Actual Work, Duration and Percent Complete

[Jim Puls]

I have a task in a project which is expected to take 4 hours over a
five day period, so the duration is five days. I update the actual
work during this period, from one to four hours. When the task is
complete, I set the % complete to 100% for the task, and then the
actual work jumps to 40 hours (8 hours per day times 5 days).

How should I set up the task so that 100% is 4 hours and the duration
is 5 days?

Thanks!

- Jim

 

[Gérard DUCOURET]

Hello Jim,
I tried several combinations of parameters to reproduce that phenomenon, without any success : Ms
Project 2000 works well when I update the actual work from one to 4 hours...

Gérard Ducouret

 

[Dale Howard]

Jim --

When you were ready to assign a resource to this task, did you do the
following:

1. Enter the name of the task and leave the Duration at 1 day
2. Click Window - Split
3. In the lower pane, select the Resource Name
4. In the lower pane, set the Units to 10%
5. In the lower pane, set the Work to 4 hours
6. The Duration is calculated as 5 days

Or, did you do this instead:

1. Enter the name of the task and set the Duration to 5 days
2. Click the Assign Resources button
3. Select the resource and click the Assign button

If you did the latter, Microsoft Project 2002 will assign the resource at
100% Units and calculate 40 hours of work to be performed on the task. Even
though you entered 4 hours of Actual Work on the task, Microsoft Project
2002 assumes that there are still 36 hours of Remaining Work yet to be
performed, and so, the task is not yet complete. When you marked the task
as 100% Complete, the software assumes that all 40 hours of work was
performed as scheduled.

A better approach would have been to use the first method above. Then, when
you entered 4 hours of Actual Work, the task would have been calculated at
100% complete automatically. The first method is the one I used for making
resource assignments to tasks, as it gives total control over the assignment
process. Hope this helps.