Planing costs and resources for a meeting

[king kong]

Hi all,
I have a, so it seems, simple question, but having tried various
parameters I cannot solve it myself.
I want to budget and plan a meeting, a workshop.
MS-Project 2003 (not server)
The meeting will last 8 hours.
4 People will participate. They all book their time on my project.
The daily rate is 1000 US$.
So the costs for this is 4000 US$.
So I added a task.
Said work: 8hrs, duration 1 day and added 4 resources 100%.
Which changes the duration to 0.38 days.
Does it mean I have to say: the work is 32 hours. Or can I somehow
configure or use MSP to do as I wish the way I wish.......
When I change it to fixed duration, allocate 24 hours of work and
give each resource 100%, then it seems to work. Is there a simpler way?
Thanks
Kay

 

[Dave]

A fixed duration would seem the most appropriate task type for a meeting
of fixed duration - and fairly simple at that.

More generally, the shortening of task duration occurs when you add
resources incrementally to a task. If when you create the task, you
select all resources and add them simultaneously and then edit their
allocations, you should avoid the effect you are seeing.

 

[king kong]

Hi Dave,

thanks for the quick response.

A fixed duration would seem the most appropriate task type for a meeting
of fixed duration - and fairly simple at that.

Agreed. I understood this.
OK, let's take it a step further.
I have a tasks where several employees have to work on.
It cannot be broken down into pieces where one has one task.
So three people work on one task, each x,y,z %
How would I do this in the best way possible? Or
how would you recommend to do it?

More generally, the shortening of task duration occurs when you add
resources incrementally to a task. If when you create the task, you
select all resources and add them simultaneously and then edit their
allocations, you should avoid the effect you are seeing.

Aha, this is new. Thanks.
Kay

 

[Dominic Moss]

Kay,

Project offers you 5 "Task Type" options for scheduling tasks - the default
with Project is Fixed Units Effort Driven which in effect means that the
initial allocation of a resource to a task determines the effort on the
task, if the resource works harder, the % allocation is increased, the tasks
duration reduces, if their input % allocation is reduced the task takes
longer, if you add more resources the work is shared proportionately between
the resources and the task duration reduces. Keep adding more and more
resources and the task keeps taking less and less time, there is no "law of
diminishing returns" associated with this aspect of scheduling.

In your case you may want to explore the option of recurring tasks which by
default are set to Fixed Units not Effort driven - this feature was
introduced to model meetings and the like and someone realised that if you
have more people attending a meeting it does not neccesarily take less time
<G>. As a result the Fixed Unit not Effort Driven Task Type on a recurring
task allows you to add more and more people to an event - the duration stays
constant and the hours of work expended on the task increase proportionately
with each additional attendee.

There is a document explaining task types available to download from my
website - there is also a matrix explaining task types on this page -
http://www.projectability.co.uk/task_types.htm.

--
Dominic Moss

www.projectability.co.uk

Helping people achieve more with Microsoft Project and Project Server

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Kay,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

Also, you might like to have a look at my series on Microsoft Project in the
TechTrax ezine, particularly #10 on multiple resource assignments, at this
site: http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc or this:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMFrame.asp?CMD=ArticleSearch&AUTH=23
(Perhaps you'd care to rate the article before leaving the site,
Thanks.)

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[king kong]

Thanks Dominic,

I will try to understand more about task types.
Even when I took classes the teach and none of the PMs understood
it actually.

So I will use your message and my project book to see if
I can solve my issues.
Thanks again
Kay

 

[king kong]

Hi Mike,

thanks for the reply. I will read it and then see if there are
questions left.
Kay

 

[Mike Glen]

You're welcome, Kay

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP