Week1, Week2...(from end)

[Leo]

I am scheduling a project using backwards timing in weeks. When I use this
option, my regressive countdown on weeks starts from Week2, not week1.
I already change options to schedule from project start, from project
finish, changed order of taksa and still can not do it.
Can someone tell me how I can change this so the count starts from Week1?

 

[Rod Gill]

Hi,

You may have week start on Monday, the project start date on a Monday and
your first task the preceding Friday. This would cause what you describe.

I recommend you never schedule from the end because every tasks becomes
critical. If any one of them finishes late your project finishes late. To
account for this you need to force some spare time which takes longer than
scheduling from a start date.

I recommend:
Schedule from start date.
Set earliest possible project start date
add tasks and durations
Add task links
Determine from your risk analysis what contingency time you are likely to
need.
Reset durations and links so you meet the required finish date less the
buffer you need for contingency time.
Add resources realistically (if you don't you won't know what resources you
need to complete on time so you won't get them and surprise surprise, you
finish late.
Save baseline.

This is the basics, but usually gives better results for less effort than
scheduling from an end date. After all what do you have to do if when
scheduling from an end date you determine you should have started 3 weeks
ago!?!

--
For VBA posts, please use the public.project.developer group.
For any version of Project use public.project
For any version of Project Server use public. project.server

Rod Gill
Project MVP
For Microsoft Project companion projects, best practices and Project VBA
development services
visit www.projectlearning.com/

 

[Leo]

Rod:
Thanks a lot! this worked fine. I had not considered that the week start day
would make a dofference.

In regards to you suggestions, I really appreciate it.
In reality, what I am doing is to lay-out a standard process where different
Departments are involved, so in fact I initiated the plan from start (as you
suggest) to find out what the standard timing would be every time the same
process is repeated. After I had all the tasks and lead-times figured out,
that's when I was switching the format so it doesn't go by dates but by weeks
before the main event, which is Pilot run (this is when I got the problem).
This way, every time someone follows this process, they know how many weeks
in advance they need to start and also when they need to do what. Until
today, this process was inconsistent and events happend as people
"remembered". You can imagine how bad the results were. Things are getting
better!
Thanks again,