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?

 

[miamianderson]

Great! Thanks!

 

[JulieInMaine]

Okay, the first file:

The "Training-Yonkers" is odd because you have three resources assigned but only one of the three is doing any work -- both GA and PF are assigned but their work value is zero.

Same issue is going on with Training - San Francisco. GA is assigned but has zero hours.

The issue with GAs overallocation is fairly straight forward. The resource is assigned to Baltimore and Niagara on 11/28 and Baltimore and Toronto on 11/29 & 11/30.

The second file:

I'm not sure what you've got going on with the Training - Yonkers summary task.

You've set up each of the resources as separate tasks but still have them assigned to the summary level task. Project cannot help resolve that issue as every time it moves a subtask - the summary task has to move as well.

To be honest, I'm not sure I would try to use MS Project for this. Project cannot automatically do what you need it to do -- move tasks around so that all resource's are available but not split up a task over a weekend.

If you are okay manually moving tasks around then Project will work -- but it just won't do it automatically in a way that doesn't require watching closely.

You also have constraints on tasks which interrupt the leveling command. I don't know if you may have more luck using manual scheduling and staying away from leveling.

 

[miamianderson]

Thanks for all the guidance. Is the only way to have a 3-day task, that has 3 resources required to be there, to label the duration as 9 days so each resource is blocked for the full 3 days?

 

[JulieInMaine]

No don't set the task at 9 days.

Here's what I suggest - ensure all of your tasks are non-effort driven. In your circumstance, assigning additional trainers does not make the task duration drop. It takes 3 trainers 24 hours each (total of 72 hours of work on the task) to teach the 3-day class. Even if they are not actively teaching -- they are still there -- still participating -- still getting paid

I strongly suggest using the Task form at the bottom of the Gantt chart to closely watch what is going on when you assign trainers. These are fixed duration, non-effort driven tasks. Turn off the timeline and turn on the Task Form in the detail section at the bottom.

Julie