Cannot show actuals past scheduled day end

[JLDlll]

I have set my calender to end at 5:00pm but I ran a job that started at 4:50
pm and ended at 6:00pm but the actual duration only recorded 10 minutes. How
do I fix this

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

Believe it or not, that is absolutely the correct duration. Duration is
defined as the number of working time units between when the task begins and
when it ends. What minutes of the day count as "working time units" are
defined by the calendar that governs the task. Work performed during
working hours defined in the calender count for duration. Work performed
outside those hours dfoes NOT count for duration. (All work outside the
working time calendar is also defined as OT work, whether OT pay accrues or
not). So your 1 hour and 10 minutes of work started at 4:50pm and ending at
6pm has 10 minutes performed on the calendar and 1 hour of work done outside
the calendar - 10 minutes straight time work plus 1 hour of OT work. That
results in a duration of the task of 10 minutes. The one hour of OT work
does not exist as far as duration claculations are concerned.

This is so Project calculates properly in the following scenario. I have a
task that's 5 days duration that starts Mon 8am and ends Fri 5pm. To meet
our deadline I need to get it done sooner so I ask the resource doing the
work to put in 10 hours a day instead of 8, 8 hours straight time plus 2
hours OT. Work remains 40 hours but it's now 32 hours on the clock plus 8
hours off the clock and duration shrinks to 32/8 or 4 days with the task now
ending Thur 5pm, a day earlier.

 

[JLDlll]

Hi Steve: Thank you for your quick response, is there anyway that I can show
the actuals that occured past the schedule of 5:00PM so I can keep track of
the actuals for each task for future scheduling of this item again.

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

Certainly - enter actual start and actual finish in the tracknig table.
Just don';t be surprised that it shows 10 minutes duration. To get really
precise you can go to the resource usage view and add the OT work row.

 

[JLDlll]

I understand that I can add the Overtime to the resource uasge view but will
that show my increased actuals on the gantt chart. As I am looking for a
simple way to seed the total actuals not just the scheduled.

Thanks,

John

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

Duration is duration and thats what the Gantt chart shows. It sounds like
you're wanting the Gantt to show work, not duration, but it don't do that.

 

[JLDlll]

Hi Steve: Can you please tell me how to show actual work.

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

Hi Steve: Can you please tell me how to show actual work.

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

How do you want to see it? That actual work field is visible in any number
of views. If you can be specific about what you need to see perheps we can
come up with some ideas for you.


--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

 

[JLDlll]

Hi Steve: What I am looking to do is exactly what the project does today.
When an actual finish date is logged I would like to see all of the actual
time and then have the next task that is linked to it have a new schedule
start based on the actual complete of the previous job.

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

And it's not doing that??? Sounds like the automatic recalculation has
somehow been turned off. (Tools, Option, Calculation). If that's not it,
how are you entering the actual start and finish dates?

 

[JLDlll]

Hi Steve: The automatic caculator is on. I think there may be some
confusion as to what my problem is so I will try to explain better.
I have set my calendar hours to 8:00 Am to 5:00 PM and when I work within
those times the system automaticaly calculates the correct actual duration
and sets the next linked job to start after the finish of the previous job.
But when I complete a task past 5:00 PM it stops calculating the actual
duration at 5:00 PM and schedules the next linked job to start at 8:00 Am the
next day. What I am looking to do is when the job goes past 5:00 PM the
actuals would still calculated until the tasks actual complete date and time
is entered and the next task is scheduled to start the next day at 8:00 Am.
Please advise

John

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

What you need to understand is that duration by definition ONLY includes
minutes worked during the hours defined as Working Time Hours by the
calendar controlling the task. For example, if my calendar says the regular
working day is 8am to 5pm and I have a task that starts at 3pm and the
resource continues work after his "official quittin' time" and finishes work
on the task at 8pm, the Actual Duration of that task is 2 hours, NOT 5
hours. This is implicit in the formal definition of duration. The hours
worked between 5pm and 8pm are overtime hours and time spent on overtime is
never included in total duration. If you need to track it in the total
work, you need to update the work values manually in the usage views. As
far as Project is concerned, work performed outside of the working time
calendar simply does not exist unless you explicitly enter it as Actual
Overtime and it is never included in duration calculations. So in actuality
the system IS calculating the correct duration when your work extends past
5pm - the error is in your belief about what you feel it ought to be. You
really can't get what you want because to do so would violate the basic
mathematics of task duration, just like you can never enter a formula into
Excel that adds 2 plus 2 and gives 5 as the result, no matter how badly you
might like it to be true <grin>.

HTH

--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs