Displaying actual working days on "Duration" column

[NLC]

Hi, I am trying to have the duration Column to calculate the actual number of
working days (not sure if it's the right term I'm using).

For example, I have a task summary named "Materials on Site", under this
task I have 2 indented tasks that each have duration of 1 day, 3 days apart
each other.

- Materials on Site

task 1 (08/Jun/10 - 08/Jun/10) duration 1 day
task 2 (08/Jun/14 - 08/Jun/14) duration 1 day

By default Project shows a duration of 5 days (10,11,12,13,14) for the task
summary, how do i set it to display the actual days required? (which is 2
days)

I hope this is clear, thanks a lot!

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

1. Insert a column Duration1
2. Tools, Customize, Fields, select Duration1
3. Click on the word Formula
4. In the formula window, click field, select duration
5. OK
6. In the customize fields window on the line "... for summary tasks..."
select Sum

That's it.

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[salgud]

Hi, I am trying to have the duration Column to calculate the actual number of
working days (not sure if it's the right term I'm using).

For example, I have a task summary named "Materials on Site", under this
task I have 2 indented tasks that each have duration of 1 day, 3 days apart
each other.

- Materials on Site

By default Project shows a duration of 5 days (10,11,12,13,14) for the task
summary, how do i set it to display the actual days required? (which is 2
days)

I hope this is clear, thanks a lot!

Jan indicated how to get what you want. What you want is not called
"duration". It's called "work effort". All these things are defined in the
discipline of scheduling. You might want to do a little reading, it will
pay off, especially if you come to this, or other, forums looking for help.
Hope this helps in your world.

 

[John]

Hi, I am trying to have the duration Column to calculate the actual number of
working days (not sure if it's the right term I'm using).

For example, I have a task summary named "Materials on Site", under this
task I have 2 indented tasks that each have duration of 1 day, 3 days apart
each other.

- Materials on Site

By default Project shows a duration of 5 days (10,11,12,13,14) for the task
summary, how do i set it to display the actual days required? (which is 2
days)

I hope this is clear, thanks a lot!

NLC,
OK, let me throw my 2 cents into this one also. Jan provided an easy way
to get a summation of what you think you want. However, from your
description, (i.e. materials on site), what you want is not duration and
it is not work effort as Salgud indicated.

What you really appear to be tracking is the arrival of materials on
site. That is a milestone and it's duration should be "0'd, probably the
end of the day on June 10th and June 14th. Why in the world you want to
try and sum those up I have no idea - I guess we'd need to understand
the larger intent.

For milestones, duration at the summary level really has no meaning
other than the time span in working days between the milestones.

John
Project MVP

 

[John]

In a case like this one, I consider it work effort. It's being done outside
the scheduling organization, so it's being tracked at a higher level than
at the resource level. In some cases, it could be considered a milestone
and tracked accordingly. However, tracking it as a milestone gives you no
control other than to reschedule it if necessary.
In others situations, it can be tracked as the OP is doing. He might want
to know if the first part of the effort is delayed so he can make
adjustments to the lag or the second part of the effort. In such a case,
the 1d and 2d durations can be considered work effort, since no tracking of
actual resources is occurring but they want to track whether it's all
happening on schedule. It's more flexible this way.

Salgud,
I'm not sure what you mean by work effort being, "... tracked at a
higher level than at the resource level", since that doesn't make too
much sense. Work effort with no resources to do it?

OK, let's assume for the moment that what the poster is really trying to
say is that he has two performance tasks that when completed, will
provide materials on site. If that is the case then indeed there is work
effort to provide those materials but the poster is confusing duration
with work. In Project duration and work are two completely different
concepts. Duration is the time span during which tasks are worked. Work
is the actual effort required by one or more resources to complete the
task. Given this assumption what the poster should be displaying is the
Work field. At the summary level that will sum up to the 2 day total -
assuming he has assigned one or more resources to perform 8 hours of
work on tasks 1 & 2.

John
Project MVP

 

[salgud]

Salgud,
I'm not sure what you mean by work effort being, "... tracked at a
higher level than at the resource level", since that doesn't make too
much sense. Work effort with no resources to do it?

OK, let's assume for the moment that what the poster is really trying to
say is that he has two performance tasks that when completed, will
provide materials on site. If that is the case then indeed there is work
effort to provide those materials but the poster is confusing duration
with work. In Project duration and work are two completely different
concepts. Duration is the time span during which tasks are worked. Work
is the actual effort required by one or more resources to complete the
task. Given this assumption what the poster should be displaying is the
Work field. At the summary level that will sum up to the 2 day total -
assuming he has assigned one or more resources to perform 8 hours of
work on tasks 1 & 2.

John
Project MVP

Thanks for the detailed explanation of duration and work. Who would have
thought?
Seriously, I think you just said in a very convoluted way, what I said
above. Hopefully, it helped the OP.

 

[John]

Thanks for the detailed explanation of duration and work. Who would have
thought?
Seriously, I think you just said in a very convoluted way, what I said
above. Hopefully, it helped the OP.

Salgud,
Confusing duration and work is a very common mistake for new users of
Project. Since they both relate to time, people naturally think they are
the same. Time and time again in this newsgroup we have explained the
difference and my guess is that we will have to keep explaining it.

And yes, I hope the original poster checks out the whole thread. His
post wasn't all that definitive. The tasks could either represent
completion milestones, as I assumed, or could in fact be a day of
effort, as you indicated. Either way, if I knew the larger context, I
could be of more help.

John
Project MVP

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

I'm probably a too simple person, but I think he just took my formula and
was happy

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf