Changing Resource Calendars and Task Progress–Microsoft Project 2019

Posted on January 21, 2019 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

today I will show you what happens if you change Resource Calendar AFTER Task is in progress with MS PROJECT 2019.

First I will create two simple Tasks:

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and two Resources:

image

Now I will assign John to Task 1, and Mary to Task 2:

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Finally, I will put 100% Completed for Task 1, and 50% Completed for Task 2:

image

Now, let’s say that I forgot that John and Mary are on education from Wednesday 21.01.2019 to Friday 25.01.2019, and they are not available for my Project:

image

When I do same thing for Mary, finally I will get:

image

As you can see, nothing has been changed for John, and Mary the Finish date is postponed to Tuesday 29.01.2019. Now, the question is: “Why the Task for John didn’t move as it did for Mary?”. And the answer is very simple: “Because it is marked as Done!” In MS PROJECT if Task is done (or just a part of it), you can change Calendar as you want but those dates (periods) in which Task is done will not be affected. If, for example, I put Education exception from 21.01.2019 to 24.01.2019 (the whole period), the result will be the same, e.g. since Task 1 is completed nothing will be changed, and Since Task 2 is only 50% complete (work is done at Monday and Tuesday), only remaining part will be affected. If you forgot to put Exception before Task is completed you should first mark this Task as 0% completed, then change the Calendar, and then mark it completed.

Regards.

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When to use Task Calendar in MS Project 2019

Posted on January 12, 2019 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi, I have very good question form one Blog reader: “Hello Nenad. I found your website while trying to solve a very particular problem in MS Project. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find a solution and was hoping that you could help. I have a task that is 18 days in duration called Lab Testing. This task is automatically scheduled so that any delay’s to the previous task will push this task out. The Lab will be shut down for 1 month in September, but our task is currently scheduled to finish before then. However, if we encounter delays to our schedule, it is possible that we will have 8 days prior to the lab shutting down and then will have to complete the 10 days after it opens back up. Is there anyway to schedule this such that the Lab Testing schedule will “float” or “adjust” itself around the fixed Lab Shutdown dates, so that the total amount of testing time (18 days) is the same?”

I will show the solution, using MS PROJECT 2019.

In this solution I will NOT use Lab as resource, and I will use Task Calendar.

Here is Scenario:

image

Now, let’s say that in March 2019, Lab is going to be shutdown, and Task need Lab cannot be done in this period.

First I will going to create Lab shutdown Calendar:

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and:

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Now I will apply this new calendar to the Task:

image

Now, lets say that Task 1 is 100% completed, and Task need Lab has 8 days actual work:

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and:

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and:

image

and I will get:

image

Let’s say that this is all work done until 28.02.2019 (end of February). I will move uncompleted part after that date like this:

image

and:

image

and I will get:

image

The rest of Task need Lab is here:

image

Of course, another way is to create Lab as Resource, and put in it’s calendar March as exceptions. but in that case that Resource should be assigned to that Task, and work is calculated in hours as well.

Hop this helps.

Regards!

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How to Delay Project in MS PROJECT 2019

Posted on January 4, 2019 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi all,

I have a question from one of my Blog readers: “The project I am involve in  is using only material resources and the unit rate for each resource did not change through time. Currently the project has more than 4 years of delay . Depending on the current status how am I going to forecast the project end date using Microsoft Project.”

I will show how to do it with MS PROJECT 2019. First of all since only Material Resources are used in Project, I will now use them in my example, because cost remain the same.

Here is on simple Project which starts at 01.01.2019:

image

Now, let’s say that Task 1, and Task 2 are finished 100%, and Task 3 is finished 75%:

image

As you can see Project end date is 21.01.2019. Now, let’s say that for some reasons Project has ben postponed, and it will be restarted  01.01.2023. It is easy to put in MS PROJECT:

image

After I click OK button I will get:

image

BUT, if I use Move Button, I will get different results:

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and:

image

and I will get:

image

As you can see, the whole Project is moved (finished, and unfinished Tasks).

So be careful what will you use.

Regards!

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, MICROSOFT PROJECT 2019, Micsrosoft Project 2016 | Tagged | Leave a comment

My upcoming webinar

Posted on January 3, 2019 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi all,

first of all I wish you a happy New Year.

In this post I will not write about MS PROJECT, but I will invite you to join my webinar at MPUG: https://www.mpug.com/event/different-ways-to-track-project-progress-with-microsoft-project/

In this webinar I will explain different ways of Project Tracking, so it will be from Zero to Hero session. You are all kindly invited Smile

Best regards,

Nenad

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Duration and Resource with 0% units assigned–how are they connected

Posted on December 17, 2018 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

in April this year I wrote a blog post about Resource with assignment 0%–what is it?. Now I have a question  Blog reader: “I am trying to use Resources with a 0% Max as a placeholder/generic resource allocation. When I assign the resource, it defaults the assignment unit to [0] and makes the task act like a milestone (no duration). I would like for the task duration to remain unchanged and for the resource to automatically assign 1 unit.”

OK! I explain that using MS PROJECT 2019! First I will create simple project:

image

As you can see, Duration is 5 days. Now I will create resource with 0% Max Units:

image

and I will assign that resource to the Task, and I will get:

image

As you can see, Duration is now 0%! Why? Because of the magic formula which is Work = Duration * Units. So, Units is 0%, and it means that there is no work to do. And since there is no work to do on the Task, it is obvious that it will be no duration, so it is milestone.

BUT. If I make a Task as Fixed Duration type like this:

image and then assign John with 0%, I will get:

image As you can see, the Magic formula, Work = Duration * Units still works, e.g. 0 (Work) = 5 days (duration) * 0% (Units). But Duration is unchanged because it is fixed. In previous example, Task was fixed Units, so Duration and Work was calculated as zero.

Regards!

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Task start date depending on predecessors competition–is that possible in MS PROJECT?

Posted on November 28, 2018 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

I’ve got interesting question from on of my blog readers and it is: “Let’s say that you have Task 1 and Task 2. Task 2 can start when 25% of Task 1 is completed, and Task 1 can continue after task 2 is completed. Is there an option to make such relation and such split (not manually)?”

I will show you that in MS PROJECT 2019!

image

This is classis Finish to Start relationship. If I want Task 2 to start after 25% of Task 1 is completed, it is not possible. Why? MS PROJECT calculate successor’s Start date depending on many things like Calendars, Exception dates, Task relationship type (for example, Finish to Finish is not the same as Finish to start), but it does not calculate successor’s start date depending on predecessors completeness. But you can make that Start date of Task 2 is 25% after Task 1 start date like this:

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Notice that I put 4 days for Task 1 duration just to show you that Task 2 will start 1 day latter then Task 1 (which is 25% of duration of Task 1).

If you insist on Finish to Start relationship you can do the following:

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So Task 2 will start 75% before Task 1 is finished which is 3 days, e.g. 1 day after Task 1 start date.

BUT! This has nothing to do with % completeness. In both pictures above Task 2 should start 1 day after Task 1 should been started, no matter if it was started or not!

The other question was is it possible that Task 1 can continue after Task 2 is finished? It means that Predecessor can be worked on after successor is completed! And here I can’t show you example because it is just impossible! First , it is impossible to establish two or more different relations between two Tasks, and second it is impossible to control work on one Task depending on completeness of the other Tasks!

Regards!

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Traffic lights for work exceeded Baselined work in MS PROJECT 2019

Posted on November 18, 2018 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

Today I’m going to show you how to make a traffic light which will show you when your work has exceeded planed or Baselined work in MS PROJECT 2019!

I’m going to create Simple Project with one Task:

image

I’m also going to create two different Resources:

image

And I’m going to assign john to this Task:

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I put two extra columns just to show you how will it work: Baseline work, and Work.

I’m going to save the Baseline now:

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and:

image

And I will get:

image

As you can see Baseline Work and Work are the same for now. I want to make a Traffic light which will show:

  • If Baseline work is less than Work – red light
  • If Baseline work is equal Work – yellow light
  • If Baseline work is greater than Work – green light

To do that I will create custom field called – Baseline vs work:

image

and:

image

Finally:

image

No. I will show this Traffic light on the screen:

image

image

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This is very good way to show when you are exceeding work from planned, especially when you have a lot of Tasks in your Project.

image Now, I can filter all Tasks which are “red”:

image

and I will get:

image

One hint! Values like 0,1 or 2 can be confusing because you should remember them (0 is red, 1 is yellow, etc.). Instead of that I could put “red”, “yellow” and “green” in IIf formula, and the result will be the same, but more meaningful when you filter Task on that condition.

Regards!

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Changing Values in Project Summary Tasks in MS PROJECT

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

Today I am going to show you how to change Duration or Start/Finish date on Summary Task using MS PROJECT 2019.

I am going to create simple Project with tow Tasks under one Summary Task, and I’m going to assign two different Resources to those Tasks:

image

In summary Task I can change Duration, Start Date, finish date, but I can not change Work. So I will change Duration to 6 days, and I will get:

image

Notice that when Duration (or Start or Finish Date) is changed the Summary Task is switched to manually Scheduled mode. If I change Start date, or finish date that will be no constraint set like in “regular” task (like: Start no earlier then, Start no later then etc.)

Now the right question is: Why should we change those values? One reason is that you want to compare what you have plan, and what is really happening. I will now put 7 days in Duration for Task 1, and I will get:

image

You can see that now the Summary Task (e.g. phase) will be later that planned, and this is why this bar is red. If I “right” click on finish date:

image

I can see in Task inspector where exact is the problem:

image

Here I have two possibilities. I can move the finish date according to subtask calculation, or I can switch Summary Task back to Auto scheduled Task.

I never change any field in summary Task, but also, I want to set a deadline for it. Instead of changing duration or Start/Finish Date I put Deadline like:

image

and I get:

image

Now if I change Duration to 7 days for Task 1, I will get:

image

So, I have the same effect, but also I left to MS PROJECT to make all calculations with Auto scheduled Summary Task.

Regards.

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How to reschedule Uncompleted Remaining Work for multiple Projects in MS PROJECT 2019

Posted on October 31, 2018 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

today I will show you how to reschedule uncompleted remining work for multiple Project in one step using MS PROJECT 2019

To do that, of course we should have those project in one Master project. First I am going to create two separate projects:

image

and:

image

OK! Let’ say that for both Projects Task 1 is 50% completed, so I will mark them as that (I’m not going to show you the picture how to do that!). Now let’ say that Status date is 02.11.2018. Now I want to reschedule uncompleted work after that status date for both Projects at once!

Here is how I can do it for one single project:

image and then:

image

And I will get:

image

I can do the same thing for the Second Project, as well. But, what if I have 10 Projects? It will be waste of time to do that in this way.

So I will create Master Project:

image

DO NOT forget to check Link to the Project! If you do not, that Projects are just to be copied to Mater Project, and connections between Master and Subprojects are not established.

I will get:

image

If I repeat steps like I did with Project 1, NOTHING WILL happen! So I can not move all uncompleted Task for all projects after the status date as I did it with a single PROJECT.

BUT! There is a way.

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And after I select ALL Tasks for ALL Projects:

image

Important thing is that I have to Select in For: section – Selected tasks INSTEAD of Entire project!

Finally I will get:

image

As you can see, I’ve got what I wanted. Those rescheduled Tasks ae reflected in original Projects as well (Project 1, and Project 2).

Regards!

Posted in MS PROJECT 2019, PMI, PRoject Management | Tagged | Leave a comment

Fixed work with Resources in shifts with MS PROJECT

Posted on October 25, 2018 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

last week I had great training with wonderful people in Oman, so this post is dedicated to all of them as a small THANK YOU.

I will show a case in MS PROJECT 2019.

Here is the Scenario. Factory has to be shutdown for three days, e.g. 72 hours for maintenance. In that time two shifts are going to do repairing each shift is 12 hours. And working time for Oman is from Sunday to Thursday. Start time is 07:00 each day.

OK! Now first thing is setup:

image

and then:

image

and finally:

image

Now, another setup:

image

Now, I am going to create two Calendars, Night and Day!

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and:

image

Since Friday is non working day I’m going to make it as that:

image

On the same way I will make a night calendar with these working times:

image

Friday will be non working day as well.

Now I’m going to create two Resources:

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I will set Project start date at Sunday 28.10.2018. DO NOT FORGET to put 07:00 as starting time, otherwise first Project Task will start at 08:00:

image

Let me create Task – Maintenance with 3 days, e.g. 36 hours Duration:

image

Do not worry because Start date and Time is not ax expected.

Now, Each worker has to work 36 hours, 12 hours per day, so I will assign them and the Task will be Fixed Duration type:

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Finally I’ll get:

image

Now let’s see how much time will each Resource spend per day:

image

Let me explain the picture above:

Day worker will work:

  • Sunday 28.10. from 07:00 to 19:00 – 12 hours
  • Monday 29.10 from 07:00 to 19:00 – 12 hours
  • Tuesday 30.10 from 07:00 to 19:00 – 12 hours
  • Total work = 36 hours!

Night worker will work:

  • Sunday 28.10. from 19:00 to 00:00 – 5 hours
  • Monday 29.10 from 00:00 to 07:00 – 7 hours and from 19:00 to 00:00 – 5 hours = TOTAL 12 hours
  • Tuesday 30.10 from 00:00 to 07:00 – 7 hours and from 19:00 to 00:00 – 5 hours = TOTAL 12 hours
  • Wednesday 31.10 from 00:00 to 07:00 – 7 hours
  • Total work = 36 hours!

And yes the Factory is going to be close three days. From Sunday 28.10 07:00 to Wednesday 31.10 07:00

Best regards!

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