The right way to plan using MS Project?

[chimaera]

I work as a producer at a small game developer studio and have some
experience using MS Project, but sometimes I really wonder if I use the
program the way it should be used.

Our breakdown of our project at this point is several hundred of activities.
Many of them have predecessing acitivties. At the same time the project is at
the moment very small, consisting of only 9 people, with their own unique
niche.

Usually I start of by linking all tasks with predesessing activities,
focusing on only how they relate to each other without to think who will be
working on a specific task. When I have done this I assign tasks to each
project member. Then I, and this might be where I "mis-use" the program,
create new links between tasks, because one person can only focus on one task
at time, thus some tasks must be completed before the next one can be
attended to.

Is this the wrong way to do it? Is there a way to link tasks ONLY focusing
on in which order they MUST be worked on in the project, and AFTER that link
tasks from the employee's point of view?

Help and advice would be much appriciated!

 

[C.R]

Good day. My company is now in the process of developing a PM methodology but
we have been using the MS Projects software. I'm the Projects/ Strategic
Planner and I am currently working on a 5 yr project with hundreds of people.
Since I don't want to record every task I only input the necessary ones and
things like milestones and the critical path. It always good to link tasks in
order to have a better estimate of your timelines but you need to keep your
resources in mind to ensure that over allocation does not occur.

Another important factor is to pinpoint i the assigned resource is strictly
working on that project & can give 100% of his/ her time or if they have
other duties and can only give 40% or 4 hrs per day etc.

Hope my experience was helpful.

 

[tommcbrny]

Hi there,

It seems to me that the way you begin the project plan is appropriate,
linking task dependencies prior to assigning resources.

The second piece, where resource over-allocation occurs as you assign
resources to tasks that can in theory be completed simultaneously, should be
overcome with resource leveling rather than creating links between tasks
whose only common ground is the resource working on them.

That would be my approach, at least.

HTH,
Tom

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi chimaera,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

You might also like to have a look at my series on Microsoft Project in the
TechTrax ezine, particularly #19 on levelling, 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

 

[chimaera]

Thanks for all the advice you have given me, and thanks for the links to some
more tutorials for MS Project. Maybe I will have to check out resource
leveling as some of you has pointed out.

I have been looking for a solution to handle resources in a more appropraite
way than I do right now. The project just becomes cluttered with links,
making it more or less impossible to follow.

Again, thanks! But I will probably be back with even more questions.

 

[Mike Glen]

You're welcome, chimaera, and good luck!

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[chimaera]

Mike, I am currently reading all your MS Project tutorials and I must say
they are very well written and informative. And yes, resource leveling seems
to solve my greatest problems with planning.

Dan Thronström
Producer
Lockpick Entertainment

 

[Mike Glen]

Thank you, Chimera, for your kind words! I hope your understanding of
the way Project works will give you greater success in your projects.

Mike Glen
Project MVP

 

[Steve House]

In any project, the final sequence of tasks is determined by several
different factors. First we have sequences driven by the process logic
itself - we have to build the walls before we put on the roof because we
can't hang the roof in midair and build the walls under it later. Then
there are sequences driven by the fact that a resource can't be in two
places at once. And finally there is sequencing driven by the business
priorities - we'd like the prototype to the user interface finished in time
to demo it at the trade show next week.

As I think of it, the inter-task links establish sequencing based on process
logic dependencies. After that, if there's a preferred order of tasks that
is NOT mandated by the process itself we set task priorities with higher
numbers on tasks we'd prefer to finish first. Then finally resource
leveling shifts tasks as necessary to resolve resource availability
conflicts.