Enter vacation dates without moving tasks timelines

[Rafi]

I am a new project user and need to include employee vacation time in a
project in such a way as to not impact the end time of any of my tasks.
Instead I would like to have some indicator that certain tasks are under
staffed at certain points in time. I am using Project 2003 and will be
migrating to Project 2007 in a few weeks.

Thanks

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

JHi

There are ways to do exactly that but it takes some work!
By all means DO NOT enter holidays in the calendar. You have seen the
result, you don't like it, well it can't be changed.
But you can
- Enter the holidays as periods of zero availability in Resource
information.
Your tasks are not rescheduled but your resource shows as overallocated.
or
-Enter the holiday periods as tasks for the reosurce. Same result: no
rescheduling, overallocation shows

For both methods when afterwards you DO want to have a credible schedule
(some people like that, you know) you can do Resource Leveling

HTH
--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[Jim Aksel]

This discussion group has officially closed. In the future, please try
posting here:
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/addbuz/threads?filter=alltypes
or
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/

That said, it would certainly be rude of us not to address your question.

You may establish vacation dates for individual resources in Project 2003
(and later) in two ways.

1. What I do is use "exceptions". In P2003, go to the resource sheet and
double click on a resource name. Pull the General tab. By default, the
resource is assigned the project calendar (or standard calendar) and is the
resource is alwasy avaialble. One method, on the general tab, is to set
availablitlity dates:
NA to May 1, 2010
May 15, 2010 to NA.

You would do this on two lines.
Now, your resource will *not* be available May 1 to May 14. If your
resource is assigned to an activity that occurrs during this time period,
your resource will show as overloaded (but the assignment will still take
place). We fix this with resouce leveling.

2. Instead of Method1, create a new calendar (say Fred) that contains Fred's
available work times, etc. You can create calendars for all resources like
Barney, Betty, and Wilma too. In the resource sheet, change Fred's "Base
Calendar" to his own "Fred" calendar (instead of standard).

Now, when you assign Fred to a task, the duration of the task changes to
accommodate his availability.

If you double click on a task where Fred is assigned, you can pull the
Advanced tab, and set a calendar for the task such as "standard". When you
do that, it wakes up a check box called: "Scheduling ignores resource
calendars". Now you have the option to check/uncheck that box to force Fred
to work the task even if he is on vacation.

The issue gets convoluted quickly. So, let me add a little more to the post.
There are three places to assign calendars.
Project/Project Information.... you can assign a calendar to the entire
project. It is "standard" by default. If you do not assign a calendar to a
task, it will default to the project calendar.

Task Calendars. You may assign a calendar to a specific task. So, I may
create a new "Work this weekend calandar" and assign that to a specific task
to allow work over the weekend. You assign calendars to tasks from the
Advanced tab of the "Task information" dialog box when you double click on a
task.

Resource Calendars. You may assign calendars to resources on the Resource
Sheet.

To create calendars (they all get store in the same place), use Tools/Change
Working Time. You can create new calendars there.




--
Jim Aksel, MVP

Check my blog for more info:
http://www.msprojectblog.com

This newsgroup is moving, try here too:
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/addbuz/threads

 

[Steve House]

How could a vacation occuring in the middle of a task NOT affect its
completion date? If I have a task that requires 3 weeks worth of work, that
is what it takes, no more and no less. If I don't have vacation time within
that 3 weeks, the task will end 3 weeks after it starts. But if I'm
scheduled for vacation the second week, that doesn't affect the total amount
of work the task requires - I still have to do 3 weeks worth of work on it
regardless. The finish date with the vacation HAS to be a week later than
it would be without the vacation in the middle, else I won't be doing the
full 3 weeks worth of work that is required to actually complete the
deliverable.