How to Create a Frankenstein Schedule (as opposed to a Master Schedule)

Hi Suleiman - Welcome to planning planet.

I Asta PowerProject you can have any number of open projects in one file and link tasks between projects.

When planning a new project I have a library of pre planned sections which I just copy - paste intothe master programme.

Whenever I have a completely new section of work I copy the section back into the library for when it is needed again.

Obviously each new import is checked and adjusted for the exigencies of the new project.

Using this method I can usually complete a tender programme in under 8 hours.

I suppose tis is similar to your Franenstein concept.

Best regards

Mike Testro

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your detailed answer. It is a great workflow.

I alreday have , for eg, three project files : p1, p2 and p3

I want to insert only SOME activities from them into a new schedule called px.

This needs to be dynamically linked so copy paste is not an option.

Hi Suleiman

If you cant open the projects in one file then you can't cross link.

Unless MSP has a much superior way of linking between files.

Best regards

Mike Testro

Suleiman,

(Assuming you're working outside of Project Server or Project Online.)  Inter-project links in MSP rely on the file system, so they can be touchy.  They also get multiplied each time a file is saved off or copied.  For your P1/P2/P3 --> Px case, here are the options I see (none are ideal).

1. Manual copy-paste with dynamic (file system-based) updating. i.e. Create project Px and manually copy-paste the tasks you want from P1/P2/P3 into Px. Then either:

   a. (Logic Links) Insert all 4 projects into a temporary linked master shell, then use click and drag to create the logic links from P1/P2/P3 into Px.  You can delete the master after "saving changes" to the four sub-projects.  This will make the schedule data only (not the custom fields etc) dynamically linked.

   b. (OLE Links) Open all 4 files.  Then one cell at a time, Copy-Paste Special-PasteLink the specific task values from the P1/P2/P3 files to the corresponding task cells in Px.

2. Write a procedure (in VBA) to dynamically create or update Px using the flagged tasks from P1/P2/P3.  (You'd have to decide on a few things....) Rod Gill's book on VBA programming for MSP includes some good examples.  After generally unsatisfying though not terrible experiences with file system-based links, this is what I would do.

Good luck, tom