Dear Community Members,
In this week's Learn PPM with Rego, we'll explore four Clarity PPM (CA PPM) questions and answers.
- Does Clarity PPM use different scheduling algorithms for Gantt, Open Workbench, and MS Project? If so, what are the differences?
- Can I use both MS Project and Open Workbench to manage my project?
- What is the best practice for planning with resource roles if you expect to have multiple resources fulfilling a single role, like multiple developers?
- Since Clarity PPM controls the project calendar, how can I schedule weekend work, since those are normally carried as non-working days?
Please feel free to comment on any alternative answers you've found within the CA Community here.
We love your input (always).
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1
Does Clarity PPM use different scheduling algorithms for Clarity PPM Gantt, Open Workbench, and MS Project? If so, what are the differences?
Answer
There are two different scheduling algorithms. MS Project has its own. Clarity PPM Gantt and Open Workbench share another algorithm. For this reason you should NEVER schedule in Clarity PPM Gantt if you plan to manage your project in MS Project. The differences will corrupt your schedule.
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2
Can I use both MS Project and Open Workbench to manage my project?
Answer
No. You should never switch back and forth between scheduling tools in a single project. This will cause corruption.
However . . . you can open your project in the second scheduling tool, and no corruption will occur IF you don't save the schedule back to Clarity PPM. For example, if you are managing your project in Open Workbench, but someone wants to see the project in MS Project, then you can turn off MS Project scheduling, launch the project into MS Project, and save it out as an .mpp file. Then close the project without saving back to Clarity PPM. This process won't cause corruption.
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3
What is the best practice for planning resource roles if you expect multiple resources to fulfill a single role, like multiple developers?
Answer
Clarity PPM allows you to allocate the same role multiple times in the Team Tab. Then you might have Developer1, Developer2, and Developer3. These roles can be assigned separately to tasks in the WBS. Then it a simple matter to transfer assignments from role to named resource, one for one.
See Open Workbench Transfer Assignments function below—from the Developer to Fred. This transfer may also be done in Clarity PPM from the Team Tab.
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4
Since Clarity PPM controls the project calendar, how can I schedule weekend work, since those are normally carried as non-working days?
Answer
There are three options for scheduling work on weekends.
- Schedule fixed duration tasks starting on Friday and ending on Monday, and assign expected ETC to resources working the weekend. Then they log their time on timesheets for Saturday and Sunday.
- Make no scheduling changes, but assign selected resources to work the weekend, and log their time to Saturday and Sunday. When these hours get posted, the ETCs will be decremented and the schedule will be accelerated based on the weekend work.
- Finally, in the scheduling tool, set the weekend to working days on the calendar. Then schedule the project. This will schedule selected resources with ETC on the weekend. When you save project back to Clarity PPM, the weekend days will return to non-work days, but the weekend schedule will be retained.
Note: Tasks 3 and 4 are scheduled on the weekend. 
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*A special thanks to Jon Hoaldridge for this great material.
