Examples (templates) for multi projects ?

[jm k]

Hi Chris,

I just saw rh new project template you added as example on the tj web site.
well done :).

Would it be possible to get your advice (and may be some templates too:) about
multi project file organization ?

Say I have a main project containing annual well known tasks ..
How would you organize the file layouts (files, drr, subdir for
original or frozen files) in order
to add new projects to this main baseline during the year ?

Thanks

J.-M..

[Chris Schlaeger]

On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 6:53 PM, jm k <bof...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Would it be possible to get your advice (and may be some templates too:) about
> multi project file organization ?
>
> Say I have a main project containing annual well known tasks  ..
> How would you organize the file layouts (files, drr, subdir for
> original or frozen files)   in order
> to add  new  projects to this main baseline during the year ?

Over the years I have seen very different kind of projects, all with
their very own set of requirements. TaskJuggler could deal with all of
them due to the flexible and powerful description syntax. But all
projects were very different in their structure and use of TJ
features. I don't think it is possible to create a template for a big
project. But I can give a few recommendations of what I think does
work and what does not work well. These recommendation are mostly
specific to very large projects. Such large projects are typically or
should be a composition of several smaller sub projects.

* Make sure you have unique ID for all the involved resources. Inside
a company, login IDs work well for this. Put them in one file (with
included sub files if needed) that is used by all individually
scheduled projects.
* Group your resources into pools of no more than 20 - 40 resources
that work on one sub project. That's usually the amount of people a
(project)manager can handle for serious project management. But your
mileage may vary.
* Each sub project is scheduled individually. If resource sharing
between sub projects is necessary, use vacations or shifts to make
sure there won't be any duplicate assigned time slots.
* Export the sub projects as scheduled projects (without project
header and resource definitions) and combine them into a large project
(using 'include') to generate reports for the overall project.
* Break up your sub projects into multiple files that can be easily
managed and edited.
* I'd recommend shared .tji files with milestones as agreed deadlines
for deliverables between sub projects.\
* Put all TJ files in a single version control system that all
involved (project)managers use.
* You can include bookings (for frozen data) in task or resource
context. Find out what works best for you.
* If your project is covering rolling projects over a large time span
(like multiple product releases) make sure you structure your task
trees by product. This way you can retire them them remove them from
the sub project plans. You can still keep them as schedule projects
but only for generating reports if needed.
* If all tasks of a (sub)tree are complete, export it as schedule
project and include it where you still really need this data for
ongoing projects.
* Regularly clean up your sub project files so they don't grow too
large and scheduling becomes a pain.
* Try to keep the time span and tasks that actually need scheduling as
small as possible. If reading and scheduling your project takes more
than 1 - 2 minutes, it's usually time to clean up or get a faster
computer.
* If you have more than 20 or so reports, get familiar with using
tj3d. You don't need to reschedule your unchanged project data if you
just made changes to a report description.

I hope this helps.

Chris

[jm k]

Thanks for the (long) answer, may give you some feedback on this later

Regards,

J.-M.

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