General
The Job Schedule provides a way to build a Gantt chart for the project.
The screen is broken into 4 quadrants:
1. Task information grid - shows basic information about tasks. Double clicking will open detailed window.
2. Bar chart time based schedule - shows a time line of the tasks. Double clicking will open detailed window.
3. Workgroup information grid
4. Workgroup workload time based schedule
When you first open the project schedule, all the phase codes will be listed as tasks in phase code order. You can change the sort, or manually drag and drop tasks into the order you wish.
Save Schedule: This will save the current schedule back to the database. Only people with permission can save the schedule.
Save Baseline: This will take the current schedule and save it as a baseline schedule. This allows you to compare the current schedule against the baseline schedule, and display any slippage in the schedule.
Indent: This allows you to create an outline of tasks. You can highlight several tasks and click outline, then they will be grouped together with a summary project bar. You can then name the summary bar.
Outdent: This reverse the operation above.
Undo/Redo: This allows you to undo or redo certain operations.
Weekends: Clicking this button will show the weekends and holidays in the timeline. Clicking it again will turn it off.
Auto Scheduling: When this button is clicked the system will schedule all the tasks based on the connections between the tasks.
Critical Path: This will display the tasks in the critical path in red.
Baseline: This will display the baseline below the scheduled bars in the timeline. Tasks that are running late will show as "x days overdue".
Zoom In: This will increase the time resolution. So columns will change from years to months to weeks to days.
Zoom Out: This will reduce the time resolution. So columns will change from days to weeks to months to years.
Zoom to Fit: This will fit the entire schedule in the window.
Left Columns
ID: This is a system managed id code used to reference the schedule lines.
Description: This is a user defined description that defaults from the phase code description.
Phase Code: From the ERP system
Cost Type: From the ERP system
Start: Scheduled Start Date
Finish: Scheduled Finish Date
Duration: This is the task duration in working days
After ID: This is to define predecessors to this task (task that happens before this task)
Calendar: Allows a special calendar to be assigned to a specific task. This will override the project calendar.
+ Icon: This allows the user to add a task or milestone to the schedule
You can adjust which columns are visible by right clicking on the header and selecting the columns. The system will remember the settings for that job. If you want to adjust the default settings for all jobs then go to Setup | Schedule Setup | Grid Setup.
Cost Types
You can adjust which cost types display by clicking the COST TYPES button. The system will remember your settings for that job. If you want to adjust the default settings for all jobs then go to Setup | Schedule Setup | Grid Setup.
Scheduling Constraints
- Percent complete is fully integrated with the Forman labor reporting.
- Drag and Drop connections between tasks provide logical connections:
- Finish/Start as FS
- Start/Start as SS
- Start/Finish as SF
- Finish/Finish as FF
- Full constraint management for tasks:
- As soon as possible
- As late as possible
- Start no earlier than
- Start no later than
- Finish no earlier than
- Finish no later than
- Must start on
- Must finish on
The After ID field tell the system what task happens before this task. When entering data in the field use the format:
ID <dependency> <+/- lag days>
Example - if we want task 1.2 to start 3 days after task 1.1 then:
1.1 Task1.1
1.2 Task1.2: After ID = 1.1 + 3d
Example - if we want task 1.2 to finish 1 day after task 1.1 then:
1.1 Task1.1
1.2 Task1.2: After ID = 1.1FF +1d
ID: Must be an existing line in the schedule
Dependency: set as FS, SS, FF, FS. If you leave this blank the system assumes FS.
Lag: set as + or - in days. If you leave this blank the system assumes zero.
Hiding Tasks
Sometimes it is useful to hide some of the phase code tasks. For instance, you may have a task called Project Manager that extends through the entire duration of the project, but it is not helpful to display it on the Gantt chart.
To hide a task, open the dialog box by double clicking the task bar or description. On the dialog box click HIDE. This will move the task to the bottom of the Gantt into a section called "Hidden Tasks". Doing this will set the task as "unscheduled", so any start/finish dates are removed. This also means the labor associated with this task will be removed from the resource loading calculations.
At any time, you can unhide these tasks and return them to the schedule.
Creating Additional Scheduling Lines
You can create any additional items in your schedule. To do this click on the "+" sign at the outline level where you want the new entry. to appear. At this point you will be able to create an entry that is one of the following:
- Project
- Milestone
- Task
Typically you will creating either milestones or tasks. Keep in mind there is no way to add "work" to these new tasks, since all the work is already assigned to one of the phase code tasks. However it is useful to add subcontracting tasks if you need to show them in the schedule, or milestones, such as approvals that you want to show in the schedule.
When you add additional tasks, then you can enter the percent complete for the task by double clicking the task. These tasks will not affect the percent complete of any summary task, since they have no work assigned to them. The percent complete on the summary tasks are managed by the system, based on the work done for each sub task vs the total work on the sub tasks.