Allow subtask out of parent task schedule in proiect workspace

[anika ehrling]

Hi,

as a project manager I want to add subphases (child tasks) to the project ganth chart in the plannign section without changing the parent phase (parent task). This is because phases are planned first and detailled sub phases will be planned afterwards. 

In the planning console, on the preference tab, I was abel to change the calculation to manual. This would do the trick. But this doe not work in the project workspace. 

How do I allow the sub tasks outside the parent task schedule in the project workspace? 

Thank you in advance. 

[Uncle Rob]

I think the easiest thing to do would be making the child tasks the same duration as the parent.
Converting from Auto to Manual project calculation tend to only work when the project has VERY FEW project tasks.
Once you get to the point of defining the child tasks in those phases you'll wish you had that Automatic back.

[anika ehrling]

HI, thank you for the answer.
The child tasks will have shorter durations and there will be several child tasks.  My customer uses this for ´planning, as from a process point of few phases are planned first, and detailled planning of the phases comes afterwards. So when I have phases (parent tasks) planned and then I want to add child tasks it totally destroys the planning. However, the manual calculation is working in the project workbench. There I can add child tasks which have a shorter duration of the parent task when I have calculation = manual. this function is not working the same in the newer project workspace. So, now that my client is using the project workspace, we try to find a solution for this. It this a maybe a bug? Will the calculation= manual work the same in the future just like in the project workbench? If not, what else can be done to have the same function? 


Thank you in advance. Anika

[Uncle Rob]

MANUAL calculation means ABSOLUTELY NO HELP.
No matter how many project tasks you have, you will be stuck manually entering all dates for all of them, no exceptions.  Manual ONLY works for projects with very small amount of project tasks.

You have two problems
1)  You can't predict the future
2)  You can't dictate how much time something will take.

So we can't say "Phase1 is one month" and then try to cram in the subtasks under that assumption.
Things take the amount of time they take.  Sometimes this means the schedule changes, which is why Project Management exists in the first place.

So in this case I'd advise the following:
- "Phase" is just a Project Task anyway... so make it as long a duration as you think it is.
- When (and ONLY when) you have a good enough idea of the subtasks, simply add them in with the durations we estimate.

If the sum of the subtasks is wildly different than the original phase plan, then we planned badly.

[Uncle Rob]

"A task takes as long as its subcomponents" is like foundational project management assumption.
If you break that truth, you can never be confident about your timelines.