assign only hours, not days

[NFC]

I want to use MS Project as a weekly scheduling program for multiple small
tasks, usually less than 8 hours. I want to assign hours to resources
(people) for each task. I do not want it to take the start day and end day
and multiply that by 8 or any other number and say the task is that many
hours. Can I do this, or can I delete the requirement for picking a start
and end day? I would rather have the days (i.e. the task can be done anytime
in a 5 day window, but only should take 4 hours. I dont want to see 40 hours
assigned to that task or person).

I am new to this so forgive me if that is an easy obvious fix.

Thanks

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

If there is one principle in Project it is that you SHOULD NOT pick yourself
start and end days.
It's definitely not a requirement, it is not recommended at all.
In a recent post I even said that the very worst thing one can do in Project
is pick a finish date.
So if you don't want to do it, don't.

Then what's the problem?

 

[Steve House]

In Project the 'prime directive' is W=D*U and you can never violate that.
So your first challenge is to decide what "only takes 4 hours" really means.
Do you mean that the task requires a total of 4 FTE (full-time equivalent)
hours of effort done gradually, spread out over a 5 day period from when it
starts until it finishes, or do you mean that the resource will work at it
full-time in a continuous block of 4 hours sometime during the week and he
can start as early as Mon 8am and must do it sometime before Friday at 5pm?

A project manager should not simply define "windows," that's not controlling
the project. Since it's your job to insure it finishes on-time and within
budget, you need to take charge of who does what when and direct the work so
it all happens according the the schedule you have determined best meets the
project's requirements. If you decide it should be the first scenario
above, enter the task with 5 days duration and assigned the resource to it
at 10% effort (4 hours of total work averaged out over 40 hours duration).
If it's the second scenario, it's NOT a 40 hour duration task, it's a 4 hour
duration task with the resource assigned 100% (4 hours of work done over 4
hours of duration) with a deadline determined by whatever forces are
defining the window. In both cases links from predecessor tasks and the
resource's availability determine when it will start, as computed by
project, not manually input, and the start+duration defines the end. At no
time should start and end dates and times be manually input (deadlines, of
course, are another matter).