0001HELP ON HELP Help is organized into: Operating Instructions Glossary Users Guide Index and Table of Contents for the User Guide From any screen, pressing F1 will display the Operating Instructions for that screen. The operating instructions explain how to operate thesystem and are context sensitive - they apply to the screen from whichyou pressed F1. Once help is displayed, the glossary or user's guide can be displayed by moving the selection bar at the bottom of the help screen with the 0002left and right arrow keys, or pressing the highlighted letter. The user guide explains how to use the system to schedule work. Like the operating instructions, it is also context sensitive. Pressing F4 will "pop-up" the Index, which a list of subjects shown inalphabetical order. A specific subject can be displayed by moving the bar to it and pressing the enter key. Pressing the first letter of a subject will position the list at that point. 0003LIST FACILITY CANCEL Press Esc. CHOOSE Move the selection bar to a your choice, using the up and down arrow keys, and press Enter. SCROLL Hold down the Up or Down Arrow keys to scroll or use the PgUp and PgDn keys. SKIP TO Press the alphabetic key of the first letter in your choice. For 0004 example, if the list contains skills and you want to skip to a skill that starts with "C", press the "c" key. If you press the "c" key again, the selection bar will move the next item in the list that starts with that letter. DATES If the list contains dates, pressing the right arrow key will advance the list one month and the left arrow key will switch to the previous month. 0005LIST FACILITY This is a global facility that applies many data elements. In the caseof SKILLS, INITIALS, FROM NODES, TO NODES, PROJECTS and STATUS placingthe cursor on one of these data elements and pressing F4 will display a list of all the values you have used so far in both the Staff Plan and Work Plan. You can then choose one of those values and it will be automatically entered into the data element the cursor was on. If you press F4 on any DATE element, such as TARGET DATE, a calender will be displayed, showing days of the week. 0006MENUS Menus consist of an Action Bar with Drop-Down Menus. A selection can be made either by pressing the capital letter of the selection or by using the cursor arrows to move the selection bar and pressing Enter. FILE MENU save aLL Save the staff plan, work plan and holiday schedule. saVe select Selectively save the staff plan, work plan and holiday schedule. Change project Change to a new project, change any of the data files in a 0007 project or change the project description. merge Work plan Merge a work plan on disk into the work plan currently loaded into memory. merge sTaff plan Merge a staff plan on disk into the work plan currently loaded into memory. exit-save None Exit the system without saving the work plan, staff plan or holiday schedule. 0008 exIt-save select Exit the system and selectively save the work plan, staff plan and holiday schedule eXit-save all Exit the system and save the work plan, staff plan and holiday schedule. EDIT MENU Displays the staff plan, work plan or holiday schedule and allows you to edit them (change, add to and delete from). SCHEDULE MENU Calculate new schedule Compute a new schedule and display it. 0009 View previous schedule View the previously-calculated schedule. Be warned, however, that if you view the previously-calculated schedule it won't reflect any changes you made to the work plan, staff plan or holiday schedule since you calculated that schedule. PRINT MENU Work Plan Print the work plan contents - it can be filtered if only a portion of the work plan is needed. staff pLan Print the staff plan contents - it can be filtered. 0010 Job schedule Print the most recently-computed schedule summarized at a job level. tasK Schedule Print the most recently-computed schedule showing each task by job. work assiGnment Print the most recently-computed schedule showing each task by person. DOC Files The system files contain a number of DOC files, such as the 0011 order form (ORDER.DOC). Use this menu item to print one or more of those files. You can also print these files using the DOS PRINT command. ANALYZE MENU sKills Displays an analysis of what skills are available in the staff plan vs. what skills are needed in the work plan. staff Utilization Displays the percentage of staff utilization over time as well as who was under-utilized. staff availaBility Displays the availability, in workdays, over time for each 0012 staff plan person, before work has been assigned and scheduled. OPTIONS MENU Colors Choose between monochrome, standard colors or selecting you own colors. Printer Choose your printer from a list. Also - add a new printer and define it. Channel Choose the printer channel (LPT1, LPT2 or LPT3). 0013 Filters Set the filters. Filters let you control what information is displayed on the screen or printed in the reports. HELP MENU Help on how to use the on-line help system, user guide and glossary. QUIT Selectively save the work plan, staff plan and holiday schedule - then exit WorkQueue. 0014TASKS COPY A Task can be copied by pressing Alt+C. The notepad, if any, will not be copied. DELETE A Task and its notepad, if any, can be deleted by placing the cursor on the Task and pressing Alt+D. Any data element in a task can be deleted by placing the cursor on the element and pressing Alt+E. SCROLL Tasks are too wide to display on one screen. The rest of the Task can be displayed by pressing F9. 0015 You can scroll up and down throught the tasks with the PgUp and PgDn keys. You can scroll between jobs with Ctrl/PgUp and Ctrl/PgDn. NOTEPAD A notepad can be created or edited by placing the cursor anywhere on the Task and pressing F8. ADD A Task can be added by moving the cursor to an empty line and keying in a Job and Task Number. Moving the cursor across the numbers with the Tab or Arrow keys will fill in the numbers automatically. 0016MOVE A Task can be moved to another job by changing the job number and then pressing F7 to make the transfer. ORDER The order of tasks can be changed by changing the task numbers. Duplicate numbers will be allowed, temporarily, but do not leave them. When finished, press F7 to re-display the tasks in their new sequence. INSERT A task can be inserted by moving the cursor to the line where you want to insert and pressing Alt+I. 0017NODES All tasks that refer to a node (either from or to) can be displayed by pressing F5. An alternative is to place the cursor on the node and press F5. LIST If the cursor is placed on a Skill and F4 is pressed, a list of all the skill codes used in the Staff Plan and Work Plan will be displayed. You can also pick the one you want to use by moving the bar and pressing enter. F4 will work similarly for the From Node, To Node, Status and all dates. In the case of dates, a calender is displayed from which a date can be choosen. UNIT The Duration and Interval Units are special elements, you cannot 0018 enter a value but by pressing any letter or number key, it will "toggle" between the permissible values. 0019JOBS COPY A Job and all its Tasks can be copied by pressing Alt+C. Notepads are not copied. DELETE A Job, all its Tasks and all attached Notepads can be deleted by placing the cursor on that Job and pressing Alt+D. An element in a Job can be deleted by placing the cursor on the element and pressing Alt+E. NOTEPAD A notepad can created or edited by placing the cursor on the Job and pressing F8. Use F6 to create or edit a Work file notepad. 0020 TASKS Are displayed by placing the cursor on a Job and pressing Enter. SEQUENCE Alt+S will toggle between Job Number and Priority sequence. ORDER Jobs can be re-ordered by changing the Job Numbers but duplicates will not be allowed. If job number is changed, all related tasks and notepads will also be changed. When finished, press F7 to re-display the jobs in their new sequence. LIST If the cursor is placed on the Status and F4 is pressed, a list 0021 of all status codes used in the Work Plan will be displayed. You can also choose one. This facility also works for dates. In the case of dates, a calender is displayed from which a date can be choosen. ADD A new Job can be added by moving the cursor to an empty line and keying in a Job Number. Moving the cursor across the Job Number with the Tab or Arrow key will fill in the number automatically. NODES All tasks that refer to a node (either from or to) can be displayed by pressing F5 and keying in the node name. An alternative is to place the cursor on the node and press F5. 0022 INSERT To insert a job, place the cursor on the line where you want to insert and press Alt+I. 0023NOTEPADS LINE WRAP Notepads will "line wrap" automatically so when keying, do not press enter at the end of each line - just continue keying until the ent of the paragraph - then press enter. ENTER Press enter at the end of paragraphs or to skip a line. DELETE Use Alt+E to delete the line the cursor is on. Use Alt+D and then Esc to delete the entire notepad. 0024HIDING All notepads are normally printed in the Staff and Work Plan reports but an asterisk (*) in position one of a note line will prevent that line from printing. An asterisk in position one of the first line of a notepad will prevent the entire notepad from printing. TITLES A greater-than sign (>) in position one of a FILE notepad line will cause that line to be printed in the plan and schedule reports as a custom title. One line up to the entire notepad can be used for custom titles. 0025PEOPLE COPY A Person and their time records can be copied by pressing Alt+C. Notepads are not copied. DELETE A Person, all its Time Records and all attached Notepads can be deleted by placing the cursor on that Person and pressing Alt+D. Any data element in a Person can be deleted by moving the cursor to it and pressing Alt+E. NOTEPAD A notepad can be attached to a Person by placing the cursor on 0026 the Person and pressing F8. A notepad can be attached to the overall Staff Plan by pressing F6. Existing notepads are indicated by an "n" on the left side of the screen. TIME All time records for a Person can be displayed by placing the cursor on the Person and pressing the Enter key. SEQUENCE The Person Number can be changed as a means of resequencing but duplicates will not be allowed. All related time records and notepads will automatically be changed. ADD A new person can be added by moving the cursor to an empty line 0027 and keying in a Person Number greater than zero. If the cursor is moved across the Person Number with the Right Tab or Right Arrow key the Person Number will be automatically filled in. INSERT A person can be inserted by placing the cursor where you want the insertion and pressing Alt+I. LIST If the cursor is placed on a Skill or Initials and F4 is pressed, a list of all skills and initials used in the Staff Plan and Work Plan will be displayed. 0028TIME RECORDS COPY A Time Record can be copied by pressing Alt+C. The notepad, if any, will not be copied. DELETE A Time Record and any attached Notepad can be deleted by placing the cursor on that Time Record and pressing Alt+D. An individual data element can be deleted by moving the cursor to it and pressing Alt+E. SCROLL You can scroll up and down throught the time records with the PgUp and PgDn keys. 0029 You can scroll between people with the Ctrl/PgDn and Ctrl/PgUp keys. NOTEPAD A notepad can be attached to a Time Record by placing the cursor on the Time Record and Pressing F8. Existing notepads are indicated by an "n" to the left of the person number. MOVE A time record can be moved to another person by changing the person number and pressing F7 to make the transfer. ADD A new Time Record can be created by moving the cursor to an empty 0030 line and keying in a Person and Time Number greater than zero. If the cursor is moved across these two numbers with the tab or arrow keys, they will be filled in automatically. ORDER The order can be changed by changing the Time Numbers. Duplicates are temporarily allowed but do not leave it that way. INSERT A time record can be inserted by moving the cursor to the line where you want to insert and pressing Alt+I. WORK UNIT The Work Unit is a special field, you cannot enter a value but by pressing any letter or number key, it will "toggle" between the 0031 permissible values. WORK WEEK This is a special field, similar to the Work Unit except that each day of the week toggles between a period and the first letter of that day. For example, Monday toggles between "m" and ".". A period means the the Work Rate will not be applied to that day and the letter means it will. LIST If the cursor is placed on either date and F4 is pressed, a calender is displayed from which a date can be choosen. 0032HOLIDAYS DELETE A holiday record can be deleted by placing the cursor on it and pressing Alt+D. Any data element can be deleted by moving the cursor to it and pressing Alt+E. ADD A new Holiday Record is created by moving the cursor to an empty line and keying in a unique Holiday Number. The number will be automatically filled by moving the cursor across the number via the tab or arrow key. ORDER The Holiday Number can be changed as a means of resequencing but 0033 duplicates will not be allowed. INSERT A holiday can be inserted by moving the cursor to the line where you want to insert and pressing Alt+I. LIST If the cursor is placed on either date and F4 is pressed, a calender is displayed from which a date can be choosen. 0034DATES The earliest date that can be entered into WorkQueue is January 5, 1981 (01/05/81). The latest date possible is December 31, 2050 (12/31/50). If a year of 00 - 50 is entered it will be interpreted as the year 2000 - 2050. If a year of 81 - 99 is entered it will be interpreted as the year 1981 - 1999. 0035STAFF UTILIZATION ANALYSIS SCROLL To scroll laterally, use Tab/Shift-Tab to scroll an entire screen or Left Arrow/Right Arrow to scroll half a screen. To scroll vertically, use the PgUp and PgDn keys. SCALE The calender can be compressed laterally so more of the schedule is displayed on a single screen. Use the Ctrl/right arrow key to "compress" time and Ctrl/left arrow to "uncompress" time. FILTERS This display can be filtered to check the utilization of a single 0036 person or a group of people. 0037STAFF AVAILABILITY ANALYSIS SCROLL To scroll laterally, use Tab/Shift-Tab to scroll an entire screen or Left Arrow/Right Arrow to scroll half a screen. To scroll vertically, use the PgUp and PgDn keys. SCALE The calender can be compressed laterally so more of the schedule is displayed on a single screen. Use the Ctrl/right arrow key to "compress" time and Ctrl/left arrow to "uncompress" time. 0038WORK SCHEDULE - JOBS SCROLL To scroll laterally, use Tab/Shift+Tab to scroll an entire screen or Left Arrow/Right Arrow to scroll half a screen. To scroll vertically, use the PgUp and PgDn keys. SCALE The calender can be compressed laterally so more of the schedule is displayed on a single screen. Use the Ctrl/right arrow key to "compress" days to weeks and Ctrl/left arrow to "uncompress". COLUMN WIDTH Use Ctrl/End keys to narrow the width of the columns and 0039 Ctrl/Home to widen them. This will let you display larger numbers or more columns if you schedule consists of small numbers. TASKS Placing the cursor on a job and pressing enter will display the tasks for that job. * An asterisk (*) means the number that would normally appear in that location was too large to be displayed. To display the number, press Ctrl/Home to widen the column. 0040WORK SCHEDULE - TASKS SCROLL To scroll laterally, use Tab/Shift-Tab to scroll an entire screen or Left Arrow/Right Arrow to scroll one column. To scroll vertically, use the PgUp and PgDn keys. To scroll between jobs, use the Ctrl/PgUp and Ctrl/PgDn keys. SCALE The calender can be compressed laterally so more of the schedule is displayed on a single screen. Use the Ctrl/right arrow key to "compress" days to weeks and Ctrl/left arrow to "uncompress". 0041COLUMN WIDTH Use Ctrl/End keys to narrow the width of the columns and Ctrl/Home to widen them. This will let you display larger numbers or more columns if you schedule consists of small numbers. * An asterisk (*) means the number that would normally appear in that location was too large to be displayed. To display the number, press Ctrl/PgUp to widen the column. 0042SKILLS ANALYSIS SCROLL: To scroll vertically, use the PgUp and PgDn keys. 0043MERGING To merge a file on disk into the file in memory, key in the name of the disk file and press the Enter key. To display a list of disk files, press F4. To display a list of files on another drive or directory, key in a drive and/or path ending in ":" or "/" and press F4. You may merge as many files into memory as needed but you will not be allowed to exceed the capacity of the target file. The merge process can be filtered. 0044PRINTERS CHOOSING A printer can be chosen by moving the selection bar to it and pressing Enter. CONTROL CODES The control codes for a printer can be displayed and edited by moving the selection bar to the printer and pressing F6. If you change any of the printer control codes they do not become effective until you place the cursor on the printer and press Enter(in other words, you must re-choose it). NEW PRINTERS A new printer can be added by moving the cursor to a blank line 0045 and keying in the name of that printer. You must then press Enter and key in the control codes that run the printer. DELETING A printer can be deleted by moving the cursor to it and pressing Alt+D. COPYING A printer can be copied by moving the cursor to it and pressing Alt+C. It will be copied into the next unoccupied line. 0046FILE LIST To select a file, move the bar to it and press Enter. 0047PRINT CONTROL CODES Each column is an ASCII number. At the appropriate time, all ten numbers are converted to an ASCII character string and sent to the printer. For example, if you wanted to print report titles in boldface on a dot-matrix printer, the control characters would be 27 and 71. These would be converted to Esc/G and sent to the printer each time a reporttitle is printed. If you enter any number greater than 255 it is interpreted as ASCII Zero. PROPORTIONAL FONTS ARE NOT SUPPORTED! 0048REPORT MENU START PRINTING The report will not start printing until you choose this option. PRINT TO DISK FILE This will print the report to a disk file. PRINT TO PRINTER This will print the report to the printer. ERASE PRINT-TO-DISK FILE This will erase any reports you have already written to a disk file. A report file is cumulative - each report you write to it is appended to the end. 0049CHANNEL Use this item to change the printer channel to be used. Pressing enter will alternate between the three choices. CHOOSE PRINTER This will let you choose or change the printer. FORM You can choose between three different forms for the schedule reports: Bar, List and Numeric. You can "toggle" between these three choices choosing the "Form" menu item. See the user's guide for more information. SEQUENCE You can vary the sequence of the Work Plan Report by choosing 0050 this option. Each time you press enter, the sequence will change. PRINT DATES The schedule reports will print the exact start and stop dates for each job and task as a extra line unless you set this menu choice to "no". Setting this item to "no" will shorten the report. ESCAPE Once printing has started, it can be aborted by pressing the Esc key. 0051NODES The Node display is used to confirm the results of your networking. The column of tasks on the left are those which must be completed before those in the column on the right can be started. You can trace your way through the network you have defined by pointing to the next node you want to trace with the cursor and pressing Enter. Pressing F5 will allow you to enter a node not currently displayed on the screen. The title of the job the cursor is resting on is displayed at the top of the screen. 0052PROJECT FILES CREATE To create a new project, staff plan, work plan or holiday schedule, key in a name that does not already exist. The name must be a valid DOS file name and can include a drive as well as directories. You will not be allowed to key in a file name extension since WorkQueue reserves the extension for its own use. LOAD To load an existing project, staff plan, work plan or holiday schedule, key in a name that already exists. LIST If you want to load a file but do not remember the name, press F4 0053 and a list will be displayed from which you can choose. If you want a list from a particular drive and directory (other than the default), key in the drive ending in a colon or key in the drive and directory ending in a "\" and press F4. For example, to list all the project files in the current directory, place the cursor in the "Project File Name" box and press F4. If you want to list all the Staff Plan files on the "D:" drive, place the cursor in the "Staffplan File Name" box, key in "D:" and press F4. 0054PRINTER CHANNELS Most personal computers have at least one printer port and they can support up to three. If you have only one printer port on your PC, it will be LPT1 (which stands for Line PrinTer one). If you have more than one printer port on your PC, you can switch among them. Whichever port you choose, it must have a printer attachedto it or you cannot print a report. 0055FILTERS There are four filters that may be used singly or together. To turn a filter on, move the cursor to that filter and press Alt+O. If you press Alt+O again, it turns the filter off. Each filter can operate in Include or Exclude mode which can be changed by pressing Alt+I. 0056SCHEDULING START DATE Is the date the work schedule will begin. DISPLAY Choose whether the schedule should be displayed in work hours or work days. This field is "toggled" between these two choice by pressing any letter or number key. HOURS Enter the number of hours in a work day. This figure is used to convert work days to work hours if the display is in work hours and one or more of the tasks in the work plan are expressed in work days. 0057 Chapter 1 - Overview WorkQueue schedules work for a staff of people. The information you must supply in order to create a schedule is divided into the Work Plan, Staff Plan and Holiday Schedule. The Work Plan is a queue (list) of Jobs, subdivided into Tasks. The queue can consist of a mixture of unrelated tasks as well one or more networks of interrelated work. The tasks in the Work Plan can be easily reorganized and priorities can be assigned as needed. The Staff Plan consists of information about people. It identifies each person, their skills and availability (such as normal availability, vacations and overtime). 0058The Holiday Schedules lists those days on which no work should be scheduled for the entire staff. The work schedule produced from this information is staff-driven, taking into account skills, the availability of the person assigned toeach task, priorities and network inter-dependencies. Since the Staff,Work and Holiday information are separated, a number of different scenarios can be tried to determine, for example, what mix of skills will complete the work in the shortest possible time. Several analysis functions are provided to aid in optimizing the schedule. The following help screens give further guidelines on how to use WorkQueue based on the "life cycle" of the work. 0059PLANNING The roots of many scheduling problems are in the early planning phase.You should start using WorkQueue to record, organize and analyze your Work and Staff Plans from the beginning. The goal of the Work Plan is to record all the tasks that must be completed. The process of identifying the tasks should be as rigorous as possible - many scheduling problems arise from missing tasks, not bad estimates on known tasks. Do not, however, spend too much time trying to finalize the organization of the initial work plan, it can be easily re-organized and refined later. Be careful not to overlook "ancillary" work. For example, a new project team consisting of 4 people (all existing employees) are organized to work on a new project. Some of those people are bound to 0060have work yet to be finished from their previous project. If all of this work is not added to the work plan, the schedule will not be accurate. The goal of the staff plan is to describe the skills and availability of the current staff, relative to the work in the Work Plan. For each staff member vacations, military leave, etc. should be declared or estimated. SCHEDULING This is where you finalize the staff and work plans. This is done by repeated cycles of producing schedules, reviewing the results, making refinements and re-running the schedules. If possible, the reviews should be done by the staff that will do the work. 0061It is important to explore as many alternatives as time allows to fully understand the affect of various staffing levels and skills. Thefinal plan, the one which will be used to carry out the work, should be the one least affected by either staff or priority changes, both ofwhich will likely occur before the work is finished. Also, target dates should be assigned so progress can be periodically evaluated. WORK ASSIGNMENT Once the Work and Staff Plans are completed, the tasks in the Work Plan must be assigned to the people in the Staff Plan. There are two types of work assignment: Implicit and Explicit. Implicit assignments are made when a task contains a skill. Explicit 0062assignments are made when a task contains a person's initials. The difference is whether you make the work assignment or the system. A good approach in this phase is to make sure that each person in the Staff Plan has several tasks explicitly assigned to them - the remaining tasks should remain implicitly assigned. This retains scheduling flexibility for unassigned work. In this phase you should also assign priorities, if needed. Prioritiesare a resource issue - if you had enough staff to work on all jobs at once there would be no need for priorities. If you do not have that much staff, which is the usual case, you must choose which jobs will get done first. Sometimes this is done by assigning priorities to jobs. In many cases, however, the sequential dependencies of the jobs dictate the order of work assignment (dependencies are discussed under0063NETWORKING) and adding priorities to these task would have no effect. MONITORING Once work is under way, there are three primary uses for WorkQueue: Controlling: consists of recording the progress of work and making new work assignments as old ones are completed. The schedule should bere-run periodically to measure progress against the target dates. Adjustments: as changes in staffing and work priority occur, you explore alternative solutions to find the best fit, recording the results in the Staff and Work Plans. History: the completion and final status of each task should be recorded for future use in performance reviews and retrospective 0064evaluations. CLOSING THE BOOKS As work is finished and new work added to the plan, you will eventually run out of space in the Work Plan. The best way to deal with this is to use an accounting technique - closing the books. This means making a copy of the work plan under a new name. The old plan will be held, unchanged, as a record of the past. All finished work should be deleted from the new copy to make room for new work. The new copy will then become the operating work plan - until it runs out of space. Although it is unlikely you will run out of space in the staff plan, the same technique can be used if you do. 0065 Chapter 2 - The Work Plan The work plan is divided into two layers: Jobs and Tasks. Each job represents a goal or product and consists of one or more tasks, which define each step that must be done in order to complete the job. When you create a new work plan, do not waste time trying to achieve good initial organization - you can easily reorganize later. The firstgoal should be to define tasks as rigorously as possible. Many scheduling problems arise not from bad estimates on known tasks but from tasks that are entirely missing from the plan. 0066JOBS Jobs are used to organize tasks and set high level target dates and priorities. Each job usually represents a goal or product and its tasks are the steps that must be completed to finish the job. The order in which jobs appear in the plan is important because when work is scheduled, people are assigned to tasks in the order they appear in the work plan. This means that those jobs appearing early inthe plan are most likely to be finished. Sequence is decided by the Job Numbers unless Priority Numbers are present. Priority 1 is the highest priority while 99 is the lowest. Any job with a zero priority is assumed to be lower than priority 99. As a means of verifying the sequence you want in the plan, the Job 0067Screen can be displayed in either Job Number or Priority sequence by pressing Alt+S. For more information about priorities, see the Glossary Help (F1). 0068TASKS Tasks are the fundamental unit of work in the Work Plan. While jobs serve to set priorities, organize tasks and set overall target dates, only tasks actually schedule work. When you choose "calculate schedule" from the main menu, a person willbe assigned to each task in the Work Plan and the work will be scheduled based on the characteristics of the task and the availability of the assigned person. WORK CHARACTERISTICS When you create a task you need to consider the work properties that best describe a task: 0069 Assignment You can assign a person to a task explicitly, by entering their initials into the task; or implicitly, by putting a skill into the task and letting WorkQueue assign the best person based their skill level and how early they can start the task. Work Effort How many work days or work hours are needed to complete the task. Elapsed Time What is the minimum number of days or weeks needed to complete the task. 0070 Repetition Is it a one-time or repeating Task? Interval If it is a repeating task, what is the minimum number of days or weeks that must elapse between repetitions? Future start Do not start a task before a certain date. Target Date Flag those tasks which cannot be finished on schedule. Dependencies Declare what Tasks must be completed before a particular 0071 Task can be started. All these properties can be combined as need to create simple or complex tasks. 0072WORK ASSIGNMENT In order for a task to be scheduled, it must be assigned to a person. That assignment can occur in one of two ways: INITIALS If you put the initials of a staff member in the task (in the column called "Skill") then the task will be assigned to that person. SKILLS If you put a skill in the task, WorkQueue will assign a person to the task based on their skill level and how early they can start the task. If you leave the task blank, or put in initials or a skill that 0073doesn't exist in the Staff Plan, the task will not be scheduled. 0074WORK ASSIGNMENT by SKILL In the following example, this task will be assigned to a person in the Staff Plan with the skill "PLU": �� Duration ��Ŀ Job Task Work Effort Elapsed Time No. No. Task Description Skill Amt. Unit Amt. Unit ��ͻ�� ͻ � 01 � 01 � Install new sink � � PLU � 5.0 � day � 0.0 � � For example: Per. Init- ��Skills�� No. Ials Person's Name 1 2 3 4 5 ��ͻ�� 01 � JS � John Stevens � PLU � � � � 0075WORK ASSIGNMENT by INITIALS In the following example, this task will be assigned to a person in the Staff Plan with the initials "JS": �� Duration ��Ŀ Job Task Work Effort Elapsed Time No. No. Task Description Skill Amt. Unit Amt. Unit ��ͻ�� ͻ � 01 � 01 � Install new sink � � JS � 5.0 � day � 0.0 � � For example: Per. Init- ��Skills�� No. Ials Person's Name 1 2 3 4 5 ��ͻ�� 01 � JS � John Stevens � PLU � � � � 0076DURATION The duration of a task is determined by three factors: WORK EFFORT This is expressed in work days or work hours and is the amount of working time the assigned person must spend on the task in order to finish it. ELAPSED TIME This is the minimum amount of time (expressed in days or weeks) needed to complete the task. STAFF AVAILABILITY If the task is assigned to a person who can only work two days per week, it will take longer to finish than if it were 0077 assigned to a person who can work five days per week. 0078WORK EFFORT In the following task, a financial analyst with the initials K.S. is analyzing some annual statements and it will take 10.0 workdays to complete the analysis. If this person were available 2 days per week, the task would take 5 weeks to complete. If available 5 days per week,it would take 2 weeks to complete. �� Duration ��Ŀ Job Task Work Effort Elapsed Time No. No. Task Description Skill Amt. Unit Amt. Unit ��ͻ�� ͻ � 01 � 01 � Analyze Annual Stmt.� � KS � 10.0 � Day � 0.0 � � Note that the Elapsed Time is blank so the duration of the task is entirely dependent on the rate at which "KS" can work on it. The rate 0079at which KS is available to work is contained in the time records for KS in the staff plan. The time record for KS in the staff plan could look like this: Per Time Start Stop Work Work Work No. No. Date Date Rate Unit Week Description ��ͻ��ͻ�� 01 � 01 � 10/07/88 � 12/31/99 � 5.0 � Day �.mtwtf.� Base Rate 0080ELAPSED TIME Building on the previous example, Elapsed Time has been added to this task. The net effect is to potentially extend the finish date of the task beyond what would be determined by Work Effort alone. If KS couldwork on this task at a rate of 5 days per week, the task would be finished in two weeks. Because of the Elapsed Time of 3 weeks, however, that finish date on the task would be extended an additional week. In other words, the Elapsed Time establishes the MINIMUM amount of time in which the task can be completed. �� Duration ��Ŀ Job Task Work Effort Elapsed Time No. No. Task Description Skill Amt. Unit Amt. Unit ��ͻ�� ͻ � 01 � 01 � Analyze Annual Stmt.� � KS � 10.0 � Day � 3.0 � Wks � 0081REPEAT AND INTERVAL A task can be repeated and the amount of time between repetitions can be varied. An example would be testing of a product where the task is to periodically check the interim test results while the test is in progress. Consider the example below: �� Scheduling ��Ŀ Job Task Rep- Interval Target Not- No. No. Task Description eat Amt. Unit Date Before ��ͻ��ͻ��Ŀ� 01 � 01 � Record Test Results � 4 � 1 � Day � 1/07/88 � / / � The Task will first be scheduled for 0.1 workdays. It will then be repeated three more times for a total of 0.4 work days. The Interval of 1 day means each repetition will start on the day following the 0082completion of the previous repetition. For example, the above task is assigned to a person who is available 5days per week, Monday through Friday. If the task were started on Wednesday, it would be repeated Thursday, Friday and the following Monday at 0.1 workdays each of those days. If the Interval were zero, the task would be finished on Wednesday at 0.4 workdays for that day. In addition to work that actually repeats, these characteristics can also be used to create tasks that can only be worked "part-time". 0083NOT-BEFORE DATE Some tasks cannot be started before a fixed date in the future. An example would be installation of equipment that is not yet delivered. In the example below, the task will not be started before 1/7/88 (the delivery date of the plumbing fixtures). If the plumber is not available on that date, the work will be scheduled as soon after that date as possible. �� Scheduling ��Ŀ Job Task Rep- Interval Target Not- No. No. Task Description eat Amt. Unit Date Before ��ͻ��ͻ��Ŀ� 01 � 01 � Install Plumbing � � 0 � � / / � 1/07/88 � 0084TARGET DATE A task can be monitored to make sure it is completed on schedule. Thisis done by putting a Target Date into the task or job. Each time a schedule is displayed or printed, the target date will be marked in the schedule and flagged if behind schedule. In the following example,the target date is 1/31/88. If the task cannot be completed by then, it will be flagged as late in the schedule and reports. �� Scheduling ��Ŀ Job Task Rep- Interval Target Not- No. No. Task Description eat Amt. Unit Date Before ��ͻ��ͻ��Ŀ� 01 � 01 � Install Plumbing � � 0 � � 1/31/88 � / / � 0085NODES Some tasks are dependent on others. For example, the dry wall in a newhouse cannot be installed until the walls are framed. This means that any work on "dry walling" is DEPENDENT on the completion of "framing" work: �� Networking Ŀ Job Task To From No. No. Task Description Node Node ��ͻ��Ŀ � 01 � 01 � Install Plumbing � � � 0086EMPTY TIME Sometimes you must allow a fixed amount of time to elapse between the completion of one task and the start of another. You do this by creating a task with the duration of the task in the Remaining WorkDays and a blank Skill. Empty Time only makes sense as part of a network (where it will delay subsequent tasks). The following example would allow 3 days for the delivery of plumbing fixtures: �� Duration ��Ŀ Job Task Work Effort Elapsed Time No. No. Task Description Skill Amt. Unit Amt. Unit ��ͻ�� ͻ � 01 � 01 � Analyze Annual Stmt.� � � 3.0 � Day � 0.0 � � 0087EVENTS AND MEETINGS Lets say it is now 2/5/88 and you have to schedule a sales training class for two of your staff members for 3 days starting Monday, April 17 on. The best way is to create a job just for meetings, events and classes and add a task in that job for each staff member attending. Each task should be explicitly assigned to a staff member (meaning their initials are put in the Task Skill), have Remaining Workdays of 5.0 and a Not-Before Date of 4/17/88 and a Target Date of 4/21/88. The Not-Before Date will make sure the meeting is not scheduled before4/17/88 and the Target Date will flag the task if the meeting cannot occur on schedule. If you inserted this job at the bottom of the work plan, it probably would not be scheduled due to conflicts caused by the jobs that appear0088early in the plan. If, however, you inserted this job at the top of the plan it would be scheduled before any other work. The remaining work in the plan would then be scheduled around the event. Job Task Ski- Durat Not Target No. No. Task Description ll Amt. Before Date ��ͻ�� 01 � 01 � Sales Training � MD � 3.0 � � 04/17/88 � � 04/21/88 � � 01 � 02 � Sales Training � JD � 3.0 � � 04/17/88 � � 04/21/88 � � 01 � 03 � Sales Training � KS � 3.0 � � 04/17/88 � � 04/21/88 � 0089 Chapter 3 - Networking Tasks This is the declaration of dependencies between tasks. Using the From/To Nodes, you can relate Tasks to each other so that one Task will not be started until another is completed. For example: there are two tasks - Task one is to order a new PersonalComputer and Task two is to install it. To make these Tasks sequentially dependent you would make up a Node called INST for Install and place that node name in the TO Node for Task one and the FROM Node for Task two. You make up your own Node names like you make up your own Skill Codes.There can be as many nodes as needed and any number of Tasks can referto a node as either TO or FROM. 0090If the previous example is used and an additional task for testing thePC is added, it would appear as follows: Job Task To From No. No. Task Description Node Node ��ͻ�� 01 � 01 � Order PC � INST � � � 01 � 02 � Install PC � TEST � INST � � 01 � 03 � Test PC � � TEST � This could be graphically represented as: Order PC ��Ŀ Install PC ��Ŀ Test PC >��>�INST�>��>�TEST�>��> �� 0091 ANOTHER NETWORK EXAMPLE: Job Task To From No. No. Task Description Node Node ��ͻ�� 01 � 01 � Order PC � INST � � � 01 � 02 � Install PC #1 � TEST � INST � � 01 � 02 � Install PC #2 � TEST � INST � � 01 � 02 � Install PC #3 � TEST � INST � � 01 � 03 � Test PC � � TEST � This example is similar to the previous one except three PC's are being installed. You should network the three installation tasks in parallel even if only one person is available to do the work. This 0092will allow you to explore staffing alternatives that would not be possible if you networked in series, like the first example. Install PC #1 ��Ŀ Order PC's ��Ŀ Install PC #2 ��Ŀ Test PC's >��>�INST�>��>�TEST�>��> �� Install PC #3 �� 0093 Chapter 4 - The Staff Plan The staff plan is where you describe people, their skills and their availability. You usually create one staff plan for each project. Each staff plan consists of two layers: people and time. The people layer is where you declare each person and their skills. The time layer is where you describe the availability of each person in terms of their regular work rate, overtime and vacations. A staff plan can hold 99 people but only the first 25 will be used by the work scheduler. SKILLS Up to seven skills can be identified for each person in the Staff 0094Plan. These skills are matched to the skills in the Work Plan to assign tasks to people in preparation for computing a schedule. The most important skill for a person should be skill one, the next most important skill two, etc. A skill can only be three characters long so they must be an abbreviation of actual skill - for example, PLU for plumbing. There are no predefined skills in WorkQueue. You should record skill codes and their meanings in the file notes of the Staff Plan so you do not forget what they mean. You do not need to define all the skills a person has, only those relevant to the work at hand - so the most important skill for a person may not be their most proficient. Do not try to define skills too precisely - it is usually unproductiveand confusing. 0095PEOPLE Each person on you staff should be entered into the Staff Plan, including their name, initials and skills. To be really useful, each person should be individually identified. This will allow you to make specific work assignments and to evaluate performance. In the early stages of scheduling a new project, however, it may be useful to define groups of people, instead of individuals. You do thisto find out how many people of a particular skill are needed to meet your target dates. Examples of both follow. 0096PEOPLE - person records The following is an example of a person whose initials are LD, name isLarry Davidson and has Writing and Financial Analysis skills: Per. Init- ��Skills�� No. Ials Person's Name 1 2 3 4 5 ��ͻ�� 01 � LD � Larry Davidson � WRI � ANA � � � In this case, Writing (WRI) would be the primary skill and Financial Analysis (ANA) would be secondary. The result would be that this person would first be assigned to tasks requiring writing and assignedto financial analysis tasks only if no writing tasks were available. You make up your own skill codes - these are only examples. 0097 GROUPS OF PEOPLE - person records The following is an example of a group: Per. Init- ��Skills�� No. Ials Person's Name 1 2 3 4 5 ��ͻ�� 01 � PG � Plumber group � PLU � � � � � 02 � EG � Electrical group � ELE � � � � � 03 � CG � Carpenter group � CAR � � � � In each case, a time record for each group can be manipulated to represent up to 20 people in each group. Assuming each person will be available 5 days per week, a time record containing a work rate of 50 days, for example, would represent 10 people. 0098 SPLITTING A PERSON - person records Sometimes it is necessary to allocate a fixed portion of a person to one skill and another portion to one or more other skills. In the following example, the goal is to insure that Felix spends half his time doing plumbing jobs and the other half doing electrical jobs. To accomplish this, Felix is entered twice in the Staff Plan, each time with a different skill: Per. Init- ��Skills�� No. Ials Person's Name 1 2 3 4 5 ��ͻ�� 01 � FJ1 � Felix Johnson � PLU � � � � � 02 � FJ2 � Felix Johnson � ELE � � � � 0099 Assuming Felix is available to do work 5 days per week, starting on 10/07/88 and into the foreseeable future, the time record for each person record would be: Per Time Start Stop Work Work Work No. No. Date Date Rate Unit Week Description ��ͻ��ͻ�� 01 � 01 � 10/07/88 � 12/31/99 � 2.5 � Day �.mtwtf.� Base Rate � 02 � 01 � 10/07/88 � 12/31/99 � 2.5 � Day �.mtwtf.� Base Rate Note that each time record contains half his available time. If you are not sure how time records work, read on! 0100TIME RECORDS The availability of a person to do work is determined by the number ofdays or hours they are available each week (called the Work Rate) and which days of the week they are available. By using more than one time record, you can establish a work schedule which reflects the ups and downs of availability due to overtime, vacations, military leave, etc. The schedule can also be used to allow for unplanned work. For example, a normal workday rate would be 5 days per week, however, based on you own experience you might use a rate of 4 days per week. Another way of expressing this is you can only predict 80% of the workyou are going to do in the future. 0101You can also use a reduced work rate to reflect a lower productivity rate for new employees who will need several weeks or months to reach full productivity. In this case you could, for example, set their workrate at 3 days per week for the first 6 weeks and then increase it to 5 days per week, thereafter. Each Time Record contains a start and stop date as well as a work rate, stated in workdays or workhours per week for the time span covered by the start and stop dates. The sequence in which time records are entered or displayed on the screen does not affect their use. No tasks can be assigned to a person until they have at least onetime record. The following help screens contain examples of time records. 0102BASE RATE - time records This is a time record which defines the normal rate at which a person is available. For example, if a person were working full time and joined the staff on 10/7/88 for an indefinite period of time, their base rate time record would be: Per Time Start Stop Work Work Work No. No. Date Date Rate Unit Week Description ��ͻ��ͻ�� 01 � 01 � 10/07/88 � 12/31/99 � 5.0 � Day �.mtwtf.� Base Rate Note the Stop Date, it was set far in the future so it would not have to be changed until the real Stop Date is known. If a Stop Date of, for example, 12/31/89 were used and that person remained on your stafffor several years, it would eventually have to be extended. 0103 Also note that the Work Rate is 5.0 days/week and that five days is worked Monday through Friday. 0104VACATIONS - time records Each vacation period should be recorded in a separate time record. Forexample, using the base rate already established, a vacation time record for a two week period starting 10/31/88 through 11/11/88 would appear as: Per Time Start Stop Work Work Work No. No. Date Date Rate Unit Week Description ��ͻ��ͻ�� 01 � 01 � 10/07/88 � 12/31/99 � 5.0 � Day �.mtwtf.� Base Rate � 01 � 02 � 10/31/88 � 11/11/88 � 0.0 � Day �.mtwtf.� Vacation Notice the vacation work rate is zero. Vacation is time the person is not available to do work so you want to reduce the available workdays to zero so no work can be scheduled for that period. 0105OVERTIME - time records Overtime adds to the base rate. For example, if you wanted to schedule1 day per week of additional work (overtime) for a person for the month of December, 1988, you would do it with a time record like this: Per Time Start Stop Work Work Work No. No. Date Date Rate Unit Week Description ��ͻ��ͻ�� 01 � 01 � 10/07/88 � 12/31/99 � 5.0 � Day �.mtwtf.� Base Rate � 01 � 02 � 10/31/88 � 11/11/88 � 0.0 � Day �.mtwtf.� Vacation � 01 � 03 � 12/01/88 � 12/31/88 � 1.0 � Day �......s� Overtime Note that the Work Rate is a positive number since you are adding to that person's availability. Also, that additional day is worked on Saturday. 0106TEMPORARY, PART TIME - time records While overtime adds to the base rate, part time subtracts from it. Forexample, if you wanted to reduce a person's availability by 1 day per week for the month of January, 1989, you would do it with a time record like this: Per Time Start Stop Work Work Work No. No. Date Date Rate Unit Week Description ��ͻ��ͻ�� 01 � 01 � 10/07/88 � 12/31/99 � 5.0 � Day �.mtwtf.� Base Rate � 01 � 02 � 10/31/88 � 11/11/88 � 0.0 � Day �.mtwtf.� Vacation � 01 � 03 � 12/01/88 � 12/31/88 � 1.0 � Day �......s� Overtime � 01 � 03 � 01/01/89 � 01/31/89 � 1.0-� Day �.mtwtf.� Parttime Note that the Work Rate is a negative number since you are subtracting0107from that person's availability. Also, the Work Week for this time record (Monday through Friday) subtracts that day at the rate of one- fifth day for each of those five days. The net effect will be that this person (ignoring the Vacation and Overtime records) will work 0.8days on Mondays, 0.8 days on Tuesday, etc.through Friday for the monthof January. Another example of part-time would be: Per Time Start Stop Work Work Work No. No. Date Date Rate Unit Week Description ��ͻ��ͻ�� 01 � 01 � 10/07/88 � 12/31/99 � 20.0 � Hrs �.m..tf.� Base Rate This provides for a person who works only 20 hours/week Monday, Thrusday and Friday. They would work 6.7 hours each of those days. 0108MISCELLANEOUS The Start and Stop Dates are included in the schedule. The order in which time records appear does not matter. If you accidently enter a combination of time records where the result is negative, it will be re-set to zero. If a Time Record covers only one day, you do not have to enter both a start and stop date, either one will suffice. 0109 Chapter 5 - Assigning Work Work can be assigned both explicitly and implicitly. EXPLICIT assignments are made when a person's initials are put in a task instead of a skill. This means that person will always be assigned to that task no matter how many changes you make to either the work or staff plans. IMPLICIT work assignments are made when a skill is put in a task. The assumption is that skill can be found in the staff plan. If more than one person has that skill, the choice is made based on rules explained below. 0110 The following is an example of an explicit work assignment: Per Init- �� Skills �� No. ials Person's Name 1 2 3 4 5 ��ͻ�� 01 � KS � Karen Simpson � FIN � WRI � � � � By placing Karen's initials in the task skill below, only she will be assigned to the task. Job Task Sta- No. No. Task Description tus Skill ��ͻ�� 0111 � 01 � 01 � Analyze Annual Stmt. � � KS � The following is an example of implicit work assignment: Per. Init- �� Skills �� No. ials Person's Name 1 2 3 4 5 ��ͻ�� 01 � KS � Karen Simpson � FIN � WRI � � � � � 02 � LB � Larry Bull � WRI � FIN � � � � Job Task Sta- No. No. Task Description tus Skill ��ͻ�� 01 � 01 � Analyze Annual Stmt. � � FIN � 0112The implicit assignment was made by placing FIN in the task. For implicit assignment, the following rules are used by the work scheduler to choose who gets the assignment: The scheduler will find all people who have the necessary skill (FIN in this example). From this list, those that do not have enough remaining workdays available to complete the task will be discarded. That is, a task is never assigned to a person who cannot complete it. The task is then assigned to the person can both start the task earliest and has the highest skill level (1 - 7) for that skill. These rules insure that the person who is most proficient in a skill 0113gets the assignment, balanced against the need to start the task as soon as possible. In this example, Karen would get the assignment because FIN is her first skill while it is the second skill for Larry.Implicit assignments allow you to more easily explore staffing alternatives. As you are about to begin work, those tasks which will be started first should be explicitly assigned. It is a good practice to explicitly assign several tasks to each person in the staff plan sinceyou can seldom work on only one task full time - additional tasks are needed to fill in the slack time (such as waiting for the paint to dry). As assigned tasks are completed, new ones should be explicitly assigned but avoid the temptation to explicitly assign all tasks. 0114 There will always, of course, be exceptions to this approach. 0115 Chapter 6 - The Holiday Schedule Are days on which no work occurs. For example, if a person is available to work five days a week, during the week that Thanksgiving falls, they would be available only three days since it is a 2-day holiday. For example: Hol. Start Stop No. Date Date Description ��ͻ��Ŀ � 01 � 12/25/89 � / / � Christmas � � 01 � 11/24/89 � 11/25/89 � Thanksgiving � The holiday includes both the start and stop dates. If a holiday covers only one day, only the start or stop date is necessary. 0116 Chapter 7 - Notepads A notepad can be attached to any Job, Task, Person or Time record. An "overall" notepad can also be attached to a Staff Plan or Work Plan. One common use is to record a more complete definition of the work a Job or Task represents than the 20-character description can hold. Additional uses include: Record the definition of each Staff Plan skill in the Staff Plan in the file notepad (F4). This makes them available on line and in the Staff Plan report since the file notepad in printed at the start of the report. Record the definition of any status codes you make up (such as 0117 "WIP" for work in progress) in the Work Plan notepad (F4). Keep notes about the content of the Staff or Work Plan. This is especially important if you have more than one version of a plan. For particularly volatile or sensitive work, keep a diary of meetings, decisions, priority revisions, reassignments, etc. Although sensitive information about a person should not be stored in a notepad, certain useful, non-sensitive information can be helpful: performance review dates, birthdays, telephone numbers, social security number, etc. For people, it could record a history of education. 0118 Chapter 8 - Using Filters Filters are used to display, merge and print only that information youwant. There are four filters: Status, Job Number, Skill and Project. Each filter consists of a list of up to ten values. Each filter can be usedin either Include or Exclude mode. Include mode will "pass" only thoseitems in the filter list while Exclude mode will "block" those items in the filter list. Once you set a filter, it remains in effect until you turn it off. Filters have no effect on work scheduling - all work is scheduled regardless of the filter settings. 0119STATUS FILTER For example, you have used the status code FIN to mark which tasks andjobs in a partially-completed work plan are finished and you now want a report containing only unfinished work. You would turn on (Alt+O) the status filter, key in the single code FIN and press Alt+I to set the filter to Exclude: ��Ŀ � ��Ŀ � � Status: FIN On -Exclude � � �� If the filter were reset to Include, then only those Jobs and Tasks with a status of FIN would be printed. 0120SKILL FILTER A skill can be either a skill or a person's initials. For example, if you wanted the Job Screen to display only those jobs which contain tasks assigned to a person whose initials were BB, you would turn on the Skill Filter and key BB into the first filter value as follows: ��Ŀ � ��Ŀ � � Skill: BB On -Include � � �� The Job Screen would now show only those Jobs assigned (explicitly andImplicitly) to BB. If the Status Filter were still set as in the previous example, the combined effect could be used to print a Work Plan report containing only unfinished work assigned to BB. 0121JOB FILTER This filter is used primarily to print reports containing only specific jobs. The following Job Filter, for example, could be used toprint a Work Plan Report containing only the Jobs in the list: ��Ŀ � ��Ŀ � � Job: 01 03 07 On -Included � � �� The Work Plan Report also has an option to print these Jobs in the order they appear in the list. 0122PROJECT FILTER For example, you have identified all the jobs for the "newsletter" project with the code NEWS and now you want to print a schedule for only that project, excluding all others. Put NEW as the only item in the Project Filter, turn it on (Alt/O) and leave the Exclude/Include switch at the "Include" default: ��Ŀ � ��Ŀ � � Project: NEW On -Exclude � � �� If the schedule is printed, it will show only the "newsletter" project. 0123 Chapter 9 - Reports The reports print the Staff and Work Plans as well as three different views of the computed schedule. STAFF PLAN REPORT All information in the Staff File is printed in this report. WORK PLAN REPORT All information in the Work Plan is printed in this report. JOB SCHEDULE REPORT Prints the results of work scheduling summarized at a job level. No task-level information is printed. 0124TASK SCHEDULE REPORT Prints the results of work scheduling at a task level for each job. STAFF ASSIGNMENT REPORT Prints the results of work scheduling at a task level for each job by person. Each of the reports can be filtered, which allows you to restrict the content of a report to only what you need. If unfiltered, all the detail is printed. FORMS The schedule reports can be printed in three forms: 0125 Bar Shows duration of each Job and Task as a bar printed against a calendar background. The length of the bar defines the duration of the job or task and a > marks the beginning and a < the end. Numeric Is the same as the bar form except instead of a bar representing the duration of a job or task, a series of number is used. Each number is the workdays used during each time period. List Prints detailed information for each job or task but without the calendar background. 0126TARGET DATES In addition to showing the duration of scheduled work, the schedule reports also flag late work and unfinished work. If the job has a target date and it falls within the time period of the schedule, it will be printed as a small "t". If, according to that target date, thejob is finished late, it will be flagged along with the number of daysit is late. If the job cannot be finished, it will be flagged and the number of incomplete workdays printed. REPORT WIDTH The width of a schedule report is set by the Page Width in the printerdefinition, stated in characters. The minimum width is 75. The maximumdepends on: the width of the paper; whether you are printing portrait or landscape; the point size or number of characters per inch being printed. 0127 Chapter 10 - Merging One or more Work Plans or Staff Plans on disk can be merged into the Work Plan or Staff Plan already loaded into memory. The order of merging is based on Job Numbers and Person Numbers. As a job is read from the Work Plan on disk, the Work Plan in memory is scanned to see if that job number already exists. If so, the "incoming" job number will be changed to the lowest, unused job numberin memory. The same process applies to each person and their time records. 0128In the following example, the Work Plan in memory contains Job Numbers1 and 3. The Work Plan on disk contains Job Numbers 2 and 3. In Memory On Disk After Merging --------- ------- ----------------- 1------------------------------> remains job 1 2---------------> remains job 2 3------------------------------> remains job 3 3---------------> changed to job 4 0129The safest way to perform a merger is: 1. Create a new, empty Work Plan in memory. You do this by keying the name of a Work Plan that does not yet exist. 2. Merge each of the Work Plans you want to combine into this empt Work Plan. This method keeps all original files intact in case you make a mistakeor change your mind. 0130SKILLS ANALYSIS This window displays a summation of skills as used in both the Staff Plan and Work Plan. For each Skill or Initials found in the Work Plan, the number of Remaining Workdays are totaled and displayed along with the number of people in the Staff Plan who have that skill, allocated across skill levels. The purpose of this analysis is to determine whether or not the Staff Plan is in "balance" with the Work Plan, in terms of both quality and quantity of skills. Examples follow. 0131The example below shows a Staff Plan that is out of balance with the Work Plan. First, the skill WRI has a total of 42.6 workdays remainingspread over 12 tasks but no people in the Staff Plan have that skill. None of those 12 tasks would be scheduled by the Work Scheduler. Second, the skill PRI has a total of 271 workdays remaining spread over 104 tasks but the Staff Plan has only one person with that skill and its skill level 3. It is unlikely that all 104 tasks will be completed. The Staff Plan needs more people with that skill, preferrably at a higher level skill. Skills & Work Work No.of �� Skill Level ��Ŀ Initials Days Hours Tasks 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ��͸ � S:WRI � 42.6 � � 12 � � � � � � � � � S:PRI � 271.0 � � 104 � � � 1� � � � � 0132STAFF AVAILABILITY ANALYSIS This screen shows the availability for each person in the staff plan before work scheduling. This information shows the aggregate effect of all the time records for each person. It is useful for checking if the time records achievethe desired effect, particularly for a complex set of time records. 0133STAFF UTILIZATION ANALYSIS This screen shows the remaining, UNUSED workdays for each person in the staff plan after work scheduling has been completed. This information aids in analyzing how the staff utilization can be improved. The aggregate utilization for the entire staff is shown at the bottom of the screen. 0134LOCATION OF WORKQUEUE FILES In general, it is advisable to store system files in a separate directory from data files. The WorkQueue program (WQ.EXE) can be started from any directory or drive as long as the directory where it is stored is in a PATH statement (see you DOS manual for a description of the PATH statement). The Printer Control file (WQPRINT.CON) and the two help files (WQHELP.SCR and WQHELP.NDX), however, cannot be "found" that way. When you attempt to print a report or display help, WorkQueue will look for the file in the current directory. If found, it will be used.If not found, you will be asked to supply the Path in which the file 0135is stored. The Path you supply will allow WorkQueue to find the files for the duration of the session but the next time WorkQueue is started, you will have to supply the Path again. One way to avoid this problem is to store the three files in the current directory. Another way is to add the location of the three files to the Environment Table by adding the following statement to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file: SET WQ=Path where Path is the location of the three files. 0136WORK SCHEDULE Each bar (time line) represents the duration of a Job or Task and the numbers imbedded in the bar are the number of workdays scheduled. The beginning of a time line is marked by a ">" and the end by "<". Using the following schedule fragment as an example: 10 10 10 10 10 Job 7 8 9 10 11 �� Build Wall >4.0 .5 3.5 7.8< Each increment of time is one day in length. The job was started on 10/7 and finished on 10/10. The numbers are the number of workdays scheduled for each schedule day and are the summation of workdays for all the Tasks that belong to that Job. The start and finish dates are 0137also displayed in the upper left corner of the screen. The dates shownthere apply to whatever job the cursor is on. As you move the cursor, those dates will change. TARGET DATE If a job or task has a target date, it is displayed as a "t" imbedded in the time line. U/L (UNFINISHED/LATE) If a job or task was finished late (which means it must have a Target Date), there will be an "L" on the right of the screen followed by thenumber of days it is late. If a job or task is incomplete (unfinished)a "U" will be displayed along with the number of unfinished workdays. 0138For unfinished tasks, a cause code will also be displayed: S Either the skill or initials needed by the task were not found in the Staff Plan or they were found but the person(s) did not have enough available workdays to complete the task so it was not started. N The Not-Before date fell beyond the end of the schedule. F There was a dependent task (its To Node is the same as this task's From Node) that was not completed so this task could not be started. FILTERS This display can be filtered to show the schedule for: a person or 0139group of people; a job or a group of jobs; a project code or a group of project codes; a status code or a group of status codes; or any combination of these 0140PRINTERS When modifying and existing printer or creating a new one, keep the following in mind: You cannot use proportional fonts. If you do, the columns used in most reports will not line up vertically. You must refer to your printer manual to set the control codes. In general, most dot-matrix printers use the same codes except for the bar character. Most laser printers use a different set of codes. 0141PRINTER CONTROL CODES The printer code screen lists all the control codes for a single printer. Each row of codes applies to one portion or aspect of the reports. Whenever a report is printed, the control codes are sent to the printer at appropriate times: Master Start/end sent once at the beginning and end of each report. Page Titles on/off sent at the start and completion of the titles at the top of each report page. Headings on/off sent at the start and completion of column and section heading on 0142 each report page. Details on/off sent at the start and completion of each detail line on every report page. Line Feed sent to the printer at the end of each line on each report page. Form Feed sent to the printer at the end of each page to make the printer skip to the top of the next page. Bar Character is the single character used to print the bar in the bar form of 0143 the time-series reports. Top/Bottom Margin the number of lines to be skipped at the top and bottom of each page. Left Margin The number of character positions to be skipped before each line is printed. Page Length The length of a page in terms of printed lines. Most dot-matrix printer have a page length of 66 while most laser printers are 60 lines. 0144Page Width The width of a page stated in characters. The minimum is 75. 0145If, for example, you wanted to print an entire report in compressed mode (15 characters/inch) on a dot-matrix printer, you would use Master codes as follows: If you looked in the owner's Control Code 1 2 3 manual for the printer, it �� would tell you that an �Master start � 15 � � � ASCII 15 will turn �Master end � 18 � � � Compressed print on and 18 turns it off. Notice that the remaining codes (2-10) are left zero since they are not used in this example. You can, however, add up to ten codes to achieve the effect you want. 0146Another example (also for a dot-matrix printer) - if you want to printthe page headings in boldface and the details in italics: The owner's manual would tell Control Code 1 2 3 you that Escape G turns bold- �� face on and Escape H turns it � Headings on � 27 � 71 � 0 � off. The Escape code is an � Headings off � 27 � 72 � 0 � ASCII 27, G is 71 and H is 72. � Details on � 27 � 52 � 0 � � Details off � 27 � 53 � 0 � It would also tell you that Italics are turned on with Escape 4 and off with Escape 5. The numeralfour is an ASCII 52 and the numeral five is 53. 0147PARAMETERS When you type in the command to start WorkQueue: C:\>WQ (for example) you can also include the name of the project file to be used: C:\>WQ PAINT (for a project file named PAINT) "WQ" and "PAINT" must be separated by at least one space. This will bypass the opening screen and go directly to the Main Menu. 0148 OVERVIEW WorkQueue helps schedule a "queue" of work where skilled people are the principle resource needed to get that work done. The duration of each task is computed based on the number of workdays needed to finishthe task and the availability and skills of the person assigned to thetask. In other words, you cannot "over schedule" your staff. WorkQueue features: Schedules up to 1000 tasks for up to 20 people over two years. Easy, full-screen spreadsheet-type data entry with no specialized terminology to learn. 0149 The entire user's manual, operating instructions and glossary are on line (available from any screen by pressing the F1 key) and context sensitive so there are no paper manuals to carry around or lose. Takes a broad range of working conditions and constraints into account and allows easy on-going adjustments to reflect the continuous changes that occur in a real working environment. Delivers a maximum of information with a minimum of input. Rapidly and easily examines a variety of alternatives such as the best mix of skills, staffing and priorities needed to make target dates. 0150 Where most project management systems are designed to support large, complex projects, WorkQueue is designed to integrate a mix of projects and stand-alone tasks, including on-going assignments. Contains sophisticated staff-assignment facilities that optimize the utilization of skills, staff and duration of the tasks. Provides analysis tools to help optimize staff utilization. The first step in using WorkQueue is to establish a Staff Plan. In it you identify the people available to do the work as well as the skillsand availability of each person. Any skill can be defined and assignedto any person. The skills can also be "weighted" according to the experience of each person. In addition to skills, the availability of 0151each person can be modified to allow for vacations, overtime and part time. The next step is to establish a work plan. You begin by describing theoverall products or goals of the work at hand (each is called a "job"). Next, the individual work steps (called tasks) needed to complete each job are defined. Each of these tasks is assigned to either a person or a skill. The number of workdays needed to complete each task is also recorded. Holidays can also be excluded from the schedule. Once the Staff Plan, Work Plan and Holiday schedule are completed, thework can be scheduled. The scheduler assigns work to the people in thestaff plan based on their skills, skill level and availability and 0152then calculates the elapsed time needed to complete each task based ontheir availability. You can further refine the schedule by assigning priorities and declaring dependencies between related tasks. This is a brief overview of how WorkQueue functions. A far more extensive explanation is contained in the on-line user's guide. 0153SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS This system runs under DOS 2.1 and later and requires at least 512K offree memory to run. The size of the Work Plan is automatically adjusted to fit available memory up to a maximum of 1000 tasks. This means if you want to run a TSR along with WorkQueue, load the TSR first. If the Work Plan you want to load is too big to fit in available memory (that is, it was created on a PC with more memory), WorkQueue will display a message to that effect. 0154INSTALLING THE SYSTEM System Files WorkQueue can run from a floppy disk but you cannot use a 5.25- inch 360k floppy - WorkQueue is too big to fit on one. You must use a 3.5-inch (preferably a 1.4m) or a 5.25-inch 1.2m disk. Also, if you run from a floppy disk, performance will be slower than from a hard disk because the WorkQueue program is subdivided into a number of "overlays" which are constantly being loaded into memory from the disk. Floppy disks are noticeably slower that hard disks in loading overlays. To run from a floppy disk, simply copy all the system files onto the floppy disk and adhere to the following instructions. If WorkQueue will be run from a hard disk, create a directory 0155 called "WQ" (or any other name you choose) and copy the system files into it. Data Files Like most software, the relationship between the system files and data files created by the user is important. It is recommended that the data files be kept separate from the system files. This makes it easier to upgrade the system files in the future to a new version. It also makes it easier to backup (create a copy on floppy disk) the data files since they are considerably smaller than the system files many of them will fit on a single floppy disk. For example, you could store the system files in a directory named C:\WQ and store the data files in a directory named 0156 C:\WQDATA. Environment Changes How you intend on starting WorkQueue determines environmental needs. If you switch to the directory in which WorkQueue is stored and then start it, no environmental changes are needed. For example, if you store the system files in a directory named C:\WQ and switch to that directory before starting WorkQueue, you do not need any environmental changes. If, however, you intend to starting WorkQueue from another directory or disk, you need to make the following changes: Add the WorkQueue directory (e.g., WQ) to the PATH statement in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. 0157 Add the following statement: SET WQ=C:\WQ where "C:\WQ" is the directory in which the system files are stored, to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file. The SET statement is needed for WorkQueue to find the help files (WQHELP.SCR and WQHELP.NDX). The PATH statement is need for DOS to find the WorkQueue program (WQ.EXE). Once you have made these changes, restart the PC so they will take effect. You can then start WorkQueue from any directory or disk. 0158SYSTEM FILES WorkQueue consists of 19 files. The DOC files can be printed or viewedwith any editor or word processor. WQ.EXE The WorkQueue program. WQHELP.SCR Contains all the help screens. WQPRINT.CON Contains all the printer definitions. WQHELP.NDX Index to the help screens. 0159 PRINTME.DOC Start-up instructions. WHATSNEW.DOC A list of changes, bug fixes and improvements in this version. TUTOR.DOC Print this file for a tutorial that will introduce you to the features of WorkQueue. VENDOR.DOC Distribution Licensing Agreement for Shareware vendors. ORDER.DOC 0160 Order form to purchase a license to use WorkQueue. LESSON1.RDC, LESSON1.PDC, LESSON1.WQP, LESSON2.RDC, LESSON2.PDC, LESSON2.WQP, LESSON3.RDC, LESSON3.PDC, LESSON3.WQP, HOLIDAY.HDC These are a series of 10 files that are used with the Tutorial. 0161DATA FILES WorkQueue stores user-entered data in four types of files. Each project consists of one file of each type. Whenever a project is opened, all four files are loaded into memory. The different types of data files are identified by their DOS file name suffixes: FILES TYPE Data File Note File ��͸ � Work Plan � RDC � RNC � � Staff Plan � PDC � PNC � � Holiday Schedule � HDC � * � � Project File � WQP � * � �� * These files do not have notes. 0162For example, the current data file for a Work Plan named "PLUMBING" would be: PLUMBING.RDC and the corresponding note file would be PLUMBING.RNC. As a saftey measure, WorkQueue keeps a temporary backup copy of each data file loaded into memory. These files have suffixes that end in "B" (for "backup") instead of "C" (for "current") and are automatically erased each time the data file in memory is successfullysaved. 0163CONFIGURATION FILE Certain options are stored in a file named CONFIG.WQ: Printer Printer Channel Colors Project Each time WorkQueue is started, the configuration file is loaded from the current directory so these options do not have to be re-selected. 0164PROJECTS When you start WorkQueue, the first thing you enter is the name of theproject file to be used. A project file is where the target file names(the files containing the Work Plan, Staff Plan and Holiday Schedule) and a description of the project are stored so you do not have re-enter them next time you want to work with that project. You can create as many project files as needed and you can switch amoung them during a session. You can change the target files and description as often as you wish for a project but only those in effect when you change projects or exit WorkQueue will be saved for use next time. More than one project file can refer to the same target file. This is typical for the Holiday Schedule. 0165 The name given to a project should be meaningful. For example, if the work in the target files is a list of personal work for youself then your initials will make a good name. If the work in the target files covers all the work in a department then an abberviation of the title that department would make a good name. If the work in the target files covers a specific project then an abbreviation of the project title would make a good name. 0166DISCLAIMER In no event will the author be liable to the user for any damages, including lost profits, lost savings or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of or inability to use this system, even if the author has been advised of the possibility ofsuch damages, or for any claim by any other party. 0167LICENSE TERMS WorkQueue is licensed software, not public domain software or free software. WorkQueue is copyright (c) 1989, 1990, 1991 by Lane Davis, all rights reserved. 1. You may make copies of this software and share it with others f the purpose of evaluation but you must copy all the system file WorkQueue must be copied complete with all files, including thi one. 2. You may evaluate the software at no charge but if you decide to use it, you must purchase a license. 3. You may not modify any of the WorkQueue files in any way or decompile, disassemble or reverse engineer them. 0168 4. You may not sell this software or distribute it in conjunction with any other product without a specific license to do so from Lane Davis. 5. No fee, charge or other compensation may be accepted or request by any licensee. 6. Operators of electronic bulletin board systems (Sysops) may pos WorkQueue for downloading by their users only as long as the above conditions are met. 7. Distributors of public domain or user supported software may distribute copies of WorkQueue for a reasonable fee as long as they conform to the conditions in the file named VENDOR.TXT. 0169 8. A license allows a user to use the program on only one computer at a time. 0170PRICE $40, United States dollars, for each license. Volume discounts are available. UPGRADES If you have already purchased a license for a previous version, that license can be upgraded to cover a later version for $20. MAINTENANCE RELEASES Although each version of WorkQueue is thoroughly tested before distribution, there are always some remaining bugs. As these are identified, they are fixed and uploaded to CompuServe. These are called "maintenance releases". The maintenance release is identified by a small letter just after the version number. For example: "1.8f" would be version 1.8, maintenance release "f". 0171 A license covers all maintenance releases for the version the license covers. This means, for example, if you have a license for version 1.8, you can download any subsequent maintenance release for version 1.8 and use it without upgrading the license. 0172SUPPORT Questions, comments and suggestions are encouraged. They should be directed to the author by mail or through CompuServe electronic mail ID 73577,1675. You will receive a response within a reasonable period of time, usually 1-2 weeks. Priority will be given to those who have purchased a license. This level of support will be extended to each version of WorkQueue for at lease six months after the release of that version. Bug fixes, however, will be applied only to the latest version. 0173ASSOCIATION OF SHAREWARE PROFESSIONALS This program is produced by Lane Davis, a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). The ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, the ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at P.O. Box 5786, Bellevue, WA 98006 or send a Compuserve message via easyplex to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536. The ASP is an association for shareware authors with the general goals of educating shareware authors and distributors and the public, setting standards, sharing resources and information 0174 among members. 0175WARRANTY If a license has been purchased and the system is found to be unsatisfactory, a refund can be obtained within 30 days after the purchase of the license by writing to the author. The letter must be signed by the person who purchased the license. 0176ORDERS License orders must be accompanied by a check - no credit cards accepted. Orders should be sent to: Lane Davis P.O.Box 1472 Laurel Springs, NJ 08021 You must include: The name, a person or a company, to which the license is to be issued. A mailing address. 0177 The version number you currently are using. Whether you want 5.25inch (360K or 1.2meg.) or 3.5inch (720K or 1.4meg.) diskettes. The best way is to print the order form contained in the file ORDER.DOC and fill it out. When you purchase a license, or upgrade a previous license, a licensedcopy of the most recent version of the system will be mailed to you. The licensed version omits the "UNLICENSED" text on the opening screen. 0178ABOUT SHAREWARE Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software before buying it. If you try a Shareware program and continue using it, you are expected to register. Individual programs differ on details -- some request registration while others require it, some specify a maximum trial period. With registration, you get anything from the simple right to continue using the software to an updated program withprinted manual. Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and commercial software, and the copyright holder retains all rights, with a few specific exceptions as stated below. Shareware authors are accomplished programmers, just like commercial authors, and the programs are of comparable quality. (In both cases, there are good programs and bad ones!) The main difference is in the method of distribution. The 0179author specifically grants the right to copy and distribute the software, either to all and sundry or to a specific group. For example, some authors require written permission before a commercial disk vendor may copy their Shareware. Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software. You shouldfind software that suits your needs and pocketbook, whether it is commercial or Shareware. The Shareware system makes fitting your needseasier, because you can try before you buy. And because the overhead is low, prices are low also. Shareware has the ultimate money-back guarantee -- if you do not use the product, you do not pay for it. 0180TASK DESCRIPTION Identifies the reason for or goal of the Task. For Example: Hold Review Meeting or Publish Annual Statement. 0181STATUS Status Codes are used for both Jobs and Tasks. You can make up your own status codes to meet your needs but 3 reserved codes have actual meaning to WorkQueue: FIN (finished), CAN (cancelled) and HLD (hold). The purpose of the Status Codes is to declare the status of a Job or Task. With respect to FIN, CAN and HLD the Job status will override any Task status. The reserved codes are used by the Work Scheduler to determine if a Task or Job should be scheduled. Any of the 3 reserved codes will not be scheduled - all others will. 0182SKILL The Work Scheduler uses skills to assign people to tasks. The skill ina Task must match one or more skills in the Staff Plan or the initialsof a person. If not, no person will be assigned to the Task and, therefore, it will not be scheduled. If you put a skill in a Task, the Work Scheduler will assign a person To that task based on the person's availability and the work priority.If, however, you want to assign a specific person to a Task, use theirinitials instead of a skill. 0183DATES The earliest date you can enter into WorkQueue is January 5, 1981 (01/05/81). The latest date possible is December 31, 2050 (12/31/50). If you enter a year of 00 - 50 it will be interpreted as the year 2000 - 2050. If you enter a year of 81 - 99 it will be interpreted as the year 1981- 1999. 0184TARGET DATE Is the date by which a Job or Task must be finished. If a target date is entered, the Work Scheduler will use it to determine if the work will be completed on time. If not, it will be flagged as late in the schedule screens and reports. 0185ACTUAL START and ACTUAL FINISH These dates are used to record the dates on which the job or task was actually started and finished. They are for documentation only - the system does not use them. 0186NOT BEFORE DATE, REMAINING WORKDAYS, REPEAT and FREQUENCY See the User Guide for an explanation of how these are used. 0187ACTUAL WORKDAYS Is where you store the actual number of workdays that were needed to complete a task. It is used for documentation only. 0188PRIORITY Zero means no priority while one is the highest priority and 99 the lowest (zero is lower than 99). There can be more than one Job with the same Priority Number. Within the same priority, Tasks are worked in order of Task Number within Job Number. If no priorities are entered, the Job Numbers are substituted. Priority establishes the sequence in which people are assigned to tasks by the Work Scheduler. The net effect is that tasks in high priority jobs are more likely to be assigned adequate resources than those in low priority jobs. As a means of verification, the Job screen can be viewed in priority sequence via Alt+S (and back again). 0189TARGET DATE Is the date by which a Job or Task must be finished. If a target date is entered, the Work Scheduler will use it to determine if the work will be completed on time. If not, it will be flagged as late in the schedule screens and reports. 0190ACTUAL START and ACTUAL FINISH These dates are used to record the dates on which the job or task was actually started and finished. They are for documentation only - the system does not use them. 0191STATUS Status Codes are used for both Jobs and Tasks. You can make up your own status codes to meet your needs but 3 reserved codes have actual meaning to WorkQueue: FIN (finished), CAN (cancelled) and HLD (hold). The purpose of the Status Codes is, of course, to declare the status of the Job or Task. With respect to FIN, CAN and HLD the Job status will override any Task status. The reserved codes are used by the Work Scheduler to determine if a Task or Job should be scheduled. Any of the 3 reserved codes will not be scheduled - all others will. 0192PROJECT You make up your own Project codes to subdivide the Work Plan for reporting or analysis purposes. For example, the Work Plan for a department consists of 37 Jobs, six of which have to do with the development of a new cellular telephone. If you key in a Project code of "CEL" for each of those six jobs and then set the Project Filter topass only that Project code, you can display the work schedule or print reports isolating those six jobs. 0193DATES The earliest date you can enter into WorkQueue is January 5, 1981 (01/05/81). The latest date possible is December 31, 2050 (12/31/50). If you enter a year of 00 - 50 it will be interpreted as the year 2000- 2050. If you enter a year of 81 - 99 it will be interpreted as the year 1981- 1999. 0194START and STOP DATE These dates declare the duration of the holiday. Both dates are included in the duration. If the holiday covers only one day, you onlyhave to enter either date but it will not cause an error if you enter both. 0195DESCRIPTION Is where you key in the description of the holiday. For example, Thanksgiving or Labor Day. 0196START and STOP DATE These dates declare the duration of the time Record. Both the start and stop dates are included in that duration. If the time record only covers one day, you only have to enter either date - but it will not cause an error if you enter both. 0197DESCRIPTION This is where you key in a description of what the time record represents. For example, overtime or vacation. 0198WORK RATE Is a rate stated in terms of workdays per week. It can be either positive or negative, depending on the purpose. For examples of how this data element is used, see the Guide. 0199DATES The earliest date you can enter into WorkQueue is January 5, 1981 (01/05/81). The latest date possible is December 31, 2050 (12/31/50). If you enter a year of 00 - 50 it will be interpreted as the year 2000- 2050. If you enter a year of 81 - 99 it will be interpreted as the year 1981- 999. 0200PERSON NUMBER Determines the order in which people are displayed on the person screen. This sequence is also important because when the work scheduler searches for a person to assign to a task, it does so in person numbersequence, choosing the first available person with the right skill. The net effect is those people who appear early in the list are most likely to be fully utilized than those near the end. You can change the number of a person to change their sequence in the list but duplicate numbers will not be allowed. If you change the person number, the time records and all notepads are automatically changed. 0201INITIALS In addition to uniquely identifying a person, their initials are also used by the work scheduler. If you place a person's initials in a taskinstead of a skill - that person is explicitly assigned to the task. This means no one else can be assigned. Initials should be unique - they should not be identical to either another person's initials or a skill. 0202PERSON's NAME Is used only for documentation, it appears on various reports and screens. 0203SKILLS Are codes (abbreviations) you make up to identify the skills possessedby a person. Examples might be ELE for electrician, PRO for programmeror PLU for plumber. More than one person can have the same skill. Skill One should be the most important skill while Skill Five should be the least important. Skill One for a person may not be their most proficient but it must be the most important for the work in the Work plan. For example, a person may be most skilled at writing but if noneof the tasks in the Work Plan require writing then it is not needed. You are not trying to list all a person's skills - only those needed for the Work Plan. 0204MASTER START & END Sent to the printer at the start and completion of each report. PAGE TITLES, HEADINGS & DETAILS ON/OFF Sent to the printer at the beginning and end of each line type. They can be used to print titles and headings in boldface, details in italics, etc. LINE FEED Use ASCII numbers 10,13 for almost all printers. The 10 causes the printer to move to the next line and the 13 is a carriage return. BAR CHARACTER Is used to print the bar in the time-series bar reports. If you are uncertain, use 62, which is a [. Enter only one 0205bar character (a single 62, for example). PAGE LENGTH The number of lines per page, including the top and bottom margins. This is usually 66 for a dot-matrix printer and 60 for a laser. Only column one can be used. TOP MARGIN The number of lines to skip between the top of the page and the page titles. Only column one can be used. BOTTOM MARGIN The number of lines to skip between the page number and the bottom of the page. This number goes in column one. 2-10 can be used for the Form Feed code (ASCII 12 in almost all printers). If you use the form 0206feed code, it will be sent to the printer to skip to the top of the next page. If you do not use it, blank lines will be printed to get tothe top of the next page. LEFT MARGIN The number of characters to skip left of each line. 0207