Simultaneous Tasks

[Matt MacDonald]

OK, I think this is a fairly easy question, but for the life of me I
can't figure out how to do it. Right now, cuz I'm just getting
started with Project, I'm using it more for scheduling than anything
else (ie determining when new projects and tasks can be put into
production), but also to help manage time on a day to day basis. Here
is my delema. If a resourse has 2 or more tasks assigned to it, and I
want work to occur simultaneously on each, how can I do that? For
example: Task 1 takes 3 days, task2 takes 2 days and task 3 takes 4
days. That's a total of 9 days of work. If I just put them into
project like that, it will tell me to work on task1 from start to
finish, then start task2, then task 3, finishing task 3 on the 9th
day. All that is good in theory, but in the real world, at least in
my industry, progress needs to be made on all 3 tasks simultaneously.
So in reality you might spend 2 hours of each day working on each task
until all 3 are done. How can I set that up in project to schedule
the work time automatically, without making smaller 2 or 3 hour
subtasks for each task?

Thanks,
Matt

 

[Jim Aksel]

If the tasks can be worked in parallel, then remove the predecessors or make
them Start To Start (SS) as the link type.

If I work task 1 for only 2 hours a day for its duration, then my assigned
units% would be 25% (2/8) for that resource. This will keep the resource
from overloading. The same holds true for the other tasks.

The Task Usage View will allow you to manually adjust work hour assignmets
for resources assigned to the tasks. This way, you can have any level of
manloading desired.
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Jim
It''s software; it''s not allowed to win.

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

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi Matt,

Sorry to be blunt, but forget it.
You can set this manually in the resource usage view but Project will not do
this automatically for you.
Hope this helps,

 

[John]

OK, I think this is a fairly easy question, but for the life of me I
can't figure out how to do it. Right now, cuz I'm just getting
started with Project, I'm using it more for scheduling than anything
else (ie determining when new projects and tasks can be put into
production), but also to help manage time on a day to day basis. Here
is my delema. If a resourse has 2 or more tasks assigned to it, and I
want work to occur simultaneously on each, how can I do that? For
example: Task 1 takes 3 days, task2 takes 2 days and task 3 takes 4
days. That's a total of 9 days of work. If I just put them into
project like that, it will tell me to work on task1 from start to
finish, then start task2, then task 3, finishing task 3 on the 9th
day. All that is good in theory, but in the real world, at least in
my industry, progress needs to be made on all 3 tasks simultaneously.
So in reality you might spend 2 hours of each day working on each task
until all 3 are done. How can I set that up in project to schedule
the work time automatically, without making smaller 2 or 3 hour
subtasks for each task?

Thanks,
Matt

Matt,
Probably the easiest way to distribute the work is to scale the
assignment level of the resource on each task. For example, setting the
assignment level (units) to .33 (33%) instead of 1 (100%) will allocate
2.63 hours per day to each task.

However, since you are new to Project, let me address another concept.
You mention that task 1 takes 3 days. Is that 3 days of duration
(elapsed working time) or 3 days of work effort (i.e. 24 hours). In
Project, duration is the working time between the start and finish of a
task during which one or more resources will work on the task. Work on
the other hand is the effort in manhours that the resources will spend
completing the task. If a single resource works full time on a task,
duration time and work time will be equal. However, if a resource works
half time on a 4 day task, the work content of that task will be 16
hours, assuming a standard 8 hour work day.

John
Project MVP

 

[Matt MacDonald]

Matt,
Probably the easiest way to distribute the work is to scale the
assignment level of the resource on each task. For example, setting the
assignment level (units) to .33 (33%) instead of 1 (100%) will allocate
2.63 hours per day to each task.

However, since you are new to Project, let me address another concept.
You mention that task 1 takes 3 days. Is that 3 days of duration
(elapsed working time) or 3 days of work effort (i.e. 24 hours). In
Project, duration is the working time between the start and finish of a
task during which one or more resources will work on the task. Work on
the other hand is the effort in manhours that the resources will spend
completing the task. If a single resource works full time on a task,
duration time and work time will be equal. However, if a resource works
half time on a 4 day task, the work content of that task will be 16
hours, assuming a standard 8 hour work day.

John
Project MVP- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

3 days would be 3 days of effort (8 hours each day)

 

[Matt MacDonald]

3 days would be 3 days of effort (8 hours each day)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Actually, what might make the example more meaningful to my situation
is to use hours rather than days. Nothing we do is billed in days,
always in hours. So if a task takes 4 hours of work, even if it takes
us 2 weeks to fit in those 4 hours of work, it is still billed and
recorded as 4 hours. So if I'm understanding right: If task1 takes
10 hours to complete and I'm working on that in tandem with 2 other 10
hours tasks then I need to actually put each task in as 30 hours,
commit the resourse to 33% and link all 3 start to start (SS). Is
that right?

 

[Jim Aksel]

John - please contact me off line - I have some info to share with you on a
post from the other day.

jeaksel (at) yahoo (dot) com

Jim
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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

 

[Jim Aksel]

You may be confusing Work with Duration.
I have 10 hours of work to be compeleted over the next 2 weeks.
The duration is 10 days, 2 weeks, 80 hours ... . however you'd like to
specify.
The Work is 10 hours.

You can change the task type to Fixed Duration, assign the duration as 10
days.
Here's how we do the work--
Window/Split (Upper screen shows Gantt, lower screen shows task details)

The default for the lower screen lists Resources on the Left side.
Change the task type to Fixed Duration
Select (or Type) a resource name
In the work column, assign the amount of billable work --- 10 hours.

Using this screen you could distribute the 10 hours of work over 1 or more
resources.
Example- Task Duration 10 days (2 weeks) as fixed duration. Assign Bob and
Ted each 5 hours of work for a total of 10 hours.
When you click OK, the units% changes to 6% for each of Bob and Ted. You
can add Carol and Alice later if needed.

If you want to change the linear distribution of work, go to the Task Usage
View.
In that view you will see Bob and Ted each working 0.5 hours per day for the
entire 10 days. You can manually change these values to whatever is
needed... Ted could work 2 hours on day 1, go silent until the last day and
then work 3 more hours. In the meantime, Bob could be working 1 hour per day
for 5 days and then drop to 0.25 hours/day for the last week. The
possibilities are limited only by your imagination.


--
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

 

[John]

Actually, what might make the example more meaningful to my situation
is to use hours rather than days. Nothing we do is billed in days,
always in hours. So if a task takes 4 hours of work, even if it takes
us 2 weeks to fit in those 4 hours of work, it is still billed and
recorded as 4 hours. So if I'm understanding right: If task1 takes
10 hours to complete and I'm working on that in tandem with 2 other 10
hours tasks then I need to actually put each task in as 30 hours,
commit the resourse to 33% and link all 3 start to start (SS). Is
that right?

Matt,
It looks like Jim addressed your question. A fixed duration type task is
used most often when the duration is determined by factors other than
effort driven resource work. For example, a task has 10 days duration
during which a resource will work on it, but the actual work content is
only 40 hours (i.e. 4 hours per day).

John
Project MVP