Changing Resource Calendars and Task Progress–Microsoft Project 2019

Posted on January 21, 2019 by

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:

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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:

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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:

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

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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

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:

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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:

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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:

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and I will get:

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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:

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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

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%:

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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:

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After I click OK button I will get:

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

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and:

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and I will get:

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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

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

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:

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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

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:

SNAGHTML3f52df37

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

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:

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I’m also going to create two different Resources:

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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:

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And I will get:

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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:

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and:

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Finally:

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

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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”:

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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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