Master Projects with multiple sub-project instances

[Ryan]

I have a master project with several tasks such as

Master Project Plan:
CustomEntities
Entity 1
Entity 2
Entity 3
...
SalesEntities
Entity 8
Entity 9
...
...


I want each of the above "Entity X" tasks to really be a link to a separate
project. For example:

Entity Deploy Project Plan:
Define Entity
Define Metadata
Write Description
Write Code Here
Write Code There
etc.



I tried creating a plan which I named EntityDeployPlan and then tried to
Insert that plan into my master plan. However, when I tried to insert it a
second time (i.e. for "Entity 2") I received an error stating that I can
only insert a plan a single time. My desired result is to embed the
"EntityDeployPlan" at several location in my master plan and be able to
update the EntityDeployPlan once and have it automatically update at every
instance in the master plan. Is this possible? Is there another way to
accomplish this same thing in MSProject?

Thanks, Ryan

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Ryan,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

I suggest you set them up as seperate project first and then insert them
into a master.

You might like to have a look at my series on Microsoft Project in the
TechTrax ezine, particularly #17 & 18 on multiple projects, at this site:
http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc or this:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMFrame.asp?CMD=ArticleSearch&AUTH=23
(Perhaps you'd care to rate the article before leaving the site,
Thanks.)

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

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

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[Ryan]

Jim,

You correctly understand my situation in your description of Team 1/Movie 1
and Team 2/Movie 2. Though in my case the same team will be working on each
"movie", they will have separate start times, end times, and sometimes even
separate durations.

Let me quickly explain in a bit more detail. This is a software project
with several components and among those are 110 "Entities". Each Entity has
a process (named below "Implement Entity") that is the same for each of the
110 Entities:

- Implement Entity
--- Define the Entity
--- Write the Entity
--- Document the Entity
--- etc..

(this task list for each Entity is actually 50+ lines long)


I can copy and paste the 50+ task summary into all of the 110 Entities, but
what happens if I then want to add another step to my "Implement Entity"
process? Do I really have to make the update 110 times? My Project Plan is
already 6,000 lines long and I'm only half way finished! Scrolling up and
down the plan trying to find each of the 110 Entities to insert one
additional step is really a pain.

With the above description is there anything I can do to make my life
easier?


Thanks, Ryan

 

[Ryan]

Wow! Your site looks great. I will definitely spend some time there to
figure out more about MS Project.

I've refined my question in a reply to Jim Aksel's response. If you have
any comments I would definitely appreciate it.

Thanks, Ryan