Task paths depending on an outcome

[AndyOfNZ]

Is it possible to add a series of tasks that depend on the outcome o
another? I've searched various forums about 'what-if' tasks and all sa
the same thing: Add the tasks and save a version for each variant.

That's not much good to me. The scenarios I'm thinking of could happe
a long time away but I would like to plan for them now. I would like t
be able to show the impact should a certain risk occur.

Here's a few examples:


- I have a risk and the plan should the risk occur has been though
out in detail. I want to put the tasks into the schedule so we ca
track what will happen to the project if the risk occurred at an
given time. Let's make it easy and say it might happen at one time
say when the clocks change... did it impact the system's schedule? I
yes, invoke risk plan. While the risk does not happen the dependen
tasks can start. (in reality they aren't always that easy and we nee
to move the risk around in time, keep the dependencies locked in, bu
as it probably won't happen I need to keep the resources available t
start the tasks as if the risk plan wasn't there)
- I am due to go on extended leave in November. If the project doe
not finish in time then I need to schedule handover tasks in October
I would like these tasks to not affect the total cost of the projec
or the overall time line unless a key milestone passes a deadline.
- The project is at risk of exceeding a threshold. We want to look a
reducing scope to meet the threshold. We don't want to lose all th
values for the tasks for a particular deliverable but want t
effectively cancel them to see the impact (I know I could just mov
the tasks to a different phase further down but that will mess up th
tracking views and EVA and is not what I want to show).


I know that I can do a lot of this manually and I can plan for th
worst case every time, but it would be so nice if MS Project could le
me put the scenarios into the schedule and alert me accordingly.

Thanks in advance for any advice that any of you may be able t
provide.

Regards, Andrew

 

[Rob Schneider]

Fully understand what you want. Project doesn't do this. However, there
are a number of add-in products that do this. I currently use @Risk for
Project and Risky Project. Others use other similar tools.

--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[JulieS]

Hello AndyOfNZ,

As Rob said, the current version of Project does not do this
directly. The best you can do is to add the multiple paths and then
link or unlink at the decision points to see the impact.

The next version of Project (2010) handles this very nicely through
Inactive tasks. So, something to look forward to come Project 2010.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project

 

[Rod Gill]

I would approach this slightly differently. This is classic Risk Management.
So, for each Risk, take % chance of it happening and Predict amount of
Schedule (Time) delay, extra Work and Cost if Risk happens. Multiply each by
the % and you end up with Contingency. So, If the possible delay will be 10
extra days, involve an extra 20h of work for someone and no other costs
(apart from labor) and the likelihood is 25% then create a Contingency Task
with 2.5 days duration, assign Resource for 5h.

Now keep the Action plan separately to be rolled out if needed. If the Risk
does not happen, the Contingency Task can be set to 0d Duration and 100%
complete.

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

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

 

[AndyOfNZ]

Thank you all so much for your input; each of you have given me ver
good ideas... and at least I know to stop looking at Project 2007 fo
the automated answer!
Rod, I love your idea of including a contingency line - that'
something I'd always managed outside of the project schedule but the wa
you put it makes so much sense at a project-wide view.

I'll be looking into those other tools. In the mean time I may kee
separate, local schedules for each risk so that I can pull them into th
project's schedule to evaluate the impact and tweak things if needed...
just means a bit of extra work if there are many dependencies.

Roll on MSP 2010, can't wait. Some of the features look great

 

[Rod Gill]

You're welcome and good luck!

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

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

 

[Jim Aksel [MVP]]

Andy - In addition to Rod's post the other add in tools will allow
conditional branching which is what you are looking for. Since you will
want to have a "Contingency Task" as a one liner the key will be to
determine its duration. Rather than using a single point estimate, you can
use the conditional branching features in products like @Risk and Risk+ or
RiskyProject. Then, you can see what the statisitcal duration is of the
conditional branch and make a more educated guess as to the duration of the
contingency task.

I've only done this once, and I was surprised to find my contingency task
needed to be much longer than I expected because of the uncertainy of the
durations in the "what if tasks" What we had was a branch that only had
about a 40% chance of occurrence and the management did not want to include
it. However, the duration estimates of these tasks had a much wider
dispersion than the duration estimates of the main schedule. This drove our
contingency task to a longer duration than we would have expected.

HTH

Jim