changing startup calendar

[Fede]

Hello all
I'm trying to import some data(activities, duration,start and stop time, resources) in project97 from a text file. The problem is that my company works 24 hours per day, but the standard calendar is from 8 A.M to 5 P.M. Is it possible to change the default startup calendar to 24 hours per day? I've tried to change calendar related options from menu but nothing happened
Any ideas
Thank you a lo
Federico

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

Hello Federico,

You can assign to your project the "24hours" calendar which was supplied
with MS Project :
I don't remember the sequence menu in Project 97 :
Project / Project Information / Calendar...
or
File / Project Information / Calendar...

Hope this helps,

Gérard Ducouret

Hello all,
I'm trying to import some data(activities, duration,start and stop time,

resources) in project97 from a text file. The problem is that my company
works 24 hours per day, but the standard calendar is from 8 A.M to 5 P.M. Is
it possible to change the default startup calendar to 24 hours per day? I've
tried to change calendar related options from menu but nothing happened.

 

[Steve House]

Your company may work 24 hours a day but that does not mean your project
calendar should be the 24 hour a day one. The Project calendar
determines how tasks will be scheduled when they do not yet have
resources assigned to them or won't have resources assigned to them. So
if a task starts on Monday at 8am and will take 40 hours of work to
achieve, when will it finish? The standard 8-hour calendar says it will
finish Friday at 5pm. The 24-hour calendar says it will end at Tuesday
night at midnight. Now consider - when you breakdown your tasks you
should carry them down to the level of detail of one task is the work to
be done by ONE resource. So if Billy Bob is going to be assigned to
polish the fids and there's enough of them that it's going to take him
40 hours to do them all, when he starts Monday morning is he going to
work steadily until they are done, never taking a break for meals, never
taking a break for rest, not sleeping or seeing his family, until all
the fids are polished, even if its days or weeks or months? That's what
using the 24-hour calendar as your project calendar implies. Machines
work that way but I've never heard of people doing it.

Tasks follow the calendar of the resource assigned to them. If I use
the 8-hour calendar as my project calendar and I initially put in
"polish fids, 16hours" Project schedules it Mon at 8am until Tues at
5pm. If I assign it to Billy Bob who works days it stays at those
hours. If I assign it to Mary who works swing shift, it moves
automatically to start at Mon at 3pm and end Tues at midnight. If I
assign it to Frank who works graveyard, it moves to start Mon night at
11pm and finish Wed morning at 8am. This is an accurate way of modeling
and predicting what will happen in your project while the 24 hour
calendar is not.

The calendar options page does not change the default calendar in any
way. That page is actually a set of conversion factors and is not
connected to the calendar. You set the Project Calendar in the Project
Information page of the Project menu - there you can select any calendar
you like. If one does not exist that meets your work hours requirments
you create it in the Tools, ChangeWorkingTime menu and define a new
calendar to add to the list. Create the calendar that best describes
the most common work shift of the people who work on your project and
make that the project calendar, then go to the options page and revise
the default start and end times and the hours per day etc to match your
calendar. Don't forget to allow time for lunches and rest periods when
you describe your workday.

DO NOT enter or import start and end times for your tasks when you enter
the task names. Project job is to calculate those for you based on the
date the project starts, the relationships between the tasks, and the
availability of resources. If you try to enter start and/or finish times
for each task you will come to no end of grief with a project plan that
doesn't even remotely resemble reality.


--
Steve House
MS Project MVP
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Hello all,
I'm trying to import some data(activities, duration,start and stop

time, resources) in project97 from a text file. The problem is that my
company works 24 hours per day, but the standard calendar is from 8 A.M
to 5 P.M. Is it possible to change the default startup calendar to 24
hours per day? I've tried to change calendar related options from menu
but nothing happened.

 

[Arun]

I feel you dont require to change the calendar to 24 hours. This working hour is for a resource and not for a company.
Though the company works round the clock.. the resource will be working only for 8 hours. So i feel you can continue with 8 hrs calendar itself as it would be more appropriate.

 

[Fede]

Thanks a lot for your reply, i'm new in project and i need lot of help.
Probably i missed some critical point in my problem description

First point is: i consider "machines" of my company as resources.This means that most important things, that need to be optimized for my company are machines , that of course need to run 24 hours per day

The second point is that i need to import start/end time for any job from another application. I want to introduce Project for people who are involved in factory planning. This way they have an initial start point from the original data i import in Project, then they can monitor machines state and quickly adjust job completion, introduce breaks, change working time and so on

The third point is that, because i import data using the menu of Project, i can't choose a calendar while importing. This way, jobs that are running 24 hours per day, can appear sometimes as a "no duration" job, or much longer than they really are ( as you wrote in you mail). I need to avoid these problems, making Project to open a new project with a standard 24 hours calendar, like the one i can choose from the calendar menu

My objective is: When choosing "new project" from the menu, i want Project to create always a project based on a 24 hours calendar
Do you think is it possible

P.S: well...i'm using Project 9

Thank you all a lo
Federic

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

Federico,

I consider "machines" of my company as resources..., that of course need to
run 24 hours per day.
- No problem !

The third point is that, because i import data using the menu of Project, i
can't choose a calendar while importing.
- You could probably assign a specific calendar to the task, if not to the
resource

My objective is: When choosing "new project" from the menu, i want Project
to create always a project based on a 24 hours calendar. Do you think is it
possible?
- One easy way to do that would be to create a template with the 24 Hours
calendar : File / Save As... / Template *.mpt

Hope this helps,

Gérard Ducouret

 

[Fede]

Ok i've made the template. But i have the same problem
I open the template, then i need to go to "open" and open the .txt file, and so i come backe to the old problem: the calendar of the new project is still based on 8 hour. Which way i need to use the template?i need to set some parameters in global.mpt file
thanks, i think i'm going to get it
Fede

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

Fede,

Before saving the template, did you assign the 24 Hours calendar to the
project :
Project / Project Information / Calendar : 24 Hours

Gérard Ducouret

Ok i've made the template. But i have the same problem.
I open the template, then i need to go to "open" and open the .txt file,

and so i come backe to the old problem: the calendar of the new project is
still based on 8 hour. Which way i need to use the template?i need to set
some parameters in global.mpt file?

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Federico,

If I could jump in here for a moment. (Task calendars are not available in
Project 98.)

It seems to me that you are trying to drive Project by importing external
data. This technique is arguably OK if you're trying to set up a project
for the first time, but is not an acceptable technique to continue doing so.
A project is by definition a unique undertaking that requires a clearly
defined start and finish, and the management of resources, money and time,
to a defined quality. Thus, you, as project manager, tell the "workers"
what they have to do and when, in order to meet your targets. Let Project
do the job it was designed for - to schedule what is possible - rather than
making Project fit what is going on. So, use Project to set up a logical
plan of what is required and use that to run your project by telling the
"machines" what they should be doing and when.

Hope this helps a little,

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

Hi Mike,

project97 ... specific calendar to the task... Oups ! I forgot my glasses !
Sorry :-(

Gérard

 

[Steve House]

Well, I'm not sure it's going to be any easier than changing the Project
Calendar on the information screen as you set the start date for your
new project but you can do sort of it. The default works hours cannot
be changed but you can set up a template that has the 24-hour
non-default calendar preset as the Project Calendar.

Start Project. Go to Project Information and set the 24-hour calendar
as the Project Calendar. Got to the file menu and choose Save As. Give
it a name of your choosing but before saving set the file type entry
under the file name field to Project Template. Now when you start a new
Project use the file menu, New Project, and select the saved template as
the one to base the new project on.


--
Steve House
MS Project MVP
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Thanks a lot for your reply, i'm new in project and i need lot of help.
Probably i missed some critical point in my problem description.

First point is: i consider "machines" of my company as resources.This

means that most important things, that need to be optimized for my
company are machines , that of course need to run 24 hours per day.

The second point is that i need to import start/end time for any job

from another application. I want to introduce Project for people who are
involved in factory planning. This way they have an initial start point
from the original data i import in Project, then they can monitor
machines state and quickly adjust job completion, introduce breaks,
change working time and so on.

The third point is that, because i import data using the menu of

Project, i can't choose a calendar while importing. This way, jobs that
are running 24 hours per day, can appear sometimes as a "no duration"
job, or much longer than they really are ( as you wrote in you mail). I
need to avoid these problems, making Project to open a new project with
a standard 24 hours calendar, like the one i can choose from the
calendar menu.

My objective is: When choosing "new project" from the menu, i want

Project to create always a project based on a 24 hours calendar.

 

[Steve House]

When you import the text file, select "Append to current project"
instead of "Create new project" when the wizard asks you.

Ok i've made the template. But i have the same problem.
I open the template, then i need to go to "open" and open the .txt

file, and so i come backe to the old problem: the calendar of the new
project is still based on 8 hour. Which way i need to use the template?i
need to set some parameters in global.mpt file?

 

[Fede]

I've tried to use the template with the right calendar, but it doesn't seem to work. When choosing "new project" from file menu, i don't have any chance to select an .mpt file. I'm using Project 98, so the only things Project is going to ask me are start date, end,programming type,calendar, etc... I've never used a template in Project 98, now I can't figure out what i can do with an .mpt file. So I have a new question: which way I can base a new project on a template?
Thanks
Fede

----- Steve House wrote: -----
Start Project. Go to Project Information and set the 24-hour calendar
as the Project Calendar. Got to the file menu and choose Save As. Give
it a name of your choosing but before saving set the file type entry
under the file name field to Project Template. Now when you start a new
Project use the file menu, New Project, and select the saved template as
the one to base the new project on.