duration and finish dates

[serge]

if i am updating the finish dates on an in progress task, does this
automatically change the remaining duration or duration values?

 

[Jim Aksel]

Yes it does. Unfortunately, it also creates a constraint "Finish No Earlier
Than" which is not normally a good thing and decreases your %Complete. Here
are two procedures that will avoid creating the unneeded constraint:

1. Instead of changing the Finish date, increase the duration until the
finish date lands where you want it to. This is the easiest, remember to
keep your %Complete by rekeying it.

2. Some people prefer to key the finish date. If you do, you need to also
re-adjust the %Complete. In addition, open the task information dialog box
(by double clicking the task), pull the advanced tab and change the
constraint type to "As Soon As Possible" or whatever it used to be. As long
as there is a %Complete >0% your will get what you want.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim
It''s software; it''s not allowed to win.

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

 

[Jim Aksel]

Point of clarification on %Complete.
%Complete is measured against the duration of a task. So, if a 10 day task
is 50% complete, changing the duration to 20 days will make it 25% Complete.
That's fine if all you care about is the marking of time against your task.
Usually when we talk about %Complete what we really mean is the percent of
the effort that is complete. This is different than Project's understanding
of %Complete.

Usually, in Earned Value terms, we don't go down hill in %Complete. You
would also want to consider some of the other useful measures in Project such
as %Work Complete and Physical%Complete. More information is available in
the help system --- too much to put here as an after thought.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim
It''s software; it''s not allowed to win.

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