Forum Discussion
Merging two schedules
Hi, I maintain a large program schedule (superset) in MS Project. The program has multiple contractors, each having their individual schedules (subset) & these schedule form a subset of the larger...
NKumar2010,
How do the contractor schedules account for the organizational approvals and milestones? For example, do the contractor schedules have a "holding period task" while waiting for an approval?
In your schedule do you set up dependencies between their tasks and your organizational tasks? For example, let's say the contractor completes tasks "A", "B" and "C" but then needs an approval before proceeding. How do you model that in your plan? Then how do you relate that to the contractor?
From what you told me so far I think your best bet is to use the static master approach. It may require some rethinking on your part to set up the master (superset) structure but the other approach goes back to the copy/paste/review/revise process which involves a lot of time and redundancy.
John
How do the contractor schedules account for the organizational approvals and milestones? For example, do the contractor schedules have a "holding period task" while waiting for an approval?
In your schedule do you set up dependencies between their tasks and your organizational tasks? For example, let's say the contractor completes tasks "A", "B" and "C" but then needs an approval before proceeding. How do you model that in your plan? Then how do you relate that to the contractor?
From what you told me so far I think your best bet is to use the static master approach. It may require some rethinking on your part to set up the master (superset) structure but the other approach goes back to the copy/paste/review/revise process which involves a lot of time and redundancy.
John
Hi John,
Organizational milestones are not blocking for contractor's tasks. It's more like A, B and C are done, then contractor milestone M1 is achieved. In most cases, Contractor does not wait for the approval, and if there is an approval for which contractor has to wait, it's modelled in contractor's schedule too. The challenge is that A, B, C blows up and creating dependencies with other X, Y, Z . So in order to have the correct M1 and M2, I need to manually trace every dependency across all tasks in contractor's schedule. Are there any plug ins or any best practices available, which can make life easy ?
Organizational milestones are not blocking for contractor's tasks. It's more like A, B and C are done, then contractor milestone M1 is achieved. In most cases, Contractor does not wait for the approval, and if there is an approval for which contractor has to wait, it's modelled in contractor's schedule too. The challenge is that A, B, C blows up and creating dependencies with other X, Y, Z . So in order to have the correct M1 and M2, I need to manually trace every dependency across all tasks in contractor's schedule. Are there any plug ins or any best practices available, which can make life easy ?
- NKumar2010,
Is there any add-in to "make life easier"? No. You'd be asking for an add-in that automatically does project management and I'm afraid that doesn't exist. Have you considered using Project Server or Project Online which are focused on enterprise environments such as what you are describing?
If for some reason an enterprise version of Project is not an option then I suggest you step back and take a look at the current structure of your "superset" plan. Perhaps it can be re-structured such that milestones (and any other items that are not part of contractor plans) are under a separate summary at the beginning. On a periodic basis (e.g. daily, weekly, etc.) insert, without linking, each contractor schedule into your superset plan. Set up dependencies from contractor tasks to the milestones. To make searching in the contractor schedule easier, identify critical items that likely to have a milestone and ask contractors to flag those items (e.g. Flag or Text field) in the contractor's plan. That's what I would do. I might even develop an algorithm to use in a macro to help automate the process.
This is the best advice I can offer based on the limited information provided.
John