Master Milestone Plan - subprojects, baselining and calendars

[Roger]

Hi all
A master milestone plan showing project status of 25 projects handled
by 12 PM's is being used at work.
The existing process is to have each PM update a separate MS Project
file "Master Milestone Plan" (or MMP for short). A time consuming and
unwieldy process as the same information is being entered in two
different locations by 12 PM's.

The solution seems to be to create the MMP, then on a weekly basis,
insert the latest copy of the sub projects (25 of) into the MMP.

1. Is this a good procedure?
2. What is the impact of PM's using different calendars?
3. If projects are baselined, what impact on the MMP will be made?
4. If changes are made in the MMP - what if scenarios for example, the
sub projects will be affected. How can this be managed?

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated....
Regards
Roger

 

[Jim Aksel]

Comments are in line. This represents one man's opinion. There are many
ways to peal the onion.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim
It''s software; it''s not allowed to win.

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for FAQs and more information
about Microsoft Project

Hi all
A master milestone plan showing project status of 25 projects handled
by 12 PM's is being used at work.
The existing process is to have each PM update a separate MS Project
file "Master Milestone Plan" (or MMP for short). A time consuming and
unwieldy process as the same information is being entered in two
different locations by 12 PM's.

The solution seems to be to create the MMP, then on a weekly basis,
insert the latest copy of the sub projects (25 of) into the MMP.

1. Is this a good procedure?

Project Server is probably a better solution for you, if it is available.
We avaoid allowing PMs to touch these files directly because they tend to
hard code dates, and change predecessor/successor relationships, add/delete
tasks without the necessary cleanup required in Project. Example - keying a
new finish date for a task with an existng %complete will look fine -- but
there is a constraint created "Finish No Earlier Than" which is not
necessarily what you want, better to have increased duration. For certain go
back and remove the constraint. Training and discipline is your key here.
We sit with the CAMs weekly and let a scheduler twinkle the keys on the
keyboard to avoid these problems.

Constraints crossing project files can be broken when updating the files
separately.

Make sure all the subproejcts and the MMP always live in the same folder or
there will be problems. They should only travel together as a pack.

2. What is the impact of PM's using different calendars?

We have not had problems here, as long as the calendars are specifically
assigned to the tasks. Existinance of different default calanders on
different machines has caused schedules to display differently (days off,
etc). You need to have exactly one project calendar if possible. The
exception would be if a specific project was worked by a sister division (or
subcontractor) who maintains a separate calendar. Example - a European
counterpart will have a different holiday schedule than an American project
file. This is OK, as long as the calenadars are specifically assigned.

3. If projects are baselined, what impact on the MMP will be made?

You do not want to baseline the separate files without changing the baseline
to all the files if they interact. It can be done, but this is not good. We
utilize a routine that pushes baselines, status dates, and the like down into
the subprojects. It is done recursively because baselining the Master does
not automatically transfer down the chain.

4. If changes are made in the MMP - what if scenarios for example, the
sub projects will be affected. How can this be managed?

Do the What Ifs based on a copy of the MMP.

 

[Roger]

Comments are in line. This represents one man's opinion. There are many
ways to peal the onion.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim
It''s software; it''s not allowed to win.

Visithttp://project.mvps.org/for FAQs and more information
about Microsoft Project





Project Server is probably a better solution for you, if it is available.
We avaoid allowing PMs to touch these files directly because they tend to
hard code dates, and change predecessor/successor relationships, add/delete
tasks without the necessary cleanup required in Project. Example - keying a
new finish date for a task with an existng %complete will look fine -- but
there is a constraint created "Finish No Earlier Than" which is not
necessarily what you want, better to have increased duration. For certain go
back and remove the constraint. Training and discipline is your key here.
We sit with the CAMs weekly and let a scheduler twinkle the keys on the
keyboard to avoid these problems.

Constraints crossing project files can be broken when updating the files
separately.

Make sure all the subproejcts and the MMP always live in the same folder or
there will be problems. They should only travel together as a pack.


We have not had problems here, as long as the calendars are specifically
assigned to the tasks. Existinance of different default calanders on
different machines has caused schedules to display differently (days off,
etc). You need to have exactly one project calendar if possible. The
exception would be if a specific project was worked by a sister division (or
subcontractor) who maintains a separate calendar. Example - a European
counterpart will have a different holiday schedule than an American project
file. This is OK, as long as the calenadars are specifically assigned.


You do not want to baseline the separate files without changing the baseline
to all the files if they interact. It can be done, but this is not good. We
utilize a routine that pushes baselines, status dates, and the like down into
the subprojects. It is done recursively because baselining the Master does
not automatically transfer down the chain.


Do the What Ifs based on a copy of the MMP.

Jim hi,
Thanks very much for your time taken to respond in such a detailed
fashion.
The answers will now probably lead on to more questions.
Regards
Roger