Fixed Units or Fixed Duration?

[anovak]

In our IT organization we typically assign more than one resource to a
task. However, due to the nature of the work, more people assigned
does not mean the work gets done in less time (unlike bricking a house
when more workers are added to the task, it gets done sooner). On the
other hand, a task should not be marked complete until all resources
sign off (100% complete) for their assignment.

Keeping in mind that we will be implementing time reporting in the
future (perhaps with MS Project Server 2007), is it "best practice" to
use Fixed Duration or Fixed Units for these tasks (non-effort driven)?
What are the pros and cons to using one or the other designations?

Someone please comment and elaborate.

Thanks,
Andy Novak
University of North Texas

 

[Rod Gill]

Hi,

I always use Effort Driven OFF as the default as I find that most tasks
should not reduce duration just because I added a second resource. For
example often the second resource has a different skill set. With effort
driven off, you can also enter hours of work in the Units column of the
Assign Resources dialog which makes adding resource quicker and easier.

Fixed duration etc only have an effect when you edit assignments. I have
found that Fixed Units is the most flexible setting and it's easy to use a
different setting for the few assignment edits where I need something
different.

 

[anovak]

Rod, would you mind elaborating on this:

"Fixed duration etc only have an effect when you edit assignments"

Thanks,
Andy