Tracking Tasks that can be Completed Out of Order

My question pertains to tracking schedules for tasks that can be worked on
out of order. Hereâ??s the setup:

A person has several tasks assigned to him, all which must be completed by
the end of the project. I link them together in this order: A->B->C. Due to
the nature of the work, he might work first on task A for a day, then on task
B for a couple of days, then task A for a few more days, then task C for a
few days. Then, heâ??ll go back to task B and finish it, before going to
finish task A, etc. The point is the tasks can be worked on in an order
different than the way they are linked. They may be worked on before or
after they are scheduled. They are linked as A->B->C because that is the
â??generally accepted order one could expect to followâ??, but our process is
very flexible on an individual basis. (This is software development as you
might guess.)

Iâ??d like to be able to track progress of this project and understand if it
is on schedule. Any suggestions on how to do this correctly?

chris
Fri Nov 18 10:15:34 CST 2005

Hi

This is a big subject ... but i will assume you want to track hours per day
per task to get the best picture

First I would recommend that you save a baseline so that you have a
comparison against the actual progress information you are about to enter

Go to Tools > Tracking > Save Baseline

Go to the Task Usage or Resource Usage view

Right click in the details column and add actual work

In the right hand side of the screen you can enter time in the same fashion
as a timecard

The first entry you make for actual work in each task will show the actual
start
Any gaps will show as splits
The order in which the work is done will be reflected in the Gantt chart as
you enter the time

This is very high level and I would recommend taking some time to work
through a publication such as Microsoft's Project 2003 Step by Step or Inside
Out

Hope this gets you started ...
--
Regards


Chris Marriott - PMP MCSE MCDBA
UK - EPM Consultant & Trainer


"tgr" wrote:

> My question pertains to tracking schedules for tasks that can be worked on
> out of order. Hereâ??s the setup:
>
> A person has several tasks assigned to him, all which must be completed by
> the end of the project. I link them together in this order: A->B->C. Due to
> the nature of the work, he might work first on task A for a day, then on task
> B for a couple of days, then task A for a few more days, then task C for a
> few days. Then, heâ??ll go back to task B and finish it, before going to
> finish task A, etc. The point is the tasks can be worked on in an order
> different than the way they are linked. They may be worked on before or
> after they are scheduled. They are linked as A->B->C because that is the
> â??generally accepted order one could expect to followâ??, but our process is
> very flexible on an individual basis. (This is software development as you
> might guess.)
>
> Iâ??d like to be able to track progress of this project and understand if it
> is on schedule. Any suggestions on how to do this correctly?
>
>

Mike
Fri Nov 18 12:33:34 CST 2005

Hi tgr,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup :)

I think I would remove the links between them and use resource levelling to
spread the work load. Then, as work is done, reschedule the work and
re-level.

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on :)

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

tgr wrote:
> My question pertains to tracking schedules for tasks that can be
> worked on out of order. Hereâ??s the setup:
>
> A person has several tasks assigned to him, all which must be
> completed by the end of the project. I link them together in this
> order: A->B->C. Due to the nature of the work, he might work first
> on task A for a day, then on task B for a couple of days, then task A
> for a few more days, then task C for a few days. Then, heâ??ll go
> back to task B and finish it, before going to finish task A, etc.
> The point is the tasks can be worked on in an order different than
> the way they are linked. They may be worked on before or after they
> are scheduled. They are linked as A->B->C because that is the
> â??generally accepted order one could expect to followâ??, but our
> process is very flexible on an individual basis. (This is software
> development as you might guess.)
>
> Iâ??d like to be able to track progress of this project and
> understand if it is on schedule. Any suggestions on how to do this
> correctly?

Steve
Fri Nov 18 13:37:26 CST 2005

You might remove the links and use the task priority setting in conjunction
with resource leveling to set the order they will likely be worked on.
Links should not be used to describe the order you *want* to work on tasks,
they should describe the order you MUST work on the tasks because of
something inherent in the process itself. When building a structure we link
"erect walls" as a predecessor to "install roof" not because we usually do
it that way but rather because the law of gravity says we cannot build the
roof in midair and later stuff the walls in underneath it <grin>. Linking
A->B says that A produces as its output something that is needed as an input
for B and as a result B cannot start until A is done. If that's not true,
remove the link and use something else to model the sequencing.
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs


"tgr" <tgr@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:53C44D12-96F5-4D03-B6D4-6DBEBE870BE7@microsoft.com...
> My question pertains to tracking schedules for tasks that can be worked on
> out of order. Hereâ?Ts the setup:
>
> A person has several tasks assigned to him, all which must be completed by
> the end of the project. I link them together in this order: A->B->C. Due
> to
> the nature of the work, he might work first on task A for a day, then on
> task
> B for a couple of days, then task A for a few more days, then task C for a
> few days. Then, heâ?Tll go back to task B and finish it, before going to
> finish task A, etc. The point is the tasks can be worked on in an order
> different than the way they are linked. They may be worked on before or
> after they are scheduled. They are linked as A->B->C because that is the
> â?ogenerally accepted order one could expect to followâ??, but our process
> is
> very flexible on an individual basis. (This is software development as
> you
> might guess.)
>
> Iâ?Td like to be able to track progress of this project and understand if
> it
> is on schedule. Any suggestions on how to do this correctly?
>
>