Calendar Versus Units - Transistion

[Darrell]

All,

I have a PS2007 implementation that was originally set up on a 40hr work
week, and to allow for actual productivity the Project Managers allocate all
resources at 80% to determine the duration. When they did not use the server
for anything but forward scheduling this worked. However, they want to begin
using the server data for things like Resource Management, etc. and the
current configuration creates problems.

I was wondering what the impact will be if I created a second calendar to be
used for all new projects going forward with a 32hr (6.4hr day) work week and
allocate resources at 100%. Will the Server handle having two different work
weeks until the existing schedules are completed and all we have are the 32hr
work weeks remaining? Or is this a situation where we must convert everything
to the new calendar all at once?

Darrell

 

[Jonathan Sofer [MVP]]

Hi Darrell,

Be aware that the calendar that the resource is associated to trumps the
project calendar. So if you change the resource calendar to 32 hr work
weeks then all tasks that resource is assigned to will change based on a 32
hour work week. This includes tasks in the past.

If you want the old calendar with a 40 per week week to trump the 32 per
week resource calendar then you need to apply the 40 per calendar to the
task in the Task>Advanced Options and check the box "Scheduling ignores
resource calendars."

So one approach for you as part of your transition is to apply this task
calendar setting to all completed tasks or past tasks and let the new
resource calendar affect the future tasks.

Jonathan Sofer

 

[Barbara - Austria]

Hi Darrell,

Project Server can handle as many different calendars at the same time as
you want him to do. However, to get correct data for Resource Management,
you need to apply one calendar to each resource.

In addition to Jonathan’s suggestion: If you want to change your calendar
with an effective date, you can achieve that by adding an additional line on
tab “Work Weeksâ€. As Start use your effective date, as Finish 31.12.2049.
Leave [Default] unmodified and define your 6.4 hrs per days on the new line.
Any actual will be left unchanged when applying this calendar (no need to
activate "Scheduling ignores resource calendars." in that case).

However you still need to be aware that this calendar will affect all
incomplete tasks and can change your schedule depending on your settings.
You can avoid that by activating "Scheduling ignores resource calendars."
and selecting an unmodified calendar as Jonathan suggested. Or you could
copy duration to a custom field before applying your new calendar and copy
back to duration after applying calendar and changing resource usage units
to cut down your manual effort.

Which way you are ever choosing: I suggest testing with one resource to see
the impact on your plans.

Good luck!
Regards
Barbara