![]() ![]() You can see this in the interface: Once Fixed Work is selected, Effort-Driven is always Yes. The Type of task Fixed Work accomplishes most of what the field Effort– Driven = Yes does. I suggest this because this field increases the number of possibilities by a factor of two (from 9 to 18) adding much complexity with little, extra usability. Recommendation #3C is to remove the field Effort– Driven from Project for Desktop. Let’s simplify it further and take an option away that adds little value. This caused many users to get confused and provided me with a lot of training work. Why would you change a value after you tell the scheduling engine to keep it fixed (constant)? You could also change the Units on a Fixed Units task, and change the Work on a Fixed Work task. Project for Desktop allows you to change the Duration on a Fixed Duration task, but let’s think about that. Recommendation #3B is disallow changing the value that is fixed. Let’s simplify by taking an option away that does not make sense. An often-heard criticism was, “ Microsoft Project is changing the values I just entered!” This is what I’ve taught students in every one of my classes! People could remember this and it stopped them from fighting with Microsoft Project. How do you deal with an equation that has three variables: D * U = W? First you protect (or fix) one, then you change the second, and, finally, the third one will always be re-calculated by MS Project! You can protect a value by setting the task field Type to Fixed Duration, Fixed Units, or Fixed Work. These five fields create a grant total of 3*2*3=18 possible permutations of values, which creates too much complexity for the user. ![]() Recommendation #3A: Rename the field Work in Project for Desktop to Effort like has been done in Project for the web. Field Effort driven with 2 values: Yes, No.Field Type with 3 values: Fixed Duration, Fixed Units, Fixed Work.Regardless of whether my thousands of students had used MS Project just one month, a year, or even a decade, I could safely assume that simplifying the process of assigning resources was of interest to them! The issue with Microsoft Project is that there are too many fields that make Modeling Workloads too cumbersome: I believe the fields involved in assigning resources in MS Project have created the most problems and biggest challenges for users in previous decades. You can find the first two articles here and here. This article is the third in this series, A Better Microsoft Project. Project Portfolio Management (PPM) Training.Project Management Office (PMO) Training.Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Training.Project Management Certification Training. ![]()
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