Project 2000. Entering Assignments

Lesson 4: Entering Assignments

Overview

In this lesson we will discuss two items related to assignments: assignment contours and leveling.

What You Will Learn

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

n  Describe how a contour will change based on varying criteria

n  Troubleshoot scheduling issues related to custom contours

n  Describe the differences in leveling between Microsoft^® Project 2000 and Microsoft Project 98

n  Describe troubleshooting steps to resolve unexpected results when leveling

Assignments

Assignments and assignment contours have not changed in Microsoft Project 2000. However, these areas can be confusing, so it is important to gain a firm understanding of them. Before we look at assignment contours, let’s take a look at assignments and break them down into some simple parts that we can use to discuss assignment contours.

Parts of an Assignment

An assignment consists of two levels: the assignment level and the assignment timephased level. Within each level exist fields that display essentially the same information. For example, there is a work field in both levels. The way the fields of each level are calculated, however, is different.

At the assignment level, we have three fields that we are concerned with for this discussion: Duration, Units, and Work. As we know from Microsoft Project 98, these three fields are interdependent and a change in one can affect the others. At the assignment level, we can summarize the interaction of these three fields via the following equation:

Where D is duration, U is units, and W is work.

For the purposes of our discussion, when we refer to the assignment level, we are not referring specifically to assignment fields. The assignment level is referring to that area that is not timephased. In other words, it incorporates task, resource, and assignment fields.

At the assignment timephased level, we have timephased information that essentially displays the information displayed at the assignment level in more detail. Contours, by definition, exist at the assignment timephased level. However, to preserve predefined contours, changes can only be made at the assignment level. When changes are made at the assignment timephased level, a contour instantly changes to an edited contour. Edited contours are discussed later on in this lesson.

To understand how changes at the assignment level affect contours, we must first understand the changes that happen at this level. We shall then look at how Microsoft Project recalculates the assignment timephased level based on this data. 

Assignment Contours

As we mentioned before, assignment contours have not changed in Microsoft Project 2000. Fundamentally they behave the same way in Microsoft Project 2000 as they did in Microsoft Project 98. However, because they can play an important role in how a project is scheduled and because they can be confusing, we will review some of the basics of assignment contours.