2 resources on 1 task - 1 going on vacation - how to manage this?

[Jonathan]

I have created a 5 day duration task with 2 resources assigned in Project
2007. One of these resources is going on vacation mid-way into this task, but
the other can continue in her absence.
I created a seperate enterprise calendar for her to account for her
unavailability and when I associated her calendar with the task, BOTH
resources were affected in that the task was pushed out until she returns to
work.
Is there a way to have the standard calendar settings applied to the 2nd
resource and the 'vacation' calendar apply to the lady while she is away -
FOR THE SAME TASK at the same time
or
is there a better way to manage this work of 2 resources? (like maybe split
the task into 2 separate tasks - one for the 1st resource and the 2nd for the
lady going on vacation)?
Thanks

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Let me see if I read you well:

(Quote)
I created a seperate enterprise calendar for her to account for her

unavailability and when I associated her calendar with the task, BOTH
resources were affected in that the task was pushed out until she returns
to
work.

(end of quote)

This simply is not true. It is a feature I have been asking for for the past
9 years, but apparently Microsoft doesn't even think of developping it...
till you tell me it works? No, I'm sorry. A personal calendar ONLY affects
the work of the resource involved, the other one happily does his/her part
of the work like before.
But the other resource doesn't take up more work automatically (did you
expect that?) thus the finish of the task is delayed since whikle teh hard
working resource finished as before, teh lazy one with the in task holiday
finishes later. Look at Task Usage Voiew to see what exactly happens.

And yes, if you CAN define one resoreuce for one task, taht is always
clkearer.

Hope this helps,


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

 

[Jonathan]

Hi Jan
What profound insight you have! I've tried using a modified version of your
suggestion and would welcome your comment. Here's what I did:
1. Under the Advanced tab of the Task information for the task, I restored
the Calendar from the lady's calendar back to 'None' (which I think defaults
it back to the Standard calendar for BOTH resources....yes?).
2. I reset the date (under the general tab) back to the date when the 1st
resource ('the hard-working') IS available (but the 'lazy' one is not
3. I split the window and brought up the task usage view and edited to 0h
the lady's work duriing the days she is away and edited in 8h of work for the
days she's back.
4. This of course (!) increased the duration of the work for the task (as
expected) and also caused the task to be split.

So in fact, it appears that unless I create 2 identical tasks running in
parallel for each resource to account for their availability and then assign
the lady's calendar specifically to her availability in 'her' task, it is NOT
possible to assign one resource callendar to a task with (1+n) resources and
hope MS can 'differentiate' and 'accomodate' differing resource
availabilities within the same task... phew!

Your thoughts?
Thanks again
Jonathan

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Adding a note to Jan's answer - while you see the TASK duration change,
remember that the total duration of a task with multiple resources is from
when the earliest starting resource does the first bit of work until the
last to finish resource wraps up. The equation W=D*U still applies as
always, but it applies to each resource separately and when you view the
durations for each resource's work, those durations have not changed. You
got to keep an eye on this because it means that you could have a situation
where the company plane resource flies itself from New York to Los Angeles
on Monday with the pilot resource flying to join it on Wednesday and the
total 6-hour "Flight To LA" task showing a duration of 2 or 3 days LOL.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

You also had a task calendar active... that may complicate the thing.
One bit of theory.. when a task calendar is assigned there is also a
checkbox "Scheduling ignores resoruce calendars" so for or discussion it is
best to NOT have task calendars.
Indeed, the problem in our communication is that you seem to try to enter a
resoruce's holiday in a task calendar rathe rthan in a resource calendar...
why?
If one resource is absent you enter that in the resource calendar, NOT in
the task calendar.
To se the result you want you have to look for the RESOURCE INFORMATION
form, not the task information.

Also I gave the advice to look at the task usage view. Instead you split the
window which does not show what I wanted you to see .. when each resoruce
performa the work.

So here's your homework
No task calendar
Chenge the resoruce calendar to reflect its (and its alone) working time
Look at the task usage view to see what happens.

HTH

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

 

[Jonathan]

Hi Jan
Thank you for your enduring patience with me...
Just to clarify:
1. From within PWA, I made a copy of the Standard Enterprise Calendar (with
Corporate holidays entered) for the lady and then modified this lady's
enterprise calendar to reflect her specific vacation period. This created a
resource-specific calendar called 'lady1' which I saw when I checked (via
Project 2007) Tools-Change Working Time... and it reflected the lady's
vacation period.
2. Then, within the specific task, I restored the task calendar setting
back to its default state ('none') and made sure the 'Scheduling ignores
resource calendars' checkbox was in its (default) unchecked state. So
everthing - from a task perspective was restored back to its original state
(before I began tinkering with it).
3. I then proceeded as you had advised and split the window (Gantt chart
upper, Task Usage lower) and focussed on the task line where I had 2
resources allocated (the guy who was available throughout the task period and
the lady who was only available for part of the period).
4. In the Task Usage window for this specific task, the task usage details
showed the lady to have work assigned for the time when she was in fact on
vacation.
5. I then manually edited her time to take into account her unavailable
period and assigned the work to her available periods.
Question: It seems that by performing step #5 above, I've not made use of
the specific enterprise calendar I created for the lady (step #1). That's
confusing and I'd welcome your further comment (if you've not lost complete
patience with me yet...!)

Thanks
Jonathan

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

It's step 4 that is totally out of order.
The lady cannot have work assigned when she is on holiday. Cannot.
At that point in time, in that project, when looking at lady's actual working time, is she really enjoying nonworking time?

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