Re: [Planner] Handling "As soon as possible" constraint in context of over-booked resource

[Struan Bartlett <struan praguespringpeople org>]

Richard Hult wrote:

> Struan Bartlett wrote:
>
> > IMHO, either (a) or (b) would be more intuitive and useful with large 
> > projects than relying on human intervention to either add unnecessary 
> > dependencies or change start and end dates by hand.
> >
> > Have I missed the point? Is this feedback helpful?
>
> You haven't missed anything :) We have been talking about adding this 
> feature for a while but so far nobody has had the time to do it or 
> figure out exactly how it should be done.
That's good news. At least planner will be going in the right direction 
for me, albeit perhaps slowly! :-) Could you answer a few related 
questions that I couldn't see covered in the user guide?:

1. When an item is highlighted in red on the Resource Usage page, does 
this mean there is resource overbooking?

2. What's the function of 'Slack' on the Tasks page. If I have three 
tasks, all beginning Mar 21, all using 100% of my 'Struan' resource, the 
first 4h work, the second and third 1d, then the slack on the first task 
is 4h and there is no slack on the other tasks. Yet, if I increase the 
work of the second task to 2d, then the slack on the first task 
increases to 1d 4h and on the third task to 1d. What is the meaning and 
rationale behind this? (I've attached the two planner files).

3. Can anyone explain what 'periodicity' means in the context of 
scheduling software?

Struan

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<project name="" company="" manager="" phase="" project-start="20050321T000000Z" mrproject-version="2" calendar="1">
  <properties>
    <property name="cost" type="cost" owner="resource" label="Cost" description="standard cost for a resource"/>
  </properties>
  <phases/>
  <calendars>
    <day-types>
      <day-type id="0" name="Working" description="A default working day"/>
      <day-type id="1" name="Nonworking" description="A default non working day"/>
      <day-type id="2" name="Use base" description="Use day from base calendar"/>
    </day-types>
    <calendar id="1" name="Default">
      <default-week mon="0" tue="0" wed="0" thu="0" fri="0" sat="1" sun="1"/>
      <overridden-day-types>
        <overridden-day-type id="0">
          <interval start="0800" end="1200"/>
          <interval start="1300" end="1700"/>
        </overridden-day-type>
      </overridden-day-types>
      <days/>
    </calendar>
  </calendars>
  <tasks>
    <task id="1" name="Item 1" note="" work="14400" start="20050321T000000Z" end="20050321T120000Z" percent-complete="0" priority="0" type="normal" scheduling="fixed-work"/>
    <task id="2" name="Item 2" note="" work="57600" start="20050321T000000Z" end="20050322T170000Z" percent-complete="0" priority="0" type="normal" scheduling="fixed-work">
      <constraint type="must-start-on" time="20050321T000000Z"/>
    </task>
    <task id="3" name="Item 3" note="" work="28800" start="20050321T000000Z" end="20050321T170000Z" percent-complete="0" priority="0" type="normal" scheduling="fixed-work"/>
  </tasks>
  <resource-groups/>
  <resources>
    <resource id="1" name="Struan" short-name="" type="1" units="0" email="" note="" std-rate="0">
      <properties>
        <property name="cost" value=""/>
      </properties>
    </resource>
  </resources>
  <allocations>
    <allocation task-id="3" resource-id="1" units="100"/>
    <allocation task-id="2" resource-id="1" units="100"/>
    <allocation task-id="1" resource-id="1" units="100"/>
  </allocations>
</project>

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<project name="" company="" manager="" phase="" project-start="20050321T000000Z" mrproject-version="2" calendar="1">
  <properties>
    <property name="cost" type="cost" owner="resource" label="Cost" description="standard cost for a resource"/>
  </properties>
  <phases/>
  <calendars>
    <day-types>
      <day-type id="0" name="Working" description="A default working day"/>
      <day-type id="1" name="Nonworking" description="A default non working day"/>
      <day-type id="2" name="Use base" description="Use day from base calendar"/>
    </day-types>
    <calendar id="1" name="Default">
      <default-week mon="0" tue="0" wed="0" thu="0" fri="0" sat="1" sun="1"/>
      <overridden-day-types>
        <overridden-day-type id="0">
          <interval start="0800" end="1200"/>
          <interval start="1300" end="1700"/>
        </overridden-day-type>
      </overridden-day-types>
      <days/>
    </calendar>
  </calendars>
  <tasks>
    <task id="1" name="Item 1" note="" work="14400" start="20050321T000000Z" end="20050321T120000Z" percent-complete="0" priority="0" type="normal" scheduling="fixed-work"/>
    <task id="2" name="Item 2" note="" work="28800" start="20050321T000000Z" end="20050321T170000Z" percent-complete="0" priority="0" type="normal" scheduling="fixed-work">
      <constraint type="must-start-on" time="20050321T000000Z"/>
    </task>
    <task id="3" name="Item 3" note="" work="28800" start="20050321T000000Z" end="20050321T170000Z" percent-complete="0" priority="0" type="normal" scheduling="fixed-work"/>
  </tasks>
  <resource-groups/>
  <resources>
    <resource id="1" name="Struan" short-name="" type="1" units="0" email="" note="" std-rate="0">
      <properties>
        <property name="cost" value=""/>
      </properties>
    </resource>
  </resources>
  <allocations>
    <allocation task-id="3" resource-id="1" units="100"/>
    <allocation task-id="2" resource-id="1" units="100"/>
    <allocation task-id="1" resource-id="1" units="100"/>
  </allocations>
</project>