Working together

Question

Tim and Tom have a task to complete together:
 

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish	Predecessors	Resource Names
do the project	10 days	Wed 03/03/10	Tue 16/03/10		tim,tom

Tim then books a vacation from 08-Mar to 12-Mar, which is entered as a non-working exception in the resource calendar for Tim.

The duration is now 15 days:
 

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish	Predecessors	Resource Names
do the project	15 days	Wed 03/03/10	Tue 23/03/10		tim,tom

 From the Task Usage view, I can see that Tom is continuing work on this task, while Tim is on vacation.
 

Task Name	Work	Duration	Start	Finish
do the project	160 hrs	15 days	Wed 03/03/10	Tue 23/03/10
tim	80 hrs		Wed 03/03/10	Tue 23/03/10
tom	80 hrs		Wed 03/03/10	Tue 16/03/10

That's not what I want because they must work on this task together.
I want Tom to stop work (and be available for another task) while Tim is on vacation.
Help, please!
Winton

Answer 1

Hi Winton,

To cut a long story short - if you enter holidays through the resoruce's calendar what you ask for IS NOT FEASIBLE IN MS Project. That is NOT, like in not.
There is a (lengthy) workaround, and it is asked for so frequently that I fully documented it in an article on my website:
Http://users.online.be/prom-ade
Click through to "Microsoft Project: An abstract" 

And no, I don't know WHY MS did not honour this long-standing request :-(

Greetings,

Answer 2

Hello Winton,

I would just split the task during the time one of the resources is on vacation.

Cheers

Michael Wharton, MBA, PMP, MCT
www.WhartonComputer.com

Answer 3

Hui,

With all due respect, but this is not a viable solution.
What if the task shifts f.i. due to delay in a predecessor?

Greetings,

Answer 4

Winton:

Of course the right answer here is for Microsoft to finally give us this capability, but it's not included in the 2010 edition. A number of us have been lobbying for this capability for a decade or more. I do believe that we have a shot at it for the next release. In the mean time, you can use any technique you like provided that you understand the consequences of of your approach.

---

Gary Chefetz, MCITP, MCP, MVP msProjectExperts
Project and Project ServerFAQs
Project Server Help BLOG

Answer 5

Thank you, Jan.
I am trying to follow the approach documented on your website.

First, I removed Tim's vacation from the resource calendar.
Then, I added Tim's vacation as a manually scheduled task.

 

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish	Predecessors	Resource Names
do the project	10 days	Wed 03/03/10	Tue 23/03/10		tim,tom
tim's vacation	5 days	Mon 08/03/10	Fri 12/03/10		tim

And I now have the result I wanted: Tom has stopped work while Tim is on vacation, and they both finish the project on 23-Mar:
 

Task Name	Work	Duration	Start	Finish
do the project	160 hrs	10 days	Wed 03/03/10	Tue 23/03/10
tim	80 hrs		Wed 03/03/10	Tue 23/03/10
tom	80 hrs		Wed 03/03/10	Tue 23/03/10
tim's vacation	40 hrs	5 days	Mon 08/03/10	Fri 12/03/10
tim	40 hrs		Mon 08/03/10	Fri 12/03/10

Now, there is another task for Tom to complete:
 

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish	Predecessors	Resource Names
tom's extra task	5 days	Wed 24/03/10	Tue 30/03/10		tom

Why hasn't Tom been scheduled to perform this extra task while Tim is on vacation?

Thank you!
Winton

Answer 6

Hi,

From your input, I can't for sure diagnose.
I'll ask some questions here, but as by all means this is not 2010-specific (the article I wrote about it was for 200 or 2003, nothing changed) I suggest you continue this very interesting conversation directly to my e-mail (jandemesATprom-ade.be).
1. Why doesn't your extra task start today? If YOU haven't added any constraints or links it would start to day.
And if you made it start no earlier than 24/3 why would Project argue on that?
2. Have you leveled resources? With which options?

Greetings,
Jan