scheduling multi-tasking

[Samantha Gore]

I am running several small projects in parallel, and have reosurces often
swapping across small tasks between them e.g. my tester may be testing one
then another whilst awaiting the developers to fix an issue. Does anyone have
any tips on how to schedule this?

Is it as simple as alllocating him 50% to each and will levellling correctly
allocate him? I have avoided using levelling up till now as it never seems to
work as I expect, is there another way?

Thanks, Samantha

 

[Jim Aksel]

That is the way we do it. Just change the allocation units to 50% (or what
ever works for your situation).
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Jim

Check out my new blog for more information:
http://www.msprojectblog.com

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Leveling does not change assignment units, it only delays tasks in case of
overalloction.
If you expected it to change units, indeed, it will not do what you expect.
In your cas efor leveling to work its best, make ths tasks small enough,
allocate each resource to each task 100%, then leveling willl (depending on
priority) nicely sequence them.
HTH

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

 

[Samantha Gore]

Thanks for the feedback, unfortunately that means I have to micro manage
tasks to a couple of hours, something I was hoping to avoid. I shall have a
further think about it (hopefully not have to go back to a spreadsheet and
lose the dependencies that MSP gives me)
--
Samantha J Gore
Project Manager

Hi,

Leveling does not change assignment units, it only delays tasks in case of
overalloction.
If you expected it to change units, indeed, it will not do what you expect.
In your cas efor leveling to work its best, make ths tasks small enough,
allocate each resource to each task 100%, then leveling willl (depending on
priority) nicely sequence them.
HTH

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

 

[Jim Aksel]

You are not adding value to your program by micro management. Run the tasks
in parallel with an appropriate allocation (say 50% each). If it needs to be
more granular than that, try using the Task Usage view and set an appropriate
time scale. If needed the time scale can be set to minutes and you can
switch Fred and Barny back and forth between the two tasks every other minute
of you like.

Remember, your cost tracking is going to be at a higher level... don't lose
sight of the big picture by looking at the moss on the backs of the leaves.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

Check out my new blog for more information:
http://www.msprojectblog.com

Thanks for the feedback, unfortunately that means I have to micro manage
tasks to a couple of hours, something I was hoping to avoid. I shall have a
further think about it (hopefully not have to go back to a spreadsheet and
lose the dependencies that MSP gives me)

 

[Dave]

I am running several small projects in parallel, and have reosurces often
swapping across small tasks between them e.g. my tester may be testing one
then another whilst awaiting the developers to fix an issue. Does anyone have
any tips on how to schedule this?

Is it as simple as alllocating him 50% to each and will levellling correctly
allocate him? I have avoided using levelling up till now as it never seems to
work as I expect, is there another way?

Thanks, Samantha

I suppose that in reality you can't actually schedule what is happening
because testing is being halted because of unforeseen issues and they of
course cannot be planned (they can be anticipated but not accurately
detailed).

The reality though is that your tester cannot run through the testing of
an item because of these issues that need fixing.

I think it would be an error to micro-manage on too fine a granularity
so I would probably take a broader-brush approach and look at the
achievements on a week-by-week basis.

From what you describe, it seems likely that the tester will have to
work on several activities in parallel (from a week-by-week
perspective), so I would schedule according to that and try and
determine the amount of time per week spent on each of the activities
and then schedule them in parallel.

Then as progress accrues, I would reschedule the remaining work at a
level-of-effort that took account of the issues that had arisen during
the work so that the proportion of time spent on each of the testing
activities was aligned with past experience.

I do use levelling with this approach and it can be made to work well.
The problems with levelling are that:
- Some people don't understand what it does or how it works sufficiently
well
- It is not the single-shot button some people think it is and it make
require iteration to get good results

 

[Samantha Gore]

Assigning the resource at 50% and levelling that resource seems to have
worked, phew!, I may finally be coming round to believing that levelling
works.

Thanks for the all the ideas. S.

 

[Dave]

Assigning the resource at 50% and levelling that resource seems to have
worked, phew!, I may finally be coming round to believing that levelling
works.

Thanks for the all the ideas. S.

It does and it is worth persevering with. It isn't the one button
panacea that most people think that it is. I find it works best as an
iterative process, setting priorities to 1000 as elements of the plan
become as I want them and then working on the remainder.