Break the link betweek duration and work.

[JLorincz]

Is there a way to setup project 200 so that there is no link betweek duration
and work? I want to be able to change either one without the other updating
automatically. Those on my projects are not assigned by a certain % of time
and they give me the hours and days they need for a task so I want to be able
to enter in the information and go to the resource usage view to see the
hours per person. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Jim Aksel]

Work=Duration x Assignment Units(%).
Project allows you to fix one of these, the other two will vary to make the
math work.
Make the tasks Fixed Duration. As you change work, assignment units% will
vary. If you change duration - work will change to accomodate the assignment
%.

Make the task Fixed Work - If you change work, assignment %remains constant
and the duration changes. Changing duration will change assignment%.

Using the two in combination, you can obtain what you want. If you want to
change the duration, make the task fixed work and then change the duration.
if you want to change the work, make the task fixed duration and then change
work. Put them all back to the same thing when you are done.

You can change tasks type is two places: Window/Split and the Task Type
appears in the lower window. Or, double click the task and change. You can
select multiple tasks and then select the "Task Information" icon on the
toolbar allowing you to change multiple task type in one step.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for FAQs and more information
about Microsoft Project

 

[davegb]

Work=Duration x Assignment Units(%).
Project allows you to fix one of these, the other two will vary to make the
math work.
Make the tasks Fixed Duration. As you change work, assignment units% will
vary. If you change duration - work will change to accomodate the assignment
%.

Make the task Fixed Work - If you change work, assignment %remains constant
and the duration changes. Changing duration will change assignment%.

Using the two in combination, you can obtain what you want. If you want to
change the duration, make the task fixed work and then change the duration.
if you want to change the work, make the task fixed duration and then change
work. Put them all back to the same thing when you are done.

You can change tasks type is two places: Window/Split and the Task Type
appears in the lower window. Or, double click the task and change. You can
select multiple tasks and then select the "Task Information" icon on the
toolbar allowing you to change multiple task type in one step.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

Visithttp://project.mvps.org/for FAQs and more information
about Microsoft Project





- Show quoted text -

Jim is right about "Work=Duration x Assignment Units(%)" in default
settings. However, the link between Duration and Work can easily be
broken simply by setting a Duration, making the task "Fixed Duration",
and then assigning less work to the task than it would take to fill up
the time. I.e., I can give a task a 5d duration, then assign a
resource to work 1 minute on the first day and 1min on the last day.
This is most easily done in the "Task Usage" or "Resource Usage"
views.

Hope this helps in your world.

 

[Jim Aksel]

From what I understand, the user wants to make work and duration completely
independent.

Case1: Fixed duration 10 days and assign a resource at 100%. This is 80
hours of work. If you change duration of this fixed duration task to 5 days,
the work drops to 40 hours. It is my interpretation the user wants work to
remain at 80 hours in this case while they key a new duration. To do this is
fixed Work and rekey duration.

Case2: Task duration 10 days, resource at 100%, work=80 hours. User wants
to key a new amount of work holding duration constant. Make the task fixed
duration, rekey work.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for FAQs and more information
about Microsoft Project

 

[Steve House]

Think about the physical process of working on a task and you'll see why
what you ask is impossible. As others have posted, Work = Duration * Units.
Now "units" is a measure of the rate that the resource turns the passage of
time into useful work. If somone is working at 100%, it means they are
devoting their full attention to the job at hand and each hour of time they
put in results in a man-hour of fulltime equivalent work output. But if
they're distracted by having something else going on at the same time that
also needs their attention, putting in an hour of time results in less than
an hour's worth of FTE work being accomplished on the task at hand. 50%
units, for example, means that an hour of time results in 30 man-minutes of
FTE work. That equation is a mathematical identity engraved into the very
fabric of the universe and you can no more disable it and have a plan that
makes any sense than you can force Excel to calculate "2+2=5.6482" and have
your spreadsheets make any sense.

What you can do is let the resource units fall where they may. I like to
use the split screen displaying the Task Form in the bottom window to assign
resources when doing this. Mark the task Fixed Duration, enter the resource
in the resource list and enter the number of man-hours the resource will do
on the task. When you hit the "OK" button Project will assign the resource
and calcualte the % Units that corresponds to the input duration and work
estimates. But watch out! It's incredibly easy to force a project plan
that looks good but is totally unworkable in real life. If the duration of
the task is set to 1 day and you enter 12 hours of work, if the resource is
one person you have just promised the impossible - there is no way that one
individual could ever actually DO 12 man-hours of work over the course of 8
hours of working time but since Project doesn't know if the resource name
represents one person ("John Engineer" who can only work up to a max of
100%) or a group of people ("Staff Assistants" who can work up to a max of
100% times the number of assistants), it happily lets you schedule for the
impossible.