Nenad Trajkovski

Critical Path in Timeline View with MS PROJECT 2013!

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi, there is a question from one MS PROJECT user:

“Hi! In the MS PROJECT 2013, is it possible to have the critical path displayed in the timeline View?”

This Post will be short, because it is easy to do it. Firs I will create new Project:

and in graphical part of the Gantt Chart:

Now I will show a Critical Path:

and then:

and I will get:

Notice that Critical Path is Path on which if any Activity is Late, the whole Project will be late!

Now I’m going to filter onbly Critical Tasks:

and I will get:

No I will Select all Tasks, right click and:

and I will get:

Critical Task are now on the Timeline View. Notice that if you add or change some Tasks on the Critical Path that will be automatically reflected on the Timeline View. On the other hand, If you add new Task in Critical Path, it will not be at the Timeline View automatically. And, do not forget to turn your filter off 🙂

Regards,

Nenad

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, Microsoft PRoject 2010, Microsoft Project 2013, MS PROJECT 2010, PMI, PRoject Management | Tagged Microsoft Project 2010, Microsoft Project 2013, Microsoft Project 2013 - Critical Path | 5 Comments

Importing Resources from Excel into MS PROJECT 2013

Posted on February 27, 2015 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

my Blog reader has a problem:

“Hi Nenad, I am Carlos Altamirano from Ecuador, South America. First of all I want to thank you very much for your always useful and concise work your are doing with your excellent blog. I have a problem importing resources excel files into project 2013, it’s simply doesn’t work; even that I have exported the resource sheet and then try to import the same sheet, do you have any ideas? The import wizard works with tasks, but doesn´t work with resources.

Thanks and best regards,
Carlos”

I do not know why Carlos has a Problem, but I will show you how to do it (and it will work :-)) in MS PROJECT 2013

First I’m going to create Resource sheet in excel without using any template. Suppose that I know: Resource Names, Resource Types, Max Units, Standard and Overtime Rates:

I will create new Project in MS PROJECT

and I will import my Resources form excel.

Step #1:

Step #2:

Step #3:

Step #4:

Step #5:

Step #6:

Step #7: Here you should know which Column from Excel (1,2,3,…) Matches which Field in Project:

I am going to match them

Step #8:

Step #9:

if you want to reuse this map, I can save it.

Finally I’ll get:

Simple as that.

Regards!

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, Microsoft PRoject 2010, Microsoft Project 2013, PMI, PRoject Management | Tagged microsoft project - Resources, Microsoft Project 2010, Microsoft Project 2013, Microsoft Project 2013 - Resources | 2 Comments

How to create graphic indicator for Task Status in MS PROJECT 2013

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

here is the question from one of my Blog Reader: “Hi Nenad, You are a lifesaver my friend 🙂 many thanks .., Another question, is there anyway I can color-code the various statuses ? so if LATE then show in RED, on schedule Green and so on ..

Many thanks

Zak”

Here is the answer in MS PROJECT 2013!

First, I’m going to create brand new Project:

I will add the Status field in my Project, as well:

Now I will set the Status date to Thursday, Feb 19th:

and I will get:

Now I’m going to create Custom field, step by step:

and then:

and:

Value 1 means – On time, value 2 means – Late, and value 3 means – Future. Now I will show this custom field in Gantt Chart, and I will get:

It’s easy!

Regards,

Nenad

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, Microsoft PRoject 2010, Microsoft Project 2013, MS PROJECT 2010, PMI, PRoject Management | Tagged Microsoft Project 2010, Microsoft Project 2010-Custom fields, Microsoft Project 2013, Microsoft Project 2013 - Tasks | 2 Comments

Reschedule uncompleted work and SNET constraint in MS PROJECT 2013

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

I have a question form my Blog Reader:

“Hi Nenad
I have the issue. My tasks are all set to automatically scheduled. I update actuals weekly and once completed I update the project and select ‘reschedule uncompleted work to start after xxxxx’ . MS project then automatically sets a ‘start no earlier’ constraint with date date(xxxxx) on some of my tasks. I then manually need to remove them the next time i want to update the schedule. Any ideas what is driving this behavior would be appreciated.
Thanks
Carol”

I will explain this “issue” in MS PROJECT 2013!

First I will crate simple Project:

As you can see My Project is supposed to start at Feb, 2th and to finish at Feb, 9th. Suppose that I finished Task 1 on time, so I will mark this Task as 100% completed:

and I’ll get:

Now suppose, that today is Friday, 6th, and that I didn’t start with work on Task 2 nor Task 3. So I want to reschedule uncompleted work after this date.

I will first set the Status Date to Friday, 6th:

and I will reschedule uncompleted Tasks after this date:

I will get:

You can see the Calendar Icon in Information Column. For Task 2, and Task 3 it says:

WHY? Is this a Bug. No, it’s not. It is logical. Because TODAY is Friday 6th, Task 2 and Task 3 can’t start before that date. So those Task can start at that date and later, but not before, because that will be back to the Past. How can you start to work on soma Tasks in the Past? You can not. So, my suggestion is: Update all your Tasks with actuals, for example, each Friday, and then Reschedule uncompleted work after that Friday and you will get the Real situation in your Project. And yes, some Tasks will have SNET constraint!

Hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Nenad

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, Microsoft PRoject 2010, Microsoft Project 2013, MS PROJECT 2010, PMI | Tagged Microsoft Project 2010, Microsoft Project 2013, Microsoft Project 2013 - Scheduling | 5 Comments

Lead time in relative Terms with MS PROJECT 2013

Posted on February 1, 2015 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

Lead is time which allow Successor Task to start before Predecessor is finished, and still keep Finish To Start relationship. I wrote about that in my Blog Post: https://ntrajkovski.com/2011/04/12/scheduling-problems-in-ms-project-2010-part-2/

Let’s see how to make it relative in MS PROJECT 2013! Let’s say that we have four Tasks in software Development:

Now suppose that I want to Start with Design after half on Analyze is done, than with Developing after half of Design is done, and with Coding after half of Developing is done. I’ll show you how to do it with Design Task, and for the other Tasks the procedure is the same:

After I repeat this steps for other two Tasks I will get:

Everything look perfect! Bu now suppose that Duration of my Tasks are, for some Reasons 6 days instead of four:

As you can see now, Design will not star after Analyze is half done, but two day before it is finished. To make sure that it will start after the Predecessor is half done I will change the Relationship for all Task like this:

After I repeat those steps for all my Tasks I’ll get:

As you can see, I got what I wanted. If I now change Duration like:

Analyze = 2 days
Design = 4 days
Develop = 6 days
Code = 2days

I will get:

As you can see, every Successor will start when Predecessor is 50% finished.

It’s easy.

Dear Blog readers, please kindly receive my apologies because I do not promptly response to your questions but I’m very busy at the moment. You will get the answers as soon as I have time to response

Regards,

Nenad

How to set Resources to work at different time with different amount of work at the same Task in MS PROJECT 2013

Posted on January 19, 2015 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

I have a question from one of my Blog Readers: “”

“Nenad, I have two Resources on the same Task. I want to assign them at different time and different work. Let’s say that John will work 40 hours for 5 days Duration Task (from Monday till Friday, but Mary should work only 8 hours at Friday. How can I accomplish that?”

I will explain how to di it in MS PROJECT 2013!

First I’m going (as always) to create new Project:

and Two Resources:

Now I will split Gantt Chart View to see Schedule in a Task Form:

and I will get:

Now I’ am going to assign John and Mary, as requested by my Blog Reader:

and I will get:

As you can see, John will work from Monday till Friday (40 hours) and Mary will work only at Friday (8 hours). I could put 8 hours in Work field for Mary, and then in Scheduled Start Fri, 16.1.2015, and I will get the same result.

Let’s see in Task Usage View:

Easy, isn’t it?

Best Regards

Nenad

Multinational Calendars and how to use them in MS PROJECT 2013?

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

again, I have a question from one of my Blog readers:
“Okay I have a question not certain if it belongs in this thread. I’m managing a project for resources in multiple locations using MS Project 2007: US and 3 countries in Europe. I have multiple resource calendars to reflect the different countries. One (1) of my German resources started a task on Nov 28 which is a holiday for the US. When I attempt to change it to Nov 28th MS Project states that Nov. 28th is a non-working day; this is correct for US resources. However since Nov 28th is a working day for the German resource why is MS Project giving me this error. I understand that the standard calendar is used for the Project tasks, how can I use the resource calendar assigned to the task versus the standard calendar. Hope this question is clear thank you in advance.”

I will show you how to do it in MS PROJECT 2013!

First, I’m going to create a brand new Project:

Now suppose that in my project I have a guy from USA, and a guy from Germany. And suppose that in USA we have two holidays: one at Thursday, Jan 8th, and second at Monday, Jan 12th. I will create Calendar with name “USA Calendar”:

and then:

Forget about reoccurrence for a moment, it doesn’t matter in this Scenario.

Now suppose that in Germany we have two holidays: one at Tuesday, Jan 13th, and second at Friday, Jan 16th. I will create another Calendar with name “Germany Calendar”, at the same way I did with USA Calendar. I will get:

And now, I am going to create two Resources, John from USA, and Hans from Germany:

As you can see, John has USA Calendar as Base Calendar, and Hans has Germany Calendar as Base Calendar.

Finally I will assign both of them to my Task:

As you can see, Duration is now 12 days. Let’s see at the Task Usage View:

As you can see, John will not work at USA Holiday, and Hans at German’s Holidays. Both of them will work 80 hours per Task (because initial Duration was 10 days, and that means 10 days * 8 hours per day = 80 hours).

But they will work according to they own Calendar.

Hope this helps.

Regards

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, Microsoft PRoject 2010, Microsoft Project 2013, Microsoft Project Server 2010, MS PROJECT 2010, PMI, PRoject Management | Tagged Microsoft Project 2010, Microsoft Project 2013, Microsoft Project 2013 - Calendars, MS PROJECT 2010 - Calendarts | Leave a comment

Duration, Units, Work and Schedule in MS PROJECT 2013. How are they linked, and some tips and tricks!

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

this is my first Post in this year and it will be a quite long. Again, one of my Blog readers ha a problem, and this problem is about scheduling. Here it is:

“Dear Nenad,
Glad to find your site and I thought of requesting your assistance ! It would be great, if you clarify my queries on below!
I have a question on below issue ! Hope I will get assistance on how to get the desired result!
In Below Scenario, i am trying to face a situation which i could not solve!
Case Study:
Need to create a task “Paint the wall”.
I would expect this task to be completed by 24 hours.
I would expect the Start Date to be Jan 7, 2015 (Wednesday)
I have 3 resources with below constraints.
A (with max unit = 50%). i.e., A can work only 4 hours daily
B (with max unit = 50%). i.e., B can work only 4 hours daily
C (with max unit = 25%). i.e., C can work only 2 hours daily
Also, C cannot work on Jan 8 and Jan 9. (in general, C is not available on Thursday and Fridays always)
I would like to implement the above in Project 2013, such that, resources are effectively utilized such that, we can complete this task (“paint the wall”) with less number of days !

Expectation1:
If I assign Resource A alone, I would expect the work (24hours) to be completed in 6 working days (Jan 14th) (note: Resource A works 4 hours daily. Hence 24 hours work will be completed in 6 working days)

If I assign Resource A, B and C, I would expect the work (24 hours) to be completed by Jan 9th.
(note:
On Jan 7th, 2015 – i expected all 3 resources work. Hence total hours is 4+4+2 = 10 hrs
On Jan 8th, 2015 – Since resource3 can’t work, Resource1 and Resoure2 will work 4+4 = 8 hrs
On Jan 9th, 2015 – Since resource3 can’t work, Resource1 and Resoure2 will work 3+3 = 6 hrs
Requesting your assistance on how the above can be done in ms project 2013. As I could not get the expected result of above case !!

In general, I am expecting ms project to calculate smartly, when I add/remove resources on this task. (like, if I have 6 resources (100%) assigned, I would expect 24 hrs work to be completed on same day itself – Jan 7th itself. Similarly, if have 6 resources (50%) assigned, I would expect 24 hours to be completed in 2 days ie., work to be completed by Jan 8th itself).”

OK! Let’s go with MS PROJECT PRO 2013!

First I will create Task with duration = 24 hours:

Now, let me explain what is going on! When I put 24 hours in Duration field, MS PROJECT calculate Duration in days = 3 days! Why? Because I have in Schedule options this:

And it means that 24 hours will be finished in 3 days (24/8 = 3)

Notice that in first picture Work field is 0 hours! Is that a Bug? Not at all! Work field will have value greater than 0 ONLY when I assign resources on it. Without Resources it will always be 0! And you should keep that in mind!

Now it is time to Create Resources as in example from my Blog reader:

I will open Task Form as Detail Page in Gant Chart View:

and I will get:

Now I am going to assign Resource A to the Task:

and I’ll get:

As you can see duration is still 24 hours (3 days), but work is only 12 hours! Is this a Bug? NOT AT ALL!

The Magic formula (and I wrote about it a lot) is WORK = DURATION * UNITS And that explain this result.

So Work = 24 hours * 50% = 12 hours. And That means that Resource A will work 3 days, 4 hours per day. In other words, Resource A will finish this 3 day work in 12 hours!

But, my Blog reader wants, I quote: “I would expect the work (24hours) to be completed in 6 working days (Jan 14th) (note: Resource A works 4 hours daily. Hence 24 hours work will be completed in 6 working days”

To get that, I should assign Resource A, with 24 hours work and Fixed Units Task type:

and I’ll get:

As you can see duration is now 6 days, because Resource A will work 24 hours, 4 hours per day, e.g. 24/4 = 6 days duration!

Now I will explain this: “If I assign Resource A, B and C, I would expect the work (24 hours) to be completed by Jan 9th. (Note:
On Jan 7th, 2015 – i expected all 3 resources work. Hence total hours is 4+4+2 = 10 hrs
On Jan 8th, 2015 – Since resource3 can’t work, Resource1 and Resoure2 will work 4+4 = 8 hrs
On Jan 9th, 2015 – Since resource3 can’t work, Resource1 and Resoure2 will work 3+3 = 6 hrs)”

First, if you remember, request is that Resource C newer works at Thursday and Friday. I make it possible by this:

Now I will assign all Resources (A,B, and C) to the Task (Fixed Units type), and I’ll explain results:

As you remember, duration (initial) was 24 hours (or 3 days). Formula is WORK = Duration * Units

Resource A, and Resource B – Work = 24 hours * 50% = 12 hours
Resource C – Work = 24 hours * 25% = 6 hours

OK! But why is Duration 5 days (or 40 hours) now? Let’s look at Task Usage View:

Resource A, and B will work 4 hours per day. Since they are available from Monday to Friday, and they have to work 12 total hours , they will work from Wednesday to Friday (3 days), 4 hours per day, and that will be 12 hours per person. Resource C is available only from Monday to Wednesday, and he or she has to work 6 total hours it will work: Wednesday 2 hours, and next Monday and Tuesday 2 hours per day, and that will be 6 hours. Again, my blog reader expect this:
On Jan 7th, 2015 – i expected all 3 resources work. Hence total hours is 4+4+2 = 10 hrs – OK. It works that way
On Jan 8th, 2015 – Since resource3 can’t work, Resource1 and Resoure2 will work 4+4 = 8 hrs – OK. It works that way
On Jan 9th, 2015 – Since resource3 can’t work, Resource1 and Resoure2 will work 3+3 = 6 hrs – I will explain this expectation. Since expected duration is 24 hours, my Blog Reader expect that remaining work at Jan 9th is 24 (total) – 10 (Jan 7th) – 8 (Jan 8th) = 6 hours. And since at Friday, Jan 9th Resource C is unavailable, and other two resources are, they should split work among them. But MS PROJECT does not work that way. Instead, it will wait to Resource C to finish his/her work when he/she is available. And that is reasonable, because Microsoft Project can not “remove” work for Resource C, just because it is unavailable at some dates.

But, what if you want that Duration is 24 hours, and it must be fixed. In that case I can use Fixed Duration Task type! If I choose that, and assign all three Resources to the Task I’ll get:

Final explanation:

On Jan 7th, 2015 – i expected all 3 resources work. Hence total hours is 4+4+2 = 10 hrs
On Jan 8th, 2015 – Since resource3 can’t work, Resource1 and Resoure2 will work 4+4 = 8 hrs
On Jan 9th, 2015 – Since resource3 can’t work, Resource1 and Resoure2 will work 4+4 = 8 hrs

Ufff, hope this helps 🙂

Regards!

Changing max units field in Assign Resources window in MS PROJECT 2013

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

this is my last post for this year. I will show you what is happening when you change Units in Assign Resource field in MS PROJECT 2013!

First, I’m going to create new Project with only one Task:

and I will create one Resource:

This mean that John can work only 100% of his capacity per day (8 hours per day in my example) or otherwise he will be over allocated.

Now I’m going to assign John to the Task:

Let’s see Resource Usage View:

As you can see John will work 40 hours (8 hours per day from Monday to Friday)

Now suppose that I change my mind in a way that I do not want John to work 100% but only 50% for this Task.

I will get this:

If I use firs option: “Change the duration but keep the amount of work the same” I’ll get:

Let’s see Resource Usage View again:

As you can see for the Task John need 40 hours to complete it. But he will work only 50% per day (4 hours), and it will take 10 days instead of 5 days.

If I choose another option: “Change the amount of work but keep the duration the same” I’ll get:

You can see that Duration remains the same. But, let’s look at the Resource Usage View again:

As you can see Duration is 5 days, but because John has to work 50% (4 hours per day) he need only 20 hours (5 days * 4 hours per day) for entire work to be done.

To conclude if you increase or decrease Units field in Assign Resource window you must now why are you doing it. and there are only two reasons. You want to change duration for the Task, or hours.

Dear Blog readers,

I wish you a wonderful New Year 2015. I will keep write a Post per week, and answer all your questions as soon as I can.

Best Regards,

Nenad

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, Microsoft PRoject 2010, Microsoft Project 2013, Microsoft SharePoint, PMI, PRoject Management | Tagged microsoft project - Resources, Microsoft Project 2010, Microsoft Project 2010 - RESOURCES, MS PROJECT 2010, MS PROJECT 2013, MS PROJECT 2013- Resources | 5 Comments

Crashing and Fast Tracking in MS PROJECT 2013

Posted on December 9, 2014 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

in this Post I will introduce two Terms: Crashing and Fat Tracking. When your Schedule is too long, and you want to short it, you will can add additional Resources to Tasks (and this is called Crashing), or you can do some work in parallel (if it is possible, and this is called Fast Tracking)

Now Let’s look how to do it in MS PROJECT 2013! Consider that we have a Project Call – New year celebration. You can not celebrate New year latter than 31.12-01.01. So I will create Project with Schedule form: Project End Date, e.g End date must be 01.01.

Now I will create Schedule:

Since Today is December 9, 2014, notice that my first Task should be Started at December 4, 2014, and this is back to the Past and it is impossible. So, for example, I can add Mary to help John to find a Place for Celebration. This Task should be effort driven if I want to short duration:

and:

and I will get:

Now I will make this Task as Effort Driven, and I will assign John to it:

and finally I’ll get:

So I’m back in track! But if this is impossible for some reasons (for example, Mary is on the another Project). What can I do? I can perform Tasks: Invite Friends, and Find the Place for Celebration in Parallel:

and I’ll get:

But what if this is not possible, either! Then, you are in trouble! What can you do? You can cut off some Tasks (for example, celebrate at your home, and cut Find the Place for Celebration), or you can cancel The Project (in rare cases).

Be aware of this. Both Fast Tracking, and Crashing increase Risks in Project

Best Regards,

Nenad

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, Microsoft PRoject 2010, Microsoft Project 2013, PMI | Tagged Microsoft Project 2010, Microsoft Project 2010 - tracking, Microsoft Project 2013, Microsoft Project 2013 - Scheduling, MS PROJECT | 1 Comment

Nenad Trajkovski

Critical Path in Timeline View with MS PROJECT 2013!

Importing Resources from Excel into MS PROJECT 2013

How to create graphic indicator for Task Status in MS PROJECT 2013

Reschedule uncompleted work and SNET constraint in MS PROJECT 2013

Lead time in relative Terms with MS PROJECT 2013

How to set Resources to work at different time with different amount of work at the same Task in MS PROJECT 2013

Multinational Calendars and how to use them in MS PROJECT 2013?

Duration, Units, Work and Schedule in MS PROJECT 2013. How are they linked, and some tips and tricks!

Changing max units field in Assign Resources window in MS PROJECT 2013

Crashing and Fast Tracking in MS PROJECT 2013

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