Scheduling contingency via non-working time in calendar -problems

[iainjh]

Hi all

I'm scheduling a game software development. Notwithstanding , or ignoring
inaccurate estimations for a moment, I'm assuming 3 weeks work and 1 week
contigency in each working month. Experience tells me that contingency is
about right over the space of a month due to slippage, change of spec or
other game dev 'issues' that happen, but this rarely works if applied right
down to individual task estimations or disciplines (of which there are many).

In the calendar I've set the last week of each month as nonworking to layout
the basic schedule.

Now I need to add [booked] vacation time for each resource, I find theres no
concept of multiple calendars or a way to book that resource 'out' when his
vacation overlaps on my of the contingency periods. project sees the calendar
is nonworking and so i cant book his holiday in.

How am I best to schedule contingency anmd holidays then? I have c. 40
reosources and i wanted to keep it simple.

thanks for advice and thoughts!

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

An original, but not a bad idea to represent contingency in calendars. Quite
like it.
What you can do, instead of declaring one week a month as nonworking, is to
decrease the number of hours workd per day sy from 8 to 6, but leving the
definition of a day in Tools, Options, Calendar as 8 hrs. Then a 6 day
(duration) task will be planned as 8 working days which gies you dour
contingency... and the possibility to reduce the resource's working time
from 6 to nil when he/she is on leave.

HTH

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

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Iain,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

Create a new calendar based on the Standard calendar and then put in your 1 week contingency in that. Then make that the project calendar. Now create a calendar for each resource based on the original Standard calendar. That should work, but I confess I haven't had the time to try it out.

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

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

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials



Hi all

I'm scheduling a game software development. Notwithstanding , or ignoring
inaccurate estimations for a moment, I'm assuming 3 weeks work and 1 week
contigency in each working month. Experience tells me that contingency is
about right over the space of a month due to slippage, change of spec or
other game dev 'issues' that happen, but this rarely works if applied right
down to individual task estimations or disciplines (of which there are many).

In the calendar I've set the last week of each month as nonworking to layout
the basic schedule.

Now I need to add [booked] vacation time for each resource, I find theres no
concept of multiple calendars or a way to book that resource 'out' when his
vacation overlaps on my of the contingency periods. project sees the calendar
is nonworking and so i cant book his holiday in.

How am I best to schedule contingency anmd holidays then? I have c. 40
reosources and i wanted to keep it simple.

thanks for advice and thoughts!

 

[iainjh]

Hi

I've tried as Mike suggested, but it doesnt appear to work.

I now have 2 calendars - a custom calendar (with last week of each month
blocked out as contingency) set as the project calendar and the standard
calendar (normal working weeks) associated to each resource

both were laboriously set up fromthe tools/ change working time dialog.

(it also appears the whole project is now 'looking' to the standard calendar
not the custom one. Does the project/project information/calendar selection
dialog, work?)


thanks for help thus far!

Iain

 

[Mike Glen]

Ah, I should have tried it out first - sorry Iain. The Standard calendar needs to be allocated to the Task and not the resource. So, create a task - Fred's leave - assign Fred. Then double click on the task and in the Task Information dialog Advanced tab, select the Standard calendar and check Scheduling ignores resources calendars. That should do it OK.

Mike Glen
Project MVP

Hi

I've tried as Mike suggested, but it doesnt appear to work.

I now have 2 calendars - a custom calendar (with last week of each month
blocked out as contingency) set as the project calendar and the standard
calendar (normal working weeks) associated to each resource

both were laboriously set up fromthe tools/ change working time dialog.

(it also appears the whole project is now 'looking' to the standard calendar
not the custom one. Does the project/project information/calendar selection
dialog, work?)


thanks for help thus far!

Iain

Hi Iain,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

Create a new calendar based on the Standard calendar and then put in your
1 week contingency in that. Then make that the project calendar. Now
create a calendar for each resource based on the original Standard
calendar. That should work, but I confess I haven't had the time to try
it out.

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

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

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials



Hi all

I'm scheduling a game software development. Notwithstanding , or
ignoring
inaccurate estimations for a moment, I'm assuming 3 weeks work and 1
week
contigency in each working month. Experience tells me that contingency
is
about right over the space of a month due to slippage, change of spec or
other game dev 'issues' that happen, but this rarely works if applied
right
down to individual task estimations or disciplines (of which there are
many).

In the calendar I've set the last week of each month as nonworking to
layout
the basic schedule.

Now I need to add [booked] vacation time for each resource, I find
theres no
concept of multiple calendars or a way to book that resource 'out' when
his
vacation overlaps on my of the contingency periods. project sees the
calendar
is nonworking and so i cant book his holiday in.

How am I best to schedule contingency anmd holidays then? I have c. 40
reosources and i wanted to keep it simple.

thanks for advice and thoughts!

 

[iainjh]

Thank you Mike, I shall try asap!

Thanks again -Iain
----

Ah, I should have tried it out first - sorry Iain. The Standard calendar
needs to be allocated to the Task and not the resource. So, create a
task - Fred's leave - assign Fred. Then double click on the task and in
the Task Information dialog Advanced tab, select the Standard calendar and
check Scheduling ignores resources calendars. That should do it OK.

Mike Glen
Project MVP

Hi

I've tried as Mike suggested, but it doesnt appear to work.

I now have 2 calendars - a custom calendar (with last week of each
month
blocked out as contingency) set as the project calendar and the standard
calendar (normal working weeks) associated to each resource

both were laboriously set up fromthe tools/ change working time dialog.

(it also appears the whole project is now 'looking' to the standard
calendar
not the custom one. Does the project/project information/calendar
selection
dialog, work?)


thanks for help thus far!

Iain

Hi Iain,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

Create a new calendar based on the Standard calendar and then put in your
1 week contingency in that. Then make that the project calendar. Now
create a calendar for each resource based on the original Standard
calendar. That should work, but I confess I haven't had the time to try
it out.

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

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

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials



Hi all

I'm scheduling a game software development. Notwithstanding , or
ignoring
inaccurate estimations for a moment, I'm assuming 3 weeks work and 1
week
contigency in each working month. Experience tells me that contingency
is
about right over the space of a month due to slippage, change of spec or
other game dev 'issues' that happen, but this rarely works if applied
right
down to individual task estimations or disciplines (of which there are
many).

In the calendar I've set the last week of each month as nonworking to
layout
the basic schedule.

Now I need to add [booked] vacation time for each resource, I find
theres no
concept of multiple calendars or a way to book that resource 'out' when
his
vacation overlaps on my of the contingency periods. project sees the
calendar
is nonworking and so i cant book his holiday in.

How am I best to schedule contingency anmd holidays then? I have c. 40
reosources and i wanted to keep it simple.

thanks for advice and thoughts!

 

[Mike Glen]

You're welcome, Iain

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials


Thank you Mike, I shall try asap!

Thanks again -Iain
----

Ah, I should have tried it out first - sorry Iain. The Standard calendar
needs to be allocated to the Task and not the resource. So, create a
task - Fred's leave - assign Fred. Then double click on the task and in
the Task Information dialog Advanced tab, select the Standard calendar and
check Scheduling ignores resources calendars. That should do it OK.

Mike Glen
Project MVP

Hi

I've tried as Mike suggested, but it doesnt appear to work.

I now have 2 calendars - a custom calendar (with last week of each
month
blocked out as contingency) set as the project calendar and the standard
calendar (normal working weeks) associated to each resource

both were laboriously set up fromthe tools/ change working time dialog.

(it also appears the whole project is now 'looking' to the standard
calendar
not the custom one. Does the project/project information/calendar
selection
dialog, work?)


thanks for help thus far!

Iain

Hi Iain,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

Create a new calendar based on the Standard calendar and then put in your
1 week contingency in that. Then make that the project calendar. Now
create a calendar for each resource based on the original Standard
calendar. That should work, but I confess I haven't had the time to try
it out.

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

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

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials



Hi all

I'm scheduling a game software development. Notwithstanding , or
ignoring
inaccurate estimations for a moment, I'm assuming 3 weeks work and 1
week
contigency in each working month. Experience tells me that contingency
is
about right over the space of a month due to slippage, change of spec or
other game dev 'issues' that happen, but this rarely works if applied
right
down to individual task estimations or disciplines (of which there are
many).

In the calendar I've set the last week of each month as nonworking to
layout
the basic schedule.

Now I need to add [booked] vacation time for each resource, I find
theres no
concept of multiple calendars or a way to book that resource 'out' when
his
vacation overlaps on my of the contingency periods. project sees the
calendar
is nonworking and so i cant book his holiday in.

How am I best to schedule contingency anmd holidays then? I have c. 40
reosources and i wanted to keep it simple.

thanks for advice and thoughts!