Custom Field problem

[Neil Peterson]

Today I was asked a simple question -- "How man person-days of time has
the QA group put into Projects X,Y, and Z"

Cool question. Its good to have them so comfortable with the schedules
that they are starting to ask questions like that.

I'm running Project2003 stand alone, master file, resource pool, 20 odd
linked project files (plus a few small projects just in the master).

My boss assumed it was as easy as looking at the summary tasks for the
"work" column since I had filtered the view to Resource Group (QA), but
that's not the way the rollups work.

There's probably a way to answer that questiuon in reports but I haven't
done at lot of work on that.

I've been trying to learn about custom fields so I thought I would try
and answer it that way.

Insert a currently blank duration column
Do the "customize fields" thing on that column.
Set it for a formula
Set the task/group summary to "sum"
Set the display to "data"

Nice and easy. It should now come down to the formula. I tried

IIf(InStr([Resource Group],"QA",1)>0,[Work],0)

(have to use InStr rather than StrComp as I need to ask for "resouce
group contains" rather than "resource group equals").

The column in question is still filled with 0d durations including cells
which should be filled with data.

I've got the feeling its something obvious that I'm missing.

Any suggestions?

Neil Peterson
Project Manager
Maplesoft

(e-mail address removed)
(519) 747-2373 x 334
www.maplesoft.com

 

[JackD]

The first problem you have is that you are looking at summary tasks which
may have more than one resource.

The second is that you are doing things the hard way.

Why not simply go to the resource usage view?

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Neil,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

Try deleting the",1" from your: IIf(InStr([Resource
Group],"QA",1)>0,[Work],0)
to read: IIf(InStr([Resource Group],"QA")>0,[Work],0)

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on )

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[Neil Peterson]

The first problem you have is that you are looking at summary tasks which
may have more than one resource.

I don't understand your comment. Are you trying to explain why my boss
couldn't simply read the number off the summary lines even though I had
a filter applied? [if so I agree with you completely -- project
displays "sum of all tasks" rather than "sum of tasks displayed" as I
explained to him] Or are you trying to say something else here?

The second is that you are doing things the hard way.

Now that could very well be true. Like all complex programs project has
lots of ways of arriving at the answer you want. I, like many PMs,
simply use whatever tool is around at the company I work for. This
means I will never get to be an expert with any given one, as a result
we don't necessarily know all the tricks. That's one advantage of
newsgroups like this.

Why not simply go to the resource usage view?

Again I might be missing something but the resource view doesn't show
rollup information (other than "all" -- as in "all tasks this resource
is assigned to").

[remember 20-25 projects, each involving multiple tasks - I want sum of
work by project]

Is there a way of adding project summary lines to this view? Or perhaps
filtering it to show only tasks where project=X?

--
Neil Peterson
Project Manager
Maplesoft


(e-mail address removed)
(519) 747-2373 x 334
www.maplesoft.com

 

[Neil Peterson]

Try deleting the",1" from your: IIf(InStr([Resource

Interesting. Now that "1" should (if I understand the docs right) tell
it to use a "text" match rather than a "binary" match. If I remove it
-- Project should match according to the type of the other arguements
(string). i.e. it shouldn't matter.

Removing it does, however, seem to make a difference. How odd.

Just to keep everyone up to date (since this should be a learning forum)
that led to another problem:

I have is valid numbers for all projects directly entered into the
master file.

For all projects with their own files the values in the column are still
zero (except for the top level rollup which is #ERROR).

That problem is solved by using the organizer to copy the fields to
global.mpt from the master, closing the master and re-opening it.
(There was probably a way to avoid the close/open but it worked <grin>)

Thanks Mike!

--
Neil Peterson
Project Manager
Maplesoft


(e-mail address removed)
(519) 747-2373 x 334
www.maplesoft.com

 

[Mike Glen]

You're welcome, Neil

I'm no expert in these formula but Help reveals:
===============
Syntax

Instr( [start, ]string1, string2[, compare] )

start Optional; numeric expression that sets the starting position for
each search. If omitted, search begins at the first character position. If
start contains Null, an error occurs. The start argument is required if
compare is specified.

string1 Required; string expression being searched.

string2 Required; string expression sought.

compare Optional; specifies the type of string comparison. If compare is
Null, an error occurs. If compare is omitted, the Option compare setting
determines the type of comparison.

=================
The key point I latched onto is in the start definition: "The start argument
is required if compare is specified". Thus, if you don't put in a start,
then you shouldn't have the compare value.

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

Try deleting the",1" from your: IIf(InStr([Resource

Interesting. Now that "1" should (if I understand the docs right)
tell it to use a "text" match rather than a "binary" match. If I
remove it -- Project should match according to the type of the other
arguements (string). i.e. it shouldn't matter.

Removing it does, however, seem to make a difference. How odd.

Just to keep everyone up to date (since this should be a learning
forum) that led to another problem:

I have is valid numbers for all projects directly entered into the
master file.

For all projects with their own files the values in the column are
still zero (except for the top level rollup which is #ERROR).

That problem is solved by using the organizer to copy the fields to
global.mpt from the master, closing the master and re-opening it.
(There was probably a way to avoid the close/open but it worked
<grin>)
Thanks Mike!