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change all "fixed duration" to "fixed work" Microsoft Project

change all "fixed duration" to "fixed work" Microsoft Project

change all "fixed duration" to "fixed work"

Posted: 26 Dec 2005 04:23 AM PST

Hi Kant,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup :)

You can make some global changes like this via the Task Information dialog.
So, click on the Task Name heading to select all the tasks. Project/Task
Information.../Advanced tab and change the Task Type to what you want and
OK.

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on :)

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

kant wrote: 

Weird bug in MS Project 2003 Resource Leveling

Posted: 25 Dec 2005 05:33 PM PST

Congratulations Andre.
There must be a big finder's fee to go with this.
I wish I had discovered a real bug.

Putting them back to:
T1 5d A
T2 5d B
T3 5d A 4SS
T4 5d B

If you add the 2FS link at T4, and then level, OK, T3 ES = 02/01
If you force T4 to Must Start On 02/01, and then level, OK, T3 ES = 02/01.
If you do either and then take them off and then level again it goes bad
again, T3 ES = 09/01.
So, any way that T4 gets forced to 02/01, except levelling, makes/allows the
4SS link work OK.(?)

This is a tiny glitch and rarely encountered in practice, but unnerving.
As well as a good argument for ensuring every Task has at least 1 FS
predecessor, and a strict minimum of all other types, which is good advice
anyway, it's a bug.
Is it a leveling bug or a linking bug?
The linking works ok if there is no leveling, so it must be a leveling bug,
but it only happens with this link.
If leveling is set to manual, and other calculation automatic, then leveling
can only happen when you push the button.
If then leveling does something else (mysterious), as well as "delay Tasks
to remove Resource over-allocation", then I will not be able to advise
students/clients etc that "Leveling is simple. Leveling delays Tasks to
remove Resource over-allocation, and nothing more", which is also very
common advice on this NG.

The levelling delay of T3 and T4 both stay at 7 Edays, even when T3 is
scheduled for ES = 1 week later than necessary!

You have to admit, this is disconcerting at least for anyone making a living
out of MSP, and erodes the faith of the faithful and members of the MSP fan
club who have to teach this stuff and defend MSP from the people who say it
is crap and P3 is better.
I must remember this one for next time the MSP spruiker is making the big
pitch and demo at the software show or the PMI chapter meeting. No, that
would be unnecessarily cruel.
Is there any chance MS is going to fess up on this;-) ?

This goes on the very short list of real bugs along with allowing the the
pilot/aircraft tp take off separately and the ALAP type ing all of the
float out of its successors, not so much a bug, no matter how annoying, but
more a missing feature, which goes on the very short list of real missing
features (eg Zero Total Float Constraint, Zero Free Float Constraint,
Longest Path, driving predecessor tracing, weird EV summary roll-ups(?)).

Both lists are still a lot shorter than the one about things which look like
they don't work or aren't there but are really the result of user
mis-understanding about CPM/MSP.

Trevor
----------------------------------------
"Jan De Messemaeker" <jandemes at prom hyphen ade dot be> wrote in message
news:phx.gbl... 

Digit Grouping for Cost Fields

Posted: 25 Dec 2005 06:27 AM PST

Dollars, Pennys, Millipennys????

"John" <com> wrote in message
news:microsoft.com... 

End date for Hammock task

Posted: 25 Dec 2005 03:21 AM PST

Hi Ravi,

You don't need to set all 400 tasks as the predecessors. You could simply
link the last tasks in logical flows as the predecessor to the finish
milestone. So for example: if the predecessor/successor relationship is A 
milestone.

Hope this helps.
Julie


<com> wrote in message
news:googlegroups.com... 

Wrong estimations Vs. Overtime

Posted: 24 Dec 2005 11:42 PM PST

You're welcome Ravi and thanks for the feedback.
Julie
<com> wrote in message
news:googlegroups.com... 

Delay in external dependency

Posted: 24 Dec 2005 10:29 PM PST

Hi Rod,

I do publish the external review schedule upfront and they do commit a
timeline for review. But they don't always complete the review as per
their commitment and I need to reflect the delay in the schedule. I
can create a task called "External Review" but if I do so, I need to
assign a resource to it. As I don't want my customer's resource in my
schedule, I don't want to schedule the external review as a task with
fixed duration and resource.

There are other external dependencies as well which I can't figure how
to reflect in MS Project. Example: If some of the tasks are dependent
on arrival of a new hardware, how do I track the delay induced by late
arrival of the hardware?

Regards,
Ravi

contour / level / Work/ Units / Migraine

Posted: 23 Dec 2005 10:29 AM PST

Have you tried editing the task type for the effected tasks to Fixed Work
before changing your resource assignments?

--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

"Bob Inwater" <microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:com... 

Keep Task Days Together

Posted: 22 Dec 2005 09:48 PM PST

In article <com>,
"MSPuser" <microsoft.com> wrote:
 

MSPuser,
I understand your special cirstances but I'm still not buying in to
the idea that a task can be picked up and started immediately after a
delay of several months - but then that's just my observation and not
really relevant to your question.

With regard to the VBA approach. I would NOT used a lag. In my opinion
any lag of greater than 5 days is worthless. A much better approach is
to simply set a "start-no-earlier-than" constraint. I would still keep
the link to insure the logic is correct but only if the task indeed has
a predecessor that must be completed first. The following code will do
what you need, assuming there is no setup time for a delayed task.

Sub Schedule_Gapper()
Dim Cutoff As Date, Restart As Date
Dim t As Object
For Each t In ActiveProject.Tasks
If Not t Is Nothing Then
Cutoff = "5/30/" & Year(t.Start)
Restart = "9/1/" & Year(t.Start)
If t.Summary = False And t.Start < Restart Then
If Application.DateAdd(t.Start, t.Duration) > _
Cutoff Then t.Start = Restart
End If
End If
Next t
End Sub

If you want to learn more about Project VBA, go to our MVP website at:
http://www.mvps.org/project/links.htm
and look for the link at the bottom of the page, "Project 98 Visual
Basic Environment Training Materials". Even though it says it is for
Project 98, it is equally applicable to all current versions of Project.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP 

Finish Date does not change

Posted: 22 Dec 2005 09:19 PM PST


Thanks Mr. John,
I will clarify further.
The file name is master. In tools..option..calculation, Calculatio
mode is automatic & I have ticked all four options, viz.
- Updating task status ....
- Move end of completed ...
- and move start of remaining ...
- Move start of remaining ...
- and move end of completed ...
Because I want the finish date to move forward from today's status dat
by the amount of remaining duration.
This was happening earlier when I created the file.
Now it is not happening.
Actual start date of all activities is NA as I have not updated an
activity as of now.
I want start & finish date to change when I change '%complete' field.

Hope I am clear now & you will be in position to answer my query
Thanks in advance.



John Wrote: 

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Using historical task data to create future project estimates

Posted: 22 Dec 2005 08:53 PM PST

Don --

What about using a completed project as a template for future projects of
the same type? Just a thought.

--
Dale A. Howard [MVP]
Enterprise Project Trainer/Consultant
http://www.msprojectexperts.com
http://www.projectserverexperts.com
"We wrote the book on Project Server"


"Don Epstein" <microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:com... 

Updating the resource pool from a macro

Posted: 22 Dec 2005 04:37 PM PST

In article <com>,
"Emma Lewis (Aus)" <microsoft.com> wrote:
 

Emma,
You're welcome.

John 

Can you turn a power points presentation into a dvd movie?

Posted: 22 Dec 2005 01:19 PM PST

You can, but not within Powerpoint.


"Melissa" <microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:com... 

Resource Capacity and Slack View/Report

Posted: 22 Dec 2005 11:29 AM PST

"Slack" as used in MSP refers to task start and end dates and they amount of
time they could be delayed without affecting tasks downstream, not
resources. Are you perhaps thinking of utilization versus availability,
What you're calling "slack" being the remaining amount of time a resource
has available for assignment before they go over their maximum availability?
If so, go to the Resource Usage view and add the Remaining Availability
field to the lines displayed in the timeline side.
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs



"JoeJV" <microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:com... 

Inserting tasks from other projects

Posted: 22 Dec 2005 11:09 AM PST

Thank you for your response.
I have tried to paste the individual fields, but it automatically pastes the
whole task, and still does not reflect the progress information.

I am aware of the issues with linking this way, like corrupting the link if
I move the file (I learned that the hard way a long time ago), but thank you
for warning me anyway.

Do you have any other suggestions? I guess I have decided that the only way
I can do what I want is to insert an entire project, and apply a filter. The
only problem I have doing it this way is I would like to filter certain tasks
and summary tasks. When I filter any summary tasks, you can still expand the
summary task. Other employees at my company (including my boss) will be
looking at this project and I have a feeling that someone will expand one of
the summary tasks, and there will be total confusion.......I am just not sure
what to do at this point.....

"Rod Gill" wrote:
 

Does not push tasks out after being linked

Posted: 22 Dec 2005 09:42 AM PST

You're welcome, steelbee :-)

You might like to have a look at my series on Microsoft Project in the
TechTrax ezine 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 articles before leaving the site, :)
Thanks.)

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP


wrote: 

Cross Tab Resoureces in Task Usage View

Posted: 22 Dec 2005 05:07 AM PST

In article <com>,
kushmtlaurel <microsoft.com> wrote:
 

kushmtlaurel,
You're welcome.
John 

Accumulated % Completed improperly calculated

Posted: 22 Dec 2005 04:39 AM PST

If you are are mandated to use "% complete" you need to be clear *which* "%
complete" you're referring to. Project 2003 tracks 3 separate percentages -
% Complete (duration), % Work Complete (man-hours), and % Physical Complete.
% Complete and % Work Complete are linked by default so that updating one
updates the other but they may be unlinked in the options menu to allow
inpependent entry of each. % Physical Complete is always a manual entry
based on estimated progress (and usually very unreliable because at best
it's a very loosey-goosey concept).

What I find confusing by your method is if you plot duration time along the
X axis and mulative % Complete on the Y axis you don't get an "S" curve,
you will get a 45 degree sloped straight line, at least when you're working
according to plan. Our project schedule requires 100 days. We work exactly
according to plan. At day 25 I'll be 25% complete by definition of "%
Complete." On day 50 I'm 50% complete and on day 75 I'm 75% complete. The
only time this plot deviates from a straight line is if we work more or less
duration hours than have elapsed between start date and the reporting date.
If I work LESS, say have some sick days in there where work was scheduled
but no work took place, the curve may bend downward reflecting on day 75
I've only actually worked for 70 days instead of the 75 originally
scheduled. If somehow we get "2'fers" scheduled to do a task in 2 4-hours
days but do it in 1 8-hour day for example, the curve might bend up. Thus a
real-world curve of ulative % complete might resemble the profile of a
range of foothills ascending towards the edge of a high plateau representing
project finish. But I can't envision any scenario that would cause it to
form a classic "S" curve similar to what you get plotting BCWS other than
purely by accident.

% Complete and % Work Complete are often the same number but just as often
they are not. Example (assuming standard calendars). I have a task to
paint a room, starting Mon 8am and ending Fri 5pm. I assign Joe Painter to
it 100%. Duration is 40 hours, work is 40 man-hours. It's now Thur evening
at 5pm and work has gone according to plan. % Complete = 32/40 = 80% %
Work Complete = 32/40 = 80%. But consider a contoured task ... our painter
is scheduled to do 1 hour prep and seal on Mon, 1 hour applying primer coat
Tue, 1 hour 1st colour coat Wed, 1 hour 2nd colour coat Thu, and 8 hours
finishing detail work Fri. Duration is still 40 hours but this time total
work is 12 man-hours. Again Thur at 5pm and working as planned... %
Complete = 32/40 = 80% BUT % Work Complete = 4/12 = 33%.

When Project calculates the rolled-up Summary % Complete, which at the
Project Summary level would be the ulative % Complete, it uses a weighted
average. The duration of a summary task is not the arithmetic sum of the
subtasks but instead is the time between when the earliest starting task
begins and last finishing task ends. The % Complete of a summary task
however is the AVERAGE completion level of its subtasks. When calculating
Summary % Complete, Project sums the scheduled durations of the individual
subtasks, sums the actual durations worked to date of the individual
subtasks (Duration * % Complete), and divides the 2 totals to derive the
Summary % Complete. It subtracts that from 100 to calculate the Summary %
Remaining. It multiples Summary % Remaining by Summary Duration and
subtracts the resulting interval from the Summary Finish to calculate the
effective "completed through" date. (I think it subtracts from finish
rather than adds to start to correctly handle subtask splits and lags.)

Summary % Work Complete is simpler. The total scheduled work on a summary
task is the simple arithmetic sum of the work scheduled for the subtasks.
Total man-hours worked to date / total man-hours scheduled = % Work
Complete.

AFAIK none of this changed between MSP2000 and MSP2003.

Hope this helps you figuring out how to get the results you need.
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs



"Pedro Caetano Barros" <microsoft.com> wrote
in message news:com... 

Suretrak data base

Posted: 22 Dec 2005 04:11 AM PST

excellent, thanks for your help

"Ray McCoppin" wrote: