From: amycwhitfield on
I'm new to MS Project and need help with importing data from Excel into
Project 2000. The data consists of Work Request numbers, individual phase
numbers for the Work Request, name of each phase, and (phase) start and end
dates.

I can open the Excel file in Project and map the fields, however, the data
shows up as individual tasks. I need to have the Work Request number and
project name be a main, or top-level, task, and the data related to the
phases be sub-tasks.

Here's an example of how the raw data appears in the Excel file:
WorkReq# ProjectName
Phase# PhaseName StartDate EndDate

Note there's typically more than one phase per Work Request, just trying to
keep it simple in the example.

Is there a way to specify this within Project, or do I need to change the
data layout in the Excel file?

Any help, thoughts, etc is greatly appreciated!!!
From: Andrew Lavinsky on
Try adding a field to the Excel sheet called Outline Level. Populate it
with 1,2,3 or 4 (or more) - then import into the corresponding Outline Level
field in MS Project.

....or invest in the upgrade to MS Project 2010 and simply cut/paste it from
Excel while retaining the outline structure.

- Andrew Lavinsky
Blog: http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/epm

> I'm new to MS Project and need help with importing data from Excel
> into Project 2000. The data consists of Work Request numbers,
> individual phase numbers for the Work Request, name of each phase, and
> (phase) start and end dates.
>
> I can open the Excel file in Project and map the fields, however, the
> data shows up as individual tasks. I need to have the Work Request
> number and project name be a main, or top-level, task, and the data
> related to the phases be sub-tasks.
>
> Here's an example of how the raw data appears in the Excel file:
> WorkReq# ProjectName
> Phase# PhaseName StartDate EndDate
> Note there's typically more than one phase per Work Request, just
> trying to keep it simple in the example.
>
> Is there a way to specify this within Project, or do I need to change
> the data layout in the Excel file?
>
> Any help, thoughts, etc is greatly appreciated!!!
>



From: JulieS on
Hi Amy,

Is the work request a project in itself or are you trying to
combine multiple work requests into one project file?

From your brief description, I'm not sure Project will suit what
you need. If there are multiple steps to the "Phase" the start
and end date for the phase is driven by the subtasks and you
cannot specify the Phase start and end.

You can import the other data, but importing dates into Project
is going to create constraints which will, in turn, go a log way
towards defeating using Project.

If you want individual line items, consider creating the Excel
file with data for each entity (Work Request) on a single row
with the details underneath in another row. There are spare text
fields you could import some of the additional information into.

Please note, this newsgroup was slated to close on June 1.
Please visit the forums:

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/addbuz/threads

or

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/projectserver2010,projectprofessional2010

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project

On 6/1/2010 12:11 PM, amycwhitfield wrote:
> I'm new to MS Project and need help with importing data from Excel into
> Project 2000. The data consists of Work Request numbers, individual phase
> numbers for the Work Request, name of each phase, and (phase) start and end
> dates.
>
> I can open the Excel file in Project and map the fields, however, the data
> shows up as individual tasks. I need to have the Work Request number and
> project name be a main, or top-level, task, and the data related to the
> phases be sub-tasks.
>
> Here's an example of how the raw data appears in the Excel file:
> WorkReq# ProjectName
> Phase# PhaseName StartDate EndDate
>
> Note there's typically more than one phase per Work Request, just trying to
> keep it simple in the example.
>
> Is there a way to specify this within Project, or do I need to change the
> data layout in the Excel file?
>
> Any help, thoughts, etc is greatly appreciated!!!
From: amycwhitfield on
Thank you both for your replies!

Essentially each Work Request is considered it's own project and the phases
for the Work Request is the breakdown of the work necessary to complete the
entire Work Request. For example one Work Request is to renovate a specific
building, and the various phases are: estimating, general construction,
plumbing, electrical, painting, etc. Each phase has it's own start and
finish date.

My manager wants to see all the Work Requests, and phases, displayed in a
Gantt chart to see where the Work Requests are overlapping regarding start
and finish times in order to better allocate the resources.

So I guess the answer to your question Julie is I'm trying to combine
multiple work requests into one project file.

The data is originally coming from a Crystal Report which does have a Gantt
chart but isn't able to handle the large volume of data. My manager has been
exporting the data to Excel and then doing a manual copy-paste to get it into
Project. On average there's typically 50+ Work Requests with multiple phases
per Work Request.

I'd like to automate this process via a custom import map but can't seem to
figure out how to set it up so that each work request appears as a summary
task and the phases appear as sub-tasks.

Presently when I import from Excel into Project both the Work Requests and
related Phases all show up as individual tasks. I've been reading about
Outline levels, codes, and WBS, but do not seem to be grasping how to make
use of those concepts to achieve the above.

Hope this makes a bit more sense. :-)

Will this work if I create a WBS in Project and specify the Work Request
number as Level 1 and the Phase number as Level 2?

Also, I did see the note about this forum being closed on the 1st and will
use the links provided for future questions. Thank you!
From: amycwhitfield on
It looks like Andrew's suggestion to add an 'Outline Level' field to the
Excel file may be the solution I need.

The Work Requests have a value of '1' and the phases have a value of '2' for
the Outline Level in the Excel file. I created a custom import map in
Project with the following fields: Outline Level, ID, Name, Start, and
Finish. The 'ID' field corresponds to the Work Request or Phase number and
the 'Name' field corresponds to the Work Request or Phase Title from the
Excel file.

Thus far everything is looking good. I'm going to send a copy of the
Project file to my manager for review.

Thank you both again so much for your help!!!