Dear Community Members,
In this week's Learn PPM with Rego, we'll explore five CA PPM questions and answers.
1. What is the difference between Fixed Duration and Not Fixed?
2. Can I set or reset partial baselines in Open Workbench?
3. What is the best way to reorganize an existing schedule without losing dependencies?
4. Can I include Contingency in the project schedule?
5. How can I accelerate a portion of my schedule to be performed ahead of others, without circumventing my dependency network?
Please feel free to comment on any alternative answers you've found.
We love your input (always).
Not Fixed is also referred to as Variable Duration. This duration type is best used for resource constrained tasks, where the task duration is almost exclusively determined by how many resources are assigned to the task (disregarding the law of diminishing returns—sometimes more is just more). Variable Duration / Resource Constrained tasks are the most prevalent in most schedules.
Fixed Duration is best for time constrained tasks, where the task duration is not impacted by resources, but exclusively determined by elapsed time. For example, a 5-day training course takes 5-days, no matter how many attendees there are. Other examples might be meetings, a UAT testing period, etc.
Selected Items
Note Phase 2 has been highlighted, where you might use this method for new WBS content.
Filtered View
Filter = Status is not completed. You might use this method to protect the baselines of completed tasks, and to re-baseline tasks where the schedule has changed.
AnswerYou can use Priorities. Priorities may be placed anywhere in the WBS. If placed on a summary task, the priority affects all its detail tasks.
Below is a schedule where Tasks 3, 4, and 5 are on the critical path. They get scheduled first. All tasks have the default priority of 10.Now if we change the Priority of Activity 1 to a value less than 10 (the lower the value, the higher the priority), and then reschedule, Tasks 1 and 2 are scheduled first.
*A special thanks to Jon Hoaldridge for this great material.