Skip to main content

Multi-Tier Calendars

One of the most common reasons project schedules fail is the "Generic Resource" fallacy—the assumption that every person is available 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, without exception.

MSP Planner solves this by implementing a Multi-Tier Calendar Model. This ensures that your schedule reflects the actual working time of your team.

Calendars

The Three Tiers of Time​

The scheduling engine calculates availability by layering three different calendar levels:

1. The Project Calendar (Tier 1)​

This is the global working time for the entire project. It defines the standard working days and hours for the project as a whole.

  • Example: A project might be set to a "Standard 40-hour week" or a "Compressed 4-day week."
  • Impact: All tasks in the project default to this calendar unless overridden.

2. The Resource Calendar (Tier 2)​

Individual resources often have different working patterns than the project default.

  • Example: A part-time consultant who only works Tuesdays and Thursdays, or a team member in a different time zone.
  • Impact: The schedule automatically shifts task dates to align with the specific resource's availability.

3. Exception Days & Personal Availability (Tier 3)​

The most granular level of planning accounts for specific dates where work cannot happen.

  • Holidays: National or corporate holidays that apply to everyone.
  • Personal Availability: Specific dates for vacations, sick leave, or training.
  • Impact: If a resource is on vacation for a week, the scheduling engine automatically pushes their assigned tasks forward, alerting you to potential delays in the critical path.

Calendar Governance: Host vs. Schedule​

To maintain enterprise consistency while allowing project flexibility, MSP Planner distinguishes between where a calendar is defined.

Corporate Base Calendars (Read-Only)​

Standard organization calendars (e.g., "Global Corporate Standard") are provided by the host. These are read-only to ensure that the organization's official working hours remain consistent across all projects.

Schedule-Owned Forks (Project-Specific)​

If you need to modify a corporate calendar for a specific project (e.g., adding a project-specific holiday), the app creates a Fork.

  • Automatic Isolation: When you edit a corporate calendar, MSP Planner automatically creates a project-specific copy.
  • Local Control: Your changes apply only to the current schedule and do not affect other projects or the corporate default.

Operational Guide: Managing Your Time​

Setting the Project Default​

  1. Open the Project Calendar Dialog.
  2. Select a base calendar from the catalog to be the global default for all tasks.
  3. Any task without a specific resource assignment will use this calendar to determine its duration and finish date.

Customizing Resource Availability​

  1. Open the Resource Calendar Dialog for a specific person.
  2. Override Base Pattern: Change the weekly working hours if the resource has a non-standard schedule.
  3. Add Exception Days: Use the "Exception" tool to mark specific dates (vacations, training) as non-working. The scheduling engine will automatically shift all assigned tasks to account for these gaps.

The Capacity Impact​

Calendar settings directly drive the Resource Histogram and the Critical Path:

  • Available Hours: The "Capacity Line" in the resource view is calculated by multiplying the resource's Max Units by the available hours in their Multi-Tier Calendar.
  • Predictive Slippage: If you add a two-week vacation to a resource on the critical path, the project finish date will realistically shift in real-time.
  • Factual Capacity: By modeling real working time, you eliminate "optimism bias" and can present stakeholders with a delivery date based on factual availability.