Project 2013 - Task Types & Scheduling Formula

welcome to Microsoft Project task type scheduling formula video tutorial my name is joy Julie from spark corporate training and I'm going to describe how Microsoft Project scheduling formula works to automatically calculate the scheduling of tasks using the task type property when assigning multiple resources will start in Microsoft Project 2013 although this tutorial applies to most project versions the task type of any task is selected in the task information dialog box on the Advanced tab here we choose from fixed units fixed duration and fixed work I'll share some examples of tasks where each of these may apply in the real world in a few minutes for now note that the default is fixed units also notice that the effort driven checkbox is turned on by default either of these can be set to a different default in the project options dialog box it's been my experience that fixed work is the most common task type but this depends on your tasks and project the task type can be changed at any time in this project file I've prepared a generic list of tasks to demonstrate the behavior of the scheduling formula based on how you alter the task type and effort driven settings on a task so that we can see the scheduling formula displaying field updates on screen in real time I've also set up two additional columns type and work to reveal details that would otherwise only be available in a dialog box or a different view I'm also going to add the effort driven field to the left of the start column note that all view tables can be customized in this way with any data field also note that I've split the screen to show the resource form in the bottom half of the screen which will help us to see the resource assignment details as they are being updated in the Gantt chart above let's now go to a simple Excel worksheet to describe the calculations that occur behind the scenes when adjusting task types first notice that the basic scheduling formula is duration times resource units equals work or hours which can also be expressed as duration equals work divided by resource units this essentially means that the amount of time spent on a task multiplied by the number of people working on that task equals the total work hours that need to be tracked for that task generally speaking units usually means people it may also mean you are hiring them to work full-time or part-time on that task or project we'll discuss this in more detail in a few minutes on this worksheet we can see how updating a value in each field duration units or work automatically recalculates at least one other field using the scheduling formula since this behavior is one of the more confusing aspects of project software it can also be one of the more frustrating if you don't understand why it's doing this however once you do understand that this automatic calculation provides a huge advantage now you're letting the software assist you in the planning process as long as you make the right task type choices which will depend on the task itself in the real world so which task type option is correct well we would choose fixed units if there are variable constraints on a resources availability or there is a limit to the resources able to do a task for example resources are only available to work on the project 50% of their time we would choose fixed work if the task is driven by the amount of effort involved such as painting a room this is the most common task type and is always effort driven choosing fixed duration where the duration is not affected by the Asian or removal of resources such as project meetings or driving a truck from A to B it's important to choose the correct task type when applying changes that will be affected by the scheduling formula the scheduling formula is a calculation that runs in the background as you add or remove resources and otherwise adjust your schedule I like it to do lists Microsoft Project knows that when adding and removing a resource with dependencies and successors and predecessors your schedule will be impacted in many ways rather than you having to adjust dependent tasks the scheduling formula updates successor tasks automatically once you understand the reason for this you'll appreciate how powerful and time-saving the scheduling formula is in keeping your overall project schedule on track so I'll demonstrate by entering values in the green boxes and will see the updated calculation in the blue boxes corresponding to that task starting with example 1 I'm going to change the 6 hours to 12 hours and we can see that's going to reflect the change over in the work field I'm going to change the units from 50% to 75% and that's going to reflect a change in duration and finally I'm going to change the work hours from 12 to 18 and that also is going to affect the duration on the left now we'll go back to Microsoft Project and start working with the scheduling formula by assigning resources to these tasks in fact it's important to remember that the scheduling formula is most obvious where multiple resources are being assigned I staged the tasks so that I can add one or more resources using the assign resources dialog box for this project I have only two resources I'm going to apply these resources using two different techniques first I'm going to add resources simultaneously meaning all resources will be assigned at once by doing this I'm going to see the scheduling formula calculate the work hours then after removing those assignments I'm going to add resources sequentially meaning one than another as I demonstrate each technique you will notice the scheduling formula has a different effect now to explain what's going to happen the difference between the results the two techniques is that the initial method the software assumes that the project manager is already aware when entering the tasks that there will be a set number of resources to perform the work therefore is these resources are initially assigned simultaneously the task retains its original values updating work hours according to the scheduling formula if however the project manager subsequently adds or removes resources the software assumes that the project manager is having to adjust the schedule that's underway due to changing circumstances after the project has started or the task is being done therefore the scheduling formula must recalculate the tasks to reflect this new information as you work with this concept you'll begin to understand and appreciate the benefit of letting the software do the adjustments for you particularly noting that it will affect successor tasks please note that the smart tag will appear with each resource adjustment to allow you to override the default recalculation so let's begin on task a I'll open the assign users dialog box where I have two resources listed as I add both resources simultaneously on this task that is set as a fixed units with effort driven turned on it has the effect of updating work hours only resource 1 & 2 simultaneously being assigned if we look at the work hours it's 48 now I'm going to remove resource 1 & 2 simultaneously and then sequentially assign first resource 1 which changes the work hours to 24 and then resource 2 it doesn't change the work hours but it does change the duration down it now reduces it to half its original value to one and a half days this is because with fixed units this is assuming that the work is being shared between those two resources and therefore the duration is going to take less time this is especially because it's effort driven next notice that we have the smart tag indicating other options that we might want to play with experiment with to determine how it's going to affect the overall schedule we could increase the amount of work but keep the same duration of three days we could reduce the hours resources work per day units but keep the same duration and work so it is still flexible all you need to do is be very conscious of where the changes are being applied so we're going to move to task B next which is also fixed units but non effort driven selecting both resources and assigning them simultaneously we get the work hours calculation of 48 now removing those resources and assigning resource one first puts it at 24 hours still for three days resource to assign increases the work value to 48 hours and keeps the duration the same and the reason is that by adding a resource with a non effort driven task it doesn't really matter how many resources we add it doesn't take less time and this is a very typical example of a meeting type of task where it's fixed units non effort driven now task C is fixed duration effort driven and again I'm going to assign resource one and two simultaneously on this task to see what the work hours calculates out to we can see it says 48 hours and that's shared between resource one as you can see down below and resource two now I'm going to remove those resources and instead assign resource one and two sequentially starting with resource one I click assign resource one currently is assigned 24 hours worth of work over three days and we see that represent down below I'm going to add resource to and we now see down below 12 hours instead of 24 for each resource 1 & 2 so in other words the duration does not adjust but the actual effort that goes into the task by each of the two resources has been reduced by half again we have the smart tag allowing us to make further adjustments overriding the default so now move on to task D with task D again we're going to assign both resources simultaneously calculating the work hours at 48 over three days removing those resources and then adding them sequentially we're going to find that behaves very much the same as tasks be adding first resource one then resource two shows us the 48 hours worth of work and being is its non effort driven the work is not being divided up and the duration is not being reduced again very much like a project meeting where it doesn't matter how many resources you assign the duration will always stay the same the final example task II is fixed work and in the case of fixed work we're going to apply resource 1 and 2 to the task which is effort driven and we see the work calculation go up to 48 for a full-time assignment between the two resources over three days that's reflected down below what's interesting is that when I remove the resources the work hours does not reset to zero it remains the same or fixed and as a result from this point on with that setting in place we would assign resource 1 to take over that job understanding that it's a 48 hour job which of course takes six days for just one resource with resource two as I assign sequentially the second resource that will cut in half the amount of effort that's required over a duration of just three days keep in mind that all of these changes has been affecting the schedule with success or tasks and so with that we now have a clearer understanding of the importance of selecting the correct task type on a task in Microsoft Project so that the scheduling formula can effectively update and maintain an accurate picture of the progress of your project the scheduling formula really is the brains beside this behind the software and if you allow it to do its work you'll be rewarded by saving time and effort constantly manually adjusting the schedule to reflect ongoing updates to resource assignments soon it will become second nature and you'll be well on your way to becoming a Microsoft Project guru best of luck with Microsoft Project and thank you for watching you you

Channel: SparQ Corporate Training

Views: 18,458

Rating: 4.9578948 out of 5

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Id: k52Zk0rmaIs

Length: 14min 37sec (877 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 05 2013