Introduction :

 

This tutorial describes the planning projects feature of Timéo using a very basic example : building a wooden table for Mr Smith.

 

Step 1 : Project and sub-projects.

 

The table is composed of 3 sub-items : the table top, the legs and a drawer. At this step, we will create the customer "Smith", a project "Table" and 3 sub-projects : "Table top", "Legs" and "Drawer".

1 / In the « Projects / Activities » window, click on the "Add a project" button :

2/ In the « New project » dialog enter the name of the item ( 1 ) and select « Customer » as type ( 2 )

Items of different type are treated identically by the scheduling engine and the only difference is the image associated with the item.

You can also change the color of the item ( 3 ). This color is used in the calendar view and in the Gantt chart.

3/ Click on « Ok » to create the item.

4/ In the same way, we can create the project : « Table » of type "Project" and defined as a child of the customer "Mr Smith".

if you select an item in the list of projects before opening the dialog, it will be considered as the parent of the new project.

5/ The same way, we can create sub-items « Table top », « Legs » and « Drawer » . These items are of type "Sub-projects" and are children of the project "Table".

The projects tree support  "Drag & Drop" reordering and parent changing.

Step 2 : Activities.

 

The achievement of each subset of the table can be decomposed into several operations :

1. Saw the wood pieces.
2. Sand the wood pieces.
3. Put together the different parts..
4. Paint.

For a woodworker, these operations are the basic actions of the work and are common to all projects. That wy wee will create them as activities. To do this :

1/ In the « Projects / Activities » window, click on the "Add an activity" button :

2/ In the « Activities » dialog, just enter the activity name :

Click on the « Save » button to create several activities without closing the dialog.

 

Step 3 : The projets tracking window.

 

The "projects tracking" view displays the result of the scheduling and allows to track the progress of projects. This view is fully customizable. You can :

• Hide some projects.
• Choose columns to display.
• Reorder columns.
• Sort projects by ascending or descending order.
• Show or hide the Gantt chart.

For more information, please see Timéo help file.

If the "projects tracking" window is hidden, just click on the "Projects tracking" button in the main toolbar.

This window can be displayed either in the central part of Timéo ( as the tasks view or reports ), either as a floating or docking pane. Right clicking on the window caption bar brings up a context menu with options to make the window "Floating", "Dockable" or "Tabbed Document".

Step 4 : Set the working time of each elementary task.

In Timéo, a task is defined as an activity related to a project : for example « Cut the parts » of the « Table top » or « Sand the parts » of the « Table top ».

To be able to calculate the end date of the project, Timéo must know the expected duration for each elementary task. For example :

Task	Duration
Saw the different parts of the table top	2 hours
Sand the parts	4 hours
Put together	1 hour

 

First, we have to insert the activity " Saw " as a sub-item of the project "Table top"

To do so, in the "Projects tracking" window :

1/ Select the sub-project « table top », then click on the "Add an activity" button :

2/ In the dialog, select the activity « Saw » created in step 2  :

3/ Then, we can enter the duration of the elementary task in the "Project tracking" tab ( 1 ) :

4/ If you do not start working on the project immediately, check the « Start : » box and select the planned start date. If the box is uncheked, the project will begin as soon as possible.

5/ Save your changes and close the dialog box.

In the projects tracking window you can see the new item « Saw », as a child of « Table top ».

The task « Saw the parts of the Table top » has the following characteristics :

• The task sould begin November 14, 2011 at 8:00 AM.
• The duration of the task ( Total time ) is 2 hours.
• The time spent on this task is 0 hour.
• The time left is 2 hours.
• The task must be completed November 14, 2011 at 10h00 AM. (For the demonstration, the working time allocated for unscheduled tasks was set to zero. See Tools->Options, « Projects tracking » tab ).

6/ The same way, we can add the activity « Sand » with a duration of 4 hours.

The 2 tasks « Saw » and « Sand » are carried out simultaneously with the same priority, and 50% of the working time is assigned to each task.

To change the percentage of working time assigned to the tasks you have to change the priority of the tasks in the "Projects tracking" dialog :

For example, if you select the highest priority for « Saw » the percentage of working time allocated is now 85% for " Saw " and et 15% for « Sand » and " Saw " is supposed to be ended sooner. Please see Timéo help file for more information on the priority.

The « Sand » task is supposed to be ended a 3:00 PM because Timéo takes into account the lunch break as defined in the « Working day » tab of the « Options » dialog :

Step 5 : Predecessors.

 

In reality, the 2 tasks « Saw » and « Sand » can not be performed simustaneously. It should already saw the parts before sanding. We have to create a relation between the 2 tasks to indicate that the "Sand" task can not begin until the " Saw " task is not completed. The "  Saw " task is called a predecessor of " Sand ". To do so :

1/ Double click on « Sand » to open the projects tracking dialog.

2/ Click on the « Predecessors » tab.

3/ Click on the « Add » button, and select the item : « Table/Table top/Saw »

As you can see in the projects tracking window, the start date of the « Sand » task is now egual to the end date of the « Saw » task.

If you want the start date of a task to be temporarily calculated without taking into account predecessors, you can uncheck the "Predecessors" box in the "Project tracking" tab of the "Projects" dialog.