best task type and approach for...

[DMS]

Looking for the best task type and order of steps to accomplish the following in Project: We typically approach work in the following way: 1 define tasks, 2 assign effort to the task, 3 put in dependencies, 4 try to hold tasks to complete by certain dates, 5 add-then-adjust resources with the expectation that the effort does not change, and the task dates don't change while we experiment with resource loading ITERATIVELY - the challenge is to keep project from changing effort or changing start/end dates while a task is incrementally resource adjusted until the resource loading makes sense. Not sure if project will tolerate that, but unfortunatley, we get work that needs to satisfy previous work estimates NOT derived from project, and end dates NOT derived from project, so we are forced to backfill project without changing effort and without adjusting dates as we figure out how to resource.

I assume we want tasks that are fixed work and effort driven - is there a way to create tasks, dependencies and start-end dates prior to resourcing and then hold those efforts/dates fixed while we find resource loading that satisfies?

[JulieS]

Hi DMS,

You have a couple of conflicting things going on here so I'll see if I can hit a couple of your questions, in turn:

adjust resources with the expectation that the effort does not change

This is a description of effort driven tasks. When a task is effort driven the total work (effort) stable as you assign or remove resources.

and the task dates don't change while we experiment with resource loading ITERATIVELY

It you set the task as Fixed Duration, the duration will not change -- however that doesn't necessarily mean the dates won't change. Add predecessors and successors and lead/lag will shift the schedule dates.

Working with Effort-driven Fixed Durations tasks does the following:

Add resources: Duration stays stable, total work remains the same, assignment units drop.

Remove resources: Duration stays stable, total work remains the same, assignment units increase.

As far as maintaining original dates, you might consider saving an Interim plan and copy Start/Finish to Start1/Finish1 after you've done steps 1-4, so you have some idea of original dates.

I hope this helps.

Julie