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2 week schedule

15 replies [Last post]
Rohit K
User offline. Last seen 3 years 38 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 2 May 2008
Posts: 73

Dear All,

 

Can anyone help me in preparing 2 week look ahead schedule in MSP 2007.

 

Thanx in advance.

 

Rohit

Replies

Rafael Davila
User offline. Last seen 5 hours 31 min ago. Offline
Joined: 1 Mar 2004
Posts: 5229

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfPfIb873f4

Take a look at the above link for a video. Some activities were added for a better view.

Because in MS Project some fields are not available for direct access when creating the filter use of custom or user fields and formulas was necessary. Therefore if you transfer only the filter the formulas and user fields will still be missing.

I use different software that have access to Data Date within filters creation, in my particular case it is somewhat easier to transfer the filter. Even if in need to transfer custom field I can do that in several ways using a couple of Standard Reference Books or a single custom Reference Book, special files for the purpose of transfering data between the software databases.

The Lookahead Filter is convenient for when generating reports based on data date, still the Range Filter is more versatile, for example you might update your job every month but might be in need og generating two week reports for several periods within the month, the Lookahead will give you only one range, DD to DD+14days.

Regards,

Rafael

Rohit K
User offline. Last seen 3 years 38 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 2 May 2008
Posts: 73

Rafael,

Sorry for bothering you. But no the filter has not been applied.

Rohit

Rohit K
User offline. Last seen 3 years 38 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 2 May 2008
Posts: 73

Rafael,

Sorry for bothering you. But no the filter has not been applied.

Rohit

Rafael Davila
User offline. Last seen 5 hours 31 min ago. Offline
Joined: 1 Mar 2004
Posts: 5229

Perhaps the filter is already applied, go to filter and switch between NONE & LOOKAHEAD.

Rohit K
User offline. Last seen 3 years 38 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 2 May 2008
Posts: 73

Rafael,

 

Thanks. But not able to do my 2 week look ahead as per your reply in post 9. Can you plz give a step by step process later if you have some time to spare. Will be really helpful.

Rohit

Rohit K
User offline. Last seen 3 years 38 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 2 May 2008
Posts: 73

Rafael,

 

Thanks. But not able to do my 2 week look ahead as per your reply in post 9. Can you plz give a step by step process later if you have some time to spare. Will be really helpful.

Rohit

Rafael Davila
User offline. Last seen 5 hours 31 min ago. Offline
Joined: 1 Mar 2004
Posts: 5229

http://rapidshare.com/files/447502067/MS_Lookahead.rar

Includes versions 2000-2003, 2007 and 2010 all adjusted to include milestones. Let me know if you find something wrong.

Regards,

Rafael

Rohit K
User offline. Last seen 3 years 38 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 2 May 2008
Posts: 73

Rafael,

The mpp file after downloading is not being able to open. I am using 2007 version. It says it hads been created in newer version of MSP. Can you plz save it and fwd it in 2007 at rakarve77@gmail.com.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Rohit

Rohit K
User offline. Last seen 3 years 38 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 2 May 2008
Posts: 73

Rafael,

The mpp file after downloading is not being able to open. I am using 2007 version. It says it hads been created in newer version of MSP. Can you plz save it and fwd it in 2007 at rakarve77@gmail.com.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Rohit

Rafael Davila
User offline. Last seen 5 hours 31 min ago. Offline
Joined: 1 Mar 2004
Posts: 5229

Darren,

I forgot to mention your grouping reference is very good, excellent. It is in addition to filters I would use it not to filter or group activities to be finished within a given period as after an activity start everyone is aware of its target finish, but group by activity start on weekly periods.

Thanks for your reference.

Hemanth,

If you are uncomfortable with developing your own Lookahead Filter you always have the option to use the Date Range Filter. You will have to enter the date yourself for your reporting but this still I find useful for when looking for dates not tied to Status Date. I use both.

Regards,

Rafael

Hemanth Kumar
User offline. Last seen 39 weeks 3 days ago. Offline
Joined: 1 Nov 2002
Posts: 260
Groups: None

From Experiance ...

 

Filtering the baseline plan or submitted project plan with fancy filters will be a disater in real projects

the project will not be running with the set of activities prepares by some desk planner ages ago

ask your project manager , what he is planning to do with available resource in coming two weeks

and make a plan in MSP, ( Good for making lookaheads with static bars )

 

213
TWO WEEKS LOOKAHEAD

 

 

Rafael Davila
User offline. Last seen 5 hours 31 min ago. Offline
Joined: 1 Mar 2004
Posts: 5229

2wlahead milestones fix

In order to see milestones a fix as shown above is in order. Delete Remaining Duration Row on the second set of conditions. Sorry for any inconveniences but I am not a regular MS Project user, this filter I just made it, get it "as-is" and let me know if you find something missing.

In Spider Project we can create such a filter as I have also done but we have another very similar functionality called Project Truncation. With Truncation you will get the list of activities that will be executed at that period similar to the filter but in addition you will get quantities, costs, durations for planned period. Let me know if you figure it out how to model this within MS Project.

Best Regards,

Rafael

 

Rafael Davila
User offline. Last seen 5 hours 31 min ago. Offline
Joined: 1 Mar 2004
Posts: 5229

Beware that grouping by finish date will not include under each period those tasks started in a pervious period but scheduled to finish in a future period and tasks started during the period but scheduled to finish on a future period. Grouping and filtering are not equivalent.

It all depends on the use of your filter, for updating the universal preferred method is to use a lookahead.

  1. For weekly meetings the two week lookahead is the preferred and will include long lead items to be finished in future weeks but always of concern.
  2. For monthly updates the 3 months lookahead is my preferred as will include activities that might have been progressed ahead of schedule.
  3. For the monthly report the one month Lokahead is the preferred report.

 

 

Darren Kosa
User offline. Last seen 7 years 6 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 8 Feb 2008
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Hi Rohit,

You can try Grouping to show this sort of view in MS Project.

http://www.lehnertcs.com/pdfs/20080125_213649_tip.pdf

Regards,

Darren

Rafael Davila
User offline. Last seen 5 hours 31 min ago. Offline
Joined: 1 Mar 2004
Posts: 5229


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWwRO978ZOk

You can download the above sample job from the following link to explore the 2W Week Lookahead filter.

https://rapidshare.com/files/446377583/2wLookahead.mpp

The key is in using custom number fields.

2wkla filter definition

number field

Regards,
Rafael