Microsoft Project 2010 : Setting Up Project for Your Use - Defining Calendars (part 2) - Setting Project and Resources Calendar

Setting Project and Resources Calendar

Start dates for tasks are generally determined by resource calendars, unless you create a task calendar, in which case the resource will operate based on the task calendar. Resource and task calendars begin as the base calendar for the project. You can modify the resource and task calendars without changing the base calendar. The previous sections talked about the base calendar; the next few sections will discuss resource and task calendars.

Resource Calendars

Resources are the people and materials that work on tasks within the projects. This section focuses specifically on resource calendars.

1.	Open the Resource Sheet view by selecting the Resource tab, View, Resource Sheet (this can be also done from the Task tab). Tip Work resources are the only ones that include resource calendars. The other three resource types—material, budget, and cost—do not have calendars associated with them as they are assumed to always be available.
2.	There are at least two ways to change the resource calendar, as follows: a. Double-click the resource row of the resource that needs a resource calendar. b. Select the resource row of the target resource and Click Information under the Resource Tab. Either of these methods will open the Resource Information dialog box (see Figure 5). Figure 5. Click the Change Working Time button under the General tab of the Resource Information dialog box to make changes to a resource’s schedule. In this case, the resource has a week-long vacation scheduled for the fourth week of January.
3.	In the Resource Information dialog box, under the General tab, click the Change Working Time button.
4.	The Change Working Time dialog box appears. To change the resource’s base calendar, choose from the Base Calendar drop-down list at the top.
5.	To make additional modifications.
6.	When you are finished modifying the resource calendar, click OK to save the changes or Cancel to exit without making any changes.

The resource will now operate based on the base calendar plus the exceptions that are defined in his or her resource calendar. Referring back to the example of a four-day workweek, if a resource normally works those hours, but had a three-day vacation coming up, you could define that vacation and Project would schedule work for that resource around the vacation dates. Similarly, if a resource had a standing obligation every week outside of your project, you could define that exception and the appropriate recurrence range, and Project would not assign task work to the resource during that time.

Task Calendars

As mentioned previously, if you assign a resource to a task, the work on the task will follow the resource calendar. If the resource has no specific resource calendar, or if there are no resources assigned to the task, the task will follow the project (base) calendar.

However, you can create a calendar specifically for a task. To do this, create a base calendar specifically for the task by following the process .

After you create the base calendar, assign it to the task by following these steps:

1.	In any view where you can see your tasks, such as the Gantt Chart view, select the task to which you want to assign the newly created base calendar.
2.	With the task (or tasks) selected, select the Task tab, Information to open the Task Information dialog box. Alternatively, right-click on the task and select Task Information to open the Task Information dialog box.
3.	Under the Advanced tab is a Calendar field (see Figure 6). Click the arrow to open the drop-down menu with the base calendars listed. If you successfully created a new base calendar, it will be on this list. Select it. Figure 6. Assign calendars to tasks under the Advanced tab of the Task Information dialog box. In this case, the New Base Calendar is being assigned the “Drive the moving truck to the new location” task.
4.	Next to the Calendar field is a check box labeled Scheduling Ignores Resource Calendars. If you want your task calendar to override the resource calendar for the resource assigned to the task, select this box. If you want Project to schedule based on the resource calendar and the task calendar, leave it blank.
5.	Click OK to close the Task Information dialog box with the changes made, or click Cancel to close it without making any changes.

As the project manager, you must decide if assigning task calendars will be beneficial for your project. If you have multiple resources working on a task from different locations, it might be easier to schedule with the task calendar rather than the various resource calendars.

For example, if you run a newspaper printing facility, you will have tasks that do the actual printing. Often this happens overnight, so the task may cover multiple shifts. In addition to your human resources, you would include the machines used to print the newspaper as resources. Because these machines and people all operate under different schedules, it would be advantageous to schedule the task based on its own calendar, not the project’s base calendar or the resource calendar. Likely you would use a version of the 24 Hour calendar, because the task is constantly being worked on by various resources at all hours of the day. However, your project of compiling the entire newspaper may have a standard base calendar, which would not be a good calendar to schedule this task by because there would be too many exceptions to enter. It is easier to simply customize a calendar for this specific task and schedule from that. Regardless of which resources work on the task, the task is completed on schedule.