Inter-summary task dependencies   

Hi all,
In my plan I have few summary tasks, and few tasks within each one of
these summary tasks.
I do not care which task will be the first one the resources work on,
but once a resource start working on a task, I want him to finish
working on ALL the rest of the tasks within the same summary task,
BEFORE moving to a task from another summary task.
After completing all the tasks in a summary tasks, once again I don't
care which task the resource moves to.

How can I achieve that with as few links as possible (only those which
are logically needed, to keep the plan flexible)?

Thanks for any help,
Gil

date: Tue, 7 Oct 2008 05:35:17 -0700 (PDT)   author:   Gil

RE: Inter-summary task dependencies   

In the subtasks start with a milestone  "Work Commences"
At the bottom of the stack, another milestone "My Work Here is Complete"

All the "real work tasks" have a Start to Start predecessor relaltionship 
from the "Work Commences" Milestone.  There are also multiple predecessors to 
the "My Work Here is Complete" milestone... the predecessors are all FS and 
are the "real work" tasks.

Is there are 5 tasks the worker has to get done in 5 days, assign the worker 
as 20% to every task, make all the task durations 5 days.  In effect, you are 
saying he works them all in parallel.

If there are true logic relationships amongst the real work tasks, you need 
to think that through first. 

-- 
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, MVP

Check out my blog for more information:
http://www.msprojectblog.com



"Gil" wrote:

> Hi all,
> In my plan I have few summary tasks, and few tasks within each one of
> these summary tasks.
> I do not care which task will be the first one the resources work on,
> but once a resource start working on a task, I want him to finish
> working on ALL the rest of the tasks within the same summary task,
> BEFORE moving to a task from another summary task.
> After completing all the tasks in a summary tasks, once again I don't
> care which task the resource moves to.
> 
> How can I achieve that with as few links as possible (only those which
> are logically needed, to keep the plan flexible)?
> 
> Thanks for any help,
> Gil
>

date: Tue, 7 Oct 2008 07:06:00 -0700   author:   Jim Aksel

Re: Inter-summary task dependencies   

On Oct 7, 4:06 pm, Jim Aksel 
wrote:
> In the subtasks start with a milestone  "Work Commences"
> At the bottom of the stack, another milestone "My Work Here is Complete"
>
> All the "real work tasks" have a Start to Start predecessor relaltionship
> from the "Work Commences" Milestone.  There are also multiple predecessors to
> the "My Work Here is Complete" milestone... the predecessors are all FS and
> are the "real work" tasks.
>
> Is there are 5 tasks the worker has to get done in 5 days, assign the worker
> as 20% to every task, make all the task durations 5 days.  In effect, you are
> saying he works them all in parallel.
>
> If there are true logic relationships amongst the real work tasks, you need
> to think that through first.
>
> --
> If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.
>
> Jim Aksel, MVP
>
> Check out my blog for more information:http://www.msprojectblog.com
>
>
>
> "Gil" wrote:
> > Hi all,
> > In my plan I have few summary tasks, and few tasks within each one of
> > these summary tasks.
> > I do not care which task will be the first one the resources work on,
> > but once a resource start working on a task, I want him to finish
> > working on ALL the rest of the tasks within the same summary task,
> > BEFORE moving to a task from another summary task.
> > After completing all the tasks in a summary tasks, once again I don't
> > care which task the resource moves to.
>
> > How can I achieve that with as few links as possible (only those which
> > are logically needed, to keep the plan flexible)?
>
> > Thanks for any help,
> > Gil- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Hi Jim,
Thanks for your answer.
I couldn't achieve the desired result with your solution.
After creating and linking all real-sub tasks to "work commences" and
"work done", and then leveling resources, the result is loyal to the
links but still the resource is scheduled to work on a task from one
summary task, then to work on a task from another summary task, even
when not all sub tasks from the first summary task are complete.
Also, I don't want the resource to work in parallel on few tasks from
the same summary tasks, I want him to finish one and move to another.

Maybe it will be easier to understand with an example:
I have summary tasks A,B,C, and sub tasks a1,a2,a3,b1,b2,b3,c1,c2,c3
(the a's are in A, b's are in B etc.)
I don't mind on which task the resource start to work on, but if - for
example - he started to work on c2, I want c1 and c3 to be completed
before he moves to tasks from A or B summary tasks.
Any ideas?

date: Wed, 8 Oct 2008 00:39:23 -0700 (PDT)   author:   Gil

Re: Inter-summary task dependencies   

Gil wrote:
> On Oct 7, 4:06 pm, Jim Aksel 
> wrote:
>> In the subtasks start with a milestone  "Work Commences"
>> At the bottom of the stack, another milestone "My Work Here is Complete"
>>
>> All the "real work tasks" have a Start to Start predecessor relaltionship
>> from the "Work Commences" Milestone.  There are also multiple predecessors to
>> the "My Work Here is Complete" milestone... the predecessors are all FS and
>> are the "real work" tasks.
>>
>> Is there are 5 tasks the worker has to get done in 5 days, assign the worker
>> as 20% to every task, make all the task durations 5 days.  In effect, you are
>> saying he works them all in parallel.
>>
>> If there are true logic relationships amongst the real work tasks, you need
>> to think that through first.
>>
>> --
>> If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.
>>
>> Jim Aksel, MVP
>>
>> Check out my blog for more information:http://www.msprojectblog.com
>>
>>
>>
>> "Gil" wrote:
>>> Hi all,
>>> In my plan I have few summary tasks, and few tasks within each one of
>>> these summary tasks.
>>> I do not care which task will be the first one the resources work on,
>>> but once a resource start working on a task, I want him to finish
>>> working on ALL the rest of the tasks within the same summary task,
>>> BEFORE moving to a task from another summary task.
>>> After completing all the tasks in a summary tasks, once again I don't
>>> care which task the resource moves to.
>>> How can I achieve that with as few links as possible (only those which
>>> are logically needed, to keep the plan flexible)?
>>> Thanks for any help,
>>> Gil- Hide quoted text -
>> - Show quoted text -
> 
> Hi Jim,
> Thanks for your answer.
> I couldn't achieve the desired result with your solution.
> After creating and linking all real-sub tasks to "work commences" and
> "work done", and then leveling resources, the result is loyal to the
> links but still the resource is scheduled to work on a task from one
> summary task, then to work on a task from another summary task, even
> when not all sub tasks from the first summary task are complete.
> Also, I don't want the resource to work in parallel on few tasks from
> the same summary tasks, I want him to finish one and move to another.
> 
> Maybe it will be easier to understand with an example:
> I have summary tasks A,B,C, and sub tasks a1,a2,a3,b1,b2,b3,c1,c2,c3
> (the a's are in A, b's are in B etc.)
> I don't mind on which task the resource start to work on, but if - for
> example - he started to work on c2, I want c1 and c3 to be completed
> before he moves to tasks from A or B summary tasks.
> Any ideas?

If you don't want your resources to work in parallel, then assign them 
100% to each of the tasks.  Then level.

If work under individual summary tasks is not being completed in its 
entirety before work under another summary task starts then you need to 
set the priority (add the priority column) of the work under each of 
those summary tasks and then ensure that the levelling engine uses 
priority as the levelling criteria.

To a degree Project can't know of your desire to complete work under 
individual summary tasks before moving to the next so you have to force 
it to respect that.

date: Sat, 11 Oct 2008 08:40:49 +0100   author:   Dave

Re: Inter-summary task dependencies   

On Oct 11, 9:40 am, Dave  wrote:
> Gil wrote:
> > On Oct 7, 4:06 pm, Jim Aksel 
> > wrote:
> >> In the subtasks start with a milestone  "Work Commences"
> >> At the bottom of the stack, another milestone "My Work Here is Complete"
>
> >> All the "real work tasks" have a Start to Start predecessor relaltionship
> >> from the "Work Commences" Milestone.  There are also multiple predecessors to
> >> the "My Work Here is Complete" milestone... the predecessors are all FS and
> >> are the "real work" tasks.
>
> >> Is there are 5 tasks the worker has to get done in 5 days, assign the worker
> >> as 20% to every task, make all the task durations 5 days.  In effect, you are
> >> saying he works them all in parallel.
>
> >> If there are true logic relationships amongst the real work tasks, you need
> >> to think that through first.
>
> >> --
> >> If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.
>
> >> Jim Aksel, MVP
>
> >> Check out my blog for more information:http://www.msprojectblog.com
>
> >> "Gil" wrote:
> >>> Hi all,
> >>> In my plan I have few summary tasks, and few tasks within each one of
> >>> these summary tasks.
> >>> I do not care which task will be the first one the resources work on,
> >>> but once a resource start working on a task, I want him to finish
> >>> working on ALL the rest of the tasks within the same summary task,
> >>> BEFORE moving to a task from another summary task.
> >>> After completing all the tasks in a summary tasks, once again I don't
> >>> care which task the resource moves to.
> >>> How can I achieve that with as few links as possible (only those which
> >>> are logically needed, to keep the plan flexible)?
> >>> Thanks for any help,
> >>> Gil- Hide quoted text -
> >> - Show quoted text -
>
> > Hi Jim,
> > Thanks for your answer.
> > I couldn't achieve the desired result with your solution.
> > After creating and linking all real-sub tasks to "work commences" and
> > "work done", and then leveling resources, the result is loyal to the
> > links but still the resource is scheduled to work on a task from one
> > summary task, then to work on a task from another summary task, even
> > when not all sub tasks from the first summary task are complete.
> > Also, I don't want the resource to work in parallel on few tasks from
> > the same summary tasks, I want him to finish one and move to another.
>
> > Maybe it will be easier to understand with an example:
> > I have summary tasks A,B,C, and sub tasks a1,a2,a3,b1,b2,b3,c1,c2,c3
> > (the a's are in A, b's are in B etc.)
> > I don't mind on which task the resource start to work on, but if - for
> > example - he started to work on c2, I want c1 and c3 to be completed
> > before he moves to tasks from A or B summary tasks.
> > Any ideas?
>
> If you don't want your resources to work in parallel, then assign them
> 100% to each of the tasks.  Then level.
>
> If work under individual summary tasks is not being completed in its
> entirety before work under another summary task starts then you need to
> set the priority (add the priority column) of the work under each of
> those summary tasks and then ensure that the levelling engine uses
> priority as the levelling criteria.
>
> To a degree Project can't know of your desire to complete work under
> individual summary tasks before moving to the next so you have to force
> it to respect that.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Thanks!

date: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 01:47:34 -0700 (PDT)   author:   Gil