I have a resource that's working on a long design document. Rather than having a single task "write document" I've broken it down into sub task based on chapters.
Total duration for the document is estimated at 30 days.
Because he needs to consult with others to write the content and their availability is variable he's progessing on all chapters as he can in parallel. There's no dependancies between the chapters.
What's the best way to reflect this scenario in MS Project showing both an end date for the piece and providing sufficient granularity to track effectively.
Thx
AE
Saving Changes...
Sort By:
Andy JordanPresident| Roffensian Consulting S.A.Cherry Grove, AB, Canada
I may be misinterpreting, so apologies in advance, but would it make sense simply to split their time across the tasks using % allocation - i.e. if they have two chapters running in parallel then put them 50% on each (or 60:40, 70:30, etc)? If the start and finish dates are variable you may need to adjust the load for the task manually on a time-phased basis (Task Usage view is easiest) to maximize utilization. Does that make sense?? Saving Changes...
Anonymous
Andy J's approach is workable, I've used it before in similar situations. Another approach, so that you can control it a little better, is to ask the person "What do expect to have completed at the end of each week".. and then create a task for each week. (Their answer might be "For week one: section 1, part of section 2 and 7, and a start on 6). Either they are done with what they agreed upon at the end of the week or not... you get an earlier indicator of progress and an earlier deliverable rather than having tasks run in parallel. Be sure to revist the estimates each week. Saving Changes...
Andy JordanPresident| Roffensian Consulting S.A.Cherry Grove, AB, Canada
To add to Rich's comments, make sure that you have your project configured to support whichever approach you take - either effort driven or duration driven - if you try and manage by effort on duration driven tasks (or vice versa) you can get some misleading information. Saving Changes...
