Quantity vs. percentage

[Hytekjunky]

Task are set @ Fixed work (hours). Resource A set as material. Resource B
set as Work.

Is there a way to enter the number of Resource A that has been completed
instead of having to enter percentages? Example. Resource "Conduit" has 500
feet assigned to Task 1. During the previous work day, 250 feet of conduit
was installed/completed. Is there a way to enter the quantity of conduit
completed instead of the percentage completed or hours worked? If so, by
entering an updated quantity, will Project update the percentage for me?

TIA,
Me

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Not only possible, but I even recommend it - I hate percentages (and I'm not
exaggerating. People throw percentages around without telling of what it is
a percentage, thus only creating misunderstandings)
Now to the point
Task Usage View
Insert the columns Work, Actual Work, Remaining Work (at least those that
aren't already shown)
Put 250 as actual work for the material resoruce and watch: all's well!

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[Hytekjunky]

Jan, you rock. This is exactly what we were needing.

I also agree with you. IRL, the guys on the ground could no more give me an
accurate percentage than my 2 yr old. They can however tell me how many feet
of material they have constructed. This simply makes my life easier so that
I don't have to do the calculations myself. I could've spit this info out in
10 seconds with excel. Still learning about Project though.

Thanks,
Junky

 

[Hytekjunky]

Okay, I THOUGHT that was exactly what I was looking for. Boss say's
different. He wants to be able to see just the qty's (Actual Work), in the
Gantt view, instead of seeing hours (Actual Work). Is this possible, or is
there a way to modify a few of the "Number" columns to show this information?

Reason for doing this is that the customer is used to seeing the Gantt view
with the bar graph. Also, Boss doesn't want to show hours assigned to
resource (Electricians) to the customer.

Thanks,
Junky

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

So for one, you now how to enter actuals and that project handles them the
way you like.

Now for the view: can only be done using VBA, formulas cannot tell the
difference between resource types. And it's not a simple macro either (what
if there are 2 or more material resources to the task, f.i.)

Hope this helps,
--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[Hytekjunky]

Thanks... I think. It solidifies what I was expecting to hear. Looks like
I'll be stopping off at Barnes and Noble to grab a VBA for Dummies this
evening.

Thanks again for replying so soon and giving me the correct answer I didn't
want to hear. lol.

Junky

 

[Steve House]

The problem is that the schedule is based on the linear passage of time - it
will take 10 days to lay the pipe - but neither the consumption of materials
nor the production of deliverable is necessarily equally linear. It's
altogether possible that one might have 10 days duration but have no
material resource consumed at all up until the last day - 100% of the
material consumption occurs during the final 10% of the task's duration.
How would your system account for that eventuality?

Your first post seems to imply that "500 feet of conduit" is the amount of
deliverable produced. If so, IMHO that's not truly a material resource - a
material resource would be the amount of 'raw material' that is CONSUMED on
the installation of 500 feet of conduit. It's true that when you're talking
specifically about something like installing conduit they're probably pretty
close to the same thing but I think you will run into problems in most cases
if you try to conceptually equate consumption of raw materials with progress
towards completion.