How to customize Working Time for particular Resource in Microsoft Project for the Web?

Posted on April 13, 2020 by

Hi,

today I sill show you hot to customize Calendar and working time for Particular Resource in Microsoft Project for the Web.

First of all, create your own Calendar Template, according to your Time Zone! Let’s say that my Calendar template should be from 09:00 AM to 05:00 PM, and Time Zone will be GMT+1 (Zagreb time, my hometown). To do that I should follow next steps:

Step 1: Go to Dynamics 365

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Step 2: Choose – Project

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Step 3: Choose – Resources

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Step 4: Add New Generic Resource and choose appropriate Time Zone

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Step 5: 6  Choose Show Work Hours:

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Step 6: Go to (for example) 01/01/2020 and click on this date:

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Step 7: Choose Entire recurring weekly schedule from Start to end:

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Step 8: Choose Actions-Delete Calendar

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Step 9: Confirm Deletion

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Step 10: Go to Set UP and Choose New Weekly Schedule

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Step 11: Uncheck Saturday and Sunday, and click on the Set Work Hours:

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Step 12: Choose from 09 AM to 05 PM:

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Step 13: I will Save and Close Work Schedule Screen:

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Step 14: Choose – Setting

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Step 15: Choose Calendar Templates

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Step 16: Add new Calendar Template, and for the Template Resource choose the Resource created in Step 4:

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Now, suppose that I want for one of my resources to have working time from 09:00 AM to 13:00 PM. To set this up I should follow next steps:

Step 1: I will choose one of my Resources, and I will check if he/she has appropriate Time Zone and I will choose Show Work Hours:

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Step 2: Go to (for example) 01/01/2020 and click on this date:

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Step 3: Choose Entire recurring weekly schedule from Start to end:

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Step 4: Choose Actions-Delete Calendar

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Step 5: Confirm Deletion

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Step 6: Go to Set UP and Choose New Weekly Schedule

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Step 7: Uncheck Saturday and Sunday (Jim is not going to work during Weekends), and click on the Set Work Hours:

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Step 8: Since I want Tim to work from 09 AM to 01 PM I will put those to Start and End:

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Step 9: I will Save and Close Work Schedule Screen:

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Now, since everything is Set UP I will create new Project with new Calendar Template:

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Now I will add Task 1, Task 2, Task 3, and Task 4:

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You can see that all Task are going to start at 4/13/2020. All of them are going to finish at the same date, except Task 2, since it has 2 days duration. Now I will assign Tim to all Tasks:

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Since 1 day is 8 hours (from 09:00 AM to 05:00 PM, according to Calendar template), and Tim will work from 9:00 AM to 01:00 PM, eg. 4 hours per day, then:

  • Task 1 has 1 day Duration e.g. 8 hours. Tim will work two days, 4 hours per day, so Finish date is 4/14/2020
  • Task 2 has 2 day Duration e.g. 16 hours. Tim will work four days, 4 hours per day, so Finish date is 4/15/2020
  • Task 3 has 4 hours Duration. Tim will work one day, 4 hours per day, so Finish date is 4/13/2020
  • Task 4 has 5 hours Duration. Tim will work two days, 4 hours first day, and remaining one hour second day, so Finish date is 4/14/2020

Hope this helps.

Regards

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, Microsoft Project for the Web, Project for the Web, Project for Web | Tagged | Leave a comment

How to set working hours per day (Calendar Template) in Microsoft Project for the Web?

Posted on April 6, 2020 by

Hi,

I will show you default setup for Working hours per day in Microsoft Project for the Web. Here is my Project:

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OK, let me Create one Task with 8 days Duration:

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As you can see, Task will start at Monday, 4/5/2020, and Finish at Monday 4/12/2020, e.g. it will be performed during the weekend, as well:

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OK. Now I will create three Tasks: Task 7 hours, Task 8 Hours, and Task 9 hours with durations as show in the Picture below:

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As you can see, 1 day is 8 hours. In Task 9 hours Finish date is 4/6/2020, and Start date is 4/5/2020, and in Task 8 hours Finish date is 4/5/2020, and Start date is 4/5/2020.

How is it so, and what if I want that my 1 day is 9 hours, but only from Monday to Friday?

Default Value is that Task is starting from 09:00 AM and finishing at 05:00 PM. To see that I should use Dynamics 365:

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and:

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and finally:

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Now I will show you default working time. To do that I should go to settings:

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and then to Calendar Templates:

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Finally, I will get:

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Project for the Web is using this Template if I do not have any other. It is default. Now I will going to create new Template with working hours from 09:00 AM to 06:00 PM, during working days. To accomplish that, first I have to create a resource with those working hours. I will call this Resource: Generic Resource (weekdays, from 09:00 AM to 06:00 PM).

First I will go to the Resource page in Dynamics 365:

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and:

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Now I will create new Resource:

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Now I have my Resource and I should setup working time like this.

Step 1:

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Step 2:

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Step 3:

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Step 4:

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Step 5:

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Since those working hours are valid only till 3/28/2020, I will repeat those steps and I will follow those steps:

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and:

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and finally:

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OK, now we should go back to the Settings:

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and:

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and then:

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I will call my Template: Weekdays Calendar from 09:00 AM to 06:00 PM:

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OK. I am done here!

Now I will create brand new Project for the Web:

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OK, let me Create one Task with 8 days Duration and Task 7 hours, Task 8 hours,  Task 9 hours, and Task 10 hours:

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You can see, that Task with 8 days duration is going to be finished at 4/15/2020 e.g. at Wednesday (so Saturday and Sunday are non working hours). Also, you can see that duration of one day is 9 hours, not 8 anymore!

Complicated? Maybe. Powerful? Oh, yes!

Regards!

Posted in Microsoft Project for the Web, PRoject Management | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Physical % Complete in MS PROJECT and “rollup”

Posted on March 30, 2020 by

Hi,

recently I had a conversation with one of my Blog readers about Physical % complete and rollup. I will give you example with new Project, using MS PROJECT ONLINE

First I will create brand new Project:

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As you can see, I added two more Columns: % Complete and Physical % Complete. I will create a simple schedule:

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OK, Now I will mark Task 1 and Task 5 as 100% Completed:

image As you can see Physical % Complete is zero.

Where is the difference between  % Complete and Physical % Complete. Let me explain this. Let’s say that I have a Task which is Building the wall which will be 4 meters long. And it has duration 4 days. And after 2 days of working, obviously %complete is 50%. But, maybe it is only 25% completed, e.g. 1 meter is built, for an reason. I will put 50% to %Completed, and 25% to Physical % Completed.

In my example I can put something like this:

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Task 1 is 100% completed and Physical % Complete is 100%. So, everything is perfect. Task 2 is 50% completed and Physical % Complete is 10%. It means that 50% of time is spent, but it is only 10% finished. This task is going to be late, you may think. But, this could be a wrong conclusion. Why? When I write my Blog post I take 1 day to think about a subject. And this is only 10% of all work. On the Second day I use MS PROJECT, I make a Case, and I try how something works, and I write a post. So, in the second day I finish the rest of 90% of my work. And I am not late. Got it?

If you look at the Task 5 and Task 6 you will see that I have a problem. Why? On Task 5 I spent all the time but I finished only 90% of work, so task is not finished and I have to extend the Duration. On the Task 6 I spent 50% of time and I did not finish anything.

Last but not least, you can see that for Summary Task, and for the whole Project you cannot see Physical % Completed. There is not rollup:

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My Blog reader asked me why is that so, and he concluded that he cannot tell the real Project status. But! Physical % Complete cannot be rolled up! It simply doesn’t make a sense. Because there in no algorithm for that. Look at this picture:

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I can’t tell what is Physical % complete for the whole Project. If I have only two Tasks and both has 50% Physical % Completed it does not mean that the whole project is 50% completed, or if on Task is 100% completed, and other only 50% that a whole project is 75% Completed. Physical work is not related directly to duration, so it cannot be calculated at Summary Task or Project Level. It is only Task related and it is right thing which tells you about spent time vs work done (not effort but physical work), and with this information you can see the real performance for your Task, not a Project

Regards.

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, MICROSOFT PROJECT 2019, Microsoft Project Online | Tagged | Leave a comment

Duration and effort with Project for the web

Posted on March 23, 2020 by

Hi,

today I will show you relationship between Duration and Effort  in Project for the Web.

I will first create simple Project:

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Now I will assign me, and Ellen to Task with Resources:

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and I will get:

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As you can see, effort is 80 hours! And this is because me and Ellen are going to work 5 days, 8 hours per day, e.g. 5 days * 8 hours per day each = 40 per person, in Total = 80 hours! Now I will change effort to 32 hours:

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and when I hit Enter, I will get:

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The Duration is 2 days, because 32 hours (effort) is divided between me and Ellen, so each will work 32 hours / 2 persons = 16 hours, and because we are going to work 8 hours per day, duration is 16 hours / 8 hours per day = 2 days!

So, to conclude this part, if you have a Task with Resources assigned if you change duration , effort will be calculated and vice versa.

Now, I’m going to put 32 hours in effort field for Task without Resources, an when I hit Enter key, I will get:

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As you can see, Duration is the same = 5 Days! I will now change the Duration to 100 Days, and I will get:

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As you can see, Effort remain the same (e.g. 32 hours).

To conclude, if the Task has assigned resources, Effort and Duration are connected according to formula: Effort = SUM(8 hours per day * Duration for all Resources). On the other hand, if Task has no resources assigned, Effort and Duration are not connected, and when you put some value into Duration, Effort will be unchanged  and vice versa.

Regards.

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, Project for the Web | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Slack and Costs in MS PROJECT 2019 / Online

Posted on March 16, 2020 by

Hi,

today I will show you relation between Slack and Costs using MS PROJECT 2019 / Online.

First I will create new Project

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and some Resources:

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Finally, I will assign Resources to Tasks:

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Using Format Tab, I will show Critical Tasks, and Slack:

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OK. What is Critical Path (Task are marked red!)? It is path in which, if any activity will be late, the whole Project will be late, e.g. Project finish date will be “damaged”!

On the other hand, slack is amount of time which I have in some path, when Tasks can be delayed without jeopardizing Project finish date!

So, as you can see, all Tasks on Phase 1 are on critical path, and this path determines the duration of the Project, and Finish date (9 days Duration, and Finish date is 26.03.2020)

On the other hand Phase 2 has slack 3 days (6 days Duration, and Finish date is 23.03.2020).

Let me show you Costs. To do that, I will apply Cost Table:

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As you can seem Total Cost of Task 6 is $14.400. This is because, Task 6 has Duration = 3 days, and Jim is going to work 8 hours per day, e.g. 3 Days * 8 hours / Day = 24 hours! Since cost per hour for Jim is $600, Total Cost for Task 6 is 24 hours * $ 600 = $ 14.400

Now, let’s say that Task 6 will last 5 Days instead of 3 Days:

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As you can see, Project Finish date remains the same (e.g. 26.03.2020), Phase 1 will finish 2 days later (e.g. 25.03.2020), and Finish date is not jeopardized .

BU! Let’s say Cost Table again:

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As you can seem Total Cost of Task 6 is now $24.000. This is because, Task 6 has Duration = 5 days, and Jim is going to work 8 hours per day, e.g. 5 Days * 8 hours / Day = 40 hours! Since cost per hour for Jim is $600, Total Cost for Task 6 is 40 hours * $ 600 = $ 24.000.

So, when you have a Slack, it means that some Task can last longer without “moving” Project Finish date, but it doesn’t mean that Cost are going to remain the same.

And, for the end of this post, lets, say that Task 6 will have 9 days Duration:

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Now, Critical path is changed, so all Tasks at Phase 2 are on it. Project Duration is 12 days, and Finish Date is determined by Phase 2 (e.g. 31.03.2020). And Phase 1 has Slack 3 days!

To conclude, lot of people think that if you have a Slack than you are in a “comfort zone”. It is not a case!

Regards!

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT 2019 | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Formatting–Microsoft Project 2019–Baselines

Posted on March 9, 2020 by

Hi,

In next few Post I will show you how can you format Microsoft Project 2019 for better usage.

In this Post, I will show you how to see different Baselines for Your Project.

First I will create new Project:

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and I will save the Baseline (OK, OK, I know. I need resources, Costs, etc., but I can get to the point without them):

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and then:

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Now I will change Duration for The Task 1:

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and I will save the Baseline, (Baseline 1):

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Now, in a Format Tab, I can choose which Baseline (if any), I wan to see:

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OK. I choose the first saved and I will get:

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If I choose the second one:

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I will get:

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But what if I want all of them on the same screen? In that case I will use Multiple Baseline Gantt View:

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and:

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and I will get:

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All of those are “built in”, you just have to use it. And it is very useful, especially when you will have large Projects, believe me.

Regards

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, MICROSOFT PROJECT 2019 | Tagged , | Leave a comment

How to Create your own Table in MS PROJECT Online / 2019?

Posted on March 2, 2020 by

Hi,

today I will show you how to create your own Table which will have all information needed for your Project, using MS PROJECT Online /2019!

First I will create a simple Project:

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I will create Resources as well:

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Now, I will assign those resources to Tasks:

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Finally I will save a Baseline (Plan) for my Project:

imageand:

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Let’s say that I want to see fields:

  • Baseline Duration
  • Duration
  • Actual Duration
  • Baseline Work
  • Work
  • Actual Work
  • Baseline Cost
  • Cost
  • Actual Cost

in one Table, e.g. in one View. If I switch to Cost Table, I’ll see:

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If I switch to the Work Table, I will see:

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So, to see all information needed, I have to switch between multiple Tables, which is annoying. Instead of that, I will create my own Table:

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and then:

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and:

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I called my new Table: My Project View Table, and now I will choose fields:

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I choose al fields mentioned above, but they are not visible at the picture, because they couldn’t fit to the screen Smile 

Now I will show the Table:

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If I mark Task 1 as 100%, and Task 2 as 50% completed I will get:

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Wait! Something is wrong here! Where is the Task Name? I forgot it, and I need it. No problem, I can always edit my Table:

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and:

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and:

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and finally I will choose Name field:

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and I will get:

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If it seems like a lot of work, it is not. and the benefits are high, because I can easily get all data needed in one place in not time!

Regards Smile

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, MS PROJECT 2019 | Tagged | Leave a comment