[Planner Dev] Re: Objective or Deliverable View

[Brian Christensen <brian simpleprojectmanagement com>]

Lincoln,

I am very interested in your ideas for an "Objective View".

> What I'm envisaging is that this "Objective View" would also be
> the default view for Planner and that project managers input the
> project objectives /deliverables and then focus on tasks and resources
> for each of these deliverables in turn.

Are objectives really the same things as deliverables? I think that you may be right that the report should track and emphasize deliverables, but does that really keep the focus on the project's objectives?

> You would set an association (I'll call it a binding) from 1 or a set of tasks
> (and thus implicitly the assigned resources) to each deliverable.

"Bound To" is about as generic as link. Is there a more specific name for what you are trying to describe here? Aren't they more accurately "Deliverable Tasks"? Or is there a better name?

> |Deliverable | %Compl | Due Date | Work To Go | Bound To    | Resources  |
> +------------+--------+----------+------------+-------------+------------+
> | Widget 1   |  15%   | 1 October|   15 Days  | 1.6.5, 2.5  | RH, LP, ACS|

Am I correct in understanding "%Compl" as being based on the earned value to date for the tasks that are "bound to" the Deliverable? (Completion weighted by anticipated effort?)

Is the Due Date you have in mind the date when the last "Bound" task is scheduled for completion?

What do you envision "Work To Go" as being? Is this effort or duration remaining? If duration isn't that just a count of the number of (work?) days until the due date?

> To see predecessors (which could be quite complex paths),
> you'd mouse-over the bound to tasks and then right-mouse and select
> Predecessors (this'll simply launch the Task Edit dialog with the focus
> set to the Predecessor tab).

How important do you think it is to have this mouse linkage to the Tasks? (Mouse clicks from Deliverables to Tasks to Prerequisites) Would the view still have most of its value even if it was a report view without the dynamic navigation links?

> This'll be the skill of the project manager to work out when something is ready to be released and what really indicates
> its progress.

> The project manager must simply manually choose the best tasks/summaries that indicate that the deliverable is ready.

I agree with your insight that the value of this "Objectives View" is entirely dependent on the skill the project manager shows in using it. Is there someway to make it more likely to be effective?

-- Brian