Changing remaining duration

[Stefan]

In many of our projects there is no relationship between work and duration.
For keeping track of the hours, work must be used. To keep track of the
project progress, the remaining duration also must be updated.

The best source of information to update both remaining work, actual work
and remaining duration are the allocated resources. What options does Server
2003 offer?

The only way we see now is to add a customized field for resources to enter
remaining duration in WPA. Followed by a macro that the project manager must
run to copy the value from this customized field into remaining duration of
the project and republish this project.

Since we believe the above problem isn't that uncommon, there must be a
simpler solution.

Stefan

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Stefan --

Have you considered asking your team members to adjust the Remaining Work
value? This has a direct impact on the Remaining Duration. Let us know.

 

[Stefan]

Dale --

There are people who have a budget of for instance 10 hours to be spend over
a period of 4 weeks. This is because a number of other people outside the
project have for instance to respond to certain documents. Duration and work
therefore have no relationship.

Still for budgetting purposes these people have to report the actual hours.
They can't claim: remaining work 4 weeks * 5 days * 8 hours.

It is like this e-mail exchange, for which I'm grateful, the duration and
the actual work I spend on are completely unrelated. For planning purposes
duration is important, for budgetting reasons work is important.

Stefan

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Stefan --

Why don't you simply ask the team members to enter a task Note, asking the
PM to increase or decrease the Duration of the task? The PM could then do
that manually. Unfortunately, you cannot add the Remaining Duration field
as an editable Published field, which would have nicely solved your problem.
Just a thought.

 

[Stefan]

Dale --

I understand what you're saying and the work around we're thinking of goes
in a similar direction. We like to open up a customized field and create a
macro that in MS-Project will increase the duration accordingly.

From a personal note I'm a bit disappointed in EPM. It should be an
Enterprise solution that takes away most of the 'thinkering' that is very
hard to control and maintain in the long run.

The situation I described is not that uncommon, in fact I would say it is
common in most projects if not for all tasks then at least for a few tasks.
Of course the situation I described assumes that planning and managing
towards on-time completion is, next to hour writing, important. Without
taking into account that duration has nothing to do with work, there is no
way this can be done unless a 'work-around' is going to be created that will
at least have risks and maintenance issues.

Alas, nothing you and I can do something about right?

Any way, thanks for your quick responses. It at least saved me and some
other people time trying to find how to do it really properly.

Stefan

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Stefan:

You can't escape the fact that Project is first and foremost a scheduling
engine. In order for it to schedule, it can't separate work and duration
from resources. However, you can. Try using one project for tracking
progress, and another for capturing effort. If the PMs are taught to use the
tracking feature to reschedule incomplete tasks, this should address your
problem.

 

[Stefan]

Gary:

My primary assumption is that Project is a scheduling & CONTROL engine;
scheduling by itself in projects is meaningless without the control part.

One might have different views on what a scheduling engine does:
1) schedule & control tasks so that the end date of the project is met; or,
2) schedule & control resources allocation is taken into account.

EPM can do neither in a way that one would expect from Enterprise s/w:
1) since duration is important to meet end dates and can't be updated by a
new estimation by the resources in WPA, the control part doesn't exist.
2) EPM/MS-Project can't track very well non-project times and take this into
account with leveling; a requirement to schedule & control resource allocation

A logical conclusion would therefore be:
EPM can meet nicely the needs from the controller (if this person doesn't
want future estimates as well). For resource managers the leveling function
is inadequate, for project managers the duration control is missing. Unless
a project happens to be very predictable and that work = duration. Either
predictable or work=duration missing is sufficient to create headaches, both
are usually in the projects that I've seen wrong assumptions.

What EPM can do very nicely is record what has happened, but this is not a
scheduling & control feature. We know all to well that if 80% is complete it
is by far from likely that 20% still remains in terms of duration and work!

Stefan

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Stefan:

So you dismiss all the successful deployments of Project Server in PMOs
around the world just because you're struggling with the tool? Because you
can't seem to do it, it can't be done eh? Don't you think that's a rather
narrow view of things?

Let's take your example of a "document review" task where you budget 10 days
duration. The scheduled start date of this task is driven by the completion
of the document, correct? So you setup your task with a finish-to-start
dependency on the document completion task, entering the expected duration
and the expected amount of work and let Project calculate the units. The
first day of the task, the internal resource reports an hour of work to send
the documents and the cover letters which sets the actual start date when
the PM updates the project plan. Now we're waiting for respondents who
aren't participants in the system. An entire week passes and the resource
reports nothing. At this point the schedule manager, if they're doing their
job correctly, updates the project by applying all the updates from
resources and then updates the project to move uncompleted work to the
status date. This causes the schedule to change and it becomes obvious that
the document review task is slipping. The task duration may now be double
what was originally planned. Alarm bells go off, the PM steps in and asks
the resource what's going on here? The resource reports that all the
document reviewers at the client were off at an executive retreat, but have
promised to do their review in half the usual time to keep the project on
track. The PM now has a decision to make. Do I really believe that the
client reviewers will make their date or do I let the schedule stand as is?
In other words, do I tell the scheduler to change the duration of the task
to conform to the new plan, or do I leave the task "in the red" until the
end of the week and wait to see what happens. Any action on the schedule at
this point is out of the resource's hands, as it should be. If the PM
chooses to change the schedule things will "look better" on the schedule.
That stoplight indicator you setup will change from red to green again. If
the client reviewers make good on their promise to deliver, when the
resource reports the actual work on the actual date it happens, and adjusts
remaining work, if necessary, to reflect that the task is now complete, when
the scheduler processes the updates the schedule now reflects the actual
status and completion date of the task whether or not the schedule was
previously adjusted.

What's missing from this construct Stefan? The only part of "control" that
you're missing is the ability to force the outside resources to do their
work, isn't it? Reality is such a pain!

In most Project Management environments, resources do not control every
aspect of the schedule. Project Managers and schedulers do that. If you want
your resources to have unfettered access to the schedule, give them a copy
of Project and let them have at it.

If you want to master scheduling and control with Microsoft EPM, learn how
it works, and the work with it, not against it. Consider enrolling in our
September on-line class.

 

[Stefan]

Gary:

That's a bit strong isn't for not fully understanding our situation? So let
me elaborate on the example a bit:

When X is assigned to ensure a document is being reviewed by people who are
not necessarily allocated as a resource we expect X to inform himself when
about the document will be reviewed. If there is an expected delay, we must
assess this and if needed escalete it via the proper channels ...prevention
is in our business better than curing.
Even so, if there the review process is expected to take less duration the
project manager has to evaluate if and how this benefit can be brought to the
good of the project as a whole.

Many of our projects are really ASAP or have strong deadlines. We must act
pro-actively on expected delays or early deliveries. So like estimated
remaining work, our project managers also need estimated remaining duration
from our resources.

Stefan

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Stefan:

If you have day-to-day sensitivities in tracking, the you need to increase
the frequency of your updates. I don't understand what you're getting at
when you say you need to have "X inform himself." My previous response was
to your claim that MS EPM doesn't provide both planning and control. While I
agree that there are many features in the program that could be improved, I
disagree with your statements in previous post.

At this point, I can't sort out what exactly you want to accomplish. Please
try to be as detailed about the issue as you were with the complaint.

 

[Stefan]

Gary:

The needs as an organization that we have are:
- planning & control of resource utilization
- planning & control of projects

Planning & control of resource utilization comprises out two subsets:
- to meet the needs of the controller (actual to date + estimted remaining
= everything related to the variable work.
- to meet the needs of the resource manager (allocation and potential
under/over-allocation of resources)
= related to the variables work AND duration

Planning & control of projects
- to meet the needs of the client: ensuring the due-dates are met
- identify as soon as possible changes in duration
- identify the impact on the overall project requirements
- identify as soon as possible changes in work
= related to the variables duration (primarily) and work

It is the resources that are the best source of information on required work
and duration at the task level they are assigned to. The variable work is
nicely covered by EPM. As an organization we must also utilize the knowledge
resources (can) have regarding the duration of their tasks. Not only in
hindsight (for reporting and auditing purposes) but also what is expected
(similar to remaining work).

Example if a resource knows 3 days after the start of a 2 week planned tasks
is more likely to become 4 weeks due to illness, non-availability of
non-scheduled resources, expected delays in decision making, etc, etc ...it
is good project management practise to evaluate the effects on the project as
a whole ...and of course the consequences for other projects because of
depending tasks are moving as well. The sooner this is known, the easier it
is to find a good solution and ensuring that the expectations of all involved
are properly aligned. Nobody likes the rabbits out of the hat thing at the
end. Especially because this also limits the possibilities for intervention.

The need is therefore simple: like to be able to report remaining work,
report remaining duration by resources / task managers. Not that the
resources control the project, but feed the project managers with relevant
project information.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Stefan:

Have you deployed Issues and Risks in Project Web Access? This is the proper
way to raise these events. The bottom line is that you can't have resources
updating durations directly through Project Web Access which is designed to
collect work or percent work completed.

 

[Stefan]

Gary:

Yes we have deployed Issues and Risks in PWA. This was very helpful to
ensure compliance and increase the quality.

We were already afraid that PWA wasn't designed to directly collect all
relevant task status information. Your suggestion to use the Issue and Risks
in PWA is an interesting one. Yet, we will be more likely heading to define
a custom field for remaining duration that can be edited by resources in PWA.
The project managers will be asked to open their projects in Projects and
run a macro so that the estimated remaining duration will have this value.

Any other solution will require the PM to fill in by hand the remaining
duration. This not only takes time, but creates the possibility for mistakes.

Stefan

 

[Stefan]

After some trying and probing I found an alternative work-around. Still not
a fully satisfactory one, but one that doesn't require macro's and makes use
of the WPA.

The solution is simple, let resources write estimated hours in the actual
hours fields for the future. To ensure that the levelling still works fine,
let them estimate the hours per day rather than filling in for instance 1min.

If the remaining hours left is still larger than 0, then this will be put 1
day later.

The obvious drawback is that resources need to re-adjust the actuals as they
become actual.

Stefan

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Stefan:

After you get done running every alternative possible, I'm fairly certain
that the best answer is the one that Dale gave you in the first reply.

 

[Stefan]

Gary:

No, that won't do. As stated earlier it is necessary to keep track of the
actual and forcasted work as well. This because of tracking of budget
(including anting up/down of it) and allocating resources.

In project management, as we need it, we need to both manage the DURATION
and WORK variable. In our situation, very very unfortunate, they are not
always causally linked e.g. 8h work is most often not 1 day duration, but 2,
3, 4, or more.

As I understand this requirement is something that is mimially very
difficult to achieve in the curren Project Server version. Still our reality
is, and not only of our company, WORK and DURATION have no causality.

Stefan

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Stefan:

You have three parameters to manage: Work, Duration, %Units - The system is
capable of calculating one based on your input for the other two.
Essentially, if you've got the resource assigned at the correct Units, then
you can control duration by affecting changes to work. In order to
manipulate both Work and Duration, you have to allow the system to calculate
Units, something it will do if you set the system to fixed work or fixed
duration.

Based on an 8 hour workday calendar, if you assigned a resource at 13%
units, for each hour they add to remaining work, they'll add a day to
duration using a Fixed Unit task. If you can successfully convey this notion
to your resources; "for each day additional duration, adjust work upward one
hour" then you've got the best you're going to get out of Project Server
with PWA. Keep in mind that this adds only planned hours, not actual hours.

To be in the position to flip between effort-driven scheduling and non, or
change task types to force a units calculation requires that you have a copy
of Project and Project Manager permissions. There are plenty of ways to
communicate the need for these changes to PMs through PWA, but none of them
allow a "team member" to seize the PM's responsibility in this regard.

I suspect any scheduling tool will allow a PM to perform these actions, as
does Project and Project Server. To avoid the constraints that a scheduling
tool inevitably has to place around these calculations in order to be
predictable, a non-scheduling based tool might be more appropriate for your
needs.