value
metrics in the Project Help file.

Also with no links I wonder what the schedule is describing. I can't
think of any real world project that doesn't have a series of activities
(tasks) that aren't linked in some way. For example, before you paint a
room, the walls must be prepared. Before a software application is
released, it must be developed and tested. And so forth. It sounds like
the whole project is made up of activities wherein someone manually
entered start and finish dates based on who knows what. That is NOT the
way to build a project plan, at least not with MS Project.

Now, it probably sounds like I'm railing on you big time but my intent
is truly to help and one way to do that is to make sure you understand
how Project can help you manage your project.

OK, where do we go from here. I could probably lead you through a
process to clear out the task splits, but from your answers to my
questions I think we need to do a lot more to get you squared away.
First, I suggest you go to our MVP website at:
http://www.mvps.org/project/links.htm
and take a look at fellow MVP, Mike Glen's series on Project lessons and
techniques. I think that will help you immensely in understanding the
basics of Project Management and how to use Project more effectively.
Second, would it be possible to e-mail me your file? That would allow me
to better understand what you really have and if it is salvageable, I
could also remove the splits. If your file has sensitive information
(e.g. task names, cost data, etc.) I can send you a macro to desensitize
it. A similar macro can also be found on fellow MVP, Jack Dahlgren's
website at: http://masamiki.com/project/macros.htm
Jack's marco is called "scrub".

Let me know what you want to do. If you want you can contact me direct
at my address below.

John
jensenj6atatcomcastdotdotnet
(remove obvious redundancies)