Creating Effort Driven Schedules
Creating Effort Driven Schedules
Objectives
 Understanding Your Job and the Tools Job
 Understanding Task Types
 Six Steps to an Effort Driven Project Schedule
Understand Your Job, The Tools Job
Project Leader’s Job
 Determine the amount of work (effort) the task will
take (according to a documented procedure, remember?)
 Determine which resource to assign to the task
 Determine resource availability and calendar
adjustments
 Determine Task Dependencies
 Manage Resource Over-allocations
MS Project’s Job
 Calculate Duration of the Task
 Calculate Start and Finish Dates
 Help Identify Resource Over-allocations
Understand Task Types
Fixed Unit Tasks
 MS Project default, when effort driven scheduling is enabled
 Adding more resources makes task duration shorter
 Removing resources makes task duration longer
Fixed Work Tasks
 All tasks of this type are effort driven
 Tasks behave similarly to fixed unit tasks with regard to
adding and deleting resources
 Provides more flexibility than fixed unit tasks (IMHO)
Fixed Duration Tasks
 Not recommended for effort driven tasks
 Duration is kept constant when resources are added or
removed
 Work is added or removed when resources are added
Example 1
Purpose
 Illustrate task types
 Illustrate “The Rule”
 Show how “The Rule” can affect tracking
Example 1- Lessons Learned
Lessons Learned
 Task Types are used to fix one of the variables in
the equation:
 Entering actual start and finish dates is equivalent
to adjusting the task duration
 Updating Task Actuals using the task form can give
unreliable results*
Effort Driven Schedules
Six easy steps
(42 substeps,19 caveats :)
 Setup Tool Options and Project working times
 Define Resources and their Working Times
 Input the Work Breakdown Structure
Your Job
 Define Task Dependencies and Priorities
 Assign Resources & Input Assignment Effort
Estimates
 Let MS Project Calculate Dates and Durations
Tools Job
Step 1 - Set the Tool Options
Set Default Task
Type to Fixed Work
Set Project Start Date
Tools  Options  Schedule Tab
Project  Project Information
Project Information Dialog
Tool Options Dialog
Set Project Working Time
 Edit the project calendar to allow for non-productive time
 Use Non-working time to identify company holidays
 Use Non-default working time to allow for project overhead
Set Project Working Time
Tools  Change Working Time
Change Working Time Dialog
Set Project Working Time (cont.)
 When you adjust the project calendar, adjust the
calendar options accordingly
Set Duration Translations
Tools  Options  Calendar Tab
Tool Options Dialog
Example 2 – Allowing for Overhead
Purpose
 Illustrate what happens when calendar option do
not align with the project calendar
Example 2 – Lessons Learned
Account for non-productive time by:
 adjusting the working times on the project’s standard
calendar
 and setting the calendar options accordingly
Recommend setting productive time to one
of the following:
 50% - 4 hours per day, 20 hrs per week
 63% - 5 hours per day, 25 hours per week
 75% - 6 hours per day, 30 hours per week
Step 2 – Define Your Resources
 Enter Resource Names and Max Units on Resource
Sheet
Define Resources
View  Resource Sheet
Resource Sheet View in MS Project
Max Units
 Used by MS Project to identify resource over-allocations
 Use Max Units to reflect the percentage of time a
resource is assigned to your project
 Max units field is not to be confused with the units field
that is used for resource assignments
 Dedicated = 100%
 Shared = some %
 varying availability
Resource Availability
Adjust resource calendars
 to account for those people who do not work a standard
week, or are unavailable
 affect how assignments are scheduled
 Use non working
time for those out
for full days
 Use non default
time those who
work short days
Example 3 - Lessons Learned
Purpose
 Illustrate the use of Max units field
 Illustrate how the units field relates to Max units
field
 Illustrate how to use resources calendars
Example 3 - Lessons Learned
The Max Units field:
 should be used to designate what percentage of
time a resource is assigned to your project
 is used by MS Project to identify resource over
allocations
 Is not to be confused with the units field used for
resource assignments
Individual Resource calendars are used to:
 Adjust calendars for non-working times (i.e.
vacations) and non-standard working times (part
time resources)
 They are not meant to be used to help you track
project actuals
Step 3 – Input the WBS
Use Task Entry View
View
 More Views
 Task Entry
Set Details to
Resource Work
Format
 Details
 Resource Work
Task Entry View in MS Project
Step 4 - Task Dependencies & Priorities
 Task Dependencies
 Describes how a task is related to the start or finish of
another task
 Recommend using finish to start dependencies primarily
 All tasks should have predecessors (apart from the first task)
 Do not set dependencies between summary tasks
 Can be used for resolving resource over-allocations (but not
recommended)
Step 5 – Assign Resources
Use task form to assign resources,
workload, and adjustments
Task Entry View in MS Project
Step 6 – Calculate Date and Durations
Allow MS Project to calculate task durations,
start and finish dates
 Remember your job and the tools job!
 MS Project calculates durations using the formula:
 Never enter in planned start dates. Doing so will create
unwanted task constraints
Effort Driven Scheduling
 Not very well documented in literature,
but . . .
 Not rocket science
 Understand
 “The Rule”
 Your Job and the Tools Job
 Remember
 Six step process for creating an effort driven
schedule