Task & Resource Question

[Matt]

One of the biggest complaints I receive from project managers is that when a
team member adds their time into pwa and the project manager accepts it....it
can drastically move the schedule and change the resource percentage for a
given task..What is the best method or practice that can cause the most
minimal change to a project and its related tasks. What are the best settings
in the Task Information Box and the Tools Options Window to cause the least
amount of change to a project ? Ideally, the schedule should change based on
actual work completed when using fix duration but I do not want the resource
percent to change in any way at all…is this possible.
Thanks

 

[rt]

One of the biggest complaints I receive from project managers is that when a
team member adds their time into pwa and the project manager accepts it....it
can drastically move the schedule and change the resource percentage for a
given task..What is the best method or practice that can cause the most
minimal change to a project and its related tasks. What are the best settings
in the Task Information Box and the Tools Options Window to cause the least
amount of change to a project ? Ideally, the schedule should change based on
actual work completed when using fix duration but I do not want the resource
percent to change in any way at all...is this possible.
Thanks

Here's what I teach my PM's:

1. Before updating, set task types to fixed units
2. When updating, task duration will change as people book more or
less actual work than planned
3. After updating, adjust task durations while keeping task type on
fixed units
4. Review the workloads and adjust assignment work if necessary. Set
task type to fixed duration before making these adjustments

If the quality of the schedule is ok, this should only take a PM no
more than 30 minutes on a weekly update cycle.

 

[Matt]

RT,
Thanks for your response. Quick question...what is the exact purpose of
switching from fixed duration to fixed units and then back to fixed
duration..? Does this minimize/eliminate the resource percentage and task
schedule from automatically changing...?
thanks for your help.

 

[rt]

RT,
Thanks for your response. Quick question...what is the exact purpose of
switching from fixed duration to fixed units and then back to fixed
duration..? Does this minimize/eliminate the resource percentage and task
schedule from automatically changing...?
thanks for your help.

First, when approving actuals into the plan, your task type should be
fixed units, otherwise MS Project will make a mess of your schedule.

As a result, your durations will have changed. On most projects, these
durations should be reset to their previous values, as your major
deadlines usually don't change - have to be ready on time!

However, doing this while the task type is fixed units will affect
your resource workloads. For example, if they book less actuals than
planned, your duration will be extended (to make up for the hours that
weren't booked). If you then reset the original duration while the
task type is still fixed units, Project will have to drop the
"leftover" work.

At this point, the PM has to decide whether this is OK (it often is),
or whether the work has to be caught up. In the latter case, you first
need to set the task type to fixed duration because you just reset the
duration and if you don't fix it, Project will change it again.

After all this is done, I make it a habit to set the task type to
fixed units again to be ready for the next update, but this is not
strictly necessary at this point.

So it's a 3-step affair, this updating waltz:

- Review the actuals and update (fixed units)
- Review the durations and reset (fixed units)
- Review the workload and adjust (fixed duration)

The beauty is, that you don't have to do the last step every time, if
your project schedule (and your team) is any good: deviations between
work and actuals will be minimal. However, since they do add up from
week to week, you may have to adjust the individual workloads from
time to time.

I hope this makes sense....

 

[Matt]

Thanks RT...this makes perfect sense now and has resolved our
issues....thanks again for taking the time to post a reply to our question..!!

 

[rt]

Thanks RT...this makes perfect sense now and has resolved our
issues....thanks again for taking the time to post a reply to our question..!!














- Tekst uit oorspronkelijk bericht weergeven -

Glad I could help.

 

[Dots]

Matt,
I did exactly what you propose in this thread and with my project set at
fixed units, effort driven, the %units changed when I updated the plan. The
duration, however, remained the same. I need to be able to set a %unit and
set duration for an annual support project that will NOT change when
resources report hours and the project is updated. Any suggestions on what I
should do next? HELP!

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Dots:

The change in percent units that you see reflects the peak usage for the
resource and does not affect the underlying assignment percentage. Hope this
clears it up.

--

Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
For Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
For Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com

 

[Dots]

Gary,
I understand the underlying assignment, but I need to find a way that keeps
the %Units stable over the course of the year long "support" project. Is
there no way this can be done?

 

[Wendy]

Gary,
I understand the underlying assignment, but I need to find a way that keeps
the %Units stable over the course of the year long "support" project.  Is
there no way this can be done?

:





- Show quoted text -

Gary and Dots,

I am having this exact issue as well (relating to support plans too)
and would also like to better understand this. Can you provide some
insight into peak usage %s--how/when they show up? Based on my testing
and you're not, my fear is that there is no way to truly lock down a
units percentage (regardless of the fixed task type) if a resource may
have booked signficantly more time to a given task that the % would
allow.

Thanks for any insight!
Wendy

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Dots:

Again, the underlying assignment units remain stable unless planned work
gets eaten up entirely, then the assignment units can drop off at the end of
a fixed duration. Now that I've made it even more confusion for you, perhaps
I need to ask what's driving your need? Is it that you need to continuously
display the original assignments in reports or views? If so, create a custom
field to hold a static value. The tool is going to continue do what it was
designed to do.

--

Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
For Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
For Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com

 

[Dots]

All, Here is the fix I put in place and it seems to give me what I want to see:

Annual support project with designated # hours to finish at end of year"
I set my Project to FIXED WORK, with a constraint date on the anual support
task of MUST FINISH ON 12/31/08. This keeps the projected number of hours at
my projected hours and does not push the end date out!

Dots