How to manage an unexpected event

[akd110]

I'm quite new to project, and I can't figure out how to manage an unexpected event.

Let's imagine I have project A, which goes on the entire month.

An unexpected event (B) breaks in and I have to stop A, do B for a week, and then restart A.

How do I manage it automatically?

By the way: no splitting, because I could have unexpected events which go on for 1 o 2 hours, and splitting the main activity isn't a good way because:
1) I can't split it exactly where I need it, but approximately
2) It takes really long split activity A, link the end of A to the beginning of B, do B, and finally relink the end of B to A again.

[SUpER CoP]

I think that it is possible to plan for the unexpected, making provisions in your schedule should something out of the blue happen. This is achieved by adding something called contingency. At it’s core, there are two types of contingency:

1. Effort contingency – an extra bucket of effort to your schedule that is used in case extra work is required, or items take longer than originally thought;
2. Schedule contingency – extra duration to your schedule in case of unexpected delays.

[akd110]

First of all thank you for your reply.

Is "contingency" a term used in Project for real? I'm asking this because I than have to find the italian equivalent in Project, since I'm working with italian version.

I think (but not sure) that the 2nd fits to me, but what I need is Project to say: ok, resource named Alan was working on project A, but now has to do B. Since B has a higher priority and is a 2 hours work, Alan is going to work on B for 2 hours, than restart A, which will end two hours later than expected.

I hope this could be done automatically...

[JulieS]

Hi,

You wrote:

Is "contingency" a term used in Project for real? I'm asking this because I than have to find the italian equivalent in Project, since I'm working with italian version.

No. Contingency is a project management term but you will not find any ribbon or toolbar or menu option in Project referring to contingency.

Another option is to assign your resources at less than 100% to tasks -- building in additional duration for the amount of work.

Then, when unexpected event occurs, add the the task to the project file and when you know how many hours the resource worked on Task B, record the actual hours in the Task Usage or Resource Usage. The resource did not work any time on Task A - record zero actual hours for Task A for the week. Task A will automatically split based upon the actual hours recorded.

The only other option is to assign the resource, set the priority of Task B to 1000 (do not level), ensure that Task A can be split (add the Can Split field) and run the resource leveling command to have Project split Task A.

I hope this helps.

Julie

[akd110]

The only other option is to assign the resource, set the priority of Task B to 1000 (do not level), ensure that Task A can be split (add the Can Split field) and run the resource leveling command to have Project split Task A.

This is exaclty what I was looking for, I think. It works perfectly and it solved me many problems, thank you very much.

I will ask many more things regarding Project, nevertheless! :)

[JulieS]

You're very welcome and thanks for the feedback.

Julie