Using the Task Usage effectively

My organization recently adopted an Integrated Project Management (IPM) enterprise system. And more recently, underwent an upgrade where the scheduling (using Microsoft Project Schedule) and time entry modules were rolled out.

Naturally, due to the new change that enforced stricter rules for scheduling, the project managers were confounded with the way they were supposed to enter, schedule and allocate tasks in the project plan.

Two days back, a project manager tells me about his problem regarding the issue. His project, which he claimed is different than others (only if I got pennies everytime I heard that) gets a list of defects from the customer on a daily basis. His team is supposed to analyze, fix, verify, validate and deploy the fix for every defect they get. His problem is that the customer is "finicky" about this list and changes the priority of the defects midway, causing his team to drop the current task and take up a new one. His statement was that Microsoft Project was not helping him plan and track his team's activities efficiently and that he'd rather get back to the Excel based tracker that they used earlier.

I have rarely found a situation at work, when we can use the adage "Ignorance is bliss!" and in this project manager's case, the adage definitely did not fit.

Here're the premise of the scheduling he performed and different solutions I gave him:

Premise: Each defect is a single task item or a summary task depending on its complexity. Smaller/simpler defects are entered as a single task, while the more complex defects have sub-tasks such as "Analyze", "Fix", "Review", "Test" and "Check-in" as a milestone task.

If needed, various resources could be allocated to the individual sub-tasks or it could be the same resource. Individual task or sub-tasks are allocated planned effort (work) and the resources are leveled (over-allocations are resolved).

The customer wakes up in the middle of the day and asks that one particular defect be put on hold (defer it) or should be dropped (reject it) and work on any other defect.

Solution 1 - Scenario 1:

If the developer has worked on the defect and/or logged partial time for the amount he's worked for, then while entering time for that defect, he must mark the task as "done". Our IPM system updates the task as complete and logs the actual time against the task in the schedule. For the readers, who update the schedule manually, the process is the same - mark the task as complete and enter the effort (if you record "actual work" in the schedule) put in the task.

If the new defect is in the schedule, well, nothing needs to be done, otherwise, add the defect in the schedule and assign it to the developer (of course keeping the resource leveled).

Solution 1 - Scenario 2:

If work on the defect has not yet started, then simply one can either delete that task (not such a good idea as there would be no simple way of tracking of such a change later) or reduce the "work" for the task to 0hrs and mark the task as complete. That way it does not affect the overall project, except for its dependencies.

Solution 2:

This solution is a little tricky and will require good working knowledge of the Microsoft Project. If you are not confident about making changes to your master plan, make a copy and carry out the steps.

Project allows (as do many other scheduling softwares) the project manager to contour the task. Contour as the word suggests is the shape of the outline/surface of the object, in this case the object is a histogram of the work spent on the task each day. See the image below (not created in MS Project).

 

The top border (or the surface) of the histogram defines its contour, but I'm sure you figured it out already.

So, MS Project allows the following contours for each task:

1. Flat - Effort equally distributed
2. Back Loaded - Amount of effort gradually increases as the days go by
3. Front Loaded - Amount of effort gradually decreases as the days go by
4. Double Peak - The effort peaks twice during the life of the task
5. Early Peak - More effort is expended early on and then the amount stabilizes as the days go by
6. Late Peak - The effort is stable early on and then peaks towards the end of the task
7. Bell - This, if it is not wrong for me to call it so, can be termed as "Middle Peak"
8. Turtle - This is similar to the 'Bell' contour with the difference being that increase (during the early days) and decrease (during the later days) in effort is gradual and does not show peaks. Very similar to a turtle's back.

Selecting one of these contours will distribute the effort of the task as required in a ratio that Project calculates for you.

This can be done in the 'Task Usage' view (click on 'View' in the menu and then click on 'Task Usage'). Identify the task that you wish to work on, expand it (by clicking on the '+' sign next to it) to reveal the resource(s) assigned that task. Select and right-click on the resource(s) and select 'Assignment Information' option to see a dialog such as the one below.

 

It is on this dialog you will see the drop-down for Work Contour. Select one and proceed.

If you don't like the distribution the Project has set for the task, you are free to change the effort planned for each day in the pane on the right. In which case the indicator next to the resources will show icons like the following, indicating a custom contour.

 

So, if the task is put on hold for a definite duration, change the contour or task usage to reduce the effort spent on that task for those days to a minimum or zero.

This way, you don't lose track of the tasks nor do the resources have to enter time against (or work) on those tasks for the period of lull.