Scheduling Theory/Process Question

[Steve Adams, PMP]

Hi,

I Eric Uyttewall's book "Dynamic Scheduling with MS Project 2003" he
suggests a process for updating schedules. Prior to accepting updates he
suggests changing all Task Types to Fixed Units.

His argument is that since Actual and Remaining Work are being collected
(via the Timesheet) a Fixed Work task would not be calculated correctly,
i.e., either Units or Duration would be recalculated, but which one?

What is typically desired when updating the schedule, he states, is that
Duration changes, Units remains constant and Work is updated via the Actual
and Remaining Work values in the timesheet.

I didn't see any information on setting the Task Types back to what they were.

What are your thoughts on this concept? Is anyone adopting such a best
practice?

Thanks!

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

I think maybe that Eric was still climbing the learning tree for Project
Server when he wrote that. With that said, Fixed units is the most likely
task type for most situations with Fixed Duration and Fixed Work being
appropriate for some situations. The fact that a resource would make any
change to remaining work on a task, is proof perfect that the task is not
"really" a fixed work task.

The programming bias in this situation is to recalculate duration. When
accepting work the program might appear to change units, but it's actually
recording "peak units" and doesn't change the assignment units.