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Text File | 1996-07-01 | 34KB | 689 lines

10.3 Reviewing a task when it is underway If a task is underway and the work done so far has been recorded then there is an option which will assist with the recalculation of the tasks schedule. The "Review calculation" menu option on the "Task" menu allows the end, work or rate, as indicated by the "End/work/rate" menu option to be re-estimated. It is similar to using the enter key to change the current task details which also recalculates the tasks schedule. The difference is that this option allows the work done so far to be taken into consideration. The dialog which appears when selecting this option will show the work planned and the work done for comparison, along with the date the work done was recorded up to. These values may not be changed here. It is important for the calculation that the work done and date are accurate, failing to do this will result in incorrectly recalculated values. The remaining options which may be updated on the review calculation dialog depend upon what value is being calculated: End The remaining work and resource work rates are displayed. The remaining work shows how much work is left to do to complete the task (equals work planned minus the work done). The remaining work rates are initially set to be equal to the current planned work rates. Updating either the remaining work and/or rates will set the work equal to the work done plus the remaining work, will recalculate the end of the task and will set the resource rates for the task to be the average work rates taking into account the start, and newly calculated end and total planned work values. Work The end date and remaining work rates are displayed. The remaining work rates are initially set to the current planned work rates. Updating either the end date and/or rates will set the work equal to the work done plus the calculated remaining work and will set the resource rates to be the average work rate taking into account the start, end and newly calculated planned work. The remaining work is calculated by looking at the duration between the date indicated as being when the work done was recorded up to and the end date, taking into account the remaining work rates. Rate The remaining work and end date are displayed. The remaining work shows how much work is left to do to complete the task (equals work planned minus the work done). Updating either the remaining work and/or end will set the work equal to the work done plus the remaining work and will set the resource rates appropriately. 11. MEMOS A memo, or Psion Word document may be associated with each task. To create a new memo select the "Edit memo" menu option from the "Task" menu. This will activate the Psion Word Application. Enter the memo and exit Word to return to Plan. Once a memo has been created a memo symbol will appear next to the description for the task in the task list view. To subsequently view or edit the memo use the "Edit memo" option. To remove a memo use the "Delete memo" menu option. Memos are stored in a sub-directory below the directory in which the plan file is stored. The sub-directory will have the same name as the plan file. Each memo will be stored as a separate Word file within the sub-directory. Memo filenames are constructed using the task Id and therefore task Id's should be restricted to valid filenames. If a plan file is deleted, moved or renamed, remember to update any sub-directory which contains memo files, otherwise Plan will not be able to find the memos. 12. RESOURCES Plan allows any number of resources to be created, subject to Psion memory limitations. The work hours for each day of the week are stored in the form of start and end times. There is also a three year calendar which indicates the resources holidays or non-work days. By default when first using Plan only one resource will be available called "General". This will be constructed using the following rules: - The current year is used as the start of the three year calendar period. - The work/non-work days for the three year calendar are set according to the work days which have been set in the Psion Time application. - The start and end time for each work day will default to 9:00am and 5:00pm respectively. When creating additional resources the work hours and holiday settings are copied from the "General" resource. Consequently it will save time by setting common work hours and public holidays in the "General" resource before creating any additional resources. The holidays set for the "General" resource should be common public or bank holidays. Changing the holidays for the "General" resource will update the equivalent days for all other existing resources, e.g. if 25 December is changed to a holiday then all other resources will be updated to ensure that the 25 December is also a holiday. Individual resource holidays may subsequently be overridden on a resource by resource basis. To create a new resource use the "Make" menu option from the "Resource" menu. This will prompt for a resource name which must be unique. To delete a resource select the "Kill" menu option. This will display a dialog prompting for the name of the resource to delete. Any existing tasks which use the resource will then be switched to use the "General" resource. There is a concept of a current resource in the same way that there is a current task. The current resource is the resource which is displayed in the resource usage and holiday views. To change the current resource use the "Switch to" menu option on the "Resource" menu, or press the tab or shift-tab key to cycle through the available resources in the resource based views. 13. PREFERENCES The following preferences may be set using the "Preferences" menu item on the "Special" menu: PERT chart Task top text None, Description, Start, End, Work, Rate, Resource, Done, Labour, Fixed, Total, Value, Text, Saved Start, Saved End, Saved Work, Dependencies Task bottom text None, Description, Start, End, Work, Rate, Resource, Done, Labour, Fixed, Total, Value, Text, Saved Start, Saved End, Saved Work, Dependencies Gantt chart Task bar text None, Description, Start, End, Work, Rate, Resource, Done, Labour, Fixed, Total, Value, Text, Saved Start, Saved End, Saved Work, Dependencies Holiday shading Use general, Resource specific Shading control None, Day zoom, Week zoom, Month zoom Saved start/end bar Yes, No Calculation New tasks End, Work, Rate Recalculation Automatic or Manual Display Dates/times Dates & times, Dates only Grey graphics Yes, No Resources Average work day Time in hours and minutes The PERT chart task top and bottom text options control which items appear above and below the task boxes in the PERT chart. The Gantt chart task bar text controls what is displayed at the end of each task bar in the Gantt chart. The Gantt holiday shading option controls the shading of holidays in the Gantt chart. If set to "Resource specific" any non-working days will be shaded grey for the particular resource the task is allocated to. The "General" resource will be used if multiple resources are assigned to one task. If set to "Use general" then all shading will use the holidays for the "General" resource. The later option will result in much faster redraws of the Gantt chart. Note that shading can be time consuming when zoomed out, hence the "Shading control" option allows it to be turned on at suitable scales. The Gantt chart saved start/end bar option controls whether one or two bars are used for each task in the Gantt chart. If one bar is used (the "No" option) then the bar indicates the start and end of the task. If two bars are used (the "Yes" option) then a lower bar is also displayed which indicates the equivalent dates from the saved start and end fields. This is useful for seeing how the current plan compares with the original estimates. The new task calculation item controls whether for new tasks the end, work or rate of work is calculated. For existing tasks this may be controlled individually using the "End/work/rate" menu option. If the recalculation option is set to automatic then if any task changes any tasks which are dependent upon the task will also be recalculated. This implies that it should never be necessary to force a recalculation unless resource details change. When set to manual only the task which is edited will be recalculated, in this case the tab key or "Recalculate all" menu option should be used to recalculate all tasks when required. Note that the critical path is not automatically updated even if the calculation option is set to automatic. The "Recalculate all" or the "Critical path" menu options should be used to update the critical path when required. The dates/times preference setting controls whether times are entered and displayed. If it is set to "Dates & times" then start and end dates will include a time component. If the setting is "Dates only" then start and end dates will have no time component. The grey graphics option controls whether a grey plane is used within Plan. This provides an enhanced display at the expense of an extra 10K of memory. The average work day option defines the duration of one normal work day. This unit of work is used when entering work and work done values. Typically this should be set to the length of an average working day, including any breaks. The preference settings are saved in the plan and resource file and so will be restored the next time the files are opened by Plan. 14. PRINTING The task list may be printed using the print options available on the "File" menu from the task list view. The output from the print option is sent to the device specified using the "Printer" menu option accessed from the "Control" menu on the Psion system screen. This may be set to use a printer attached to the serial or parallel port or a file. If the given destination is not ready, e.g. a serial cable is not connected then an error message will be displayed. The print output may also be sent through a PC to an attached printer via Psion's PsiWin software. Note that PsiWin is a Psion software product and is not supplied with Plan. The "Print Setup" menu option on the "File" menu controls the paper size, orientation, printer type, etc. This option also provides control over the range of fields or columns which are to be printed from the task list and the width of the description and user text fields. Where the specified printer cannot handle the printing of all the fields from the task list across the page it will be necessary to use the print option more than once with a different range of fields each time. The task Id and description fields are always printed on the left of the page, the range of fields printed on the right may be specified. The "Print preview" menu option may be used to take a look at the overall page layout prior to printing. There is an optional postscript printer module for printing the Gantt and PERT charts (see "Modules" section). 15. MODULES A number of plug in modules are available with Plan. These modules consist of files with an OPO file extension which are located in a sub-directory called PLAN below the directory where the main PLAN.OPA file is kept. When these modules are available the "Run module" menu option on the "Special" menu will display the additional facilities supplied by the optional modules. Each Plan module will appear as a separate item within the modules dialog. To access a module select the corresponding item in the run module dialog. The currently available modules are: MPX.OPO Allows data to be transferred between the Psion Plan application and Microsoft Project 3.0 and 4.0. PS.OPO Provides a postscript print facility for the Gantt and PERT charts. AGN.OPO Allows tasks to be exported to a Psion Agenda file. 15.1 Microsoft Project MPX module The MPX module allows task and resource data to be exchanged with Microsoft Project 3.0 and 4.0. To transfer data into Microsoft Project: - Ensure that the MPX.OPO module is installed in a directory called \APP\PLAN on any drive. - Ensure the plan to be transferred is open. - Select the "MPX transfer" option from the "Run module" menu item. - Select "Export". - Enter the name of the MPX export file which is to be created. - The file will be generated. - Transfer the MPX file to the relevant host machine. - Start up Microsoft Project and select the open file option. Choose the MPX 1.0, 3.0 or 4.0 file type rather than the Project file type (it does not matter which version of MPX file is used). - If asked whether the file should be merged into the current project choose "No". It is not possible to merge a plan into an existing Microsoft Project plan. To transfer a project from Microsoft Project into Psion Plan: - Save the file as an MPX file (any version) and transfer it to the Psion. - Create a new Psion plan and resource file. The data may be merged into an existing plan and resource file provided the incoming task Id and resource initials are equivalent to any old ones. - Select the "MPX transfer" option in Plan. - Choose "Import". - Select the MPX import file which is to be read. - The file will now be read. Look for any warning or error messages in the output. Press any key when complete to continue in Plan. Note the following points before attempting to import data into Plan: - Plan expects numbers to be in a given format, as specified by the "Number formats" menu option on the "Control" menu of the Psion system screen. For example, if you have a German version of Microsoft Project then in general numbers will include a comma for a decimal point rather than a dot. The number format settings on the Psion should match the international settings on the PC before exporting/importing MPX files. - Avoid modifying the standard Export tables in Microsoft Project. - Plan expects a date format of the form "31/12/95", "31/12/95 12:33am" or "31/12/95 12:33". The date order is not important, e.g. 92/12/31 may also be used. Ensure the date format is set correctly in Microsoft Project preferences before creating the MPX file. In MS Project 4.0 the date format may be set as above from the "Options" menu item on the "Tools" menu and in the "View" section. - Plan uses the resource initials field for the resource name, these should be set in Microsoft Project. - Plan ignores dependencies of the type Finish-Finish and Start- Finish. - Plan assumes a holiday lasts all day so avoid holidays which are less than a full day in Microsoft Project. 15.2 Postscript module The postscript module may be used to print the Gantt or PERT chart on a postscript printer. Selecting the print postscript menu option from the "Run module" dialog will display a dialog which controls which chart to print along with the page size and orientation. The output from the postscript module will be sent to the device specified using the "Printer" menu option on the "Control" menu on the Psion system screen. If the given destination is not ready, e.g. a serial cable is not connected then an error message will be displayed. The custom width and height apply only if the page size is set to "Custom". These give the smallest and largest measurements respectively of the paper in centimetres. The margin item controls the width of the margin around the edge of the paper. When printing the Gantt chart a second dialog will appear which allows the date range to be specified. This may be set to either the entire project, derived from the current Gantt view, the remaining part of the project, or a specified date range. The custom start and end dates are used only when the range item is set to "custom dates". The Gantt chart will be paginated if necessary, the PERT chart will always be printed on one page. When printing the PERT chart a second dialog will appear which allows a section of the PERT chart to be printed. If set to "All" then all the PERT chart will be printed on one sheet of paper. If set to "Pert view" then the top left corner of the printout will match the top left corner of the current view in the PERT chart. In this case the "Pert view screens" option controls the amount to be printed, a value of 1 implies that the printout will correspond to the PERT chart. Note that printouts may be sent to a printer connected to a PC via the RPRINT utility and a 3Link cable. RPRINT is included in the freely available RCOM package developed by Psion which is also supplied with PsiWin. Users without access to a postscript compatible printer may like to investigate the facilities available with the software called Ghostscript. This allows postscript output to be viewed and printed on most printers connected to a PC. Aladdin Ghostscript and a front- end called Ghostview may be obtained via the Internet from ftp.cs.wisc.edu in the directory /pub/ghost. 15.3 Agenda module The Agenda module provides a mechanism for transferring task details to the Psion Agenda application. Plan will create a new agenda file which contains a dated to-do entry for each task in the current open plan. The due date of each to-do item will be the end date for the corresponding task. The start date of the task will be used as the date from which the to-do will be displayed in the day/week view of Agenda. The interface also provides a facility to set an alarm for each to-do entry which will activate at the given time on the end date for the task. Once the agenda file has been created there are two possible techniques for using the file: - Maintain the file as a separate Agenda file and open it as a separate Agenda process. - Merge the file into an existing Agenda file. 16. COMMAND SUMMARY Menu Name Key Purpose File New psion-n Create new plan file Open psion-o Open existing plan file Save as psion-a Save plan under a new name or save plan as a text file (comma separated, tab separated or space padded) Save psion-s Save plan and resource file Revert psion-v Revert plan and resource files to last saved versions Print setup psion-y Print configuration (paper size, orientation, printer,...) Print preview psion-* Preview output from print option Print psion-p Print task list to the serial or parallel port or a file. Use the system screen printer control option to set-up the print destination and parameters Edit Copy psion-c Copy current task into a buffer Insert psion-i Re-insert task from buffer Delete psion-J Delete current task (see also Delete key) Edit memo psion-M Create or edit memo associated with current task Delete memo psion-D Delete memo associated with current task Task End/work/rate psion-r Change current task calculation to end, work or rate Dependencies psion-d Change current task dependencies Cost & data psion-b Change cost and user data Set work done psion-W Enter/update work done field for current task Review psion-R Re-estimate end/work/rate for calculation current task taking into consideration work done so far and remaining work Pert Move psion-A Move current task in PERT chart dynamically using cursor keys, any key exits mode Pert X/Y psion-Y Set current tasks x, y PERT position Resource Make psion-m Make a new resource Kill psion-k Delete a resource Switch to psion-w Change current resource and display resource histogram display Rename psion-j Rename a resource Settings psion-u Set current resource maximum units, charge rate and work hours. Over- psion-L Checks for cases where allocated? resources have been allocated too much work. Displays tasks associated with over-allocated resources Holiday count psion-h Count non-public holidays between two dates for current resource Start year psion-K Set year for start of three holiday calendar for all resources Plan Set fields psion-E Set saved fields or set user text field to a W.B.S identifier Critical Path psion-/ Recalculate critical path Recalculate psion- Force recalculation of tasks all minus (see also tab) Totals psion-e Calculate and display summary of totals for current plan (work planned, done, % done, start and end dates, costs) View Zoom font in psion-z Alter size of font Zoom font out psion-Z Alter size of font Zoom in psion-z Change scale on time axis Zoom out psion-Z Change scale on time axis Field order psion-t Customise order of fields in task list view Mask tasks psion-B Controls which tasks are visible in Task list, Gantt and PERT charts Sort tasks psion-S Sort tasks Layout PERT psion-l Automatically layout tasks in PERT chart Refresh psion-F Refresh screen Cursor off psion-C Turn cursor off until any key pressed (useful in combination with psion-control-shift-s which saves current screen to a file) Special Preferences psion-q Set preferences Find text psion-f Find given text in task id, description or user text fields Find again psion-g Find next occurrence of text About Plan psion-V Display information about Plan. Register psion-Q Register Plan using a registration key. Run module psion- Run optional Plan module plus Exit psion-x Exit Plan Diamond Task view psion-N Switch to task view Task list psion-T Switch to task list view Gantt chart psion-G Switch to Gantt chart view PERT chart psion-P Switch to PERT chart view Resource usage psion-U Switch to resource usage view Holidays psion-H Switch to holiday view (Keys) Tab Force recalculation of all tasks Enter Edit current task details Shift- Insert a new task above current Enter task Delete Delete current task Help On-line help system Space Re-centre Gantt or PERT display on current task Esc Abort recalculate all 17. HISTORY Version (Date) Notes 1.0.1 (May. `94) Restricted alpha 1 release for evaluation purposes only. 1.1.1 (July `94) Restricted alpha 2 release for evaluation purposes only. Minor bug fix to dependency dialog. 1.2.1 (Sep. `94) Restricted alpha 3 release for evaluation purposes only. Added critical path option. Enhanced PERT task display to allow text above and below task boxes to be set independently. Also added resource, rate and status to list of options for PERT task texts. Adjusted positioning of tasks with auto PERT layout and position of texts above task boxes. Increased maximum number of tasks from 74 to 99. Increased maximum x-shift on PERT chart. 1.3.1 (Sep. `94) Bug fix to zoom option in Gantt view when using new project. Changed duration to work. Made building of default calendar faster. Added optional modules menu. Created MPX transfer module. 2.0.2 (Oct. `94) First public release. Change in file formats. Added extra task fields for work done, costs and user data. Renamed some of the menus and rearranged some of the menu key activation's. Added recalculation and tracking options. Amended MPX module to work with extra fields. Added border to all views. Changed print option to use system screen print set- up. Added shareware registration. 2.1.2 (Nov. `94) Minor bug-fix, check for \PLN directory failed. 2.2.2 (Jan. `95) Added options to shade holidays in Gantt chart, (enabled from the preferences setting). Milestones now drawn differently in Gantt chart. Shift-diamond works in opposite direction to diamond key. Refresh can now be interrupted by diamond key. Tasks can now be sorted by a number of fields. New postscript printer module. New module providing interface to Agenda. A few other minor changes. Fixed a few bugs. 3.0.3 (Mar. `95) Major new release. File formats changed. Maximum number of tasks increased to 200 from 99. Description field length increased from 30 to 255. Maximum number of dependencies per task increased from 4 to 8. Added summary/outline tasks. 4 font sizes now available using standard psion-z keys. PERT chart now zoomable and with vertical scroll. Added extensive on-line help. Speed of core algorithm improved. Speed of holiday shading in Gantt chart improved. Added facility to allow field order in task list to be user definable. Memos may be associated with each task. Added support for 24 hour time format. Added code to get around OPL limit on long choice lists when have many tasks and resources. Menus are now view sensitive, i.e. inappropriate options do not appear. Added support for 8 character currency symbols. Added option for year symbol in Agenda interface. Agenda interface now creates a named to-do list. Various minor enhancements and bug-fixes. 3.1.3 (Aug `95) Added mask option to control which tasks are shown (mask by level, resource, date,...). Option to display a task field at the end of each task bar in the Gantt chart. Sort tasks by Id field. More information in plan totals display. Updating general holidays affects holidays for all other resources. Added option to count a resources holidays between 2 dates. Some changes to MPX module to better support MS Project 4.0 and German MPX file format. Now looks for registration file, plan.reg, on disks A:, B: and M:. Displays date at top of holiday view. Option to specify project specific or common resource file when creating a new project. Bug fix so that if update task doesn't delete any attached memos. Bug fix to postscript print module so that uses correct shading when printing full project. A few other minor changes. 3.2.4 (Oct `95) Added resource maximum units data. Option to find over-allocated resources. Added saved start, end and work fields so that the latest dates can be compared with the initial settings. New "Set fields" menu option to set saved fields or to set user text field to a W.B.S identifier. New mask options on start and end date field mask which compares fields to saved fields. New find option. Implemented proper Psion print setup, print preview and print options for task list. Previous print options are now available under the menu option "Save as". New preference option which controls whether dates and times are used or just dates. Menus reorganised to be more consistent with other Psion applications and make room for more options. Tab and shift-tab can now be used in holiday and usage views to cycle through resources. Pressing space in Gantt and PERT chart will alter zoom to display current task. CTRL-up and CTRL-down move to top/bottom of task list. Improved interrupt to refresh of screen on specific keys. Current view, task and resource is saved when the plan is saved. Save option now always saves, instead of saying the plan has not changed. Various improvements to MPX module. A few other minor enhancements and bug-fixes. 4.0 (Apr `96) Backed out some of the changes made to do with the dates/times preference setting to avoid rounding errors. This option now only affects the input/display of times not the internal calculation. Plan now uses an external message file so that it can be translated into a number of languages. Multiple resources may be assigned to one task. Grey plane option. Description and dependencies may now be shown in the Gantt and PERT charts. The print setup is now saved with the plan. Postscript output greatly improved. New Plan start up title screen. Mask sub-tasks option. Memory handling completely different, (now uses less memory for small plans). Completed tasks now crossed out in PERT chart. A few minor bug-fixes. 4.1 (Jul `96) A minor bug fix release.