Fixed Duration - Scheduling Conflict

[Adam Bennett]

Hello~
We recently implemented MS Project Server and have run into a situation that
I'm not sure has an easy resolution but was curious to know if someone has
any good ideas on it.

The scenario:
In an effort to show capacity as real as possible within our organization,
our resource managers have each created a project plan that has a variety of
different "buckets" for the task owners to put time to. Examples would
include things like Coaching and Mentoring, General Office tasks (checking
email not related to a project, time acct...), quarterly meetings, etc.
Basically just that "squishy" time that is spent, but never really applies to
a project per se.

We have these tasks setup as a Fixed Duration - Effort Driven task, with a
lump of work, spanning the next quater (approx 60 days or so), and also have
the given resource manager's employees assigned to the task. It then
calculates their utilization at something like 6% or so for these tasks (i.e.
1/2 hr per day per employee).

The problem:
Throughout the duration of this project/bucket, as people take time off for
vacation, funeral, personal time, etc. we go into the user's calendar and set
them to be unavailable during this specified time (becuase hopefully people
don't work while on vacation or at funerals .

The problem we run into is when you go to update your plan, it sees that
this resource now can't work during the time you had them assigned for and
pushes the duration out to accommodate for this and gives you the warning
message "The resource is assigned outside the original dates for task....
The duration of this fixed duration task will change to accommodate the
resource assignment". (Outside of being a very obscure warning message, it's
also somewhat contradictory. How can it force you to change the duration on
a "fixed-duration" task. hmm...)

I admit that this is something we want on other projects this resource may
be assigned to, but these "buckets" are time that may or may not happen and
don't really want the duration to extend at all.

Solution:
Post to the MS forum and see if anyone has any good ideas for how to get
around this because all of mine went on vacation (and they refuse to work).

Does anyone know how to setup a task that won't change the duration in this
scenario?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've tested a couple different
scenarios but can't seem to find anything that solves this.

Many Thanks
Adam

 

[GM]

What we did in a similar situation is as follows.
Set up the task Fixed Duration, Non Effort Driven.
Give all the tasks the same Duration so as to end on the date required. so
they have the same start and the same end date.
Add the column Actual Start and copy the Start date for all the tasks into
the Actual Start date column, thereby anchoring the start date for all tasks.
Now when Actuals are accepted into the project if they are later than the
Start date the duration should hold and when in the Gantt chart you should
see a dotted line going back to the start date that you set,
In the Resource usage view you should see 0 in the days previous to the
actuals.
hope this help........Gerry

 

[GM]

Forgot to add that when you assign resources assign them at 0 units with 0
work, then in PWA after publishing the resources will need to look at "All"
not "Current" assignments.

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

Actually you're seeing an anomoly caused by the difference between duration
and elapsed time. Create a little project file with 1 task, X with 2 weeks
duration and resource Joe. Assign Joe to the task. Now go into Joe's
resource calendar and mark the him gone on non-working time for what would
have been the second week of the task. You'll see the task finish date
extend out for a week yet the duration column still displays 2 weeks. Why?
Duration is the amount of potential working time AS DEFINED BY THE TASK'S
GOVERNING CALENDAR between when the task begins and when it ends. When a
resource is assigned to a task, that resource's calendar governs the
measurement of duration for that resource's work. Duration minutes are only
"burned" by minutes within the working time listed in the calendar and
non-working time doesn't count. When you remove certain hours from the
calendar by marking them non-working, the finish must extend to such a time
that the same number of working time minutes will have passed that were
being burned before the vacation time was removed from the calculation.

Tasks are never "squishy." By defimtion they are always concrete physical
activities involving a precisely quantifiable amounts of work and with
observable start and end points defined by when that work begins and when
the exact quantity of work the produces the deliverable ends. If it doesn't
have a quantifiable output so you can identify an exact point in time when
all the work that needs to be done has been done, it ain't a task <grin>.

 

[Adam Bennett]

Great idea Gerry. Thanks for the reply!

What we did in a similar situation is as follows.
Set up the task Fixed Duration, Non Effort Driven.
Give all the tasks the same Duration so as to end on the date required. so
they have the same start and the same end date.
Add the column Actual Start and copy the Start date for all the tasks into
the Actual Start date column, thereby anchoring the start date for all tasks.
Now when Actuals are accepted into the project if they are later than the
Start date the duration should hold and when in the Gantt chart you should
see a dotted line going back to the start date that you set,
In the Resource usage view you should see 0 in the days previous to the
actuals.
hope this help........Gerry

 

[Jim Whiteford]

Steve -

I know this is an older posting but couldn't find anything else in my
search. I am having a similar issue as the original note but the reply
provided by someone else seems like a joke by fixing all the dates.

I have looked in my schedule for the window of time being pushed out and
there is no window of time where the individual is not available. I am not
seeing why this duration is being increased the way it is.

 

[MG]

I am seeing a similiar issue. It appears to only occur on people who have
reported Actuals to the task. In this case, the task should be 6 months,
non-effort driven. Each resource is only assigned a small amount of work
over the 6 months, so there should not be conflicts. However, when I hit F9
to calculate, the duration of the task continues to get pushed out farther
and farther. I deleted all resources with no actuals and still get the
message, so I assume it has to do with the ones who did report actuals on
this tasks. HELP !!

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi MG,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

It sounds like a circular relationship. Check you have no resources or
predecessor links on summaries.

You might like to see FAQ Item: 48 - Summary Task Linking. FAQs, companion
products and other useful Project information can be seen at this web
address: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

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

Mike Glen
Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials