Forum Discussion
Action Planning with MS Project Pro
The first thing to do is to create a custom calendar for each country. Each of those calendars should identify the working days, working hours, and holiday exceptions.
Next, create a calendar for each resource with exceptions for their vacation periods.
As you lay out each service task, use the Task Calendar field to identify the country calendar. Which calendar to use for the overall Project calendar depends on a couple factors. If there are other tasks not subject to specific countries, then the Project calendar should be a calendar that reflects the normal working days and times in your company. This might be the default Standard calendar or a custom calendar created with work days, hours and holiday exceptions, but do NOT directly modify the Standard calendar, instead, create a copy of the Standard and modify it as necessary.
You might also have an issue with entering task duration values. Project only has one definition for a "day" and that is by default 8 hours. If you have several different spans for a "day", (i.e. USA works an 8 hour day but country A works a 7.5 hour day, country B works a 9 hour day, etc.), then I suggest you enter duration values in hours.
Those are some starting pointers, if you have further questions, please let us know.
John
thanks John. How would the scheduling planning work ? How can I realize that the intended service period comes to a restriction and with which calendar ? Normally there are two service visits per year in the same company.
Regards, mainze
Here's a simple example that includes many of the elements I noted in my initial response. In this example, resource "Joe" works a normal 8h shift on the Standard calendar (Project calendar). Joe has scheduled vacation on 8/1/24 and 8/2/24 just before he heads out to country A for a 40h service task. Country A has a normal 5 day workweek but work days are 7 hours and there is a country national holiday on 8/4/24 and 8/5/24. When Joe returns from the service task there is a 3h lag so he returns to "normal duties" at his company's normal start at 8:00 am.
The Task Usage view shows a few things. First, it shows Joe's vacation days and Country A's two day holiday. It also shows the work hours per day, normal 8 hour days at "home" and 7 hour days while working at Country A.
How this helps to clarify.
John
- Hi John, thanks for your effort. I have still a question about the connection between calendars. If I mark e. g. New Year' Day as a holiday. It is a holiday in many countries. If I mark it in the German calendar as a holiday, must I do this also in Swiss Calendar (where it is also a holiday) ? Please tell me how the calendars are related to one another ? How is the connection to resource calendar ? Must I mark the 1st January also in the resource calendar ? Regards, mainze
The simple answer is, there is NO connection between custom calendars. If you have a custom calendar for German holidays and it shows Jan 1 as a holiday, and you also have a custom calendar for Swiss holidays, which also has Jan 1 as a holiday, you must also list Jan 1 as a holiday exception on the Swiss calendar. Custom calendars are NOT related.
Resource calendars are defined by the resource's Base Calendar. The resource Base Calendar should show the Project Calendar, but if not edit it to agree with the Project Calendar. That way, the resource picks up all holidays.
However, a resource may have vacation days in addition to holidays. For that case, double click on the resource's name on the Resource Sheet. Then hit the "Change Working Time" button. Add unique exceptions as needed. For example, in this case Hans is taking vacation the week of August 11th.
Hope this further helps.
John