Hello Kimberly,
My comments are in-line.
Julie
Kimberly said:
I'm assuming you are talking about the "start" and "finish"
dates....we are > letting Project determine those.
[Julie] Good, but if you aren't using predecessors and successors, all
of the tasks in the project should be starting on the start date of
the project. So, if you aren't typing in dates, are all your tasks
scheduled for the project start date? If all of your tasks are set
for the start date of the project, then, assuming you've assigned your
limited machine resources, each machine resource must be wildly
overallocated. Have you looked at the Resource Usage view?
I tried entering actual start and finish
columns and when I entered the actual dates....the Project
[Julie] I don't know what you mean by "Project determinations
changed". If you've let Project determine the start dates and finish
dates (project start date plus duration equals task finish date) and
you want to be able to compare original start and finish with actual
start and finish, you need to save a baseline. When you save the
baseline the scheduled start, scheduled finish, duration, work, cost
are all copied into baseline start, baseline finish, baseline
duration, baseline work, and baseline cost. Those values do not
change as you supply actual data. Project will calculate variances
from the baseline against the actuals you supply.
We have our tasks very simple....one or two subtasks with the
summary.
[Julie] Have you assigned the machine resources to the subtasks?
We have pre & post constraint fields with deadlines being the
customer > required delivery date.
[Julie] Sorry, you've lost me again. What are "pre & post constraint
fields"? Are they fields you've entered data into?
Our durations are machine time (in hours) pre & post time in
days. We are not using the successor or predecessor fields.
[Julie] Without predecessor and successors all of your task are
scheduled at the start date of the project, yes? Have you created
your machines as resources and assigned the machines (resources) to
the tasks in the project?
Should we be using our task types as fixed units (# of machines in a
department) or a fixed duration?
[Julie] Task types merely determine what changes when you change
either work, duration, or assignment units. Tasks should be pieces of
work you need to assign your resources (machines) to, thereby
calculating work for the machine resource.
We are estimating our duration time.
I'm at a loss.....we are given 5 weeks to get this running. Any help
will be greatly appreciated.
[Julie] Have you taken any hands-on training classes in Project?
Have you read any books about project? No offense intended, but 5
weeks to "get this running" by trying to learn on your own is a huge
undertaking. Project is not an intuitive product and I fear you are
trying to treat it like Excel.
I'm sorry, I'm just having a difficult time picturing what you are
doing in the project file. Have you set up each machine as a task in
the Gantt chart view? If so, I wouldn't suggest it.
Create each machine as a resource on the Resource Sheet. Create the
tasks as the work you need the machine to do. Estimate the duration
as the amount of time it will take the machine to complete the task.
Assign the machine to the task to generate work. The Resource Usage
view will show you each machine and then on a timescaled view, the
work hours per day for the resource. If there are gaps in between
tasks, the resource (machine) is available.
Let us know how you get along and please post back with the answers to
my questions.
Julie
