Working hours to full time

[Ralf]

Dear Experts,

I'd like to set the working hours/calendars of a project and all
rescources (data already entered) to 7/7, 24h. Is there an easy way to do
this? (Nothing found in the FAQs.)

Thanks!

Ralf.

 

[Steve House]

I don't think you really want to do that. The calendars don't describe when
work can take place in your firm. They describe when work WILL take place
in your schedule. Your tasks should be detailed to the point that they are
being done by a single resource, meaning here either a single person or a
group of people who work as a tream. The resource calendar describes when
the resource is available for work. So if you use the 24/7 calendar for
him, that means that single individual resource Billy Bob never takes a
moment off - he's one obsessive-compulsive working machine, on the go 24
hours a day 7 days a week, never taking so much as a coffee break or a nap.
So the upshot is that if you assign Billy Bob to a 10 day task "Fidget
Widget's" he's going to be scheduled to work on it 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week, without a meal break, nap time, day off, any rest time at all, from
the moment work on the task starts until it's totally complete days later.
Humans can't work like that. Even if your company works 24/7, the
individuals working there don't. They work in shifts and their calendars
should reflect their actual *individual* working schedules and days off.

 

[Ralf]

Thanks for the thoughtful response, Steve.

I try to explain the problem more clearly, maybe you know a better way how
to handle it:
I'm working on a project with a group of volunteers. We have no fixed
working hours, most of the work is done in the evening and on weekends.
For the duration of a task I can only make rough assumptions (Design a
poster: about 1 wk, no matter how many hours). I know when certain tasks
must be finished, and the order in which certain tasks must be done. I can
then use the assumed duration to find out when we should start working on
something.
One problem I have with the standard calendar is, that a task that starts
on Friday and takes 2 days ends on Monday according to MSProject, not on
Saturday, like it should. Assigning the 24h calendar fixes the problem.
Not elegant, I agree.

Another annoyance for me is this: While setting up the plan, I decide a
task will take 2 days instead of one, the resource is set to 50%. Very
smart, but it has never happened in all the years I've been using this
program (not my main occupation) that I wanted this. Is there an option I
overlooked? A way of asking MSProject not to be smart until I'm actually
asking for help?

Thanks a lot!

Cheers,
Ralf.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi Ralf,

Resource sheet
Make sure the column Base Calendar is visible
First resource change to 24 hours
Select entire column
Ctrl+D
HTH

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Ralf,

In an other post I tell you haw to change Base Calendars.
But that is not what you need.
Try this
Tools
Change Working time
Standard calendar
Select the headers for Saturday/Sunday
Click Nonstandard Workiing time
OK

HTH

 

[Ralf]

Hi Jan,

Thanks for another great hint. I solved the problem of self adjusting task
durations by setting all tasks to "Fixed Duration" using your method!
Changing calendars only introduced new problems ...

Cheers, Ralf.