duration from more than one task

[Frustrated Kiwi]

Hi
I'm struggling with project, What I want to do seems very basic, but it just
doesn't seem to do it
I need to have the start of a task linked to one task and the end linked to
another task. The duration is to be determined by the other 2 tasks, not
resources or an entered duration. I'm not assigning resources at all, so
they wont effect it.

I can do this by having 2 sub tasks, one being the start date and one the
end date, but that means I need 3 lines to tell a pretty simple story, I have
to change the Bar style and roll up the task to make it look like one task
not 3 when printing.

Surely there's an easyer way to do it in one task. (I have used links from
Excel to calculate the duration, but that adds an even more work)

Your help is appreciated

 

[Kiwi]

Thanks John,
I forgot to mention that I'd done that, but I wanted the links to show. It's
also very easy for these "Hammock" tasks to get stuffed up
Thanks again

 

[John]

Hi
I'm struggling with project, What I want to do seems very basic, but it just
doesn't seem to do it
I need to have the start of a task linked to one task and the end linked to
another task. The duration is to be determined by the other 2 tasks, not
resources or an entered duration. I'm not assigning resources at all, so
they wont effect it.

I can do this by having 2 sub tasks, one being the start date and one the
end date, but that means I need 3 lines to tell a pretty simple story, I have
to change the Bar style and roll up the task to make it look like one task
not 3 when printing.

Surely there's an easyer way to do it in one task. (I have used links from
Excel to calculate the duration, but that adds an even more work)

Your help is appreciated

Kiwi,
What you want is called a "hammock task". Go to the MVP website at:
http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm
and look at FAQ 19 - Hammock tasks

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

You can't do what you want except by using a hammock task. Sorry.

I'm trying to imagine what type of task would have such a structure with
predecessor/successor links controlling duration. A link is like the arrows
between the symbols on a flowchart - in fact, link arrows in the Gantt chart
*are* the sames arrows you see in the PERT chart -network diagram flowchart.
They represent the flow of control of the timing for the production of the
deliverables. The *amount* of the deliverable required is what drives the
duration of a task but the amount of deliverable required to be produced by
a task is not dependent either on when it can be started or the time by
which it needs to be finished. If our task deliverable is to dig a 10 foot
deep hole, we can't stop at 5 feet because something else just finished or
started.

 

[John]

You can't do what you want except by using a hammock task. Sorry.

I'm trying to imagine what type of task would have such a structure with
predecessor/successor links controlling duration. A link is like the arrows
between the symbols on a flowchart - in fact, link arrows in the Gantt chart
*are* the sames arrows you see in the PERT chart -network diagram flowchart.
They represent the flow of control of the timing for the production of the
deliverables. The *amount* of the deliverable required is what drives the
duration of a task but the amount of deliverable required to be produced by
a task is not dependent either on when it can be started or the time by
which it needs to be finished. If our task deliverable is to dig a 10 foot
deep hole, we can't stop at 5 feet because something else just finished or
started.

Steve,
Actually you probably can create the equivalent of a hammock task with
the link lines showing, but it would take some VBA code to do so
(although I've never tried it). But, I agree with your your second
paragraph. A lot of things can be done with project, it doesn't mean
they all make good sense.

John