Predecessor question

[Bill Cole]

This is more of a general MS Project question than a Project Server
question, but this did not come up until my team began entering their actual
hours each week via PWA.
Each resource has a list of assigned tasks and each task is linked to the
prior task by having the prior task as a Prececessor.

Each week when the resource apply their hours in PWA, I want Project to
calculate new Finish dates for all legs, of course the date I am most
interested in is the final leg
Finish Date which means that resource is done with all development
assignments.

(By the way, I have to highlight all of the resource's tasks and choose
Tools->Projecrt->Update Project and then type in the current date to get PS
to recalculate all the Finish Dates,
if there is a way to have PS automatically recalculate finish dates when
resources apply their hours, let me know).

The problem with Project calculating each task's Finish Date is it gets
thrown off when a prior task is completed, that is, the Remaining Work is
set to 0. When that happens, the
Finish Date on that task becomes fixed to the date they last entered hours.
Project in subsequent weeks thinks the successor task work can begin at the
Finish Date of the
precedessor task, which is not correct.

In the example below,


INITIAL TASKS as of OCT 1

Task 1 - 80 hours begin 10/1, Finish 10/15
Task 2 - 120 hours, begin 10/15, Finish 11/05 - pred is task 1
Task 3 - 80 hours, begin 11/05, Finish 11/19 - pred is task 2


AS OF OCT 22, Task 2 was completed early, remaining hours set to 0, Project
sets the Finish Date to 10/22

AS of OCT 29, now the calculations for Task 3 are wrong, because Project
assumes the remaining work for Task 3 can be done beginning 10/22.
That is wrong. 10/22 is now in the past, and Task 3 remaining work and
finish date should be calculated when Task 1 is done.

Task 1 - 24 hours remaining - Finish Date 11/03
Task 2 - 0 hours remaining - Finish Date 10/22 (This is an actual finish
date, no longer calculated)
Task 3 - 80 hours remaining - Finish Date 11/05 (This is WRONG, Project
assumes the 80 hours can begin 10/22, but it can not really begin til 11/03
without double booking the resource).

The Finish Date for Task 3 should be 11/17, which is 2 week from 11/03, not
2 weeks from 10/22.

The only way I know around this problem is to monitor the schedule each
week, see which tasks have been set to 0 hours remaining, and then modify
the predecessor of the next task
in the schedule to the first earlier non-completed task as the predecessor.
In the above example, when Task 2 was completed, I'd have to modify the
predecessor of Task 3 to include Task 1.
If only Task 2 was the predecessor of Task 3, the Finish date of Task 3 is
calculated incorrectly.

Bill

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Bill --

For automatic rescheduling based on the method of tracking you are using
with Project Server, you might want to try using a calculation feature
available in the Options dialog. To set this option, do the following:

1. Click Tools - Options
2. Click the Calculation tab
3. Select the "Move end of completed parts..." option and the "And move
start of remaining parts..." option
4. Select the "Move start of remaining parts..." option and the "And move
end of completed parts..." option
5. Click OK

If you wish to use the above options, you MUST set a Status Date in your
project before you update actuals into the Project plan. To set the Status
Date, click Project - Project Information. Normally, the Status Date will
be the last day of the last reporting period. So, therefore, if today is
Monday and our team members were supposed to report on last week's work by
Friday, you would set last Friday as the Status Date. After doing so, you
can update actuals into the Microsoft Project plan, and the software will
automatically reschedule uncompleted work into the next reporting period,
and will reschedule the project based on early finishes as well.

Before attempting to use this process, I would strongly recommend you test
it in a practice project. Just an idea. Hope this helps.

 

[Bill Cole]

Dale,
Thanks for the suggestion regarding my problem with tasks in a schedule
having their finish dates calculated
incorrectly if the predecessor task was completed (work remaining = 0).

I tried to set the Project Status date before applying the hours from the
resources, but this did not have the desired effect.
See the attached schedule. I set 11/20/05 as the Status Date, and told
Project to recalculate remaining
work to start after 11/20/05.
Tools->Tracking->Update Project -> Reschedule uncompleted work to start
after (11/20/05)

The problem is that "taskc" has been completed. This throws off the
assignment of remaining work for taskd and taske.

The end date on taskc is 11/03/05, which is an actual end date, the date the
remaining work was set to 0.
Now for the successor tasks like taskd, Project assumes the remaining work
for taskd will begin as of 11/20/05.
This is not correct. In reality, taska's remaining work should begin as of
11/20/05, then taskb should begin when taska
is done, and then taskd should begin when taskb is done (not the date when
taskc was completed).

The trouble is that taskb is not explicitly listed as a predecessor to
taskd. If I manually went in there and made taskb
a predecessor to taskd, the finish dates for taskd and taske would calculate
correctly.
The finish date for taskd should be 12/26/05 and taske should be 1/10/06.
(Not 11/30 and 12/16 as they are now).

However, this requires me to examine my schedule every week when hours are
applied, and to make predecessor adjustments
in my schedule every time a task is finished (remaining work set to 0). I
have been doing this but there has to be a better way.
There has to be a way to tell Project not to overbook resources with 16
hours of work a day when it thinks both tasks are available
to be worked on.

Bill Cole

 

[Bill Cole]

Project attached in HTML format.

Dale,
Thanks for the suggestion regarding my problem with tasks in a schedule
having their finish dates calculated
incorrectly if the predecessor task was completed (work remaining = 0).

I tried to set the Project Status date before applying the hours from the
resources, but this did not have the desired effect.
See the attached schedule. I set 11/20/05 as the Status Date, and told
Project to recalculate remaining
work to start after 11/20/05.
Tools->Tracking->Update Project -> Reschedule uncompleted work to start
after (11/20/05)

The problem is that "taskc" has been completed. This throws off the
assignment of remaining work for taskd and taske.

The end date on taskc is 11/03/05, which is an actual end date, the date
the
remaining work was set to 0.
Now for the successor tasks like taskd, Project assumes the remaining work
for taskd will begin as of 11/20/05.
This is not correct. In reality, taska's remaining work should begin as
of
11/20/05, then taskb should begin when taska
is done, and then taskd should begin when taskb is done (not the date when
taskc was completed).

The trouble is that taskb is not explicitly listed as a predecessor to
taskd. If I manually went in there and made taskb
a predecessor to taskd, the finish dates for taskd and taske would
calculate
correctly.
The finish date for taskd should be 12/26/05 and taske should be 1/10/06.
(Not 11/30 and 12/16 as they are now).

However, this requires me to examine my schedule every week when hours are
applied, and to make predecessor adjustments
in my schedule every time a task is finished (remaining work set to 0).
I
have been doing this but there has to be a better way.
There has to be a way to tell Project not to overbook resources with 16
hours of work a day when it thinks both tasks are available
to be worked on.

Bill Cole

 

[Bill Cole]

Schedule in HTML Formatl

Project Start Date: Sun 10/16/05
Project Finish Date: Fri 12/16/05

Task_Table1
Name Duration Start_Date Baseline_Finish Finish_Date Predecessors
Scheduled_Work Actual_Work Remaining_Work Resource_Names
taska 15.5 days Mon 10/17/05 Thu 10/20/05 Wed 12/7/05 124 hrs 22 hrs
102 hrs res1
taskb 8 days Thu 10/20/05 Thu 10/27/05 Wed 12/14/05 1 64 hrs 28 hrs 36
hrs res1
taskc 4 days Thu 10/27/05 Wed 11/2/05 Thu 11/3/05 2 32 hrs 32 hrs 0
hrs res1
taskd 12 days Wed 11/2/05 Fri 11/11/05 Wed 11/30/05 3 96 hrs 32 hrs 64
hrs res1
taske 16 days Tue 11/1/05 Wed 11/23/05 Fri 12/16/05 4 128 hrs 36 hrs
92 hrs res1

 

[Bill Cole]

Schedule I referred to in my previous post.
I was unable to attach the schedule.
- Bill


Name Duration Start_Date Baseline_Finish
Finish_Date Predecessors Scheduled_Work Actual_Work
Remaining_Work Resource_Names
taska 15.5 days Mon 10/17/05 Thu 10/20/05 Wed
12/7/05 1 24 hrs 22 hrs
102 hrs res1
taskb 8 days Thu 10/20/05 Thu 10/27/05 Wed
12/14/05 1 64 hrs 28 hrs
36 hrs res1
taskc 4 days Thu 10/27/05 Wed 11/2/05 Thu
11/3/05 2 32 hrs 32 hrs
0 hrs res1
taskd 12 days Wed 11/2/05 Fri 11/11/05 Wed
11/30/05 3 96 hrs 32 hrs
64 hrs res1
taske 16 days Tue 11/1/05 Wed 11/23/05 Fri
12/16/05 4 128 hrs 36 hrs
92 hrs res1

 

[Bill Cole]

Name Duration Start_Date Baseline_Finish Finish_Date Predecessors
Scheduled_Work Actual_Work Remaining_Work Resource_Names
taska 15.5 days Mon 10/17/05 Thu 10/20/05 Wed 12/7/05 124 hrs 22 hrs 102
hrs res1
taskb 8 days Thu 10/20/05 Thu 10/27/05 Wed 12/14/05 1 64 hrs 28 hrs 36 hrs
res1
taskc 4 days Thu 10/27/05 Wed 11/2/05 Thu 11/3/05 2 32 hrs 32 hrs 0 hrs res1
taskd 12 days Wed 11/2/05 Fri 11/11/05 Wed 11/30/05 3 96 hrs 32 hrs 64 hrs
res1
taske 16 days Tue 11/1/05 Wed 11/23/05 Fri 12/16/05 4 128 hrs 36 hrs 92 hrs
res1

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Bill --

How can Task C be completed when Task A and Task B are not yet completed?
This doesn't make sense, especially give the fact that you said this task is
a successor to Task B, which is a successor to Task A. If your dependencies
do not model the "real world" of how the work is actually going to be
performed, then I doubt using the Reschedule uncompleted work option will
work correctly for you. If I am misunderstanding your problem, please
restate it. Hope this helps.

 

[Bill Cole]

Dale,
I guess you have a point, task A and task B are not true predecessors to
task C as the completion of Task C is not dependent on A or B.

The bottom line is there are a number of tasks that have to be done to
complete an overall assignment.
A SW Engineer gives me an estimate for the 5 subtasks for the assignment and
I plug them into the schedule.
Just to get Project to calculate an end date, I put each task in with the
previous task as a predecessor. This is just
a bookkeeping maneuver, as I said, the tasks are actually done in a order
that can't be predicted when the schedule
is generated.

For Example:

Roll Up task - Complete Development of Waveform Viewer
1) Design of WF Viewer - 5d
2) Coding interface to database - 3d
3) Coding GUI portion of WF Viewer - 4d
4) Coding custom controls needed - 5d
5) Coding data acqusition enhancements - 3d
6) Development of testplan - 2d

In this example, I would have created a schedule where task 1 is a
predecessor to task 2, task 2 to task 3, etc.
The fact is, tasks 2, 3, 4, and 5 can be worked on independently and in any
order and do not really depend on each other.
So if task 3 is listed as complete, the remaining work and ultimately the
Finish Date of task 4 will be screwed up in subsequent
reporting periods. I get around this by going back in and making task 2 a
predecessor to task 4, and now the Finish Date
is calculated correctly. But this is a manual process and I have to examine
the remaining work for every task each week to see
which have been set to 0.

Suggestions?

Bill

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Bill --

What is your company's default method of tracking progress in Project
Server?

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Bill:

I'd suggest that you model the tasks so that 2,3,4,and 5 have task one as a
predecessor and 2 through 5 are modeled as parallel tasks. Set the duration
for each of these to the aggregate total of the four tasks combined if
they're to be worked on by one resource. Set the work values at the expected
work values. Set task 6 as a successor to each of these tasks. This will
allow the fluidity of the work to be what you need and the schedule to be
accurate.

 

[Bill Cole]

We track progress via actual hours and remaining hours. Not percent done.

Bill

 

[Bill Cole]

Thanks.
I will try this.

Bill

Bill:

I'd suggest that you model the tasks so that 2,3,4,and 5 have task one as
a predecessor and 2 through 5 are modeled as parallel tasks. Set the
duration for each of these to the aggregate total of the four tasks
combined if they're to be worked on by one resource. Set the work values
at the expected work values. Set task 6 as a successor to each of these
tasks. This will allow the fluidity of the work to be what you need and
the schedule to be accurate.