[kplato] request

[Mark Tombs]

On Tuesday 02 November 2004 00.15, Claus Agerskov wrote:
> On Mon, 1 Nov 2004, Mark Tombs wrote:
> > On Monday 01 November 2004 12.18, Dag Andersen wrote:
> > > On Søndag 31 oktober 2004 20:02, Mark Tombs wrote:
> > >
> > > Can you explain the difference between duration and estimate, just to
> > > make things clearer for me?
> >
> > I can try. In my book, the duration is the length of the task, and the
> > estimate is the amount of hours a person is going to be working on the
> > task.
>
> Duration is the calendar time of a task.
>
> Work is the amount of total time (sum of all the time ressources expected
> to spent on the task).
>
> Both duration and work can be estimated. So it is not a good idea to use
> the word "estimate" for the estimated amount of work.

True. As a related question, will kplato be able to deal with actual, 
reported, hours?

>
> > A task can be 10 days long, but not have 10x8 (I'm assuming an 8-hour
> > working day) estimate, because a person may only be doing two hours a day
> > on the task, or they might not have a smooth assignment - a resource
> > might be estimated to do 8 hours on the first day, then nothing the
> > second day, then 8 hours after that.
>
> Don't pick too much at Microsoft Project - you can specify specific
> workload for each ressource on each task if you want to.
>
> > I am not suggesting 'dumbing down' kplato, actually the opposite. I want
> > the control to be in the hands of the project manager, not the scheduling
> > algorithm. The PM should be able to under or over-assign resources. The
> > PM should be able to finely control the hours of the assignment, and know
> > that what they have entered will stay there. I think that in this case,
> > simpler is also more powerful :)
>
> You just have change the settings in Microsoft Project to let you have the
> control instead of Microsoft Project.
>
> But I will vote for that in KPlato it should be default with manually
> scheduling.
>
> > Disclaimer : I'm not a project manager myself, though I have worked with
> > PM software for a few years, so I might not know what the hell I am
> > talking about :)
>
> It is several years ago I last used project management tools in my work as
> a project controller but I still train project managers using Microsoft
> Projects as a freelancer even though I normally live a Microsoft free
> life.