Questions regarding Dale's instruction - Admin Projects

[Darlene]

Dear Dale,

I tried the instructions you gave in a past post (see
below) regarding setting up Admin project, but I have some
questions...

I setup the projects the way you suggested and then
entered time against the tasks from my web access
timesheet. When I did this the % Work Complete changed to
100% complete. However, I want the task to have a fixed
duration of (say) 3 months and remain "open" so time can
be entered as required.

QUESTIONS:

1. Can we keep this task in my timesheet and keep
recording time against it even though it shows 100%.

2. Using this method will tasks always show 100%
complete. Is this OK?

3. Is there a better way to setup Admin type tasks that
multiple resources need to charge time against on an on-
going basis, and as the activity occurs?

I appreciate any help you can give in this regard.

Darlene

***********PAST POST***********

Andreas --

What you are describing is what many refer to as
an "administrative
project", which can be used to track non-project work
(such as support, team
meetings, etc.) and non-deliverable project work (such as
project meetings,
project management, project administration, etc.). You
are definitely on
the right track in creating one to accomplish your stated
purpose. In
addition, I believe you should consider doing the
following:

1. Set each of the tasks in your administrative project
to Fixed Duration
and non-Effort Driven
2. Assign your resources at 0% Units to each task.

The second step will cause each resource to be assigned to
0 hours of Work
on each task, but when you publish these tasks, each task
will appear on
each user's timesheets in PWA. Your team members can then
enter their
actual hours for each task whenever work is actually
performed.

I have personally used this technique and have recommended
it to my clients,
and it works. Hope this helps.

 

[Dale Howard]

Darlene --

I am VERY flattered that you are using an administrative plan as I have
proposed. I am assuming that you assigned each resource to each
administrative task at 0% Units, which calculates 0 hours of Work for each
task. This allows you to have an "open" task in which Actual Work can be
entered throughout the life of the task. To answer your questions:

1. Yes, even though the % Complete is shown as 100% on a task, you team
members can continue to enter Actual Work on the task through the final day
of the Duration of the task.

2. Yes, if you use this method, when the first Actual Work values have been
entered, the % Complete may show as 100%. I believe this should not cause
you any grief, however, given the fact that an administrative project is
somewhat of an unusual creature. In your situation, its only purpose is to
gather the ACTUAL hours that people have worked on administrative tasks.
Because of this, seeing that the task is showing 100% complete is a good
thing, as it shows that your people are following the rules and entering
time against these tasks!

3. I would recommend that you use this first administrative project as a
"trial balloon" to determine which types of tasks should be included in
future administrative projects. When a company is doing its first-ever
administrative plan, I recommend that they use a Duration of no more than 60
days for each task, which equals approximately 3 months on the calendar.
This will give you time to experiment with the administrative project, to
determine how it works, how well it is working, which tasks should be
included in future projects, and which tasks should not be included as well.

Also, at the end of the 60 day period, you will also be able to determine
the typical amount of time your team members spend on administrative tasks.
You should then be able to use this information in planning for all future
projects. For example, if you determine that your team members typically
commit approximately 33% of each day working on non-project work, then you
should not assign your resources to more than 67% Units on any task in a
regular project, as this will give you a more realistic schedule for your
project. Does that make sense? Let me know. Again, thanks for the nice
compliment!

 

[Darlene]

Your Welcome!

We read in one of the other posts that someone put a
budget against each Admin task. We tried doing this
in "work" but of course this alters all the other fields,
i.e., resource allocation, start, finish times...? Are we
mixing apples and oranges?

Here's the steps (and sequence) we go through to set up an
Admin project:

1. Open template.
2. Set project start date.
3. Create summary task and subtasks.
4. Set Fix Duration and Non-effort driven for all tasks.
5. Assign resources with 0 units.
6. Set duration to 90 days.
7. Set work to "budget".
8. Save and publish.

Are we missing anything? Again, we're looking for the
best way for multiple resources to charge their non-
project related time, on an on-going basis, as the
activity occurs.

Thank you for all your help!

Darlene
WWJD

 

[Gary Chefetz [MVP]]

Dale:

The problem I've seen with the zero effort assignment is not that it becomes
complete with the first time entry, but the ripple effect that has on the my
tasks view. Although, as you aptly state, resources can continue to post
time to the complete task, the undesired consequence is that the task also
disappears from the "current tasks" version of the timesheet view. The
resources then have to switch to the "all tasks" view to find the tasks. You
know what happens when the tasks aren't in their face, many fail to go
hunting!<g>

--
Gary Chefetz [MVP]
http://www.msprojectexperts.com

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