Alice and Bob have started work on a task X. After n days into progress, Bob quits the company and the task X is put on hold for a few days. Now, Charlie is brought in to fill her position. How to update the task X information such that Alice and Bob are accounted for n days and, Alice and Charlie are accounted for the remaining active work days?
As a first step i have rescheduled the incomplete task X, which resulted in task split in the Gantt. Is there a way to assign the splits to different resources or different number of resources?
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Douglas SmithEnterprise Project Manager| RealogyMontville, Nj, United States
There are several events happening to this task, lets look at them one at a time with an example:
1. A fixed units task starts on February 1, and there is 160h work for each of them. Working on the task 80% of the day we project a
completion date of 3/5.
2. We meet on 2/15 in the regular status meeting and determine the task is on schedule as of that date, now 44% complete.
3. On Tuesday, February 16th Bob submits his resignation effective Friday 2/19.
4. On Friday 2/19 we have a final meeting with Bob and determine the task is on schedule thru 2/18. Set the status date to 2/18 and update as planned. Now 56% complete and on schedule.
5. We want to discontinue work on the task until his replacement is on board. To push the remaining work out, just set set the status date to 2/22 on the next Monday status meeting, but select split remaining work. New finish date is 3/9. Repeat as many weeks as needed.
6. Remove Bob from the task and assign the remining work to Alice to recompute completion date. I do not allocate a replacement resource until they are actually hired and assigned to a task. If Alice were to resume work on Monday 2/22 the projected completion date is now 4/13. However, the task continues in day-to-day push as Alice is not working on it alone.
7. Replacement resource is hired 3/1 and can start on this task immediately. In Microsoft Project, the new resource is applied as of the status date regareless of the hire date, so the project would show Tom working as of 2/23, the status date. This is not correct so set the status date first then update the split first so the correct amount of work is pushed forward and the expected completion date is 4/20.
8.Now add the new resource to the task working with Alice and Microsoft Project will apply it effective with the status date of 3/1. If you check the resource usage sheet you will see Tom's work start on 3/1 at 80% allocation which is correct. The new completion date with both working pulls in to 3/25.
I have also use the resource availability date range, but you usually end up manually allocating hours which is very cumbersome, so I stay away from using it. Hope this helps. Saving Changes...
Josh BurdickAgile and AI Coach| Night Signal Consulting LLCHouston, Tx, United States
I have a similar issue in that we have a project plan with % complete entered for tasks i.e Task A is 50% complete, Task B is 35% complete etc....
If I change the resource from Bob to Jill, the % complete returns back to 0% and we've lost that information.
How does one keep this from happening? If we are 50% on building a widget, putting in a new resource shouldn't change the fact that we are 50% done.
It's very frustrating and one of the reasons why I skip MS Project altogether and just use an Excel Spreadsheet.
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Dean FeldpauschSenior IT Manager| Agro-Culture Liquid FertilizersFowler, Mi, United States
Along this same thought ... I have a resource in MS Project that is now 50% allocated. I've changed his resource units to 50% and recalculated the plan. It did not extend the elapsed time for tasks that are associated to him alone. How do I make this happen?
Thanks,
Dean
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