Microsoft Office Forums

Go Back   Microsoft Office Forums > >

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old 06-18-2012, 07:56 AM
dlowrey dlowrey is offline Task allocation by priority Windows 7 64bit Task allocation by priority Office 2010 32bit
Novice
Task allocation by priority
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 29
dlowrey is on a distinguished road
Default Task allocation by priority

Hi all


I am stuck. Hoping your collective brains can help me solve the problem. This is not as simple as ordering a To Do list.

The problem: I have x days to practice for examinations in y different topics (actually 14 subjects). Some topics are more likely than others to be tested, so additional practice examinations need to be scheduled for these. I have already ranked the exams in order of the subject's appearance on prior exams.

Example:
Subject A has a liklihood of 100% of being tested
Subject B has a liklihood of 65% of being tested
....
Subject N has a liklihood of 23% of being tested
Subject Z has a liklihood of 3% of being tested

Rule1: We must complete at least one practice exam for every subject
Rule2: We must complete as many practice exams as possible for each subject
Rule3: There must be spaced repition. For example, you wouldn' want to do 4 Subject A practice exams on the same day. They need to be spaced with a couple of days in between.
Rule4: Only z number of exams can be scheduled for the same calendar date.
Rule5: Weekends and holidays are not a factor, practice exams can be done 7 days/week.

This may requiring iteritive looping, but if not capable of a final solution, terminate the loop after a number passes.

Here are the knowns:
An excel column list of all of the exam subjects.
An excel column list of the ranking of subject by probablity of testing.

3 Variables, input by user: Number of Days available for study, number of exam subjects, number of practice exams that can be completed in a given day. (the expected range is 1-3).

Output desired: A column or columns listing the exam subject and a calendar date to complete each.

Thank in advance for you input!

Don Lowrey
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 06-18-2012, 04:54 PM
macropod's Avatar
macropod macropod is offline Task allocation by priority Windows 7 64bit Task allocation by priority Office 2010 32bit
Administrator
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Canberra, Australia
Posts: 21,956
macropod has a reputation beyond reputemacropod has a reputation beyond reputemacropod has a reputation beyond reputemacropod has a reputation beyond reputemacropod has a reputation beyond reputemacropod has a reputation beyond reputemacropod has a reputation beyond reputemacropod has a reputation beyond reputemacropod has a reputation beyond reputemacropod has a reputation beyond reputemacropod has a reputation beyond repute
Default

Hi Don,

With 14 subjects, presumably you won't get to Subject Z .

What you'll need before this can be progressed is a set of criteria for determining whether a given subject gets tested twice, thrice, etc, weighted according to the number of test sessions available.

Obviously, with 14 subjects, if the user inputs 7 days and, say, two tests per day, each subject can only be tested once. If you've got 10 days, though, that's another 6 tests that can be done, so what's the priority? Does one simply start at the top of the list and work down the first 6 tests, or does schedule, say, three of tests 1 & 2 two of tests 3 & 4 ...
__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 06-18-2012, 07:09 PM
dlowrey dlowrey is offline Task allocation by priority Windows 7 64bit Task allocation by priority Office 2010 32bit
Novice
Task allocation by priority
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Posts: 29
dlowrey is on a distinguished road
Default Setting the priority

Hi Paul

Thank you for your reply. Yes, I have thought about that and I think the way to do this from whether the subject is likely to show up on the exams.

I have two columns, subject name and the percentage of time the subject has appeared. So if a subject show up every year, it should get a higher priority a weight of 1. A subject that shows up only 1/2 of the time, gets weighted 50%. Does that sound right?

Thanks
Don Lowrey
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 06-18-2012, 07:24 PM
macropod's Avatar
macropod macropod is offline Task allocation by priority Windows 7 64bit Task allocation by priority Office 2010 32bit
Administrator
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Canberra, Australia
Posts: 21,956
macropod has a reputation beyond reputemacropod has a reputation beyond reputemacropod has a reputation beyond reputemacropod has a reputation beyond reputemacropod has a reputation beyond reputemacropod has a reputation beyond reputemacropod has a reputation beyond reputemacropod has a reputation beyond reputemacropod has a reputation beyond reputemacropod has a reputation beyond reputemacropod has a reputation beyond repute
Default

That only goes part way. Even though you might be able to say a subject gets tested 50% or 80% of the time, you need to translate that into a rule that says how the different ratings are weighted to fill any 'spare' time slots.

Suppose, for example, you have six 'spare' time slots and six subjects, rated at 100%, 95%, 90%, 85%, 80% and 75%, respectively (let's not worry about subjects with equal ratings yet), do you put:
• each of these subjects into one of the time slots;
• the 100% subject in two slots and skip the 75% subject's re-test;
• the 100% subject in three slots and skip the 80% & 75% subjects' re-tests;
• the 100% & 90% subjects in two slots each and skip the 80% & 75% subjects' re-tests; or
• something else.
What is the rule?

Another possible complication is that different subjects might be worth different test scores. So a ferquently-occurring test might not be as valuable as some of the less-frequent ones. Is this a possibility and, if so, how would you handle that?
__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Task allocation by priority address book priority excelledsoftware Outlook 1 05-05-2012 09:01 PM
Task allocation by priority Over allocation due to a meeting Trigger Project 5 04-26-2012 03:43 PM
Priority based levelling for split tasks having actuals proj12 Project 3 02-27-2012 06:47 AM
Allocation of task in certain period of time mati2 Project 1 02-25-2012 07:59 AM
Calender month view peeve - display high priority over low priority appts? ghumdinger Outlook 0 07-25-2011 03:56 AM

Other Forums: Access Forums

All times are GMT -7. The time now is 11:04 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Search Engine Optimisation provided by DragonByte SEO (Lite) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
MSOfficeForums.com is not affiliated with Microsoft