Welcome back to our course on Project 2016 Advanced.
In the preceding section we took a look at Outline Numbering and WBS Codes.
And I pointed out some of the problems with outline numbering in terms of producing a
consistent and reliable way of identifying the tasks in a project and the structure of
those tasks.
We then created custom WBS Codes and I said the first thing we’re going to do in this
section is to take a look at whether the problems we encounter with outline numbers are the
same with WBS Codes.
Well what you’re going to discover is that you still have problems but they’re at least
in part different problems.
Now in just a moment I’m going to demonstrate the sort of thing that happens but before
I do an important point to bear in mind.
There is a fundamental difference between a situation where you are given codes to use
and they need to be assigned to the tasks in a project in such a way that those codes
never change and the procedure whereby the tasks in a project are outline numbered in
some way and that numbering is updated as you update the structure and contents of the
project.
So at different times you may want either of those behaviors.
Do you want your codes to be absolutely fixed once they’re applied or do you want your
codes to be flexible and adaptable as the content and structure of a project changes?
Well in order to demonstrate some of the differences between the two systems that we’ve looked
at so far take a look at task 11 which is Lockup and task 18 which is Frame.
Lockup has an outline number of 3 and a WBS Code N003.
Frame has an outline number of 4 and a WBS Code that ends 004.
What I’m going to do is to change the sequence of those summary tasks.
So I’m going to drag Frame above Lockup.
Now notice now that Frame is no longer outline number 4.
It’s outline number 3.
Its subtasks are accordingly renumbered and of course Lockup has the corresponding switch
the other way.
The outline numbering in my project has stayed consistent.
So at the first level 1, 2, 3, 4, etcetera.
But if you look at the WBS Codes, the WBS Codes have in effect done the opposite.
It appears that they WBS Codes have traveled with the moving summary task.
So as far as WBS is concerned Frame is still 004 and Lockup is 003.
Now that’s actually seems to be quite encouraging but there are certain things to be wary of
because supposing I now make the move the other way.
Let me select Frame and drag it back to where it was before.
Now when I drag it back to where it was before the first problem is that by default of course
when I in this case cut and paste but if I insert a task into an existing schedule the
task assumes the indentation level of the task above it.
So the Frame task is now indented.
What I need to do is to out dent it again to get it back to the top level.
Let me do that.
And of course the outline numbering fully recovers.
I’m back to 1, 2, 3, 4.
Everything is fine as far as the outline numbering is concerned.
But if you look at the WBS Codes what happened there is something really quite strange because
Frame hasn’t become HB01-004.
It’s treated as though it’s an insert into the whole project and the numbers are
assigned are the next available range.
And if you look down at Sign off at the bottom of the project that was HB01-012.
So when Frame has been cut and pasted it’s been assigned WBS Code HB01-013.
So it’s treated as though it’s a new summary task with of course new subtasks.
So although the WBS Code behavior seemed at first to be better there are some inherent
problems with this as well.
One key aspect of this is that when we’re dealing with either outline numbers or WBS
Codes and in our case we’re actually dealing with custom WBS Codes Project 2016 does do
the maintenance on those codes.
It does make changes to them.
It uses its own internal intelligence to decide when they need to be changed and in what way
they need to be changed.
And sometimes what it does may not be what you want it to do.
Now that’s not to say that you’re not going to use these codes because for most
of the problems that occur there are ways of resolving them provided you keep an eye
on what’s going on.
So let’s take it for example that last change that I made where I moved Frame back to its
summary task situation and the WBS Codes assumed a value that I didn’t want.
If I right click on the Frame task and go into Information, you can see Summary Task
Information.
If I click on Custom Fields you’ll see that one of the custom fields there is WBS.
Now I can manually change that to the value that I want it to have.
So I can change it to HB01-004, click on OK.
Watch what happens to that summary task and its subtasks.
They get corrected back to the values that I actually want.
So in a situation where basically my WBS Codes are okay but I may have the odd change to
make, the odd addition to make and so on I can normally make WBS Codes and specifically
custom WBS Codes work.
So it’s not a case that they can’t work.
It’s a case that a) you need to make sure that you’ve done as much preparation as
possible before you apply and customize them and b) you may need to make some changes to
those codes as you make changes to your plan in order to compensate for anything that Project
2016 does that you don’t actually want it to do.
I showed you there how to make a change to correct what might loosely be called an error
in the WBS Coding system.
But there are other options as well.
If for example your WBS Codes are not in force by somebody else, you want to use them and
you like the structure that you’ve set up, you’re not particularly worried about the
actual values as long as you know what they are and contract other things against them,
perhaps other projects, materials or whatever then let me just undo that last change.
If you’ve got to a situation where you’d got a number here that you didn’t want like
013 and you thought, “Oh I don’t want 013 there.
I want it all to be in sequence.”
One of the options if you go to the Project tab in WBS is Renumber.
And if you click on Renumber WBS Codes either for the entire project or selected tasks,
if you have selected tasks you can renumber those WBS.
So I’m going to stick with the entire project.
Watch what happens.
Get a warning, click on Yes and it goes back to what is in effect the renumbering according
to the custom codes that I’ve set up.
So I pretty much finish up where I was in the first place.
But if you have that option then the renumber either of the whole project or of selected
tasks can often give you a usable set of WBS Codes again as well.
However, going back to the point I’ve made a couple of times already now.
Sometimes you just need codes that are fixed.
And in this case you need to use codes that Project 2016 doesn’t set.
You need to use codes that you set and that Project 2016 leaves alone.
And for that we need to use Outline Codes and that’s what I’m going to cover in
the next section.
I’ll see you then.