Changing task type "fix duration" to "fix work"

[Michael.Tarnowski]

Hi MSP gurus,
I'am new in this forum - it is a great opportunity to learn MSP, and
to become acquainted with it's caveats ;-)

I have a complex schedule - only tasks and durations no resource
assignments. Unfortunately the guy creating the schedule entered for
all tasks start and end dates. Now I want to change "fix duration" to
"fix work". When I select all tasks and change in the schedule/task
tab the task type accordingly only the type of basic tasks are
changed, not the type of the summary tasks.
How can I change all summary task types easily? - BTW, I use MSP 2003
Standard

THx for your help and time
Michael

 

[JulieS]

Hello Michael,

Welcome to the Project newsgroup!

What you are seeing is normal -- even when all subtasks are fixed
units, summary tasks are fixed duration. Don't worry about changing
those. The duration of the summary task (as well as the start and
finish dates) are calculated.

I also suggest you remove all of the manually entered dates by
selecting all tasks and setting the Constraint Type to As Soon As
Possible. All tasks without predecessors will now be scheduled for
the project start date. Build the schedule be setting predecessor
and successors to create a dynamic schedule -- not merely a list of
tasks

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

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

"Michael.Tarnowski" wrote in message
news:abcb14ad-bf73-425d-a605-eb5799462d67@g20g2000vba.googlegroups.com...

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Michael,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

Summary tasks have their Duration calculated by Project and is the calendar
working time between the Start of the earliest task to the Finish of the
last.
Thus, they have a fixed Duration determined by Project and cannot be
changed.

Start and Finish dates should not be entered. Instead, enter Durations and
the logical predecessor links and leave Project to do what it is designed to
do - calculate the schedule dates for you. If dates are entered, Project
assumes you know what you are doing and automatically enters a constraint of
Start No Earlier Than or Finish No Later Than. Both these constraints could
affect the flexibility of your project. Remove them by selecting all the
tasks and in the Task Information dialog, change the constraint to As Soon
As Possible, which means unconstrained.

You might like to have a look at my series on Microsoft Project in the
TechTrax ezine, particularly #, at this site: http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc or
this:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMFrame.asp?CMD=ArticleSearch&AUTH=23
(Perhaps you'd care to rate the articles before leaving the site,
Thanks.)

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

I's even worse. When you enter a finish date Project sets a constraint of
Finish no Earlier than (not no Later), which is something that rarely
happens in real projects!

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[Mike Glen]

Oooops!

Hi,

I's even worse. When you enter a finish date Project sets a constraint of
Finish no Earlier than (not no Later), which is something that rarely
happens in real projects!

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf