How to: Rough and Fine Project Planning in Dynamics NAV Jobs Module

Posted by Ute Gillet on Jun 26, 2017 2:35:00 PM

Here comes #3 of my best practice blogs on the VJS, our Gantt chart add-in for easy project planning in the Microsoft Dynamics NAV jobs module. This time I want to show you how you can bypass a severe NAV shortfall of not being able to assign Job Planning Lines to Resource Groups. In essence, this does not allow to make a rough project planning when working with the standard jobs module.

Once again, you could wonder whether a small feature like described below is worth a whole post. But see for yourself how much your planning will be made easier by just a string of characters and by then being able to combine rough and fine planning within one planning board. 

Assign Job Planning Lines to resource groups in spite of a NAV shortfall

If you start planning a project, you often know which type of resource you will need to perform a task. However, if the project still is some time ahead, you typically do not want to already decide which concrete resource will carry out that specific task. Instead, you want to do a rough project plan first.

So, the obvious solution to this problem would be to assign the Job Planning Line to a resource group and later, with more and more fine-tuning your planning, to assign it to the final resource. But in this situation you once again come across the sometimes awkward behavior of NAV:

You can only assign Job Planning Lines to resources, not to resource groups. But don't despair - we have solved your problem.

The solution: Short string - great effect

To bypass the restriction described above, you only have to create a kind of "dummy" resource. By adding the string “$VJSRG$” at the beginning of the Resource No the VJS treats this resource as if it would be a resource group:

  • Create a dummy resource the number of which starts with “$VJSRG$”. The resource name you enter here will be shown in the table.
    IMPORTANT:

    For the bar length to be calculated properly make sure to assign a capacity to the “dummy” resource that is usual for this group

    create dummy resource.png











  • A white number on a red background tells you how many planninng lines are assigned to the group

dummy_resource_E.png

  •  The complete capacity load of the group is displayed in the histogram

histogram_dummy_resource.png


Your benefits

By assigning Job Planning Lines to resource groups your project planning in Dynamics NAV gets easier:

  • Start with rough planning while not having to draw up your plan down to the smallest detail.
  • As the fine-tuning nears its completion you can reassign the workload to the actual resources.

assign jpl to resource3.gif

Further information

Ebool visual scheduling for Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Topics: Business Central Project & Resource Scheduling, Dynamics NAV Visual Scheduling Add-in