We have an issue where we get an excel report (our PMO dept uses MS EXCEL) from which we have like products like so product 1 start date end date product 2 product x Each product has a product life cycle which we are trying to put into MS project. I wanted to know a couple of things: NOTE: the products and dates change and as such need to be reflected in MS project 1. Is there an automatic/easier way to ““link”” all the start/end dates into ms project which at the moment is very cumbersome given the crazy amount of products we have (horribly manual error prone process)? via programming or maybe I can put the ms excel file into another file format which ms project can easily get somehow? - I read somewhere that Visual basic can achieve this? I am not sure how I have never really work with it but are there any sample code for achieving this? 2. I am trying to have multiple products within one project plan. So, I defined the first product and its tasks/milestones with proper linking (both kinds linking with ms excel dates and linking internally of tasks like FS/FF etc). Now is it possible to just simply copy and paste the rest without losing any linking? Apparently this is also a problem I am having. I need serious help on this. I would really appreciate it since I am very new to ms project and trying to convince our company to use this instead of just all sorts of ms excel sheets. thanks
Yes, you can do it using VBA, I do this type of work all the time. I am an independent scheduling consultant. In MS Project you will edit a VBA macro, then add a reference to MS Excel. In the VBA IDE (editor), select Tools, References, find your version of Excel. You can “browse” to it, Excel.exe
After you have added the reference you can do things like:
dim xlApp as Excel.Application
set xlApp = new Excel.Application
Then, if you know Excel VBA, you can do anything you want in Project with Excel files, open files, read them, add tasks to MS Project and update the Start and Finish dates in Project from the data read in the Excel file.
Tazor:
Your second request may actually be your initial problem: after you have developed the schedule with the products desired, then you can begin thinking about the start/finish dates.
#2) Copy/Paste:
Yes, you can copy and paste data, and carry with the selection all the data relating to that ID/task. You will only lose any links to tasks outside the block copy/pasted. If you select the entire block of ID numbers for the first product (ensure that the ID numbers in the left border are selected), then copy, then paste below. Do this as often as necessary.
Then edit each block to make it specific to the product desired and establish any links to other products/copied blocks. (Hint: after the pasting activity, insert the Predecessor and Successor columns/fields, and the existing and missing links will be obvious.) If you can create all necessary links between several blocks of products, then copy/paste that entire block, you will have to insert only the links outside that larger block of tasks.
#1) Start/Finish Dates:
A key directive in MS Project ( prior to MSP 2010): do NOT enter dates directly. (MSP 2010’s Manual Scheduling feature allows this, but even there you must eventually do the following?) After listing all tasks (and summaries, etc), identify all task durations, links - and (if required) assigned resources and their work hours. Once you have these in place, use lags (+ or -) and duration changes to achieve the required dates - or to point out to the PM that the required dates do not fit the required durations
Others in the Toolbox universe may have other methods, or additions to the process above.
Joe
