Calculate project after each edit option and Task inspector in MS PROJECT 2019

Posted on June 12, 2019 by

Hi,

Today I will show you the option: Calculate project after each edit in MS Project 2019!

This option can be found here:

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and:

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and finally:

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With this option set to On I will create a simple project with three tasks, connected together:

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Now I will show you the Task Inspector:

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As you can see, everything look fine, and is fine.

Now, I will turn this option Off, and I will crate the same Project again:

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As you can see, all Start dates are the same (of course, this applies to my specific example), and calculation is not made at all. If I look at the Task inspector it will look like:

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As you can see, I can’t see predecessors for Task 2, nor any other thing. When I hit F9 button, I will get everything like in example with option turned on.

The question is very simple: Why, on earth, will someone leave this option turned off? Even it looks odd, it is not. Every time I add or change something on the project, the whole calculation is made, with this option turned on. Do not forget that MS Project can be use for extremely large projects, so the calculation can last for a while. Instead of keeping this option turned on, I can turn it off, and manually ask for recalculation by hitting F9 button.

Which approach is better? None! If you have very large projects maybe it is better to keep this option off, but for “smaller” project keep it turned on.

And one more important thing. If this option is turned on or off, it will be applied to every single project. The new one, and existing one. There is no option to make it on or off for one single projects. So, if you will like to have it for some projects on, and for some others – off, you will need to constantly turn it on and off.

Regards!

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Rollup field in MS PROJECT 2019

Posted on May 12, 2019 by

Hi,

today I’m going to explain purpose of the Rollup for Tasks in MS PROJECT 2019!

First I will create very simple Project:

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As you can see, there is one Summary Task (Task S), two Sub-summary Tasks (Tasks S1 and S2) and six Tasks (T1 to T6). finally there are two milestones (MS).

Now I am going to select T1 and T2 and check Rollout option:

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and I will get:

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As you can see these Task are “rolled up” in the Summary Task S1, but not in Summary Task S. why? Because I unchecked this option for Summary Task S (which is, by default turned on for all summary and sub-summary tasks).

Now, I’m going to turn it on (in the same way as I did it with T1 and T2), and I will get:

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This can be useful if you want to see Tasks on Summary Tasks. But, what if you want this for every single Task? should you turn this option on for every new Task? NO!

Here is how can you avoid this:

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and I will get:

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Wait? there are no Tasks shown! Well, that is because I select option: “Hide rollup bars when summary expanded”. So, if I now collapse summary Tasks I will get:

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But if I always want Tasks to be shown on Summary Tasks, I will deselect this option and get:

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So it’s up to you how (and if) you are going to show those “rollups”!

Regards!

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How to Change View in MS PROJECT 2019?

Posted on March 31, 2019 by

Hello,

Today I will show you how to change View in MS PROJECT 2019!

Let’s say that we have Project like this:

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As you can see, for this Project I have resources:

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and if I apply Cost Table on the Gant Chart I will get:

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Now, let’s say that in Gantt Chart I want to see only Task which are on Critical path, and I want to group them by Status. And I want to see Costs in this Gantt Chart. This is the way how to do it (and with this example you will figure how can you change ANY View in MS PROJECT):

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and:

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and finally:

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As you can see I chose Cost table (because I want to see costs in Gantt Chart), I use Critical filter (because I want to see only Tasks on the Critical path), and I use Status group, 9because I want to group them By status).

The final result is:

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I’ve got exactly what I needed.

Now, if I look here, I can see my Filter and Group:

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and here I can change them. Be aware of this. If you change filter or group (or even a Table which you want to see), and save the project, when you reopen it you will get the same view as it was when you saved it. So, modifications will be lost!

Regards.

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Calendar View in Master Project–Microsoft Project 2019

Posted on March 17, 2019 by

Hi,

today I will show you how to see Tasks in Calendar View within Master Project, using MS PROJECT 2019.

I have Two Projects:

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and Second:

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Both Projects are using same Resource pool:

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and I created Master Project:

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Now I want see all Task for all Projects in a way like I can see my Appointments in Outlook Calendar. To get this I will Use Calendar View:

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and:

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The result is:

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This is Month View. I can see all Tasks for all Projects in February (in my example). I can choose Week View, and I will get:

image To see next or previous week there are two arrows on the left side of the screen: There is also possibility to have a custom View:

image and I will get:

image

Also I can choose date period like:

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and I will get:

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as you can see this is very powerful view. An if you want to see Resources assigned to Tasks in this same view, you can’t.

Regards

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How to make every second Saturday as working day in MS PROJECT 2019

Posted on March 8, 2019 by

Hi,

sometimes, in your Project you will need to make some Saturdays (or Sundays) make as a working day. Let’s say that I need to work every second Saturday.

I have a simple Project:

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I want to make every second Saturday as a working day. To do that I should follow next steps:

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and:

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and the result is:

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So I’ve got every second Saturday as a working day.

Let’s say that John and Mary are going to work on those Tasks. If I assign them, they will work on those Saturdays as well:

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But what if I do not want John to work on any Saturday?

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and:

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and the Result is:

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As you can see, only Mary will work on that specific Saturdays.

Regards!

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Specific Resource overallocation during the day using MS PROJECT 2019

Posted on February 25, 2019 by

Hi,

I have a question from my Blog reader: “I want to solve overallocation of R1, since it is assigned to Task1 and Task2. I want to divide the work of R1 between  Task 1 and Task 2 to solve overallocation. For example: R1 will be assigned to Task 1 from 08h to 12h and he will be assigned to Task 2 from 13h to 17h. How can I do this please, I need that.”

I will use MS PROJECT 2019. Here is the Project:

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Obviously Resource 1 is overallocated because it should be assigned 50% and not 100%.

If I do that , I will get:

image Now Resource 1 is not overallocated. But let’s see work distribution during the day:

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As you can see, Resource 1 is going to work during the day in a way that he/she will work 0,5 hours on one, and then 0,5 hours on the other Task! And in real life this is a rare case (I didn’t see it in my career). How to solve this? Well, hard!

I can manually assign work.

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and:

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I will get:

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Finally, I will adjust assignment:

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I will return to “standard” Timescale:

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Regards!

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Estimation in hours and Resource Assignments with Fixed work Tasks in MS Project 2019

Posted on February 18, 2019 by

Hi,

very often Tasks are estimated by effort, not duration. And Tasks are fixed work type. Now the question is: “How many hours will each resource spend at the Task?”

I will show that in MS PROJECT 2019.¸

Let’s say that I have a Project with one Task which need effort 24 hour (I will show that in Task Usage View):

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and that we have four Resources:

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John is available 100%, Mary 50%, Peter 75%, and Paula 20% to work per day. So John can work max. 8 hours per day, Mary 4 hours, Peter 6 hours, and Paula 2 hours.

Now I will assign them to the Task:

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So, Duration is 3 days, and each Resource will work 6 hours in Total. Let me explain the calculation:

  • Since total work is 24 hours, and we have four Resources, each Resource will have to work 24 hours / 4 Resources = 6 hours
  • John is 100% assigned. So according to formula Work = Duration * Units he will work 6 hours at first day, and he is done
  • Mary is 50% assigned. So according to formula Work = Duration * Units she will work 4 hours at first day, and remining 2 hours at second day
  • Peter is 75% assigned. So according to formula Work = Duration * Units he will work 6 hours at first day, and he is done
  • Paula is 25% assigned. So according to formula Work = Duration * Units she will work 2 hours at first day, 2 hours at second day, and remining 2 hours at third day.

No, suppose that only John and Paula will work on Task:

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So, Duration is 6 days, and each Resource will work 12 hours in Total. Let me explain the calculation:

  • Since total work is 24 hours, and we have two Resources, each Resource will have to work 24 hours / 2 Resources = 12 hours
  • John is 100% assigned. So according to formula Work = Duration * Units he will work 8 hours at first day, and remaining 4 hours at second day
  • Paula is 25% assigned. So according to formula Work = Duration * Units she will work 2 hours each day, and it will take her 6 days to fulfill those 12 hours.

This might seem complicated, but once you got it, you will see it is not!

Hope this helps.

Regards

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