Forcing Tasks to NOT stretch/split over a weekend 1

[miamianderson]

I am trying to put together a training schedule that will involve a great deal of travel to a small number of employees. I don't want a "3 day training" to start on a a Friday and end on a Tuesday, as that would result in excessive per diem & lodging costs, so my objective is for Project (2010) to be forced to fit multi-day training events into a week without splitting over a weekend.

So scheduling a two-day training and a 3-day training within a week is fine, but NOT scheduling a 4-day training to start after a two-day training, because that would stretch through the weekend. It would be better for it to fit another shorter training in after the 2-day training and save teh 4-day training for the start of the next week.

Any thoughts?

 

[JulieInMaine]

So essentially the 4 day training session has to start on either Monday or Tuesday in order to not stretch over a weekend.

The 3 days sessions can start Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday but not Thursday or Friday.

Here's a workaround -- create two new calendars which only have working time (one minute) in the morning (7:59 am) of Monday and Tuesday. In front of the 4-day training sessions create a 1 minute duration task as the predecessor and assign the Monday/Tuesday calendar to that one minute task. That way that task can only start on Monday or Tuesday and the 4-day training session (successor) will follow along.

Do similar with the 3-day session with a new calendar.

I hope this helps.
Julie

 

[miamianderson]

Thank you Julie... so there isn't any sort of functionality in Project to prevent a multi-day task from being split by a weekend... bummer.

That being the case, I think I understand your workaround... very clever. Let me paraphrase to make sure I'm getting it though:

Before every 3-day training, I need to insert a predecessor that will be a 1-minute task that is assigned to the Monday/Tuesday calendar.

Before every 2-day training, I need to insert a predecessor that will be a 1-minute task that is assigned to a Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday calendar... and so on.

Is that correct?

 

[JulieInMaine]

Spot on!

 

[miamianderson]

I can't believe there is no functionality to force Project to NOT split a task though...

While your work-around does FACILITATE the starting of tasks only when there are enough days to complete the task in that same week, it doesn't FORCE those tasks to be completed in that same week. In other words, it could still apply the new "anchor" task in front of a 4-day training, but I'm unclear as to how that would prevent the task from being started on, say, Thursday, which is also after Monday, in the same way that Tuesday would be after Monday. (I'm going to be really embarassed if I'm missing something obvious here!)

I thought maybe extending your concept a step further might solve the problem by creating even more calendars with only Friday as the working day (5:00-5:01), and assigning other anchor tasks AFTER each mulit-day training, but then there is nothing that forces that successor to be in the same week as the training and the training pre-task. (or is there?)

 

[JulieInMaine]

No sorry -- there is method in Project to not allow a task to be split over non-working time.

We are restricting the day the task can start by moving the predecessor task.

Lets take the 4-day example. The task can start either on Monday (and run Monday through Thursday) or the task can start on Tuesday (and run Tuesday through Friday) yes?

By creating a calendar that only allows 1 min of working time on Monday at 7:59 am and one minute of working time on Tuesday at 7:59 am -- means the task will only be scheduled for Monday or Tuesday. With a finish to start relationship between the 1 min "anchor" task the training class will always follow immediately.

Give it a try with three tasks.
Task 1 is a regular task
Task 2 is the anchor task with the task calendar applied. It is the successor to Task 1.
Task 3 is a 4-day duration task -- successor to Task 2.

So, task 1 starts on Monday Oct 10 - it is one day in duration and ends on Monday Oct 10
Task 2 is scheduled for Tuesday Oct 11 morning at 7:59 am
Task 3 starts Tuesday Oct 11 at 08:00 and ends Friday at 5:00 pm

Increase the duration of Task 1 to 2 days - Starts Mon Oct 10 and ends Tuesday Oct 11 at 5:00 pm.
Task 2 is now scheduled for Monday Oct 17th at 7:59 am
Task 3 now starts on Monday Oct 17th at 8:00 am and finishes Thursday Oct 20 at 5:00 pm.

I hope this helps.

Julie

 

[miamianderson]

Thanks Julie- I truly appreciate the assistance, but I am finding that with the multiple one-day & two-day trainings that I am trying to schedule, sometimes it will (to use your above exmple):
Start task 1 on Monday, October 10th, and complete it on the same day.
Start task 2 on Tuesday morning at 7:59 (finishing a minute later)

Start task 3 on Tuesday morning, and for some reason it will then Squeeze some other 1 or 2 day task in, splitting task 3 to leave it to finish on Monday or Tuesday of the following week.

It still followed the predecessor/successor rules we set, but there seems to be something missing that would tell it to NOT split it... to somehow make Project realize that it is more important to not split the tasks than to finish the project in a shorter amount of time by juggling resources...

(I'm not really sure why it's splitting them, its just a guess that it has to do with the availability of the people that are scheduled for each training or something...)

I'd be happy to forward an attachment if you'd like...

 

[JulieInMaine]

Ah - it becomes clearer. Do you have automatic resource leveling enabled?

The tasks are splitting from the resource leveling command it appears. Add the "Leveling Can split" field to a task view and make sure they are all set to "no".

You may also want to make sure the option "Split in progress tasks" in Tools > Options is set to disabled.

As an aside, I would likely never use resource leveling in your situation -- exactly because of this issue. If you want your other tasks to flow around the training schedule during leveling make sure all of your training classes are set to priority of 1000 and set your Leveling Order to Priority, standard.

 

[miamianderson]

OOOOooooooo I think you nailed it... by adding the "Leveling Can Split" field alone.

I couldn't find the "Split in Progress Tasks" option... what's the path in 2010?

Once again, a million thanks!

 

[JulieInMaine]

File > Options > Schedule is where the "Split in Progress" lurks in 2010.

You're most welcome for the assist and thanks for the feedback.

Julie

 

[miamianderson]

...one last thing about what you said regarding leveling... If I want to be sure that each trainer that I assign to each training session isn't double-booked for the same time slot for other training sessions (there could be as many as four trainers in some sessions, and then a different combination or amount of trainers for another session), how can I achieve this without leveling?

Imagine that there will be 50 training sessions, some large (needing many trainers), and some small (requiring only a single trainer)- and as some PRE-training event that is a predecessor to the first training sesssion gets delayed by a few days... how can I let Project handle the scheduling and juggling of all the sessions without leveling?

(I have 3 resources that I am warned are over-allocated, and given a warning that they should be leveled, but when I attempt to level them nothing happens.)

 

[JulieInMaine]

I would use the Resource Usage view over the Gantt chart to review resource loading. Then you can select a resource and level the specific resource -- but be aware -- there is no method in Project to ensure resources work together on assignments.

If you are using the Professional version you may also like the Team Planner view as another visual for what resources are doing.

You will still need to wear your scheduler hat -- so don't hang it up yet -- it's just that Project cannot understand things like -- don't split this task up over a weekend. Again, if you choose to use Resource Leveling -- work with priorities and let Project delay some lower priority work.

Julie

 

[miamianderson]

The thing I'm struggling with is that when I'm in the Resource view, and I select one of those over-allocated resources, and tell it to level him/her... nothing happens. It's allowing 32 hours to be scheduled for someone in a particular day. It's as if there is some other constraint that is blocking the resource from being leveled but as far as I can tell, there isn't...

Any thoughts?

...and regarding the Team Planner... If I have "Training A" for which there are two trainers scheduled, and I move Training A for one of the trainers, shouldn't it also move for the other trainer?

 

[miamianderson]

...does it help identify the cause of the problem if I tell you that in the Team Planner view, a 4-day task shows up as 4 days for one person (and stretches across four days), but for a couple of other people the same task stretches across only two days?

 

[JulieInMaine]

Hi,

What max units do you have your resources set for? How much work is assigned to the 4-day training class and how much work is assigned for the training class that only spans across 2 days.

Is it possible for you to attach a copy of the file here and I can take a look?

 

[miamianderson]

Sure thing... I'll attach two: The first is without using the "anchor task" solution you provided, where I tried to manually fix the schedule by forcing predecessors, which is feasable with this example, but when there are 10 times more training sessions scattered across the country, eyeballing and manually adjusting schedules won't be a feasible option. I attach this example because it's a littler "cleaner" than the one with the anchors, and it still has the overallocation issue that I'm not sure how to resolve.

I'll attach the second file momentarily...

 

[miamianderson]

Here's the second file, which includes the "anchor task" solution as a means to preventing tasks from splitting over the weekend.

I tried to experiment a little more with Yonkers, but didn't have any success.

One thing I seem to be missing is a way to tell Project that I want persons A, B, & C to all participate in a task for the full amount of days assigned to the task. If there is a 4 day task, it needs to take all 4 days for all assigned to it. (Check out the training in Niagara-- how can I prevent it from splitting like that, AND have the ability to let Project adjust any over-allocated resources?

I appreciate the help...

 

[JulieInMaine]

I'm afraid I cannot open the links from your drop box -- they are showing as web pages -- not mpp files. You may need to save the files locally and then attach here.

Julie

 

[miamianderson]

How do I do I copy them directly? It seems to only be asking for a URL...

 

[JulieInMaine]

Sorry, my bad. I've worked through how to download them. I'll take a look at get back to you.