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Conditional Task Length Microsoft Project

Conditional Task Length Microsoft Project

Conditional Task Length

Posted: 11 Jun 2004 11:41 AM PDT

It is possible, but it is a bit kludgy.
Do this.
Insert one of the number fields (number1, number2 ...)
Insert one of the duration fields
Let's imagine you are using Number1 and Duration1 for this example
right click on the header of the duration1 column
select customize.
click on the formula button
enter
[Duration]*[Number1]
click ok.

Now set the value in Number1 to be .2

Now copy the value in the duration1 cell
Go to the duration cell for the other task
From the edit menu select "Paste Special"
Make sure that the "Paste Link" radio button is selected.
Click OK.

Now when the first task changes in duration, the second task will change as
well.

-Jack


"Erik L" <microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1b39201c44fe3$b944c980$gbl... 

n/a error

Posted: 11 Jun 2004 10:02 AM PDT

I have an example of how to work around this on my website:

http://masamiki.com/project/customfieldFAQ.htm

-Jack

"Gérard Ducouret" <fr> wrote in message
news:phx.gbl... 

PERT Chart Problems

Posted: 11 Jun 2004 08:01 AM PDT

Have you tried Format/Layout Now?

It would seem that you can best avoid corruption and bloat by using
File/Save As... rather than a simple Save, as that process is supposed to
tidy up the bits left over from editing etc.

And keep saving backups :)

Mike Glen
Project MVP

Ron T wrote: 

#error to be removed

Posted: 11 Jun 2004 07:28 AM PDT

Mike is correct. There is no way to have a number field be blank. It is
always 0 or some other value.
If you want a blank field then you must use a text field.

-Jack

"Mike Glen" <glenATmvps.org> wrote in message
news:OsZsWY%phx.gbl... 
it 

How can...

Posted: 11 Jun 2004 04:40 AM PDT

Thank you very much Gérard Ducouret.

It really helped me.

Have a nice day

Scheduling - %Completes and Actuals

Posted: 10 Jun 2004 03:30 PM PDT

Ivivanti,

Click View>Task Usage (or Resource Usage) and you'll get a timescaled
view on the right side with the tasks and resources on the left. It
looks and functions just like a timesheet. You can enter the Actual
Work in the appropriate spaces (on a daily or weekly basis) in the
timescaled part on the right. (You may have to right-click in this
section and select Actual Work if it's not visible.) This will
automatically enter the correct Actual Start date. After you enter the
timescaled Actual Work, adjust the Remaining Work as needed in the
left side.

Sarah
sarah_kiko@(removethis)cinfin.com

Deleted projects in shared resource pool

Posted: 10 Jun 2004 09:02 AM PDT

Thanks for the advise. I ended up creating a new resource
pool and am changing the sharer files individually. Works
OK.

--Ken 
projects from it 
future, make sure you 
Failure to do so 
group. 
project.server 
and Project VBA 
message 

Unhide Column

Posted: 10 Jun 2004 01:33 AM PDT

Hi ea,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup :-)

You might like to see FAQ Item: 11. Hidden Column.

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
Project MVP

ea wrote: 

how to undo the manipulation several time

Posted: 09 Jun 2004 11:00 PM PDT

No, it can't. Unfortunately, you only get one shot.

Sarah

Adjust_Date micro

Posted: 09 Jun 2004 11:34 AM PDT

Sorry, you must have a start date in the template, or any project for that
matter!.


Mike Glen
Project MVP

Majid wrote: 

Linking two schedules in Project

Posted: 09 Jun 2004 07:53 AM PDT


"Peggy" <microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:com... 
change I make to one schedule is also made to the other schedule?

Master Projects and Cross-Project Linking
Using master projects to provide rolled-up reports across multiple projects
and create external dependencies between tasks in different projects is
valuable when using Microsoft Project Professional as stand-alone
applications, but does not work as well when all projects are integrated
into a common repository like the Project Server database.

Note . Master projects are not recommended to be used in Project Server,
especially if you want to use them to provide cross-project reporting or if
you plan on publishing assignments from the master project. Not allowing
master projects to be published to Project Server is recommended.

Because of the way projects are stored in the Project Server database and
the way that this affects project-to-project interaction, project managers
should avoid saving projects to the Project Server database that would
normally be considered to be master projects in Microsoft Project
Professional. Saving master projects and their sub-projects may cause
double-counting of resource assignments and ultimately produce inaccurate
Project Web Access views.

Project Server provides several useful alternatives to the traditional
master project:

· Administrative projects - allows users to simulate traditional
master projects in Microsoft Project Professional using projects saved and
published to the Project Server database.

An Administrative project is a project without any tasks or resources that
have been saved or published to the Project Server database from Microsoft
Project Professional. To create external dependencies or retain familiar
reports, you should create local master projects on your client computer in
Microsoft Project Professional by inserting projects checked out from the
Project Server database. Users can then save the sub-projects (inserted
projects) back to the Project Server database while saving the master
project to their local computers. Using this method will allow users to work
with master projects in a familiar way and will help maintain accurate
enterprise project and resource data in the Project Server database

· Enterprise Outline Codes - allows organization to add custom
elements into cross-project reporting that traditional master projects
cannot do as well. Using the Enterprise Global Template to define custom
Enterprise Outline Codes can help provide better reporting results for
project data.

· Portfolio Analyzer - provides users with better reporting and
data results across projects than the traditional use of master projects
can.

Microsoft Office Project 2003 has two administrative options that affect
what project managers can take relative to master projects.

· To allow master projects to be saved to Project Server.

· To allow master projects to be published to Project Server



1.1.1 Cross-Project Links
Cross-project linking enables project managers to link tasks in one project
to tasks in another project.

Microsoft Project Professional supports true cross-project linking. The user
can include a path and filename in the Predecessor and Successor fields,
followed by a slash and the usual relationship syntax.

For example, if <>\1 Exabyte Desktop Drive.Published\24FS+3d is entered in
the Predecessor field, then the predecessor has ID 24 in the project server
stored project plan 1 Exabyte Desktop Drive.Published and the relationship
is Finish-to-Start with 3 days of lag.

1.1.2 Cross-Project Linking Terminology
The term internal is used to describe those tasks that exist in a project.
External relates to those tasks outside of a project. Use of either of these
terms depends on the specific project in question. To avoid confusion, this
discussion assumes the active project is the internal project unless stated
otherwise.

When an external link is created in the active project, replicated tasks are
created in both the external and active projects.

The term ghost task is used to refer to an external (replicated) task,
however, an external task is not displayed with the ghost task formatting in
the active project if the parent of the external task has been inserted into
the active project.

One project gets an external successor task and the other gets an external
predecessor task. When either project is displayed alone (for example, does
not contain the other as an inserted project), the external task is
displayed with special light gray ghost formatting so it can be easily
distinguished from other tasks.

If an external task is displayed as a ghost task in the active project, it
gets its own ID in the active project (not necessarily the same ID it has in
its parent project). A predecessor ghost task is inserted just before the
corresponding internal successor task, and a successor ghost task is
inserted just after the corresponding internal predecessor task. However, if
a ghost task representing the external task already exists, then that ghost
task is used to represent the external task in all the relationships it may
have with tasks in the active project. In other words, if two tasks in the
active project both have the same external predecessor, there is only one
ghost task representing that external task in the active project.

Figure 183 illustrates the relative use of the terms internal and external,
in relation to cross-project linking.



Figure 183. Internal- External task links

From the perspective of 1 Exabyte Desktop Drive.Published task 55 is the
external link.

The task in each individual project that represents an external task is also
called a ghost task.

1.1.3 Linking Between Projects
There are two ways to link information between Microsoft Project
Professional files: by using dependency links between project files, or by
using object linking and embedding via Copy/Paste Special.

When a project relies on a task that is in another project, cross-project
links can be used to create a dependency between them. When a dependency
between tasks in different projects is created in this way, any changes to
the start or finish dates of the external task are automatically reflected
in the successor task of the other project.

When links between only certain fields of information need to be created,
links between fields in two project files can be pasted by using the Paste
Special command instead. For example, where the same job descriptions and
pay rates exist in two projects, but the tasks occur in both projects, the
Paste Special command enables the user to connect the selected fields in the
two plans so that the information stays synchronized.

1.1.3.1 To Create a Dependency Between Tasks in Different
Projects
1. Open both projects - the file containing the task you want to link to
and the file containing the task you want to link from. (If necessary, you
can search for your file.)

2. In the Window menu, click Arrange All.

3. Use the mouse to drag a link between two tasks.

or

4. In the Task Name field, click the task for which you want to create a
task dependency to an external predecessor.

5. Click Task Information and then click the Predecessors tab.



Figure 184. Creating cross project task dependency

1. In the ID field, type the full path of the project location, the
project name, and ID number of the external predecessor, separated by a
backslash, for example: <>\Project1.published\1 for Task ID 1 in a project
plan stored as Project 1 (Figure 184).

2. To change the dependency to a type other than finish-to-start, select a
different dependency type in the Type field.

3. To enter lag time for the dependency, enter a value in the Lag field.

4. To enter lead time, enter a negative value in the Lag field, such as -2
for two days of lead time.

1.1.3.2 Task Dependency Dialog Box
The Task Dependency dialog box is displayed by double-clicking a link line
in a consolidated or stand-alone project.

There are two versions of the Task Dependency dialog box, one version if the
link does not involve a ghost task (but may involve inserted external
tasks), and a different version for a link between an internal task and a
ghost task.

To display a Task Dependency dialog box, double-click a link line between
two tasks that are not ghosted (Figure 185).



Figure 185. Link between two internal tasks

For a link between an internal task and a ghost task, the full path and
filename of the ghost task are appended in parentheses after the ghost task
name (Figure 186).



Figure 186. Link from a ghost task to an internal task

1.1.4 Editing Ghost Tasks
If a cell of a ghost task is double-clicked, Microsoft Project Professional
opens the external project, if it is not already open, and places the cursor
at the top of the file. If the file is already open, double clicking the
ghost task will activate that file and place the cursor at the proper task.

The cross project link can be edited in either project.

The ghost task can be deleted from the internal task's project. This removes
the link and removes the ghost task from the internal project. This action
has no affect on the external task in the external project except to remove
the cross-project link (and the appropriate ghost task) when that project is
updated. For example, deleting a ghost task breaks the link, but does not
delete the task record from the parent project.

1.1.4.1 Synchronized and Editable Ghost Fields
Some information in a ghost task is synchronized with the information in the
external project, and some information is editable in the internal project.
In general most fields are synchronized except for custom fields, notes, and
baseline fields (so that the user can set a baseline in the internal
project) and some fields are only used to show assignment fields.

Cost and work fields are synchronized, but they are not included in rollup
calculations because they are not counted against the internal project.
Also, fields that are synchronized are not editable because the
synchronization would wipe out any edits.

The following split table shows what information is synchronized with the
information in the external project. It also shows what information can be
edited in the internal project. The X at the end of some of the field names
in the table is a placeholder for numbered fields. For example, TextX means
Text1, Text2, and so on.



Name
Sync
Editable

Name
Sync
Editable

Actual Cost
Yes
No

Marked
No
Yes

Actual Duration
Yes
No

Milestone
Yes
No

Actual Finish
Yes
No

Name
Yes
No

Actual Overtime Cost
Yes
No

Notes
No
Yes

Actual Overtime Work
Yes
No

NumberX
No
Yes

Actual Start
Yes
No

Objects
No
No

Actual Work
Yes
No

Outline Level
No
No

Baseline Cost
No
Yes

Overallocated
No
No

Baseline Duration
No
Yes

Overtime Cost
Yes
No

Baseline Finish
No
Yes

Overtime Work
Yes
No

Baseline Start
No
Yes

% Complete
Yes
No

Baseline Work
No
Yes

% Work Complete
Yes
No

BCWP
No
No

Predecessors
No
No

BCWS
No
No

Preleveled Finish
Yes
No

Confirmed
No
No

Preleveled Start
Yes
No

Constraint Date
Yes
No

Priority
Yes
No

Constraint Type
Yes
No

Project
Yes
No

Contact
No
Yes

Recurring
No
No

Cost
Yes
No

Regular Work
Yes
No

Cost Rate Table
No
No

Remaining Cost
Yes
No

Cost Variance
No
No

Remaining Duration
Yes
No

CostX
No
Yes

Remaining Overtime Cost
Yes
No

Created
No
No

Remaining Overtime Work
Yes
No

Critical
Yes
No

Remaining Work
Yes
No

CV
No
No

Resource Group
No
No

DateX
No
Yes

Resource Initials
No
No

Assignment Delay
No
No

Resource Names
No
No

Duration
Yes
No

Resource Phonetics
No
No

DurationX
No
Yes

Resume
Yes
No

Early Finish
Yes
No

Rollup
No
Yes

Early Start
Yes
No

Start
Yes
No

Effort Driven
Yes
No

Start Variance
No
No

External Project Name
No
No

StartX
No
Yes

Finish
Yes
No

Stop
Yes
No

Finish Variance
No
No

Subproject File
No
No

FinishX
No
Yes

Subproject Read-Only
No
No

Fixed Cost
Yes
No

Successors
No
No

Fixed Cost Accrual
Yes
No

Summary
No
No

FlagX
No
Yes

SV
Yes
No

Free Slack
Yes
No

TeamStatus Pending
No
No

Hide Bar
No
Yes

TextX
No
Yes

Hyperlink
No
Yes

Total Slack
Yes
No

Hyperlink Address
No
Yes

Type
Yes
No

Hyperlink Href
No
Yes

Unique ID
No
No

Hyperlink SubAddress
No
Yes

Predecessors Unique ID
No
No

ID
No
No

Unique ID Successors
No
No

Indicators
No
No

Assignment Units
No
No

Late Finish
Yes
No

Update Needed
No
No

Late Start
Yes
No

WBS
Yes
No

Level Assignments
No
No

Work
Yes
No

Leveling Can Split
No
No

Work Contour
No
No

Leveling Delay
Yes
No

Work Variance
No
No

Linked Fields
No
No






1.1.4.2 Formatting Ghost Tasks
To allow formatting of the ghost tasks, the following items are included in
the following dialog boxes:



View
Dialog box
Item
Default formatting

Calendar
Text Styles
external task
Color: Gray

Calendar
Bar Styles
external task
Color: GrayBar Type: BarPattern: Hollow

Gantt
Text Styles
external task
Color: Gray

Gantt
Bar Styles
External (Show For)
Color: GrayBar: Light Dither

Network Diagram
Text Styles
external task
Color: Gray

Network Diagram
Box Styles
external task
Color: GrayBox: Dotted Box

Task Sheet
Text Styles
external task
Color: Gray

Task Usage
Text Styles
external task
Color: Gray

Task Report
Text
external task
Color: Gray

Crosstab Report
Text
external task
Color: Gray


1.1.4.3 Gantt Chart Wizard
The Gantt Chart Wizard - see The Gantt Chart Wizard page 431 - preserves
ghost task formatting, but provides no options to change it. Formatting for
ghost task bars must be carried out using the Format Bar or Format Bar
Styles menu commands.

1.1.5 Baseline Information for Ghost Tasks
Unlike all other information about the ghost task, the baseline information
comes from the internal project rather than the external project.

An external task has two independent sets of baseline field values. One set
is in its parent project, and the other set is in the internal project. This
allows the user to see how much the ghost task has moved or changed from the
last time the internal project baseline was set.

1.1.6 Cross Project Linking Options
The View tab of the Options dialog box available in the Tools menu contains
options to control how links are updated when files are opened, as well as
whether or not ghost tasks are displayed .(Figure 187).



Figure 187. Cross-Project Linking Options in Tools Options View tab

The first two settings, Show external successors and Show external
predecessors, determine if the ghost predecessors or successors are
displayed as tasks or hidden in the current project. This setting does not
impact the predecessor or successor fields of the linked internal task that
show the external links as text.

If the parent project of an external task is inserted into the active
project, then the external task is not displayed as a ghost task, but is
instead displayed as any other task in an inserted project.

If the Show Links Between Projects dialog box on open option is ON
(selected) then the Automatically accept new external data option is
disabled and unchecked. If Show Links Between Projects dialog box on open is
OFF (not selected), then the Automatically accept new external data option
is enabled and this option can be turned ON or OFF.

If the Show Links Between Projects dialog box on open setting is ON, then
Microsoft Project Professional displays the Links between Projects dialog
box whenever the file is opened, but only if there has been a change to an
external task or link. If this setting is OFF, then Microsoft Project
Professional does not display the dialog box on file open even if there have
been changes to the external tasks or links. In that case, choose the Links
between Projects command from the Tools menu to display the dialog box.

If Automatically accept new external data is ON, then Microsoft Project
Professional automatically accepts any new external link information without
prompting the user. Because it automatically synchronizes the data, if
Microsoft Project Professional cannot find the external link (because the
link was removed or the project file was moved), then the external task is
deleted.

By default, the first three checkboxes are ON.

These options are saved per project and cannot be saved globally.

1.1.6.1 Behavior on Open
Suppose there is a link between a task in project Test1 and a task in
project Test2, and project Test2 is opened. Various scenarios are discussed
as follows.

· If project Test1 is already open in memory, then the linked
task in project Test2 reflects the current information from project Test1,
and Test2's ghost in project Test1 reflects the current task data of that
task in project Test2.

Provided calculation is ON, any open project reflects the current data of
the external tasks and links.

· If project Test1 is not currently open, then Microsoft Project
Professional looks for the external data in the external project (which
would cause the project to be loaded in the background). If this external
data is different than the current data stored in the first project being
opened (project Test2) then Microsoft Project Professional displays the
Cross-Project Links dialog box that shows all external links. Those links
that have changed can be easily found by looking in the Differences column.

When opening the project, it looks for the external data in the external
project. Any changed data automatically is updated in the current project
without prompting from the user.

When opening the project, it does not look for the external data. If the
Links Between Projects dialog box is displayed, at that point it looks for
the external data.

The Tools menu, Links Between Projects command is used to see the
cross-project links.



Figure 188. Links Between Projects dialog box

The Links Between Projects dialog box (Figure 188) displays all the
cross-project predecessors and successors for the current project with
information about what changed in the current project. This dialog box also
shows links whose source project cannot be found, or whose source task
cannot be found.

From this dialog box it is possible to repair broken links, choose to accept
or refuse new data concerning a cross project link, and edit or delete a
cross-project link (and thus the ghost task as well).

When the dialog box is displayed, if it hasn't already retrieved the
external information, it opens up all the external projects in order to
obtain this external information.

The dialog box has one tab that shows the External Predecessor tasks and
another that shows the External Successor tasks.

If an internal task has a predecessor and successor external link, then that
task appears on both tabs.

· Task. Shows the internal and ghost task pair that constitutes a
cross-project link. The internal tasks are aligned to the left and have an
ID number. The ghost task is indented under it. On the same line as the
ghost task is Type, Date, % Complete and Difference information. The name,
type, date and % Complete fields reflect the old information for example,
the information stored in the current project. The differences field is used
to inform the user what data has changed in the external project and its new
value. The current project's internal data on the external task and
cross-project link changes to this new value when the user accepts the
change.

· Type. Shows the link type and any lag or lead information about
the external link.

· Date. Either the start date or the finish date of the external
task. If the link is connected to the start date of the external task, then
the date is start date. If the link is connected to the finish date of the
external task then the date is the finish date of the external task. It uses
the date format selected in the Internal project.

· %Comp. Shows the % Complete value for the external task.

· Differences. Provides information about what has changed in the
external task from the external project since it was last updated in the
internal project, or it lets the user know that the external task or project
file could not be found. If more than one piece of information changed, then
the changes are listed on separate lines.

Kinds of information displayed in the Differences column:

o Name to <new name> is displayed when the task name changed.

o Finish to <new finish> is displayed when the finish date changed
and the link depends on the finish date.

o Start to <new start> is displayed when the start date changed to
a new date X and the link depends on the start date.

o Type to <new type> is displayed when the link type changed.

o Link Deleted is displayed when Microsoft Project Professional
detects that the link is deleted from the other project.

o Task Not Found is displayed when Microsoft Project Professional
cannot find the external task within the external project.

o Project Not Found is displayed when Microsoft Project
Professional can find the project file or DSN but not the project name
specified. The user can use the Browse dialog box to find a renamed or moved
project.

o File Not Found is displayed when it cannot find the project file
or DSN. The user can use the Browse dialog box to find a moved or renamed
external project file.

o File Located is displayed when a File Not Found or Project Not
Found condition has been manually corrected. Note that if there are any
changes in the file that it finds, it automatically accepts them.

o None is displayed to indicate that no changes have been made to
the external task or link.

The Accept button accepts all the changed information for the selected task.

The All button accepts the changed information for all links in the dialog
box.

The Browse button lets the user repair the path for an external project file
that may have been moved or renamed.

The Delete Link button deletes the selected cross-project link and removes
the external task from the current project.

1.1.6.2 Deleting External Links
In Microsoft Project Professional, it is possible to delete external
predecessor links to files that cannot be found. The dialog box shown in
Figure 188 will appear enabling the user to delete the external link or
relocate the file.

1.1.6.3 Project Calculations
No project is recalculated unless it is opened.

Suppose that project A has links to project B and B has links back into A,
and only project B is opened. Microsoft Project Professional reads in dates
from project A (provided the user says it's ok to update links). Microsoft
Project Professional does not recalculate tasks in project A, even though
their predecessors in project B may have changed.

All the appropriate projects must be reopened before everything can be
recalculated.

1.1.6.4 Circular Loop Detection
The definition of a circular loop or circular task relationship in Microsoft
Project Professional is when a series of task links, link back to the first
task in the series. Circular links are not allowed in Microsoft Project
Professional as they will cause Microsoft Project Professional to stop
calculating field values and therefore must be avoided.

If the user tries to create a circular link loop in a single project,
Microsoft Project Professional can detect this condition and does not allow
the link to be created. This is more difficult to detect and solve when the
links are spread among a number of different projects.

It is possible to create such loops by creating links while not having all
the projects open. For example, assume that x, y and z represent single
tasks in projects A, B and C. If x is linked to y and y is linked to z, and
then B is closed, and link z is linked to x, a circular link is created.

x -> y -> z -> x

Microsoft Project Professional only detects such loops among currently
opened projects.

Baseline date

Posted: 09 Jun 2004 07:32 AM PDT


Oren,
I don't have Project 2003 server but I doubt it will give the
information you want particularly if you are updating the same baseline.
Since Project 2003 has multiple baselines, I suggest you save each
update as a separate baseline, then you will have each date saved.

If you need more than 10 baselines, I suggest you either set up a custom
field to track baseline dates either manually or automated with a macro,
or perhaps use an Excel spreadsheet to track the baseline date data.

Hope this helps.
John

Percent Work Complete

Posted: 08 Jun 2004 09:13 AM PDT

Hi Julie,

Notwithstanding Gerard's answer. % Complete refers to the DURATION of a task. % Work Complete refers to the WORK (hours assigned via resources). Example: A task of 5 days DURATION might contain 40 hours of WORK. For most practical purposes, those hours would be approtioned equally across all 5 days (ie, 8 hrs/day). If at the end of day 1, the resource has only done 4 hrs WORK, then your % Complete is 1/5 days = 20%, and your % Work Complete is 4/40 = 10%. If on day 2, your resource still only does 6 hrs work (lazy git!!), then your % Complete is 2/5 days = 40%, and your % Work Complete is (4+6)/40 = 25%. At the end of day 2, your analysis would read: 40% of the DURATION has elapsed, but only 25% of the WORK has been done. Someone has few long days ahead of them if they want to finish the task on time!!

You do have to be a bit wary, though, owing to the fact that your % Complete does change as you extend or shorten the duraton of the task, and it is also dependent upon your Task Type. Moreover, when amending the task duration, the WORK that you have assigned to that task might also change, depending upon HOW you amend the task duration, in conjunction with the Task Type.

Hope this helps.

James.

"Julie" wrote: