Project Calendar -- not taking effect

[Anum_10]

We have Project Server 2007.

Our Project Calender in Project Professional is not taken the precedence
over the Resource Calendar.

Project Calendar used to take precedance over Resource and Task Calendar,
but now the Resouce Calendar is taking the precedance. As soon as we assign
the resources to the task, the tasks are no longer displayed by the project
calendar dates, they are now displayed by resource calendars.

What are we doing wrong? Please advise. Thanks!

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Anum_10 --

The order of precedence for calendars in a project, from lowest order of
precedence to highest, are as follows:

1. The Project Calendar (specified in Project - Project Information) sets
the initial schedule of tasks before you assign resources.
2. After you assign one or more resources to a task, the Resource Calendar
for each resource controls the schedule of the task.
3. You can override both the Project Calendar and the Resource Calendars
for resources assigned to a task by setting a Task Calendar.

Thus, my friend, you have the order of precedence completely backwards. The
tool is working as designed. Hope this helps.

 

[Anum_10]

Thanks Dale, this was very helpful!

I still have one more question: If the Resource calendar can ben overridden
by the task calendar, then how can the PTOs for the Resource will take effect
inside the project?

Please advise. Thanks.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Anum_10 --

By PTO, do you mean Paid Time Off, such as sick leave and vacation?
Assuming so, you only use a Task Calendar as a complete OVERRIDE to the
schedule for a task. For example, suppose that you have a task that MUST
occur on a weekend, on a Saturday and/or Sunday only. Your resources all
work Monday through Friday only. To force the task schedule into the
weekend, you would assign a Weekend Work Only calendar (you would need to
create this, by the way) to the task as a Task Calendar. When you set the
Task Calendar, there is an option called Scheduling Ignores Resource
Calendars. If you select this option, the system ignores the resource's
regular M-F working schedule, and schedules the task and the resource work
for the weekend.

If you do not select the Scheduling Ignores Resource Calendar option, then
the system schedules the task using the overlap of available working time
between the Task Calendar and the Resource Calendars of the resources
assigned to the task. Hope this helps.

 

[Anum_10]

I still have a question regarding "Project Calendars'".

The Project Clandar changes project working time, lets assume that my entire
project has non working days from 'May 18th - 20th', but when I assign the
resources, they are at OUR company's calendar and show 'May 18th - 20th' as
the working days.

How can I keep my 'Project Calendar' to show 'May 18th - 20th' as non
working days? or is there some other way to handle this?

Please advise. Thanks!

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Anum_10 --

Is the calendar set as the Project Calendar (specified in Project - Project
Information) the exact same calendar used as the Base Calendar for the
resources in the project? If the calendar set as Project Calendar and the
resource's Base Calendars are the same, then the resources inherit all of
the company holidays and other nonworking time on the calendar used as the
Project Calendar. This means the schedule of tasks will not change, unless
the resources have nonworking time on their calendars, such as vacation or
planned sick leave.

On the other hand, if the calendar set as the Project Calendar is not the
same one as the Base Calendars for the resources in the project, then the
Resource Calendars will always determine the task schedule for tasks to
which they are assigned. In your example, if the Project Calendar shows May
18-20 as nonworking time, but the Base Calendar for each resource shows
those days as working time, then the schedule will change for any tasks to
which the resources are assigned.

By the way, the only default Base Calendar included in Project Server 2007
is the enterprise Standard calendar. By default, that is the calendar set
as the Project Calendar in all new blank projects, and is the Base Calendar
specified for all enterprise resources at the time they are initially
created. If you put your company holidays on the enterprise Standard
calendar, then all of the resources in the Enterprise Resource Pool will
automatically inherit those company holidays if you leave the enterprise
Standard calendar as each resource's Base Calendar. Hope this helps.