Calendar doesn't work in MS Project 2K3

[Bobby]

I can't get my project plan to respect the dates in my calendar (I'm running
MS Project 2003).

I have created a special calendar for my project (for example, I've added
Xmas dates as "non-working days") but my project plan ignores this and
allocates time to these days anyway.

I have assigned this calendar to my project (using Project->Project info).

Help!

Bobby

 

[JulieD]

Hi Bobby

so just to clarify
1) under project / project information it shows your custom calendar as the
working time calendar
2) and when you go into tools / change working time you see christmas as
non-working time,
3) and when you tell the gantt chart to display the your calendar's
non-working time (format / timescale - non-working time tab) you see the
holidays that you marked
4) and you're set your special calendar to be the base calendar for the
resources (resource sheet / base calendar column).

However, when you actually assign the resources to the tasks they are
assigned to work on the days that you've nominated as holidays. Is this
what is happening?

Cheers
JulieD

 

[JulieD]

Hi

just wondering how your reply differs from my point 4?

Cheers
JulieD - scratching on the wall again

 

[Bobby]

1) under project / project information it shows your custom calendar as

the working time calendar
Check.

2) and when you go into tools / change working time you see christmas as
non-working time,
Check.

3) and when you tell the gantt chart to display the your calendar's
non-working time (format / timescale - non-working time tab) you see the
holidays that you marked
No.

4) and you're set your special calendar to be the base calendar for the
resources (resource sheet / base calendar column).

Don't understand this point.

 

[JulieD]

Hi Bobby

Point 3:
when you choose format / timescale - go to the non-working time tab, click
on the drop down for calendar and choose yours and then go and have a look
at the gantt chart in a way that you can see each day you see the weekends
shaded (indicating non-working time), can you see christmas shaded the same
way? ... this doesn't affect how project works, just confirms that its
reading your calendar correctly.

Point 4:
Each resource also has a calendar associated with them .. by default Project
uses the "standard" calendar as the resource's base calendar even if you
choose a different project calendar - so what you need to do is to tell
project that your resources are working according to your calendar not
standard. If you go into the resource sheet and scroll to the right you'll
see a base calendar column, for each resource. This also needs to be set to
your calendar.

Hope this helps
Cheers
JulieD

 

[Bobby]

Thanks Julie. I solved it by assigning the revised calendar to each
resource.

How dumb is Project? Why doesn't it automatically assign the project
calendar as the default resource calendar? What a waste of time to manually
assign the revised calendar to each resource.

Thanks.

Bobby

 

[Steve House]

It's because individual resources may have calendars that differ wildly from
the Project master calendar. I'm in Canada. Our statutory holidays are
quite different from those of the USA. Suppose my project was being done by
resources in both countries. Which should be the "master calendar" for all
resources, the Canadian or the American? The correct answer is "both,"
depending on where my resource is located. That's why part of the resource
information sheet is the base calendar for 'this' resource. The Project
Calendar determines the working hours for tasks that don't have resources
assigned and other standard time frames within the project. The resource
base calendar sets some default work hours for the resources which can then
be further modified for each individual.

 

[Bobby]

What is the point of modifying the project calendar if you then have to
manually assign the new calendar to each resource individually? Wouldn't it
be more sensible for all resources to inherit the (modified) project
calendar *and then* allow you to modify each resource individually?

 

[JulieD]

Hi Bobby

personally i agree with you ... but i've learned to live with it - however,
if you've got project 2000 or newer you can "fill down" the project
calendar - so you assign it to the first resource and then just drag down
using the fill handle (little black cross bottom right hand corner of the
cell).

Cheers
JulieD

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Bobby,

Well, I think it does! When you start a new project, you amend the Standard
calendar to meet your requirement like company and national holidays. Then,
when you create a new resource, it will appear in the drop down list in
Change Working Time. If you select that, it will show the Standard calendar
as you have amended it, ie it is based on that calendar. You can now change
the resource,s calendar to be different to the Standard by changing his
particular holidays, etc. If you subsequently change the Standard calendar,
the resource's calendar follows suit.

Mike Glen
Project MVP

 

[Steve House [MS Project MVP]]

Because different resources may very often have different base calendars.
You have base calendars for Day Shift, Swing Shift, and Night Shift. You
also have some resources in another country so you have a 4th base calendar
set up with that country's holidays. Now you are adding Billy Bob to the
resource list. Which of those 4 calendars should it automatically assume it
should use for him?

 

[Bobby]

Which of those 4 calendars should it automatically assume it should use

for him?

Doh... maybe the default *project* calendar? Maybe that's why you made it
default - because most resources use it?

 

[JulieD]

Hi Bobby

personally i agree with you (not that it will do either of us much good),
the first time i used a "project calendar" other than standard i got caught
out on the same thing to. I "assumed" that the project calendar was used by
project to schedule all tasks and resources by default an that you then used
task calendars (not that they existed at that time) and resource calendars
to deal with the "exceptions".

however, there's a few other changes on my list that i would like to see
implemented in project before this one so now, i just customise standard
and live with it

Cheers
JulieD