MSP is inexpensive, very user friendly (especially for beginners) and provides decent default reports and graphs. A casual user of MS Office with no scheduling experience can pick MSP up and quickly create schedules. However a seasoned scheduler working on a construction contract is likely to struggle with updating and maintaining the schedule.
Some of the “ease of use” features function at the expense of the CPM theory, which become sources of confusion for a seasoned scheduler. The main areas are:
1) MSP Baseline management is cumbersome and confusing for the average scheduler.
2) MSP updating method of using % Complete is not suitable for construction schedules.
3) MSP Data Date issues which in effect complicate the schedule update process are confusing for construction schedulers.
4) Due to the difficulty of using MSP to note uncompleted work before the Data Date, the difficulties in removing status for what-ifs, and the difficulty in identifying variances between a series of MSP schedules, it is hard to do most types of delay analysis (except perhaps RP 29R-03 [6] MIP 3.1 and 3.2)
5) Due to all of the built-in update help routines that automatically insert made-up actual dates and remaining durations; it is difficult to assume that most MSP schedules contain accurate enough status data that is necessary for a detailed analysis.
Of course this does not mean that MSP cannot be used for construction scheduling. MSP is here to stay as many contracts are now mandating its use.
I am not a MSP user but agree with Ron Winter, MSP is here to stay, better you know a bit about it.
Member for
19 years 1 month
Member for19 years1 month
Submitted by Thomas Nicholson on Fri, 2013-07-05 14:31
Gary - I can't find an option to select "status date" in the filter section or indeed how to select complete as a status
Mike - actually that was an exaggerated example to explain my point but thanks for joining in with that (although we have been known to have things like blockades that last that long)
Vladamir - that does look like it's done the job, thanks for that.
Cheers all,
Thom
Member for
16 years 7 months
Member for16 years7 months
Submitted by Gary Whitehead on Fri, 2013-07-05 14:06
Member for
16 years 4 monthsHi ThomasClick on” file” then
Hi Thomas
Click on” file” then on “ print” and choose the Time range you need “from” “ to”
If you don’t get the interval in one page, go to time scale and adjust it till you get your intervali n one page.
Regards
Kamel
Member for
21 years 8 monthshttp://www.planningplanet.com
http://www.planningplanet.com/forums/microsoft-project/541037/creating-look-ahead-filter-ms-project-2010
From: http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/project-help/filter-tasks-or-resources-HA101929354.aspx
MSP 2010 includes a Date Range Filter. I believe MSP 2007 also provides such a filter, in such case you don't need to re-invent the date range filter.
http://officetechsupport.wordpress.com/2010/04/25/creating-complex-ms-project-filters/ can give you some clues about the status date field on filters.
Be aware that MSP have some issues with displaying and observing the Status Date.
From: http://www.ronwinterconsulting.com/MS_Project_for_Construction.pdf
Conclusion
MSP is inexpensive, very user friendly (especially for beginners) and provides decent default reports and graphs. A casual user of MS Office with no scheduling experience can pick MSP up and quickly create schedules. However a seasoned scheduler working on a construction contract is likely to struggle with updating and maintaining the schedule.
Some of the “ease of use” features function at the expense of the CPM theory, which become sources of confusion for a seasoned scheduler. The main areas are:
1) MSP Baseline management is cumbersome and confusing for the average scheduler.
2) MSP updating method of using % Complete is not suitable for construction schedules.
3) MSP Data Date issues which in effect complicate the schedule update process are confusing for construction schedulers.
4) Due to the difficulty of using MSP to note uncompleted work before the Data Date, the difficulties in removing status for what-ifs, and the difficulty in identifying variances between a series of MSP schedules, it is hard to do most types of delay analysis (except perhaps RP 29R-03 [6] MIP 3.1 and 3.2)
5) Due to all of the built-in update help routines that automatically insert made-up actual dates and remaining durations; it is difficult to assume that most MSP schedules contain accurate enough status data that is necessary for a detailed analysis.
Of course this does not mean that MSP cannot be used for construction scheduling. MSP is here to stay as many contracts are now mandating its use.
I am not a MSP user but agree with Ron Winter, MSP is here to stay, better you know a bit about it.
Member for
19 years 1 monththanks Guys, Gary - I can't
thanks Guys,
Gary - I can't find an option to select "status date" in the filter section or indeed how to select complete as a status
Mike - actually that was an exaggerated example to explain my point but thanks for joining in with that (although we have been known to have things like blockades that last that long)
Vladamir - that does look like it's done the job, thanks for that.
Cheers all,
Thom
Member for
16 years 7 monthsThomas, How about Start
Thomas,
How about Start earlier than (status date + 4 weeks) AND Status not equal to "complete"
Member for
19 years 10 monthsHi ThomasWhat are you doing
Hi Thomas
What are you doing with a programme that has a task of 5 months duration?
You must be working on a level 2 summary - not good planning practice.
Best regards
Mike Testro
Member for
24 years 9 monthsYou may filter activities
You may filter activities with
Start before the end of the period AND Finish after the start of the period.