Scheduling Chained Work Effort with Unchained Work Effort

[Starkweather]

I have a situation where I have resources that work on tasks in serial order. I schedule these as chained tasks. A simple example is Resource 1 needs to create four documents, so I create four tasks, assign each task to Resouce 1, assign effort to each task, set a start date for the first task, and chain the remaining tasks to the first task.

This works fine and give me the results I expect.

The problem is these same resouces also review other resources work outputs. So Resource 1, along with producing 4 documents, also reviews the 12 documents (3 other resources times 4 documents each) produced by the rest of the team.

This work isn't done in serial fashion as it is for document production, it's done as needed based on when documents are ready for review by other team members.

I haven't put in tasks for document review, as I'm not sure the best approach for this. The outcome, however, is that the resources are not meeting task target finish dates, as there is work each for resource not accounted for on the schedule.

I suspect other forum members have encountered this issue - please advise with suggested solutions.



Starkweather.

[JulieS]

Are the other teams documents in the project plan? If so, add a review task to the chain and assign the necessary resources. You may run in to an overallocation issue where R1 is scheduled to work on one of his/her documents and also review the output from the other team. You'll need to decide how to divide the labor requirement.

I also suggest looking into Deadlines on tasks to help alert you about slipping dates. Are you tracking the progress of the work as well?