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5. PLAN AND RESOURCE FILES Plan uses two types of files: resource files, which contain resource information such as holidays and work hours; and plan files, which contain task details. Tasks in the plan file reference the resource information in the resource file. Plan files have a file extension of PLN, resource files a RES extension. Both of these files should be placed in a \PLN directory either on the internal drive or external RAM drives. Placing these files onto FLASH SSDs is not recommended unless no changes will be made to the data. The reason for not using FLASH SSDs is that when updating a plan or resource file Plan will delete and recreate each file when it is saved. Consequently saving a file often will rapidly use up space on the FLASH SSD. When opening a plan file Plan will look for a resource file with the same name in the same directory as the plan file but with a RES extension. If such a resource file exists this will be where Plan retrieves and stores resource information. If such a file does not exist then Plan will look for the resource file \PLN\PLAN.RES on the default Psion disk. If this file does not exist it will be created, indicated by a "Building calendar" message when starting Plan. When creating a new plan via the "New" menu option on the "File" menu from within Plan there is an option to specify whether the common resource file (\PLN\PLAN.RES) or a project specific resource file should be used. This scheme allows plan specific resources to be maintained, or shared resources to be stored in the one common file. Plan is a type three application, which means that any number of plans may be opened at any one time. To do this, use shift-enter to open additional plan files from the Psion system screen. Plan allows 200 tasks to be entered with the following limits per task: - 4 assigned resources per task, - 8 dependencies per task - 255 character description - 80 character user text field Run-time memory is used to store the above information which will be limited by two factors: - The memory available on the internal disk - There is a 64K memory limit imposed by the Psion operating system. If you receive an error from Plan indicating there is not enough memory then either increase the space available on the internal disk if it is insufficient or reduce the memory used by Plan by, for example, using shorter description and user text values or by reducing the number of tasks. 6. VIEWS A number of different views are available within Plan. Pressing the diamond or shift-diamond key changes the current display to one of the following: Task list Gantt chart PERT chart Resource usage Holidays The first set of views show tasks using different display formats. The resource usage view shows resource working hours and a histogram of % usage over a given time period. The holiday view shows resource holidays. A view may be selected either using the diamond key, from the diamond menu, or using psion key shortcuts. In the task views many of the same keys have the same function, for example the up and down cursor keys change the current task and the enter key edits the current task. In each of these views the current task will be highlighted. 6.1 Task based views In the task based views each task will be shown with some of the following fields: Start on/after The entered start date or a date before which the task cannot start. Start date The planned start date and optional time for the task. End date The planned end date and optional time for the task. Work The planned work for the task in man days, hours, minutes and seconds. % done Shows the amount of work done so far on the task as a percentage of the work planned. User value A user specified floating point number. User text A user specified 80 character text field. Calculate Displays which of the end date, work, or rate fields are calculated for the task. For summary tasks this will display "All" since all fields are calculated. Saved start A value copied from the start field using the "Set fields" menu option. Saved end A value copied from the end field using the "Set fields" menu option. Saved work A value copied from the work field using the "Set fields" menu option. Depends on A list of tasks this task depends upon. Lab. cost Labour/resource costs calculated for the task using the rates for the assigned resources multiplied by either the planned work or the actual work done, whichever is the greater. The labour costs may be ignored for a task, i.e. set to 0 if required (see "Cost and user data" section). Fixed cost A fixed cost assigned to the task. Assigned resourcesLists the resources assigned to the task. Pressing the up and down arrow keys changes the task which is displayed in the task based views. 6.2 Task list view In the task list view and Gantt chart each task is shown on a separate line of the display. One of the tasks on the screen will be highlighted and is referred to as the current task. Pressing the up and down arrow keys changes the current task. If there are more tasks than will fit onto the screen then when at the top or bottom of the screen pressing the cursor key will scroll the screen vertically to display the next task off the screen. Combining the up and down cursor keys with the psion key (Pg Up and Pg Dn) will scroll the display a page at a time. The psion and control modifier keys used in combination with the up/down keys will position the cursor at the top or bottom of the list of tasks. In the task list view the task Id and description are displayed on the left of the screen. If the task is on the critical path then the description will be followed by an asterisk (*). If a memo has been associated with the task a memo symbol will appear before the description (see "Memos" section). The description will be indented to indicate the level of a task in the hierarchy of summary and sub- tasks (see "Tasks, Summary tasks" section of this manual). Pressing the psion-z and psion-Z keys will alter the font size used throughout Plan to one of 4 scales. Note that psion-z and psion-Z change the font size in the task list and PERT chart views, in the Gantt and resource usage views these keys alter the scale on the chart. The right hand side of the task list view shows the fields associated with each task. The left and right arrow keys may be used to shift the right hand side of the display to view further fields associated with each task. An arrow will appear either at the end or middle of the top line to indicate whether the left or right arrow key should be used to shift the fields to the left or right. The ordering of the fields is user-definable using the "Field order" option on the "View" menu. 6.3 Gantt chart The Gantt chart shows the task Id and description on the left of the display along with the critical path flag. On the right of the display a Gantt chart is shown. This chart shows a time axis at the top of the screen with a bar for each task which indicates the duration of the task. The current date will be shown as a vertical line through the chart. The up and down cursor keys may be used, as in the task list view, to change the current task and to scroll the screen up or down. The psion and control key modifiers alter the amount by which the cursor moves. Pressing the psion-z key and the psion-Z keys will increase and decrease (zoom) the scale on the time axis. To alter the font scale which is used in the Gantt chart switch to the task list view, use the psion-z and psion-Z keys to alter the font size, and then switch back to the Gantt chart. Depending upon the zoom factor the time axis may show the month and date for the start of each week or date for each day. There is a maximum and minimum limit by which the display can be zoomed in or out in this way. Pressing the left and right cursor keys will shift the time axis on the Gantt chart on the right of the display by half a screen in the appropriate direction. Holding down the psion key whilst pressing the left and right cursor keys will shift the axis by a full screen in each direction. Holding the shift key whilst pressing the left and right cursor keys will shift the axis by a quarter of the screen at a time. Note that there are limits to the amount by which the screen may be shifted to the left or right according to the earliest and latest date in the project. If the space key is pressed the zoom factor and display will be altered to best display the current task. There are a number of preference settings which control the appearance of the Gantt chart. One option controls whether one or two bars are displayed for each task. If two bars are displayed then the lower bar indicates the start and end dates from the saved fields. The saved start, end and work fields should normally be set when the original project plan has been established and may be used to compare the original planned dates with the latest calculated dates. Depending upon the preference setting "Shading control" the holidays associated with each resource may or may not be shown on the Gantt chart at various scales. For fast shading ensure that the preference setting "Holiday shading" is set to "Use general" rather than "Resource specific". A task field (resource, start, end,...) may optionally be displayed at the end of each task bar in the Gantt chart. The field to be displayed is controlled from the "Task bar text" option in the preferences dialog. 6.4 PERT chart 6.4.1 Appearance of the PERT chart The PERT chart view is useful when viewing and altering dependencies between tasks. Within this view each task is represented as a box surrounding the task Id. Dependencies between tasks are indicated by lines between the tasks. Any lag time will appear half way along the dependency line. The critical path tasks are identified using thicker boxes (select the "Critical path" menu option from the "Plan" menu to calculate the critical path). If the grey plane option is set within preferences then summary tasks are shaded grey. Various task attributes may be shown above and below each task box. The values which appear in these locations depend upon the preference settings. Typically the start date for the task will be shown above the task box and the end date or assigned resources below the box. 6.4.2 Positioning tasks in the PERT chart When first entering tasks, perhaps using the task list view, each new task will not have an associated x and y co-ordinate position in the PERT chart. This position must be set before the task will appear in the PERT chart. There are various methods of accomplishing this: - The quickest option is to let Plan layout the PERT chart automatically. - You can dynamically position a task using the cursor keys whilst in a dynamic move mode. - You can manually set the x, y co-ordinates for a task using a dialog. To automatically layout the PERT chart use the "Layout PERT" menu option on the "View" menu when the PERT chart is displayed. This will display a dialog with two options. The "X mag" option controls how tasks are spread out horizontally. The "Y shift" enables the layout to be moved vertically up or down. When using "Layout PERT" for the first time it is simplest to leave the values set at 1 and to press the enter key to layout the PERT chart. This action will automatically set the x, y co-ordinates for each task in the PERT chart. Generally each tasks x co-ordinate will be set according to its start time. Due to space limits and dependency settings this may not be possible for all tasks. In this case Plan will try to fit the tasks in as best it can. Once the results of the layout option have been viewed the layout option may be used again with the "X mag" and "Y shift" values set to more appropriate values to produce a better layout. If for example most of the tasks appear at the top of the display, setting the "Y shift" to a positive value will generally move all the tasks towards the bottom of the display. The "Y shift" may be set to a value between 1 and 10. The "X mag" value may be used to spread the tasks out more along the x axis. A value of 1 will force Plan to try to fit all tasks onto one screen at the smallest zoom scale, a value of 2 would force Plan to use 2 full screens and so on. The "Pert move" menu option on the "Task" menu switches Plan into a dynamic move mode where the cursor keys dynamically move the current task in the appropriate direction. Combining the cursor keys with the psion key will move the task more rapidly. Pressing any key other than the cursor keys will take Plan out the dynamic move mode. The current tasks x and y co-ordinates may also be manually set using the "Pert X/Y" menu option on the "Task" menu. 6.4.3 Moving around the PERT chart Pressing the left and right cursor keys whilst in the normal PERT chart mode will shift the display to the left or right by half a screen. The psion and shift key may be used in conjunction with the cursor keys to shift the display by a full screen or a quarter screen at a time. Allowing tasks to be placed off-screen enables PERT charts to be constructed for plans with a large number of tasks. Pressing psion-up arrow (Pg Up) and psion-down arrow (Pg Dn) will scroll the display in the vertical direction by a screen at a time. Combine these keys with the shift modifier key to shift the display by half a screen at a time. If the space key is pressed the display will be re-centred to display the current task. Pressing the psion-z and psion-Z keys will alter the font size used throughout Plan to one of 4 scales and has the affect of zooming the PERT chart in and out. 6.5 Resource usage view The resource usage view shows when the current resource starts and ends work for the seven days of the week along with a histogram indicating the allocation of the resource to tasks. 6.5.1 Resource work hours The resource settings may be edited using the "Settings" menu option on the "Resource" menu. This will display a dialog allowing the maximum units, charge rate and the start and end times for each day of the week to be edited. Note that for non-working days (usually Saturday and Sunday) it is best to set the start and end time to the start and end time of a normal working day. The resources holidays should be used to control non-working days rather than the start and end times. This then allows specific non-working days to be overridden in the resource holiday view if the resource works the occasional non-work day. If a resources work hours and/or holidays are changed then the Tab key or "Recalculate all" menu option should be used to force a recalculation of all tasks. Plan will not automatically recalculate tasks if any changes are made to resource holidays or work hours even if automatic calculation is enabled in the preference settings. 6.5.2 Resource usage histogram The histogram on the right of the resource usage view indicates the total percentage the resource is occupied over a given time period. The display is similar to the Gantt chart in that it shows a time axis at the top of the display. The left and right cursor keys and zoom keys affect the display in the same way as the Gantt chart. Pressing the up and down cursor keys whilst in the resource usage view will scale the y-axis in increments and can be used if the maximum percentage exceeds the top of the display. 6.5.3 Over-allocated resources If a resource is assigned to two tasks 100% of the time for each task over a given time period then this would be shown on the histogram as a total of 200% over the given period. If the resource represents a single person then this would imply that the resource was over-allocated. The "Over-allocated?" menu option on the "Resource" menu also helps to find any over-allocations. This scans all the tasks in the current plan for cases where the total resource rate exceeds the value given in the maximum units field for each resource. When the analysis is complete any tasks involved in the over-allocation will be displayed, with any other tasks masked out. The display in the Gantt and resource usage views will also be adjusted to display the range of dates during which the over-allocation occurs. Reset the mask to "None" using the "Mask tasks" menu option on the "View" menu to redisplay the other tasks. There are various ways of resolving the problem of an over-allocated resource, for example: - Reschedule one of the tasks, usually by making it dependent upon the other. - Assign another unused resource to one of the tasks. - Change the rates on one or both tasks. If for example you have a task which takes 10 days at a rate of 100% and another short task has to carried out for one day in the middle of the task then either divide the long task into two separate tasks separated by the short task or set the rate for the first task to 90% which would extend it by the one extra day taken up by the short task. The disadvantage in this latter case is that the resource usage histogram would still indicate that the resource was over- allocated at 190% for the one day. The advantage is however that the long task would not need to be broken up. 6.6 Holiday view The resource holiday view displays a full year view indicating the holidays for the current resource. The view is similar to the year view in the Psion Agenda application. Holidays are indicated by a black or grey filled square. The cursor keys may be used to move the cursor from one day to the next. Combining the left and right cursor keys with the psion key will move the cursor to the start and end of the month respectively. Combining the up and down cursor keys with the psion key (Pg Up and Pg Dn) will move to the previous or next year. Pressing the enter key will toggle the day on which the cursor is positioned from a holiday to a work day and vice versa. A three year calendar is available for each resource, within which holidays may be set. When calculating task end times or work, a resources holidays will be taken into consideration. If a task falls outside a resources three year calendar the resources holidays will be assumed to match the rest days set in the standard Psion Time application. The start year for the three year calendar period for all resources will be the same. It may be changed for all resources using the "Start year" menu option on the "Resource" menu. This will prompt for a new start year. All the resource calendars will be reconstructed to start on the specified year. Existing holidays will be copied if the new three year calendar range overlaps the old calendar range. For years outside the old calendar range default holidays will be set according to the settings in the Psion Time application. If a large number of resources have been created this operation may take a few minutes. The start year for the calendars should not be changed unless all tasks in all plans which reference the resource file within the period of the calendar which is to be removed have been marked as complete (see section on "Plan and resource files"). If this is not true then the given tasks may subsequently be incorrectly calculated if the resource had non-standard holidays in the given period. 7. TASKS 7.1 Standard Tasks To create a new task position the highlighted area at the bottom of the task list or Gantt chart view and press enter, or use shift- enter to insert a new task above the current position in any of the task based views. Pressing enter with the cursor positioned on an existing task allows the given tasks details to be altered. It is important to note that setting Caps lock on will have the affect of inserting a new task when the enter key is pressed rather than editing the current task. When entering or editing tasks a dialog box will appear which allows the following items to be set: Task Id Each task has a unique four letter identifier used to identify the task within the PERT chart and when setting task dependencies. The entered text should be something which is easily recognisable for each task. Description A description of the task, up to 255 characters long. Start on/after Either the date and time the task starts or a date and time after which the task should start. Note that a task has two start dates, the calculated start date for the task and the entered start on/after date. The start on/after date is used when calculating the task start date. If the task has no dependencies the calculated start of the task will be equal to the start on/after date and time. If the task has one or more dependencies the start on/after date will only be used if it is later than the dates calculated from the dependencies. This field is used either when you know exactly when the task will start or there is a dependency on an outside factor (e.g. machinery will not be delivered until a given date). For new tasks the default value for this field is the current date at 9am. Task end The end date and optional time for the task. This item may or may not appear according to the calculation method for the task. Three options are available for calculating the schedule for a task; either to calculate the end of the task, the work required or the rate. For new tasks a preference setting controls which of the end, work and rate items appear, for existing tasks the "End/work/rate" menu option on the "Task" menu is used. Work The work for the task is specified in days, hours, minutes and seconds, (the length of one work day is given in the preference settings). This item may or may not appear according to the calculation method for the task. When the enter key is pressed a second set of dialog boxes will appear providing control over the resources assigned to the task. These dialog screens will contain some of the following fields: Resource The name of the resource assigned to the task. This is chosen from a list of existing resources. Pressing the tab key will display the available resources. Rate The rate of work for the given resource. This item may or may not appear according to the calculation method for the task. The value is a percentage from 1% to 10000%. 100% would indicate, for example, one resource working on the task 100% of the time, 200% could indicate a resource consisting of two people each working 100% of the time on the task. Work The amount of work carried out by the given resource. This item may or may not appear according to the calculation method for the task. 7.2 Summary Tasks A summary task is a task which provides an overview of a number of sub-tasks. The majority of the data associated with the summary task is calculated by Plan from the data associated with each sub- task. The summary task Id, description, user value and user text fields should be entered manually. The start of the summary task will be equal to the earliest sub-task start date and the end will be equal to the latest sub-task end date. The work and cost fields will be the sum of the corresponding sub-task fields. The % done field will be the % of the work done so far on all the tasks. Summary tasks may be nested so that a summary task may also be a sub- task of a higher level summary task. There may be up to eight levels from the outer most summary task to the lowest sub-task. The level of a task is indicated using indentation and bullets within the task list and Gantt chart views. To alter a tasks level use the left and right arrow keys in conjunction with the control key, e.g. press control-right arrow to make the task a sub-task of the task immediately above it. It is a good idea to turn automatic calculation off in the preference settings before making major changes to task levels. It is also recommended that the basic structure of a project is established in terms of summary tasks and sub-tasks before assigning dependencies. In the example plan supplied, the tasks have been grouped into various phases using summary tasks. 7.3 Deleting tasks To delete the current task press the delete key. This will copy the deleted tasks details into an internal buffer. Pressing the psion-i key will re-insert the task immediately above the current task. Note that any tasks which were dependent upon the deleted task will no- longer be dependent upon the task. 7.4 Masking tasks The tasks which are displayed in the task based views may be controlled from the "Mask tasks" menu option on the "View" menu. Setting a mask will "mask" out those tasks not meeting a specified criterion. For example only those tasks which include a given resource may be displayed. A number of masks may be combined using the "Add field mask" option on the mask task dialog. Alternatively all masks may be turned off using the "None" option. The "New field mask" option will discard any existing mask before applying the new mask condition. If the current task is a summary task then two additional options will be available on the mask task dialog. The "Mask sub-tasks" option will mask out all sub-tasks of the current summary task. "Unmask sub-tasks" will make all sub-tasks visible. 8. DEPENDENCIES Making a task dependent upon another task implies the start of the task is associated with the end of the task which it depends upon. Using a lag time with the dependency allows the start of the task to be offset from the end of the task by a given duration. Select the "Dependencies" menu option from the "Task" menu to alter the current tasks dependency settings. This will display a dialog allowing up to eight task dependencies to be set. Each dependency implies that the current task should start after the end of the task which it depends upon. The latest of all the end dates will be used when calculating the start date for the task. Note that this latest date which is calculated from the dependencies is combined with the date specified in the start on/after field in order to calculate the task start date. With each task dependency there is an option to set the current task to start before or after the end of the task. A second dialog box will appear after the Id's have been set which allows a lag or lead to be set. If a lag or lead needs to be entered subsequent dialog boxes will appear prompting for the precise interval before or after the task, in days and optional hours and minutes. The holidays and work hours of the "General" resource are used when calculating the time between the end of the previous task and the start of the current task. For example, if a lag of one week is specified, and during this period holidays for the "General" resource indicate a one week holiday (e.g. at Christmas), then this will translate to a two week delay before the second task starts. 9. COST AND USER DATA The cost and user data fields for a task may be edited by selecting the "Cost & data" option from the "Task" menu. This will display a dialog allowing the following items to be set for the current task: Fixed cost Fixed cost assigned to the task. Include labour costs Either "Yes" or "No". If set to "Yes" then the task and plan total costs will include any labour costs associated with the task. If set to "No" then the labour cost will be shown as 0, regardless of the amount of work or resource charge rate. In this case the task and plan total costs will exclude any labour costs for the task. Use "No" when a task has no labour cost impact, e.g. for a fixed price task where only the fixed cost field is used. User value A user specified floating point number. User text A user specified 80 character text field. Note the currency symbol used throughout Plan is controlled from the "Number formats" menu option on the "Control" menu accessed from the Psion system screen. 10. TASK CALCULATION AND TRACKING 10.1 Calculation (end/work/rate) For each task one of three values may initially be calculated: end, work or rate. To control which is calculated for the current task use the "End/work/rate" menu option on the "Task" menu. The calculation setting controls whether the work, rate or the end date and time are calculated for a task. If the work is to be calculated then the end date and the rate for each assigned resource will need to be specified, and so on. Note that this setting only controls the initial calculation for the task, if the task depends upon other tasks which subsequently move then the task may shift along with the other tasks. So even if the end date is specified in order to calculate the rate initially, this does not mean the end date is permanently tied to this value, if the task is dependent upon other tasks which change the end date may change. When new tasks are created the initial calculation setting is governed by a preference setting. 10.2 Tracking work done The "Set work done" menu option on the "Task" menu allows the progress on the current task to be recorded. This progress may be set in one of three ways: Set by %... Selecting this option and pressing enter will display a dialog which allows the work done to be set to a value indicating the actual work done as a percentage of work planned. Set by time... This option displays a dialog which allows the work done to be set to a specific value in terms of days, hours, minutes and seconds. Add time to existing... This displays a dialog which allows the work done to be set by adding a given time in days, hours, minutes and seconds to the existing work done value. This is useful when periodically updating the work done, for example with data from weekly time sheets. When setting work done a date is shown which indicates the date on which work done was last recorded. So if the work done value includes all work prior to the 2 Jan 96 then this date should be set to 2 Jan 96. If the work done is changed then before pressing enter set the date field appropriately. This date is important when using the "Review calculation" menu option (discussed later in this section). To assist with the setting of work done the dialogs will show the targeted work done. This indicates how much work should have been done up to the current date and time if the task is to be completed on schedule. A task is assumed to be complete if the work done is greater than or equal to the planned work. In the Gantt chart view tasks which are complete are shown using a solid black bar. Tasks currently underway are shown with a black bar indicating the percentage completed so far, whilst planned tasks are shown with a clear bar.