task and resource calendar not enough working time 1

[joiseystud]

I have a worker that works monday through friday in general. On Saturday July 14th we have a critical cutover that needs to happen. I created a weekend calendar which has that saturday as working time from 8am to 12pm then 1pm to 5pm. The resource's base calendar is standard because they work normal hours for everything except this one cutover weekend. I put an exception into their resource calendar making Saturday 7/14 a working day with same hours of 8am to 12pm then 1pm to 5pm. I change the task to the weekend calendar and assign the resource. The task moves to 7/14, but I get an error that there is not enough working time and that resource calendars will be ignored. I have also tried this by not doing it as an exception, but rather adding another item to the resources work week to schedule that week to have a working saturday. The calendars and task usage all show this as working time. The 8 hours are spread across the Saturday, but I still get the error. Please help. On the MS forum this issue was disregarded as a feature.

 

[FietsenMaker]

Hi joiseystud,

I simulated what you described (in project 2007).
I created three tasks: one before july 14, one on july 14 and one after, linked them and assigned a common resource to all three. Per the standard calendar, the weekend gets skipped, so the july 14 task moves to july 16. I opened the standard calendar (Tools -> Change working time) and changed july 14 into a nondefault working day (8-12 & 1-5). As soon as I did that, the cutover task moved to the saturday july 14th.
I did not get any errors. There was also no need to fiddle with the individual resource calendars.
Perhaps I am missing what is causing the error because of me over-simplifying the problem.
Anyway, hope this helps

JL

 

[joiseystud]

The if you had other tasks working through that saturday they would all have saturday as a working day if you just changed the standard calendar. The issue here is when you use a task calendar that is different than the resources base calendar.

To simulate the issue do this:
1. Create another base calendar called "Saturday Work".
2. In that calendar "work week" edit the default and make all days non working except Saturdays and give those the hours 8am to 12pm 1pm to 5pm.
3. Create a resource called Worker 1.
4. Go to his resource calendar. (His base calendar should be left as Standard since those are his normal working hours)
5. Put in an exception for 7/14 called "cutover" and make that working time on his calendar with the same hours as item 2 above.
6. Create a one day task called "weekend task".
7. Change that task to use a task calendar of "Saturday Work". (notice that it moves to saturday 7/7 since that is the next saturday)
8. Assign the worker 1 resource to the task.

What should happen at this point is that the task should be assigned to the first date with common working time between the task calendar "Saturday work" and the resource calendar for "Worker 1"

Here is what actually happens.
If the task is set to fixed duration it will start today and end on 7/7 and remain a 1 day task with no work assigned.
If you change it to fixed work task -- You get an error saying that there is not enough common enough working time and the calendar assigned to the resource.

Essentially what is happening here is that Project is ignoring the exception for the resource having the 7/14 date as working time. It is then ignoring that resource schedule and scheduling to the next open day on the task calendar. This is no good as the resource is not working on that saturday 7/7.

 

[FietsenMaker]

I figured I must be missing something.
I tried what you describe:
1. created the "saturday work" calendar
2. Added resource Worker1 and modified his calendar to make 7/14 a working day. I could not give the exception the name "cutover". There is no option to do that in MSP2007 as far as I could find. But adding 7/14 as a working day worked fine.
3. added the weekend task with the saturday work calendar (task shifted to 7/7).
4. assigned worker1.

The task jumped straight to 7/14. I have fixed units as default. Changing the task to fixed work did not generate errors and kept the task at 7/14.
Changing the task type to fixed duration caused the task to start on 7/7 and continue to 7/14 in the gantt chart. However, if I look at the resource usage, it shows the work actually being performed on 7/14 only. It appears that only the graphical presentation is incorrect.
When I change the duration to 2 days (which should cause a conflict as Worker1 only has 1 saturday available), I get the error you mention, and the task moves back to start on 7/7. I have to remove the resource, change duration back to 1 day and re-assign the resource to get everything back to normal. It looks like fixed work or fixed units gives fewer issues and keeps the gantt chart correct.

I seem to get different behavior than you. Which version of MS Project are you using?
Is the duration more than 1 day in your schedule? If I force the task to be too long, I get the same error as you do.

Interesting puzzle...

JL

 

[joiseystud]

I am using Project 2010 Standard. The task duration is 1 Day and my day is set as 8 hours in options.

As far as naming exceptions, you can do it in project 2007 as well. This is the same place you would put "Labor Day", "Christmas", etc. See the link below for a picture showing the interface.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/p...nd-holidays-for-your-project-HA001224299.aspx

 

[joiseystud]

I changed the resource calendar to work Saturdays by default and then put an exception for the saturdays I dont want him to work and the task correctly scheduled without error.

There is definitely a bug with MS project 2010 where it is not taking exceptions into account when comparing working time of a task calendar and resource calendar. How can I file this with MS. Is there an MVP on here that MS would take more seriously? This workaround is a kludge. Thanks.

 

[JulieInMaine]

Hello,

I can confirm that this is not working as it should based upon my testing. The other forum that you posted to has multiple MVPs also on it. I will see if it has been reported and if not, will report it.

Julie

 

[joiseystud]

Thank you Julie. I knew you would come to the rescue I have read many of your helpful posts!

I dont think the MVPs over there have done anything because they marked the post as answered and the answer was basically too bad... To me its a pretty major issue. Thanks again for your help.

 

[JulieInMaine]

You're welcome, Jo. I don't know what effect it will have - but we can say it has been reported.

 

[joiseystud]

FYI, I tested this on MS Project 2003 and it behaves correctly. Looks like on both project 2007 and 2010 this error occurs. Any update on whether this has been reported? Anyone here with MS Enterprise support clout get MS to do a hotfix?

 

[JulieInMaine]

It is buggy at best in both 2007 and 2010. I find that if I add the Task Calendar field to the table, then switch it off and on after assigning the resource, things are a bit more predictable. But it is, a bug in my opinion.

Julie

 

[joiseystud]

Did you get a chance to submit it as a bug report Julie? Any other advice on how to get this escalated?

 

[JulieInMaine]

I have sent it as a bug and have received confirmation they can reproduce. I'm afraid I do not have any further information on time frame for a fix. If you have a premiere account, then pushing through that channel may be speedier.

Julie

 

[joiseystud]

Ok thanks. Thats great news. Im sure they will put it in the fix queue somewhere and it will get fixed eventually. Do you get put on a watchlist for the bug? In other words if they resolve do you get notified? if so maybe you can post here if you hear more. THanks.

 

[JulieInMaine]

I will certainly keep the group posted.