Hi to all.
This is my first post in this very interesting discussion forum.
Sorry for my English.
I would discuss with you which usual settings - in Software Development Projects - do you use to characterize activities; in particular in Microsoft Project.
I mean, in functional analysis activities, usual we know that are necessary X mandays of work and this does not depend by how many resource I can use to do it. Besides, I know how many analist I have. So I set a "usual" task of functional analysis as FIXED WORK & DOESN'T DEPEND BY RESOURCE (because I have FIXES resource...I have 2 analysts, for example...so changing resource change WORK and not ELAPSED.
This reasoning is because of my driver during in analisys is knowledge (alias "work", and not time or cost).
Insted of, let's suppone, that while programming the driver is time...and not knowledge (because clear functional & technical specification dont depend by how many resource I have...).
So...for programming activites I like use FIXED ELAPSED (duration) & DEPEND BY RESOURCE (so adding resource MS Project go to reduce elapsed if specified).
All that attributes then impact on levelling of resource...how duration & work change after resource levelling.
So, generally, the discussion is...generally, in Software Development Projects, does exist some WBSs created in MS Project where are specified Type of Activity (fixed work/duration/unit ...depend by resource or not)?
"Generally" beacuse I know that can depend by nature of task into the project.
Thank you in advance.
BR.
DB
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Anonymous
It sure seems that you have grasped the basics of task type selection in MS Project. I am certain that you will discover that there are many opinions on this topic. There is no truly right or wrong way. Always keep in mind that the primary mission of MS Project is to take the information that you provide to the tool, and use that information to determine a schedule. If you find that you are typing in dates, then you have taken over the function of the MS Project tool, keeping it from doing its job. I always find it interesting that our choices in MS Project are FIXED duration, FIXED work or FIXED units. For software projects, there are very few things that are ever fixed. So my approach is to decide which of these things (duration, work, units) will be more stable than the others. In my organization, duration and work are less predictable. The assignment of a person to my project is slightly more predictable. For example, if a person is assigned full-time or half-time to my project, then I usually get that much availability from the assigned person. So I use Fixed Unit tasks much of the time. Many people tend to develop their plans using Fixed Duration, because it I easier to think that way. But once the plan is built, they then change all of the tasks to Fixed Units. Ciao! Saving Changes...
After working for years with MS Project on software development projects, I have found that either fixed DURATION or fixed WORK are the most useful settings. I hardly ever use fixed units.
I use fixed work for most of the software development and testing tasks. We estimate our work in terms of work-hours, based on one resource with average skills. Whenever I add a second resource or change resources assigned, I review the work estimate. Usually the abilities of the person assigned and the type of work mean that we need a new estimate every time we add resources or change resources.
I use fixed duration for most of the work that happens outside of my team. For instance, getting a sign-off or printing a brochure will take a certain number of days or weeks. I have little control over the people involved and their work habits, but someone has told me how long they need to do the work. These tasks are great examples of fixed duration tasks.
Sometimes I will convert to fixed units when I am updating tasks, after the initial planning phases, depending on my strategy for applying updates.
I strongly recommend "Dynamic Scheduling for MS Project" by Eric Uyttewaal for more information. He offers in-depth, practical advice about these issues. Also, I am happy to answer more questions on this topic ([email protected]).
You do seem to have a good grasp of these options, Daniele. I compliment you for learning the tool well. Many MS Project users do not even explore these choices, and they have many problems as a result. It sounds like you are making good choices for your project. Saving Changes...
@Daniele: since my name was mentioned in this thread, I would like to comment. Daniele, I always explain using the task Types (Fixed Duration, Fixed Units and Fixed Work) in this way: The word "Fixed" means "protect" and NOT "repair". So, by selecting the task Type "Fixed Duration", you tell MS Project: "Protect the Duration value as it currently is." You also need to know that MS Project has a formula built into the application: Duration * Units of Resources Assigned = Work. "Work" really is "effort" expressed in person days/hours, but MS Project calls effort "work". With the task Type you can protect one value in the formula, then change a second value and MS Project will ALWAYS recalculate the third value. This is what people learn in our training and are able to remember after that. So in summary, the steps we give our students are:
1) protect a value first by setting the appropriate task Type and set "Effort Driven" to "No"
2) make the change you wanted to make
3) check the value MS Project re-calculates.
I hope this helps. You can find this and more useful things in my book "Forecast Scheduling with Microsoft Project" on www.ProjectProCorp.com
Eric Saving Changes...
