Changing work to already completed tasks

[Sandie K]

Hello,
I would appreciate a logic check.

My team started creating a schedule for a project after some of the tasks
were complete. For these tasks, we entered start and finish dates and marked
them 100% complete, but we didn't assign any resources.

My understanding is that because "dates" are not one of the three elements
in the formula, when we told Project the start and finish dates, we set a
constraint that hobbled the formula. Consequently, if we now try to assign
resources to those tasks, we cannot expect the tool to accurately calculate
the actual work hours it took to complete those tasks, without it also
changing the dates and durations, because we have interfered with the
formula. In other words, you can't have it both ways (hard coded s/f dates
AND accurate work assignments).

Does this make sense? I want to be able to explain this logically to the team.
Thanks in advance.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi
You can acurately enter Resource Units OR Actual Work but if you want to
enter both indeed duration will change.

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

 

[Sandie K]

Hi Jan,
This appears to be true even if the task type is Fixed Duration. Why is that?
Thanks,
Sandie

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

I'm afraid the answer is "because that's how they did it" :-(

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

 

[Sandie K]

Sometimes it's just helpful to understand Project's limitations. Nobody's
perfect--not even software! Thank you for your assistance, Jan.
Regards,
Sandie

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

The answer is because Duration must ALWAYS equal Work/Units. It's a
mathmatical identity that can never be violated. Think about it for a
moment ... if Joe does 8 man-hours of work at 100% effort, it MUST have
taken him 8 hours of time to do the job. There is not other possibility
that could make any sense.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs