Weighting tasks

[Michael McGinley]

I was wondering if anyone out knew of a simple way to weight tasks in
Microsoft Project.

This will help with our EVA reporting.

Certainly, some tasks are more vital than others, how do you set (or weigh)
them in MS Project?

Thanks in advance! Take care.

 

[JackD]

Since EVA is based on cost, you simply assign more cost to some tasks than
to others.

 

[John]

Jack,
I'm gonna stick my neck out here an take exception to your statement.
EVA is partially based on cost. The other important factor is time (i.e.
schedule - when the effort earns the value). Michael isn't specific on
exactly how he wants to "help" the EVA reporting. It may be that he
simply wants the more important tasks to be accomplished first so the
value earned is, shall I say, higher quality or more relevant value. The
amount of cost or budget for a task does not necessarily relate to its
importance. This is probably a poor example but it illustrates the
point. Say a new house is being built and the budget for the kitchen and
backyard landscaping are both $60K. I think most people would agree that
completing the kitchen is a higher priority than the landscaping.

I believe Michael has a couple of choices for weighting. Either schedule
the tasks in priority order (manual) or use the Priority field and use
leveling (automated).

Just my opinion.
John

 

[Michael McGinley]

Thanks John. I appreciate you response.

I was not specific enough and I apologize.

Leveling is not the way we want to go as it involves fixing overallocation
of resources.

In my organizations case, we are trying to figure out how to make 1 task
more meaningful than others and vice versa.

For example, writing a status report is not as important as the task that
involves the actual developement of a product.

I do not know if this is possible, but we do appreciate everyones insight.

Take care and thanks again John.

 

[Michael McGinley]

We have found a decent solution for our EV Analysis.

We have found that using "Physical Work Complete" as our Earned Value method
will help tremendously.

Let me know if i confused anyone out there, better yet, let me know who i
didn't confuse