Scheduling Calendar

Question

Has anyone figured out how to produce a good scheduling calendar? I have a table where I have production tasks for various departments with an associated time estimate for completion. I would like to make a calendar that will look at tasks (by dept) and also look at time estimated (if 16 hours, span 2 days) then append the subsequent tasks to the following days.

For example, if a department has three tasks;
task 1 - 16 hours
task 2 - 4 hours
task 3 - 20 hours

I would like task 1 to span Mon and Tues
task 2 to be only on Wed
and task 3 should span Wed Thurs and Fri

I already made a calendar view; but all of my tasks overlap each other - showing tasks exceeding a standard work day on any given day. I could resolve this by going into each task and manually setting a start / end date. But this solution seems quite tedious as I have hundreds of tasks. I am hoping to utilize a formula (maybe?) to make the calendar limit the number of tasks on any given day by the estimated work time. (ordering of tasks - take precedence by lower record ID)

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Michael Jameson
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markshnier__you · Answer

It sounds like you were saying that there are task dependencies, And that task 2 cannot start until task 1 is completed. That would involve use Predecessors. https://help.quickbase.com/user-assistance/about_dependencies.html

In practice these are somewhat of a pain to set up unless you have a standard set of tasks which you can copy into a new project which already has the dependencies established. Then the copy master detail function does a magnificent job of this. The whole concept of predecessors is a skill area to be acquired. You might want some one on one assistance after reading up on it.

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Mark Shnier (YQC)
mark.shnier@gmail.com
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michaeljameson · Answer

Predecessor tasks (on the surface) appear to be more catered towards a chained tasking system. Like, in order to finish a product; dept 1 needs to complete task A -> then dept 2 can complete task A etc. But, in my situation, I have multiple tasks in my system for the same dept. Dept 1 has task A, B, C...Z and can't start on B until A is complete. (ultimate goal is to see the total number of expected days for any given dept to complete all tasks assigned) Maybe predecessor tasks can do this, but can it do this in an automated way?

My concern is that I understand if I use a standard set of tasks then the predecessor is pre-determined.
ex. dept 1 always comes before dept 2 and dept 2 before dept 3 etc.

but I don't need completion by task A in dept 1 to trigger task A in dept 2
I need completion of task A in dept 1 to trigger task B in dept 1
and I want to sort tasks A, B, C...Z by record ID rather than a preset order

I hope this makes sense, I have been confusing myself on writing this

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Michael Jameson
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markshnier__you · Answer

Well all I can say is if you want chain tasks then you need to use predecessors. It really doesn't matter about the departments it's just a question of whether a particular task is allowed to start until any previous task or tasks identified as pPractical problem is that while this effort to specify which tasks are dependent on other tasks is worth the effort if you have some kind of standard list of tasks and he use the built-in function in QuickBase to replicate those set of tasks into a project then the effort is worth it.

But if you are just entering Task on the fly in my experience users will balk at the extra data entry to identify the predecessor task(s).

I just implemented a wonderful tool from MCF which allows for a completely different visual drag and drop interface where you drag and drop the tasks on a grant chart and drag and drop the task dependencies. My opinion that is the only practical way to get users to identify task predecessors if you have non-standard set of tasks for projects.

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Mark Shnier (YQC)
mark.shnier@gmail.com
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michaeljameson · Answer

Are you able to share the tool that allows the drag and drop?&nbsp; I think that will be an effective solution for me.------------------------------Michael Jameson------------------------------

markshnier__you · Answer

If you contact me directly by the email in my signature line I can discuss the ballpark MCF pricing of this tool with you. &nbsp;If that is anywhere in your budget I can give you a quick demo.Like myself, MCF is part of the QuickBase Solutions Provider program. (QSP)------------------------------Mark Shnier (YQC)mark.shnier@gmail.com------------------------------

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Scheduling Calendar