Summary of summary tasks

[draco664]

Greetings all,


I have a dozen or so projects that I merge into a single summary
project file. Since each of the projects were developed with different
methodologies and standards, MSP tends to crash when I try to simply
link them into one file.

To get around this, I have essentially created a view within each
individual project file that shows selected summary tasks with all the
relevent information in the table. I then copy and paste the raw data
from the working project file into the summary file.

This works well enough for my purposes, but I've been asked if I can
add an overview section at the top of the summary project file.

Background:

Each individual project has tasks specific to various parts of the
SDLC - Develop, Build, Test, etc.

Currently, the summary project file is in this format:

--
Proj A1
- Summary of Develop tasks
- Summary of Build tasks
- Summary of Test tasks... etc.
--
Proj A2
- Summary of Develop tasks
- Summary of Build tasks
- Summary of Test tasks... etc.
--
Proj A3
Etc...

Now, the overview section at the top of the summary project file needs
to show the summary info for each of the Develop/Build/etc tasks from
each of the individual projects, like:

Proj A
- Summary of Develop tasks from Proj A1, Proj A2, etc.
- Summary of Build tasks from Proj A1, Proj A2, etc.
- etc.

Any ideas on how to attack this?

I was thinking of identifying each of the summary tasks at the Proj A#
level, and using a macro to calculate the overview summary tasks from
that, but I wanted to get a feel to see if there was an easier/more
efficient way of doing it.

Thanks in advance,

Chris

 

[Rod Gill]

HI,

I would insert each project, but deselect the Link option so all tasks are
copied, not linked. This may well solve the crashing problem. Now sort by
name selecting the Keep Outline structure option.

Now you can create high level summary tasks to summarize all Develop summary
tasks and so on. A macro would make this quicker and easier, but do it
manually first to make sure your managers like the result!

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see:
http://www.projectvbabook.com