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How can you display Fixed Assignments on Shifts at the Gantt Table?
In the sample schedule above work on Activity 1 is to be performed in two shifts and the required hours per shift are fixed. I want to display on the Gantt Table information that tells me it is a fixed assignment.
Any help will be welcomed.
Best Regards,
Rafael
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The following schedule is a case where critical path is driven by consumable resources along a finish node, another case where my preference would be to use min[start, finish float] to define critical activities. Meanwhile will be using formulas and signals to paint my schedules but it would be easier if the option comes embedded. It looks like consumable resources can easily drive the schedule by finish nodes.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/6379uyxd1426vt6/RD001B.001.sprj
Works very easy, something else would be an overkill. I selected same shade of red Spider uses for other critical bars.
New version permits to set color for critical assignments.
Vladimir,
It is not hard to show as critical all activities that have zero start or finish float. It may be done even without programming. just create custom field Minimal Float and add formula that Minimal Float is minimum of start and finish float, that is calculated automatically with every rescheduling. It is also easy to color bars basing on any parameter and you may select red color if Minimal Float is zero.
> This I did, it worked for activity bars but could not figure it out for assignment bars.
But it is easy to add this field as default though I still think that for decision making it is necessary to know both start and finish floats.
> No doubt about it, also FLEX I consider useful because in our models it is not unusual to have some activities with FLEX we might decide to split if it reduces job duration, if not we prefer to keep the contiguous model.
> Because showing all these values at the Gantt clutters the table, at times, rather than switching layouts we prefer to graphically display late bar and FLEX and look for red bars as well, then to see Activity/Team/Resource details we click on the particular Activity/Team/Resource.
> Red Bars
In summary I have 4 wishes, all to simplify viewing of already available information:
All resource modeling functionality I can think off is already there, it works as expected and is more than I have ever needed but good to have in case is needed.
Best Regards,
Rafael
Rafael,
it is not hard to show as critical all activities that have zero start or finish float. It may be done even without programming. just create custom field Minimal Float and add formula that Minimal Float is minimum of start and finish float, that is calculated automatically withh every rescheduling. It is also easy to color bars basing on any parameter and you may select red color if Minimal Float is zero.
But it is easy to add this field as default though I still think that for decision making it is necessary to know both start and finish floats,
What about adding the option to include "Start/Finish" for me that will make it? In this way at a single click I will be able to toggle the selection. I did not asked for this before because to me "Start/Finish" covers all bases, but if in order to get it I have to live with the other options I can take it.
In my example smallest float shows that either delaying activity start or finish schedule will be delayed then by looking at assignement floats you will know which. iIf you delay/increase Activity 1 team 2 duration by 1 day job duration increases but if you increase team 1 duration by 8 days job duration does not increases. In any case Team 2 is critical by its start as well as by its finish.
I consider an activity critical whenever a resource assigment is critical, by marking the activity as critical then the scheduler is warned of the possibility that if you delay some assignment this will delay job finish.
In resource leveled jobs, for resource loaded activities between activity float, non critical assigments and critical assigments to me the most important are critical assignments, one choice is enough for me [critical assignments].
I am aware of your focus on activity start and have seen before several other of your arguments as this is not a new debate. Maybe we can negotiate to expand GanttSetup to include sparate options for Activity Colors and Assigment Colors and even to default on red color for critical assignments.
At least I see that what I have asked does not require new functrionality other than display options.
Rafael,
I think that it is useful to look at both Start Float and Finish Float. In your example Smallest Float does not show that activity 1 start may be delayed without delaying project finish. In particular in your example manager may prefer to start activity 1 later to minimize its duration for some reason (like noise, safety or other requirements). So I am against the selection of Start, Finish or Smallest Gloat. This choice may lead to missing valuable information.
You reminded me of old Soviet anecdote: God created three human qualities: 1) Be Honest, 2) Be Clever, 3) Belong to Communist Party and suggested to select any two of them.
Yes it is not critical if you define critical activities looking only at start float but I define critical activities as those who have either start or finish float equal to zero because of complex resource assignment. Maybe under this definition there is no such thing as a critical assignment not belonging to a critical activity, if this is the case then let it be. Just make sure you know which assignment is critical.
If you take a look at the sample schedule Activity 1 [as well as Activity 2] drives the schedule finish so for me it is critical. Well in my model it is painted red! Activity 2 resource B assignment drives Activity 1 resource B assignment. If I could I would also paint red all resource assigments with 0 float.
P6 gives you the following options as to define float:
Start Float - Start Float = Late Start – Early Start
Finish Float - Finish Float = Late Finish – Early Finish
Smallest value - Use the lesser of Start Float or Finish Float
I prefer to use Smallest Value to define critical activities and always be aware start and finish float might differ.
Critical Assignments can be easily seen and filtered in Resource Gantt.
Resource B assignment on Activity 1 is critical though an Activity 1 is not critical (has Start Float).
It will be interesting to filter for critical assignments, especially in the case [not happening in this model] that activity is not critical but an assignment is.
I could not tweak bar colors on assignments but tweaked bar color on activity as I have a preference to identify as critical any activity that have 0 start float and/or 0 finish float.
It is curious how the date value on activity 3 line varies as you unlevel an level the schedule.
Vladimir,
That will be great, thanks a lot!
Rafael
Yes, it makes sense. We'll do it.
Would it make sense to expand filter options at the Gantt to include Resource Skills Assignments, Multy Resource Assignments as well as teams?
Over 90% of the time I am working at the Gantt view. That Spider gives you a view to resource assignment is great, I want more of it! Spider resource assignments is unparalleled and requires you look and filter for other fields.
Thank you for the file. We will try to find out the problem.
My project created with your data is here https://www.mediafire.com/?q7f18u9cijuykdk and there is no problems.
Best Regards,
Vladimir
Try the following link.
http://www.mediafire.com/download/wdo2069uuq9e6q2/RD114.001.sprj
By the way I am using Windows 10 and so far no issues with any of my programs.
If you look at the assignment it is a Fixed Duration assignment not Fixed Volume and the value shown I find it misleading, maybe I am missing something but I was expecting the value to read Fixed Duration.
Best Regards,
Rafael
Rafael,
I created the same project with the same data but did not get the same result with the date in Fixed Activity Volume column.
Excellent, this is what I was looking.
Now I am trying to filter for Fixed[for team] equal "Yes" but could not figure it out. I can see filter options for Activities/Phases/Resource_Assignments but not for Teams.
I wonder why a date value in one cell for Activity 3.
Best Regards,
Rafael
Rafael, find Fixed (for teams) in Other section when select Show Column in the Gantt Chart.
The fields are available on the Teams Table but transfering the values to the Activity and Resource Gantts requires dealing with formulas I am trying to avoid. I would like easy access on the Activity and Resource Gantts to fields available on other tables linked by code even when formula creation has been improved much.
I woild like to see a Field Group for Teams available when inserting columns at the Gentt Diagrams, unless I am missing something.
Email: PPadmin@planningplanet.com
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