As initially proposed by Vladimir it is starting to look like it is easier and safer to:
Just make an exception in the resource calendar at the "must" activities time period and do not assign resources to activities that are must. This way overallocations are avoided and resources may interrupt jobs they are doing for attending seminar, conference of president. In any case these activities usually do not represent real work.
All you need is a single exception per "must activity" you assign to the calendars of resources that will be required for the "must activity". The trick is that you will not assign these resources to the "must activity" but will mark them as unavailable via the calendar exception. It is easy to report calendar exception assignments as well as to make changes to the exceptions that will be automatically applied to all calendars with such exception.
You can create additional dummy resource and assign this resource to "must" activities, then create resource center adding dummy resource to the real one, and then get reports on resource center. You will get full information on total resource workload.
It is not necessary to apply special calendars to dummy resources in the model. Assign 24/7 calendar with no exceptions. In any case they shall be assigned to activities that have special calendars and dates and will be used only on these activities.
Best Regards,
Rafael
Member for
24 years 9 months
Member for24 years9 months
Submitted by Vladimir Liberzon on Wed, 2014-03-05 22:03
there are many ways to achieve the same in Spider Project.
Using high priority activities for exceptions will require to use variable resource assignments on all other activities or set other activities as splitable. It will make calculations slower and may take more time than entering time exceptions for several resources, creating dummy resources and resource centers.
Exceptions activities with manually entered dates shall be created in both cases.
I don’t understand what do you mean by succeeding exception. I understoof that exception is an activity that does not depend on anything in the project (like visit, vacation, etc.).
If it is project activity then other competing activities shall become splitable with lower priority.
The problem with interruptible activities may be created if other activities (not exception activities) have higher priority. It may lead to unwanted interruptions.
I think that an approach that I suggested is more safe but other described above may work also.
Below is an example of the same project when calendar exceptions are not used but activities are set as splittable.
I just made a comparison table to show 2 different approach to handle exception:
As a very high priority activity
As a calendar exception.
Assumption: there is a need to show the exception in the report using the method suggetsed by you.
Is the table correct in your view?
Using calendar exceptionUsing high priority activityNeed for activity to show exceptionYesYesNeed for one extra dummy resource per real resourceYesNoNeed for one extra resource center per real resource to combine every real resource with dummy resource for reporting purposesYesNoNeed for Calendar exceptionYesNoNeed for Separate calendar for every resourceYesNoNeed to manually synch duration and start time of exception and activity, which shows exceptionYesNoNeed to Manually update dates of the succeeding exception, if preceding activities have changedYesNo
Regards.
Evgeny
Member for
24 years 9 months
Member for24 years9 months
Submitted by Vladimir Liberzon on Wed, 2014-03-05 06:57
it is not necessary to apply special calendars to dummy resources in the model I described. I would assign 24/7 calendar with no exceptions. In any case they shall be assigned to activities that have special calendars and dates and will be used only on these activities.
So it is much easier than Evgeny described: Show certain exceptions as activities, create dummy resources with large quantity (Rafael is right), assign these resources to exception activities, create resource centers combining real and dummy resources.
Now any report may be created including those that Evgeny described. If necessary, dummy activities may be hidden.
Member for
21 years 8 months
Member for21 years8 months
Submitted by Rafael Davila on Mon, 2014-03-03 22:16
When Vladimir said: By the way you can create additional dummy resource and assign this resource to "must" activities, then create resource center adding dummy resource to the real one, and then get reports on resource center. You will get full information on total resource workload.
I believe he also meant to say use additional dummy resource; for Visits of presidents etc, Trainings, scheduled externally and Actually any activity, which is not influenced by a scheduler, however which he has to take into account.
The dummy resource is a meeting resource, this means shall be on every team on "must" activities and the activities will be scheduled to happen only when all meeting resources are available.
Meeting Resource shall be assigned a special calendar where availability is only on dates they must be assigned.
Meeting Resource shall be of a very high quantity as it not to delay activities because of quantity limits but to use it only to schedule activities when all meeting resources are available because of a common calendar.
A must date constraint will not do it, it will allow impossible assignments.
Say you fix Rafael meeting in Cuba this Monday 7am GMT, Rafael meeting in Sochy this Monday 7am GMT, by brute force it is possible but it is wrong.
You assign Rafael and Meeting Resource to Cuba Meeting and do the same for Sochi meeting.
The meeting resource will not prevent both activities to happen simultaneously because it was set very high quantity it is the single Rafael resource that will prevent the two meetings to be scheduled the same day.
Say you need three activities to happen on Monday.
The meeting resource will not prevent any activity to happen simultaneously because it was set very high quantity but activities will be scheduled to happen when Meeting Resource and activities resources are available at the same time. Assign the activities a high priority so they will not be scheduled on Monday if for some reason is imposible otherwise they will.
For Vacations the calendars exceptions is enough for resources to be assigned on vacations and the dummy resource is enough to show vacation activities.
To show a calendar as an activity you assign the dummy resource to the activity and it will be scheduled only when available based on his calendar, the dummy resource will be available on vacation calendar.
Whenever you adjust any calendar the above activities would be automatically adjusted. The idea on RCP - Resource Critical Path scheduling is on making sure there are no resource overload if you fix by brute force activities it will not work.
using calendar exceptions is one of the possibilities, but in my eyes it has several disadvantages:
It would require creation of the separate calendar for every resource.
It will be very difficult to manage if unmovable activities are a bit more complex than just a single activity. E.g. if there are several activities, linked to each other. In this case if one extends duration of the 1st activity, than he also would have to change the start date of the 2nd activity (calendar exception) etc. So it becomes a bit messy to manage
There is no report available to show all exceptions for a specific resource.
The way to produce a report on the resource workload suggested by you would work, but it would require a creation of: individual calendar for a resource; calendar exception; separate dummy resource; activity, which falls exactly in the exception; resource center. So, to conclude: this is very difficult to manage as well as to update.
From the other side, the “do not resource level” or “very high priority” activity functionality seems to be already present in the algorithm. As the “unachievable NLT constraint” or “Consider Portfolio Schedule” features must be using it pretty much. So, may be it is not that difficult to add it formally to Spider?
In such cases we just made an exception in the resource calendar at the president visit time period and do not assign resources to activities that are must. This way overallocations are avoided and resources may interrupt jobs they are doing for attending seminar, conference of president. In any case these activities usually do not represent real work.
By the way you can create additional dummy resource and assign this resource to "must" activities, then create resource center adding dummy resource to the real one, and then get reports on resource center. You will get full information on total resource workload.
Member for
21 years 8 monthsAs initially proposed by
As initially proposed by Vladimir it is starting to look like it is easier and safer to:
Best Regards,
Rafael
Member for
24 years 9 monthsEvgeny,there are many ways to
Evgeny,
there are many ways to achieve the same in Spider Project.
Using high priority activities for exceptions will require to use variable resource assignments on all other activities or set other activities as splitable. It will make calculations slower and may take more time than entering time exceptions for several resources, creating dummy resources and resource centers.
Exceptions activities with manually entered dates shall be created in both cases.
I don’t understand what do you mean by succeeding exception. I understoof that exception is an activity that does not depend on anything in the project (like visit, vacation, etc.).
If it is project activity then other competing activities shall become splitable with lower priority.
The problem with interruptible activities may be created if other activities (not exception activities) have higher priority. It may lead to unwanted interruptions.
I think that an approach that I suggested is more safe but other described above may work also.
Below is an example of the same project when calendar exceptions are not used but activities are set as splittable.
Member for
17 years 9 monthsVladimir,I just made a
Vladimir,
I just made a comparison table to show 2 different approach to handle exception:
Assumption: there is a need to show the exception in the report using the method suggetsed by you.
Is the table correct in your view?
Using calendar exceptionUsing high priority activityNeed for activity to show exceptionYesYesNeed for one extra dummy resource per real resourceYesNoNeed for one extra resource center per real resource to combine every real resource with dummy resource for reporting purposesYesNoNeed for Calendar exceptionYesNoNeed for Separate calendar for every resourceYesNoNeed to manually synch duration and start time of exception and activity, which shows exceptionYesNoNeed to Manually update dates of the succeeding exception, if preceding activities have changedYesNo
Regards.
Evgeny
Member for
24 years 9 monthsI would suggest this When
I would suggest this
Member for
17 years 9 monthsVladimir,I have made an
Vladimir,
I have made an example of what I think you mean.
Is it correct?
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1FBt_G3gCVqajhLdlZaa2J4OU0/edit
Member for
21 years 8 monthsThanks Vladimir,Very easy
Thanks Vladimir,
Very easy indeed.
Rafael
Member for
24 years 9 monthsEvgeny and Rafael,it is not
Evgeny and Rafael,
it is not necessary to apply special calendars to dummy resources in the model I described. I would assign 24/7 calendar with no exceptions. In any case they shall be assigned to activities that have special calendars and dates and will be used only on these activities.
So it is much easier than Evgeny described: Show certain exceptions as activities, create dummy resources with large quantity (Rafael is right), assign these resources to exception activities, create resource centers combining real and dummy resources.
Now any report may be created including those that Evgeny described. If necessary, dummy activities may be hidden.
Member for
21 years 8 monthsWhen Vladimir said: By the
When Vladimir said: By the way you can create additional dummy resource and assign this resource to "must" activities, then create resource center adding dummy resource to the real one, and then get reports on resource center. You will get full information on total resource workload.
Say you fix Rafael meeting in Cuba this Monday 7am GMT, Rafael meeting in Sochy this Monday 7am GMT, by brute force it is possible but it is wrong.
Say you need three activities to happen on Monday.
For Vacations the calendars exceptions is enough for resources to be assigned on vacations and the dummy resource is enough to show vacation activities.
Whenever you adjust any calendar the above activities would be automatically adjusted. The idea on RCP - Resource Critical Path scheduling is on making sure there are no resource overload if you fix by brute force activities it will not work.
Best Regards,
Zulu Time
Member for
17 years 9 monthsVladimir,using calendar
Vladimir,
using calendar exceptions is one of the possibilities, but in my eyes it has several disadvantages:
From the other side, the “do not resource level” or “very high priority” activity functionality seems to be already present in the algorithm. As the “unachievable NLT constraint” or “Consider Portfolio Schedule” features must be using it pretty much. So, may be it is not that difficult to add it formally to Spider?
Regards.
Evgeny
Member for
19 years 10 monthsHi EvgenyI would put this
Hi Evgeny
I would put this type of "interuptions" on a calendar and apply them to the resource. That would over ride the task calendar.
Best regards
Mike Testro
Member for
24 years 9 monthsIn such cases we just made an
In such cases we just made an exception in the resource calendar at the president visit time period and do not assign resources to activities that are must. This way overallocations are avoided and resources may interrupt jobs they are doing for attending seminar, conference of president. In any case these activities usually do not represent real work.
By the way you can create additional dummy resource and assign this resource to "must" activities, then create resource center adding dummy resource to the real one, and then get reports on resource center. You will get full information on total resource workload.