Nenad Trajkovski

Setting Up Pay Rates to Apply at Different Times

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

I will explain how can you enter up pay rates for a resource to apply at different times in MS PROJECT 2010

Suppose that you have a Resource with name Mary. Mary is working on your project, and se has 300$ / day. From 23.06.2011 she will has +50% more (e.g 450$/ day)

First I will add two tasks and I will link them:

Now I will add Mary as Resource:

I have left Standard Rate $300/day.

Now I will add two pay rates for Mary. I will now +50%per day for Mary from 23.06.2011:

After I click OK I will get:

Now, I will assign Mary to the TASK 1:

You can see $7.200 in the Cost field. TASK 1 has 3 days duration, and Mary’s pay rate is $300/hour –> 3 days X 8 hours/day X $300 = $7.200

Now, I will assign Mary to the TASK 2:

You can see $16.800 in the Cost field. TASK 1 has 5 days duration, and Mary’s pay rate is $300/hour at 22.06.2011 and $450 from 23.06.2011 –> 1 day X 8 hours/day X $300 = $2.400 (22.06.2011) + 4 days X 8 hours/day X $450 (from 23.06.2011) = 14.400. $2.400 + $14.400 = $16.800

Now, I will choose the Cost Table:

and I will get:

If I delete row from pay rate:

I will get in Cost Table:

Why? TASK 1 has 3 day duration, and TASK 2 has 5 day duration = 8 days. 8 days X 8 hours / day X $300 / hour = 19.200.

Be very careful when you are adding or deleting pay rate for resurces.

See you!

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, Microsoft PRoject 2010, MS PROJECT 2010, PMI, PRoject Management | Tagged Microsoft Project 2010, MS PROJECT, MS PROJECT 2010, MS PROJECT 2010 - Setting Up Pay Rates, Project Management | 6 Comments

Entering Multiple Pay Rates for a Resource

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

I will explain how can you Enter Multiple Pay Rates for a Resource in MS PROJECT 2010

Suppose that you have a Resource with name Mary. Mary is working on your project as a Project Manager, and as Consultant. She has 300$ / day as a Project Manager and 200$ / day as a consultant.

First I will add two tasks and I will link them:

Now I will add Mary as Resource:

I have left Standard Rate 0.

Now I will add two pay rates for Mary. First I will add 300$ per day for Project Manager:

I will explain terms like: Overtime rate, Per Use cost and Cost Accrual in one of my next blog. For now on leave it as it is.

Now I will add 200$ per day for Consultant:

Now, I will assign Mary to the TASK 1:

and the TASK 2:

You can see that TASK 1 has cost $7.200, and TASK 2 $12.000Why? Well, TABLE A (with $300 / day) is DEFAULT. TASK 1 has 3 days duration. 3 DAYS X 8 hours / day = 24 hours. 24 hours X $300/day (DEFAULT) = $7.200. TASK 2 has 5 days duration. 5 DAYS X 8 hours / day = 40 hours. 40 hours X $300/day (DEFAULT) = $12.000.

OK. No I will apply different cost Rates to Assignments:

For The TASK 1 I will use Mary as a Project Manager with 300$ / day, and because that is default pay rate I have nothing to do. For the TASK 2 I will use Mary as a Consultant with $200 / day.

I will switch to Resource Usage View:

Now I will choose the Cost Table:

and I will get:

You can see that TASK 2 has cost = $12.000 which is wrong. I will now change the Cost for the Task 2:

and I will get:

You can see that TASK 2 has cost = $8.000. 40 hours (for TASK 2) X $200 / day = $8.000. So now, everything is OK.

In my next blog I will set up pay rates for a resource to apply at different times.

See you!

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, Microsoft PRoject 2010, MS PROJECT 2010, PMI, PRoject Management | Tagged Microsoft Project 2010, MS PROJECT, MS PROJECT 2010, MS PROJECT 2010 - Entering Mulitple pay rates for a Resource, Project Management | 1 Comment

Setting Up Resource Availability to Apply at Different Times–Part two

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

In this blog I will demonstrate how can you set up different resource Availability to the same resource in MS PROJECT 2010.

I will repeat “setup” from my previous blog.

First I will add two tasks.

TASK 1 will have 5 days duration and it will start at 16.06.2011 and it will finish at 22.06.2011. TASK 2 will have 10 days duration and it will start at 04.07.2011 and it will finish at 15.07.2011.

Now I will add two resources in the Resource sheet:

Finally I will Set up different Availability to each resource. I should open Resource table if I want to do that. I will choose RESOURCE 1 and I will make him available from 01.06.2011 to 20.06.2011 with 100% units (availability), and from 21.06.2011 to 30.06.2011 with 50% units (availability):

That means that RESOURCE 1 will be available only from 01.06.2011 to 30.06.2011 and he will work full time job until 20.06.2011, and part time job (4 hours) from 21.06.2011 to 30.06.2011

Now, I will choose RESOURCE 2 and I will make him available from 01.07.2011 to 10.07.2011 with 50% units (availability), and from 11.07.2011 to 15.07.2011 with 100% units (availability):

That means that RESOURCE 2 will be available only from 01.07.2011 to 15.06.2011 and he will work part time job (4 hours) from 01.07.2011 to 10.07.2011, and full time job from 11.07.2011 to 20.06.2011.

O.K. Now I will assign RESOURCE 2 to the TASK 1:

and I will get:

You can see little “RED MAN” in status column. It means that RESOURCE 2 is over allocated. If you open Team planner you will get:

RESOURCE 2 is over allocated from 16.06.2011 to 22.06.2011 because he is available from 01.07.2011 to 15.07.2011. If you open Resource usage sheet you will also see that over allocation:

What can I do with over allocation? First I can leave it: “AS IS”. It means that RESOURCE 2 will work 8 hours even it is not available. Or I can right click on status column and I will get:

I will choose Fix in Task Inspector and I will get:

You can see the warning message in the upper left corner of the Task Inspector. It says: “Resource assigned in nonworking time _ PRESOURCE 2”. If you don’t want to leave this over allocation “AS IS” you can only choose “Reschedule Task”. I will do and and I will get:

Something is a little bit strange here, isn’t it? I get Duration = 8 days, Start date = 16.06.2011, and End date = 12.07.2011. Let’s look at the Team Planner View:

Here you can see that RESOURCE 2 will actually start with work at 01.07.2011 and it will finish at 12.07.2011. Why? Because RESOURCE 2 is available from 01.07.2011 to 15.07.2011. We needed initially 5 days for the Task (5 days X 8 hours / day = 40 hours)

Now look at the Resource Usage sheet:

RESURCE 2 is available from 01.07.2011 to 10.07.2011 with 50% units (availability), and from 11.07.2011 to 15.07.2011 with 100% units (availability), remember?

So work schedule for RESOURCE 2 will be:

01.07.2011 –> 4 hours + 04.07.2011 –> 4 hours + 05.07.2011 –> 4 hours + 06.07.2011 –> 4 hours + 07.07.2011 –> 4 hours + 08.07.2011 –> 4 hours + 11.07.2011 –> 8 hours + 12.07.2011 –> 8 hours = 40 hours!

If you were following my example you can try it with TASK “2 and RESOURCE 2.

For the end, be EXTREMELLY CAREFULL when you are using different availability for the resources, because you can get in the trouble if you are not 100% sure what are you doing.

In my next blog I will show how to apply different and multiple pay rates for a Resource

See you!

Setting Up Resource Availability to Apply at Different Times

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

In this blog I will demonstrate how can you set up different resource Availability to the same resource in MS PROJECT 2010.

I will make “set up” for my examples. First I will add two tasks.

Now I will add two resources in the Resource sheet:

That means that RESOURCE 1 will be available only from 01.06.2011 to 30.06.2011 and he will work full time job until 20.06.2011, and part time job (4 hours) from 21.06.2011 to 30.06.2011

Now, I will choose RESOURCE 2 and I will make him available from 01.07.2011 to 10.07.2011 with 50% units (availability), and from 11.07.2011 to 15.07.2011 with 100% units (availability):

O.K. Now I will assign RESOURCE 1 to the TASK 1:

and I will get:

You can see little “RED MAN” in status column. It means that RESOURCE 1 is over allocated. If you open Team planner you will get:

RESOURCE 1 is over allocated at 21.06.2011 and 22.06.2011 because he is available only 4 hour per day (50%). If you open Resource usage sheet you will see over allocation at 21. and 22.06.2011:

What can I do with over allocation? First I can leave it: “AS IS”. It means that RESOURCE 1 will work 8 hours even it is not available. Or I can right click on status column and I will get:

First I will choose Reduce work and I will get (Open Resource Usage sheet):

You can see that the Task Duration remains same (5 days) but it will take less time at 21.06.2011 and 22.06.2011 (4 hours per day), because RESOURCE 1 is only 50% available at those days. That means that TASK 1 requires only 32 HOURS:
16.06.2011 –> 8 hours + 17.06.2011 –> 8 hours + 20.06.2011 –> 8 hours + 21.06.2011 –> 4 hours + 22.06.2011 –> 4 hours = 32 hours

If I choose Increase Duration I will get:

or, in Resource Usage View:

Task duration is increased for 2 days. Why? Because TASK 1 has initially 5 days duration, and that means 5 days X 8 hours / day = 40 hours. So if I want 40 hours of work and I RESOURCE 1 is available 8 hours / day from 01.06.2011 to 20.06.2011 and 4 hours / day after 20.06.2011 he will work:
16.06.2011 –> 8 hours + 17.06.2011 –> 8 hours + 20.06.2011 –> 8 hours + 21.06.2011 –> 4 hours + 22.06.2011 –> 4 hours + 23.06.2011 –> 4 hours + 24.06.2011 –> 4 hours = 40 hours.

If I choose Fix in Task Inspector I will get:

In Task inspector I can pick one of tree options. First two options are explained before, and the third option offers you to assign additional resource.

In my next blog I will show what happens if you try to assign RESOURCE 2 to the TASK 1 (e.g. when resource is totally unavailable).

See you!

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, MS PROJECT 2010, PMI, PRoject Management | Tagged Microsoft Project 2010, MS PROJECT, MS PROJECT 2010, MS PROJECT 2010 - Setting Up Resource Availability | 6 Comments

MS PROJECT 2010–Tracking Task Progress

Posted on June 15, 2011 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

I will show you how can you track Task progress in MS PROJECT 2010

First I will add a Task with 3 days duration:

Now I will save the Baseline (Baseline means “PLAN”)

and then:

Now I will choose the Variance Table:

and I will add the Duration field:

O.K. I’ve made a setup. Now I will show you where and how can you put various durations, and effects of those.

I will do it through Update task window:

In the first example I will put 4 days in Actual duration field and click on the OK button:

and I will get:

You can see that Finish date is changed, Finish Variance is 1 day (because Actual duration is 4 days instead of planned 3 days), and that the task is 100% completed.

Now I will put 4d in Actual duration field, and 1d in Remaining duration field:

and I will get

You can see that Finish date is 21.06.2011, Finish Variance is 2 days, Duration is 5 days, and the task is 80% completed. Why? Because I told that is already spent 4 days, and that I need 1 more day for the task. That means that task will take 4 + 1 = 5 days, and because I already spent 4 days the task is 80% completed (4/5=0,8 –> 80%). Finish Variance is 2 days because in the baseline is 3 days and we need 5 days for the task.

Now I will put 14.06.2011 in the Actual Start field, and 20.06.2011 in the Actual Finish field:

and I will get:

This is because I tried to start working on the task before project start date. I will choose to continue with that, so I will finally get:

You can see that the task is 100% completed, Start Variance is –1 day, Finish Variance is 1 day, and Duration is 5 days. Duration is 5 days because Start date is 14.06.2011 (Tuesday), Finish date is 20.06.2011 (Monday), and we have weekend between. Start Variance = –1d and that means that we have started 1 day EARLIER (minus sign means EARLIER), and Finish Variance = 1d and the means that we have finish LATER (positive number means means LATER). And our task took 2 days more then was planned (Finish Variance – Start Variance = 1 – (-1) = 2)

Now I will put 14.06.2011 in the Actual Start field, and 16.06.2011 in the Actual Finish field:

and I will get:

You can see that the task is 100% completed, Start Variance is –1 day, Finish Variance is -1 day, and Duration is 3 days (unchanged). Duration is 3 days because Start date is 14.06.2011 (Tuesday), Finish date is 16.06.2011 (Thursday) Start Variance = –1d and that means that we have started 1 day EARLIER, and Finish Variance = –1d and the means that we have finish EARLIER. And our task take exactly 3 days (as was planned)(Finish Variance – Start Variance = -1 – (-1) = 0)

Finally, I will try to confuse MS PROJECT 2010. I will put 50% in %complete field, 4 days in Actual duration field, and 1 day in Remaining duration field:

and I will get:

You can see that the task is 80% completed (open Update task screen again):

and not 50% as I told MS PROJECT 2010. Why? Because Actual duration is 4 days, and Remaining duration is 1 day, the Total Duration is 4+1 = 5 days. And, because we already spent 4 days (Actual duration) the task is 80% completed (4/5=0,8 –> 80%), so MS PROJECT 2010 has overwrites my 50%

See you!

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, Microsoft PRoject 2010, MS PROJECT 2010, PMI, PRoject Management | Tagged Micrrosoft Project 2010, MS PROJECT 2010, Project Management, Tracking Task Progress | 7 Comments

Linking manually and auto scheduled tasks

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

I will show you what happens when you link manually scheduled tasks and auto scheduled tasks in MS PROJECT 2010. First, I will enter four tasks in manually scheduled mode:

Now I will link them. I will make Task 1 as predecessor of Task 2, Task 2 as predecessor of Task 3, and Task 3 as predecessor of Task 4. I will get:

You can see that every task has 1 day duration. Now I will break the links (I will erase predecessor field) and I will get:

Duration, Start and End date remains same, but links are broken.

Now I will start all over again. I will put description in all task (in Duration field, and Start and End date field):

and I will link them in the same way I did before:

You can see that Task 1 and Task 3 has still unknown duration, but they have same start and end date. They have also question mark in Task mode field.

Task 2 and Task 4 has 1d (estimated) duration, and they also have Start and End date set by MS PROJECT 20101. Remarks in Start date and End date fields are overwritten.

Now I will have 4 Tasks but two of them will be in auto scheduled mode.

Task 1 and Task 3 has 1 day duration by default and Start date is same as the project start date. I put 02.06.11 as a Start date for Task 2 (manually scheduled) and 01.06.11 as a End date for Task 4 (manually scheduled). OK. Now I will link them as I did before and I will get:

You can see that Start date and End date field are overwritten for manually scheduled tasks and that they have 1 day duration now.

But, what if I really want 02.06.11 as a start date for Task 2? I will enter that date in Start date field and I’ll get:

Do you see red line below Start date for Task 2? Put the mouse on that field and you’ll get:

Now I will right click on that field and I will get:

If I click on Respect Links, MS PROJECT 2010 will overwrite Start date for Task 2:

If I click on Fix in Task Inspector instead I will get:

From Task Inspector you can choose Respect Links, and you will get the same result as I show you in previous picture or you can select Auto schedule and you will get:

Now, the Task 2 is in Auto scheduled mode.

From my point of view, be extremely cautious with manually scheduled tasks. Use auto schedule mode whenever you can! When you use auto scheduled mode you let the control to MS PROJECT 2010 and you are avoiding unpredictable results.

In my next blog I will show you how can you use manually scheduled task in (from my point of view) best way.

See you,

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, Microsoft PRoject 2010, MS PROJECT 2010, PMI, PRoject Management | Tagged Microsoft Project 2010, MS PROJECT, MS PROJECT 2010 - linking manually and auto scheduled tasks | 5 Comments

Manually scheduled tasks

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

in MS PROJECT 2010 manually scheduling is a new feature.

You can see how the new added task will be scheduled here:

You can change default settings from manually scheduled task to auto scheduled task:

and then:

If you enter task in auto scheduled mode it will have 1 day duration by default, and start date same as a project start date:

The question mark in duration field means that it is estimated time. Now if you enter, for example 2d in duration field, the question mark will gone:

If you enter task in manually scheduled mode you will get:

The question mark means that you have to enter more information for this task. There is nothing in the graphical part of the Gantt chart for this task.

OK. Now I will enter 1d in duration field:

You can see light blue bar in graphical part and that the task will start on a project start date, but start and end date fields are still empty.

Now I will erase 1d in a duration field and put 2.6.11 in start date field:

You can see that only start sign is shown in graphical part of the Gantt diagram

Now I will erase 2.6.11 in a start date field and put 3.6.11 in end date field:

You can see that only end sign is shown in graphical part of the Gantt diagram

Now I will add 5d in duration field but I will not erase 3.6.11 from the end date field:

You can see that the question mark has disappeared, and that a start date is set to 30.05.11 (5 days before entered end day).

If you add manually scheduled task you can write anything in duration, start and end date field like this:

OK. I have entered description in duration, start date and end date field. What will happen if I change task mode from manually to automatic scheduled?

I will get:

As you can see the start date is the start date of the project and duration is the last entered or calculated duration. If I didn’t have anything in duration field ever in manually scheduled task it will have 1 day duration after switching from manually to auto schedule mode.

In my next blog I will write about linking manually and auto scheduled tasks.

See you,

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, Microsoft PRoject 2010, MS PROJECT 2010, PMI, PRoject Management | Tagged Microsoft Project 2010, MS PROJECT, MS PROJECT 2010, MS PROJECT 2010 - Manually scheduled tasks | Leave a comment

Assigning Resources to the Recurring Task

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

As I promised I will show you something that I consider as a bug, even though some books say that it is not a bug, but it is “like it is”!?

First I will add two resources, John and Mary:

Now I will add Recurring Task: Staff Meeting.

and I will get:

I want to assign both John and Mary to Staff Meeting Task. And I want to assign them for each occurrence with one assignment.

and I will get:

I will now open Resource Usage View:

You can see That John and Mary are assigned to the recurring task and they will spend 1 hour per day on the task.

Now I will assign them again but from Gantt Chart View:

Now look what I get if I open Resource Usage View:

You can see that Staff Meeting is shown ad unassigned task is in the upper part of Resource Usage View, and then again it is assigned to John and Mary. Instead of 1 hour duration it takes 8 hours on first and second day, and one our on the last day.

I consider it a Bug no matter what other books say.

You can avoid that problem by assigning resource like it is shown in my first example, or you can assign resources from Gant Chart for each occurrence separately (which is very convenient way, especially if you have, for example, 83 occurrences and 32 resources, so you will have to make only 83 X 32 = 2656 clicks Smile )

See you,

Posted in Microsoft PRoject 2010, MS PROJECT 2010, PMI, PRoject Management | Tagged Assigning Resources to the Reccuring Task, MS PROJECT, MS PROJECT 2010 | 2 Comments

Attaching Project Documentation to MS PROJECT

Posted on May 25, 2011 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

MS Project can (also) serve as Project central repository. If you are not using MS SharePoint, you can attach Project document in a few different ways.

First I will add two tasks to the project:

I want to attach Project charter to the Develop Project Charter task. I will double click on the task an I will get:

and then

I choose create from file option and I will now find project charter on my computer and add it to the Project.

Notice that I choose Display As Icon option, since I don’t want the entire project charter to be copied as it is. So I get:

I will double click on the document and MS PROJECT will open it. Now I will change something in a document and I will save it:

Now I will open this document again through MS project and Mickey Mouse is a project Manager. But if I open the “same” document from my folder (My Documents, or something like that:

I will get:

As you can see, the document changes through MS Projects are not reflected to original document, so you must be careful, because you actually have two documents (two Project Charters). First is in MS PROJECT and second is in its original destination where we took it from.

If I want only one document I must select Link check button:

Now I have Link to the document and it does not matter where I will open it!

There is another way to link some documents to your project in MS PROJECT. I will right click on the Develop Project Plan task and choose Hyperlink:

and I will get:

and I have a link to the document.

I can have a website as a hyperlink:

To open a hyperlink right click on the task and choose Open Hyperlink as is shown in the next picture:

and the website will be opened.

If you have attached document or hyperlink to the task you will see a different icon in the Indicator column:

See you!

Posted in Microsoft PRoject 2010, MS PROJECT 2010, PMI, PRoject Management | Tagged Attaching PRoject Documentation, Microsoft Project 2010, MS PROJECT 2010, Project Management | 1 Comment

Adjusting Assignments in The Team Planner View – Part 2.

Posted on May 23, 2011 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

I will show what you should pay attention to when you adjust assignments and reschedule your tasks in the project.

First I will add four tasks to my project and they will be in automatic scheduled mode, and I will schedule them:

I will add 3 resources through Resource sheet (John, Paul, and Mary):

I will now start the Team Planner View:

You can see that John Paul and Mary don’t have any tasks assigned, and that all tasks are scheduled.

I will assign John to the Task 1 and Task 4, Paul to the Task 2, and Mary to Task 3. I will do it using drag and drop function:

and I will get:

You can see that those Tasks are assigned and scheduled. Now I will drag and drop Task 1 and put it as John’s unscheduled task, and I will get a warning:

That means that I will actually delete the work of Task 1 since it is no more scheduled.

The same will happen if I move any scheduled task to the unassigned and unscheduled area (for example, Task 2):

Now I will reassign John to Task 1 and Task 4, Paul to Task 2, and Mary to Task 3. And again I will get:

I want to reassign Task 4 to Mary, and I want the Task 4 to begin on 12.05.2011. First I will drag Task 4 and move it to Mary on 12.05.2011. I will get:

Now I will release the mouse button, and I will get:

You can see that MS PROJECT did not allow me to reschedule Task 4. It only allows me to move the Task from John to Mary, but not to reschedule it EARLIER. If I had tried to move Task 4 from 19.05.2011 to, for example, 20.05.2011, MS PROJECT would have allowed me to do that.

Now, the Task 4 is assigned to Mary, and the start date is 19.05.2011. Now I will try to move it to 12.05.2011, again. I will get:

As you can see, I cannot move (or reschedule) this task to an earlier date without breaking the link. After I click the OK button I get:

Task 4 stays scheduled as it was.

So, the Team Planner View is very powerful, but you must use it with caution.

See you,

Posted in Microsoft PRoject 2010, MS PROJECT 2010, PMI, PRoject Management | Tagged Adjusting Assignments in The Team Planner View - Part 2., Micrrosoft Project 2010, MS PROJECT, Project Management | Leave a comment

Nenad Trajkovski

Setting Up Pay Rates to Apply at Different Times

Entering Multiple Pay Rates for a Resource

Setting Up Resource Availability to Apply at Different Times–Part two

Setting Up Resource Availability to Apply at Different Times

MS PROJECT 2010–Tracking Task Progress

Linking manually and auto scheduled tasks

Manually scheduled tasks

Assigning Resources to the Recurring Task

Attaching Project Documentation to MS PROJECT

Adjusting Assignments in The Team Planner View – Part 2.

Recent Posts

Archives

Categories