Enterprise Global Standard Calendar

[Geoff Vernon]

We have Enterprise set up with a standard calendar of 7.5hrs per day and are
currently running over a dozen projects with it.

Management have now decided to change the standard working day to 8hrs as it
suits our multi-locations better.

When I update the standard calendar in the Global template, I don't want the
8hr day applied to the existing projects as it will impact the schedules. I
want to leave them as 7.5hr days.

How do I make the changes to the calendar from 7.5hrs to 8hrs per day
without affecting the current projects?

I only want the new calendar to take effect on new projects that we
establish after the 8hr calendar becomes the standard.

What steps do I take?

All help greatly anticipated and appreciated!!

Cheers.....Geoff

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Geoff --

Sorry, but the system doesn't work the way you wish. If you reset the
enterprise Standard calendar to 8 hours/day, all uncompleted work in every
existing project will be rescheduled to accomodate the addition half-hour of
work each day. This is why an organization needs to make a decision like
this at the beginning of a Project Server implementation, and then stick
with it. Beyond changing the enterprise Standard calendar, you will need to
do the following as well:

1. Ask your project managers to open each project they manage, to click
Tools - Options - Calendar, and to change the Hours Per Day value to 8 hours
and to change the Default Start Time and Default Finish Time values to match
the schedule on the Standard calendar. You must ask every PM to do this in
their own projects. You CANNOT make these changes in the Enterprise Global
file, as it will have no effect whatsoever in everyone's projects.

2. Make the same changes in step #1 in each enterprise project template you
have saved in the Project Server database.

Hope this helps.

 

[Geoff Vernon]

Thanks Dale,
It looks like I'll need to consider a point in time where we can do the
conversion with minimal impact to current projects.
Cheers.....Geoff

 

[Rami]

Hi

But cannot we define another enterprise calendar for the new projects and
keep the old calendar for the current running project? I think we can, right?

Mo

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Mo --

Yes, that is possible, but won't that add more confusion to the process?

 

[Geoff Vernon]

Mo / Dale,
How is this possible? And what do you mean by "more confusion to the process"?
If there is a chance of being able to operate on two seperate calendars, how
can this be achieved?
Cheers....Geoff

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Geoff --

Here's why I said this could add confusion to the process: In the
Enterprise Resource Pool, if each resource's calendar is based on the
Standard calendar, then all tasks in every project (new or old) will be
scheduled with only 7.5 hours of work per day, no matter what calendar you
apply to a project as the Project Calendar (Project - Project Information).
Therefore, you could go to all the bother of creating a new 8-hour per day
calendar, and teach your people how to apply it in only new projects, but
then when they assign resources to tasks, the system will schedule the
resources using the 7.5 hour of work per day calendar. Each resource's
calendar is set in the Base Calendar column of the Enterprise Resource Pool.

See? Is creating a new calendar really solving your problem? Or is it only
adding to the confusion?

My recommendation is simply to set the Standard calendar to show 8 hours of
work per day, and to ask each PM to set the Hours Per Day value to 8 hours
in every one of their projects. I believe that is ultimately the simplest
solution to a problem your executives created for you when they decided to
change from 7.5 to 8 hours per day. Hope this helps.

 

[Geoff Vernon]

Dale,
Now I understand. Thanks very much for explaining it for me.
I can now go ahead and plan the changeover.
Cheers.....Geoff