couple of rookie questions

[Samir S.]

I am setting up my 1st ever project ... now I have tasks that will be done by more than two people, and I can't seem to find a way to split up the total time in the correct proportion. For example, Task 1 requires employee A to give 4 hours and employee B to give 8 for a total of 12. In the task lisT I put down 12 hrs and simply assigned A and B to it. Since A and B have different rates I need to assign the proportion of work.

Secondly do you guys know of any good books I could read to get knowledge of MS Project REALLY FAST? This was a task that was dropped on me and it completely unrelated to everything I do, and of course, I have a deadline.

Thx.

 

[JulieD]

Hi Samir

last question first - i would strongly recommend a 2 - 3 day "hands-on"
project course to get the basics of the program .. however if this is not an
option and you're after a book try "Special Edition Using Project xxxx"
published by QUE (where xxxx is the version of project you've got) ... there
are some on-line resources you might also like to take a look at:

and

I am setting up my 1st ever project ... now I have tasks that will be done

by more than two people, and I can't seem to find a way to split up the
total time in the correct proportion. For example, Task 1 requires employee
A to give 4 hours and employee B to give 8 for a total of 12. In the task
lisT I put down 12 hrs and simply assigned A and B to it. Since A and B have
different rates I need to assign the proportion of work.

Secondly do you guys know of any good books I could read to get knowledge

of MS Project REALLY FAST? This was a task that was dropped on me and it
completely unrelated to everything I do, and of course, I have a deadline.

 

[JulieD]

sorry pressed the send button before finishing my last post -

last question first - i would strongly recommend a 2 - 3 day "hands-on"
project course to get the basics of the program .. however if this is not an
option and you're after a book try "Special Edition Using Project xxxx"
published by QUE (where xxxx is the version of project you've got) ... there
are some on-line resources you might also like to take a look at:

www.mvps.org/project - have a look through the FAQs also Mike Glen has
written a good series of getting started lessons, these can be
found at http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc also with 2003 you get the "Project Guide"
which takes you through the basics of setting up a project (its a toolbar if
you can't see it when you open Project) and if you have a look at MS's site
there's an "online course" on scheduling
http://office.microsoft.com/training/
and
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pr...raining/prj02trn.mspx#XSLTsection122121120120

now to your first question - if you assign the resources in Task Entry View
(view / more views / task entry) you can assign the amount of work when
assigning the resources - so click on your task, go to the bottom half of
the screen, click under resource name - choose employee A - click in the
work column and type 4h ... then under that choose employee b, click in the
work column and type 8h - then click on the OK button.

Let us know how you go
Cheers
JulieD

I am setting up my 1st ever project ... now I have tasks that will be done

by more than two people, and I can't seem to find a way to split up the
total time in the correct proportion. For example, Task 1 requires employee
A to give 4 hours and employee B to give 8 for a total of 12. In the task
lisT I put down 12 hrs and simply assigned A and B to it. Since A and B have
different rates I need to assign the proportion of work.

Secondly do you guys know of any good books I could read to get knowledge

of MS Project REALLY FAST? This was a task that was dropped on me and it
completely unrelated to everything I do, and of course, I have a deadline.

 

[Steve House]

First and foremost you need to be aware that there is a difference between
WORK and DURATION. Work is the man-hours required to do the task - in your
case 4 for one resource and 8 for the other for a total of 12 hours. But
the DURATION is the length of time between when the earliest starting
resource begins until the latest finishing resource is done. If in your
example, they work separately one right after the other the duration might
be 12 hours. But if they work together for 4 hours and then the 2nd guy
continues on his own, the duration is 8 hours. OTOH, if one guy puts in 8
hours on Monday and the other guy 4 hours the following Friday, the duration
is 5 days, 40 hours.

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

I am setting up my 1st ever project ... now I have tasks that will be done

by more than two people, and I can't seem to find a way to split up the
total time in the correct proportion. For example, Task 1 requires employee
A to give 4 hours and employee B to give 8 for a total of 12. In the task
lisT I put down 12 hrs and simply assigned A and B to it. Since A and B have
different rates I need to assign the proportion of work.

Secondly do you guys know of any good books I could read to get knowledge

of MS Project REALLY FAST? This was a task that was dropped on me and it
completely unrelated to everything I do, and of course, I have a deadline.

 

[Samir S.]

Julie and Steve your posts were extremely helpful. I was able to set the break-down of work. I am going to go check out those books you recommended during my lunch break. Thankfully I work downtown!

For this project, duration isn't as crucial as total amount of work done. While I am entering my tasks in the Gantt chart view, Is there a way to toggle between total work and project duration as well?

Thx in advance

 

[Samir S.]

For this project, duration isn't as crucial as total amount of work done. While I am entering my tasks in the Gantt chart view, Is there a way to toggle between total work and project duration as well?

Forget it I figured it out.