Total Task Duration

[Jeff]

Hello- New user here. I am in the process of setting up a "global" calendar
for our company by jobs. I set up each job as a task, and I set up the
facets of the job as sub-tasks. My challenge is that not all of my dates for
given sub-tasks are concurrent, however it ends up showing a total "calendar"
period for total days of the task. For example- On Job A- we might start the
demolition of a project on 7/1/09 lasting 4 days (a sub-task of Job A). We
will maybe go back on 8/1/09 for another 4 days for an additional sub-task.
The duration will show 30 days, when actual task duration is a total of 8
days. How do I get the Task Duration to show the actual 8 days worked?

Thanks,

 

[John]

Hello- New user here. I am in the process of setting up a "global" calendar
for our company by jobs. I set up each job as a task, and I set up the
facets of the job as sub-tasks. My challenge is that not all of my dates for
given sub-tasks are concurrent, however it ends up showing a total "calendar"
period for total days of the task. For example- On Job A- we might start the
demolition of a project on 7/1/09 lasting 4 days (a sub-task of Job A). We
will maybe go back on 8/1/09 for another 4 days for an additional sub-task.
The duration will show 30 days, when actual task duration is a total of 8
days. How do I get the Task Duration to show the actual 8 days worked?

Thanks,

Jeff,
First of all understand the difference between duration and work.
Duration is the time span in working days between the start date and the
finish date. For a summary task duration is calculated from the start of
the earliest task under the summary to the finish of the latest task
under that summary. Duration is simply the passage of time. It has
nothing to do with actually performing work to complete the task.

Work on the other hand is the time it will take one or more resources to
complete the task. If a single resource works full time on a given task,
then the duration and work hours will be the same. However in most
cases, either a resource will not work full time on a task or multiple
resources will work on a task. Work hours can be more or less than the
duration hours.

So the bottom line is that you DON'T get the task duration to show the 8
days worked because duration and work are different parameters.

Rather than try and go into all the details of how to properly set up a
project plan, I suggest you go to our MVP website at,
http://project.mvps.org/links.htm, and click on the link to fellow MVP,
Mike Glen's tutorials. Then if you still have questions, post back.

John
Project MVP