Entering Planned Hours for Calendar Periods
In the labor planning grids, use the calendar period columns to enter planned hours for a resource assignment for specific days, weeks, or months. As the work progresses, you can also use those columns to adjust the estimate-to-complete (ETC) hours for the assignment.
Display the Calendar Period Columns in Resource View
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Forecast Range to display the Change Forecast Range dialog box. In that dialog box, you can specify the following:
- Calendar period scale: days, weeks, or months
- Number of calendar period columns to display
- Starting calendar period
For example, if you select Weeks in Scale, 8 in Duration, and July 1, 2016 in Start Week, the grid displays eight calendar period columns, each column represents a week, and the first calendar period column is for the week that contains July 1, 2016.
Display the Calendar Period Columns in Project View or on the Labor Tab of the Projects Form
The Project View grid and the labor planning grid in the Projects form always attempt to display all calendar periods in the project's plan date range. However, if the number of calendar period columns exceeds 50, DPS displays the first 50 columns and displays a date range selector above the grid so you can display other calendar period columns.
In addition, you can click Scale above the grids and, in the Change Scale dialog box, indicate whether you want calendar period columns by week or by month, or a combination of day columns and month columns. If you choose a combination of days and months, you also specify if you want day columns for one or two months, and you select the month in which you want to begin displaying plan data by day. The rest of the project plan, both before and after the day calendar periods, displays by month.
Select the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Level
In all labor planning grids, you can enter hours for any WBS element to which the resource is assigned and at any level of the tree structure. In Project View and on the Labor tab of the Projects form, you can also enter hours at the resource level.
The level at which you enter the hours does not limit your ability to view the hours at other levels. For example, if you enter hours for a parent WBS element (an element at a level of the WBS above the lowest level) and then you expand the WBS further to display lower-level WBS elements, DPS allocates those hours to the calendar period field for each lower-level WBS row and, in Project View, to each resource.
Allocation of Calendar Period Hours
If you enter hours in a calendar period column at a level of the WBS other than the lowest level, DPS automatically allocates those hours to lower-level elements and, in Project View and on the Labor tab of the Projects form, to resources.
- If no hours have been entered for any dates in the calendar period for lower-level WBS elements or resources under that parent element, the hours from the parent element are allocated to each lower-level element or resource in proportion to the number of work days in the calendar period for the lower-level element or resource. (Effectively, the hours are spread equally among all work days at each level.)
- If some hours have been entered for dates in the calendar period for one or more lower-level WBS elements or resources under that parent element, the hours from the parent are allocated to each lower-level element or resource in proportion to its current number of hours. Lower-level elements and resources that currently have no hours for the calendar period receive no allocation.
Example: Allocation of Calendar Period Hours for an Assignment with No Existing ETC Hours
For October, a resource has two assignments at the Task level, the lowest level of the WBS. The assignment dates for Task 1 include 5 October work days, and those for Task 2 include 10 October work days. The parent WBS element at the next higher level for the two tasks is Phase 1.
To enter hours for those assignments, you set the scale for the grid to Months, and you enter 60 in the October calendar period for Phase 1. If you then expand the WBS to display the Task level, DPS allocates those hours equally among the October work days for the two Task-level assignments: 60 hours / 15 work days = 4 hours per work day. As a result, the October calendar period column displays 20 for Task 1 (5 work days x 4 hours) and 40 for Task 2 (10 work days x 4 hours).
Example: Allocation of Calendar Period Hours for an Assignment with Existing ETC Hours
For October, a resource has two assignments at the Task level, the lowest level of the WBS. The parent WBS element at the next higher level for the two tasks is Phase 1. Initially, you enter 20 in the October calendar period column for Task 1 and 30 in that column for Task 2. Later, you decide to double those hours. To do so, you enter 100 in the October calendar period column for Phase 1, the parent WBS element. If you then expand the WBS to display the Task level, DPS allocates the 100 hours proportionally based on each task's existing hours. The October calendar period column then displays 40 for Task 1 and 60 for Task 2.
Current Date and JTD Date
If you only activate the Resource Planning application, the JTD date is the point at which ETC hours become past hours. Generally, the JTD date is the date of the latest historical labor record in the DPS database. The JTD date is updated automatically as labor records are added to the database, but your system administrator can temporarily specify a different date if necessary. If you activate other applications, the current date serves the same purpose as the JTD date, and there is no JTD date.
In Resource View, you can only view or enter hours for calendar periods that include at least one day that is later than the current/JTD date. If you need to review past planned hours, you can use DPS reports. In Project View, you can view all calendar periods in the project's plan date range, but you can only enter hours for calendar periods that include dates later than the current/JTD date.
If the First Calendar Period Column Includes a Mix of Past and Future Dates
You can only enter ETC hours for dates that are after the current/JTD date. It is possible, however, that the current/JTD date will fall within the date range of a calendar period column. In that case, that calendar period contains both past dates and future dates, and you can enter ETC hours for the resource for that period for the future dates. To do that, click in that calendar period field to display a drop-down dialog box that shows both the hours for past days in the period and the current ETC hours. You can enter or change the ETC hours. The grid cell then displays the updated sum of the past hours and ETC hours.
Assignment Dates and Plan Dates
At the lowest level of the WBS in Resource View and at the resource level in Project view and on the Labor tab of the Projects form, you can enter hours for calendar periods that fall outside the current assignment date range. DPS then changes the assignment date range to include those calendar periods. It also updates assignment start or end dates at higher WBS levels if the change makes that necessary.
The same is true for calendar periods that fall outside of the current plan date range for a WBS element. In that case, DPS displays a message that asks you to confirm that you want to change the plan date. If you confirm the change, the plan dates are changed for that WBS element and, if necessary, for higher-level WBS elements also.
You cannot enter hours outside of the assignment date range or plan date range for parent WBS elements.
Calendar Periods with No Work Days
If a calendar period includes no work days (because of a holiday, for example), you can still enter hours for it if you do so at the lowest level of the WBS in Resource View or at the resource level in Project view or on the Labor tab of the Projects form.
If the calendar period you enter the hours for is a week or month, DPS allocates the hours equally to all non-working days. For example, if the scale is set to Weeks and you enter 35 in the calendar period column for a week that contains no work days, DPS allocates 5 hours to each of the days in that week.
Use Summary Hours to Save Time
A commonly used alternative to entering hours for resource assignments calendar period by calendar period is to enter the total hours for a range of dates, let DPS spread those hours across the calendar periods, and then make any necessary changes to individual calendar periods.
For example, suppose you add a new resource assignment with a start date of 4/4/2016 and an end date of 4/8/2016, a date range of five work days. You expect the resource to work 30 hours for that assignment, and you want to specify the hours for each day of the assignment. With the scale for the Resource View grid set to Days and calendar period columns displayed for the assignment dates, you enter 30 in Total ETC Hours. Because you did not previously enter hours in any calendar period columns for the assignment, DPS allocates the thirty hours equally among the five work days and displays 6.0 in the calendar period column for each day. You can then change that number for any individual days on which the resource is expected to work other than 6 hours.
- To allocate summary hours over the assignment date range for a WBS element, enter the hours in Total ETC Hours.
- To allocate summary hours over the current forecast range, enter the hours in Range ETC Hours.
- To allocate summary hours over the portion of the assignment date range that precedes the start date of the current forecast range, enter the hours in ETC Before.
- To allocate summary hours over the portion of the assignment date range that follows the end date of the current forecast range, enter the hours in ETC After.
- To allocate summary hours over the remaining working days in the assignment date range for a resource, enter the hours in ETC Hours in the resource grid row.
- To allocate summary hours over the remaining working days in the plan date range for all resources assigned to a WBS element, enter the hours in ETC Hours in the grid row for the WBS element.