Tasks of type "Level of Effort" (LOE) make it possible to also add management or coordination tasks to your project, without disturbing the Critical Chain calculation and scheduling process.
If also the Auto-Expand feature is selected a LOE tasks sizes automatically with the chain it is spanning.
Introduction
Tasks can be added as normal tasks, but the type should be set to "Level of effort". You can see the LOE task in the task lists (My activities/Active tasks), similar to other tasks.
Although similar to normal tasks, LOE tasks have a different scheduling behavior and characteristics:
- The duration may span a phase or the complete project duration. It will also increase when a project duration increases.
- These tasks start with the start of a project or phase, rather than as late as possible (per CCPM scheduling).
- These tasks are excluded from the critical chain as they are never classified as critical.
- These tasks typically represents an average "load" (for example 20%) over a longer time period.
Auto Expand behavior
You can select the auto expand check box. This allows the tracking also of management effort in the resource load. This results in a completed picture of all tasks and effort within a project. It also automates the expected time to complete (ETTC) process as it expands with the tasks under it.
With auto expand, the status of an LOE task should be set to started. The ETTC is counted down automatically until there is 0 remaining duration. Once the ETTC is 0, the status of the LOE task should be set to completed.
For example, if there are 2 tasks of 20 hours each under the LOE task, the duration of the LOE will be 40. If one task is delayed and the ETTC is set to 30 days instead of 20 days, the duration of the LOE will now be 50. If that task is then completed, then the remaining duration of the LOE task will be (50-30 = ) 20 days.
Note: you can use the "Unit percentage" to control the remaining work as is expected. A project manager should monitor the unit percentages for getting an adequate resource load.
Dependencies
LOE tasks have the standard task behavior related to dependencies. LYNX scheduling engine will check the dependencies to determine the "Ready to start" status for the LOE tasks as well. You need to check for the ready to start flag before starting the LOE task. Furthermore, the successor task is only to be started when the LOE task is marked as completed.
Task Progress by Task Manager Report
The LOE task appears at the bottom of the task list in the task progress report. Project/Task managers can check when the ETTC value is 0 then they should set the task status to completed.
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