Duration of successor task is influenced by duration of predecesso

[Andre Bal]

I have a bloking issue with a project file. IT is a detailed plan with many
tasks that take between 5-15 minutes duration. After analising my project, i
found that although several tasks take 5 minutes (listed in task
information), the gant chart bar displays about 1 hour.

Even stranger, if i remove the deprendency of such task, then the task
duration is still five minutes, however the bar will also change to 5 minutes.

What is the cause of this ?

I have found no clues whatsowever, and my project duration is not reliable
now.

All taks have fixed duration, effort drivven with NO resources used.

Please advise since my total leadtime is negatively affected (im am running
a large disaster recovery test that MUST be fitted within a weekend, so
durastion releability is Key.

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

Andre,

May be these tasks are scheduled to start a little before the lunch break
(12:00 to 13:00) so they end after 13:00.
Look at your calendar : Tools / Change Working Time...
May be you will have to work all day long : so remove this lunch break
Hope this helps. Good appetite anyway ;-)

Gérard Ducouret

 

[Andre Bal]

Gerard,

I work with a 24 hour calender during the project, so this cannot be the
problem

Thanks for your post anyway
Andre

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

Andre,
If you are sure that there is no resource assigned to that tasks, can you
check that there not any "Standard" calendar attached to the task
See the Task information dialog, Advanced tab.

Gérard Ducouret

 

[Andre Bal]

Gerard,

Calendar is NONE on these tasks.

Andre

Andre,
If you are sure that there is no resource assigned to that tasks, can you
check that there not any "Standard" calendar attached to the task
See the Task information dialog, Advanced tab.

Gérard Ducouret

 

[Andre Bal]

Tested by importing my plan (MSP2002 created) into 2007 version.
Total leadtime reduces with 1 hour, however the problem still remains.

Removing the dependency reduces the leadtime of a succcessor.

How is it possible

 

[davegb]

I have a bloking issue with a project file. IT is a detailed plan with many
tasks that take between 5-15 minutes duration. After analising my project,i
found that although several tasks take 5 minutes (listed in task
information), the gant chart bar displays about 1 hour.

Even stranger, if i remove the deprendency of such task, then the task
duration is still five minutes, however the bar will also change to 5 minutes.

What is the cause of this ?

I have found no clues whatsowever, and my project duration is not reliable
now.

All taks have fixed duration, effort drivven with NO resources used.

Please advise since my total leadtime is negatively affected (im am running
a large disaster recovery test that MUST be fitted within a weekend, so
durastion releability is Key.

When the tasks are linked, the project takes longer than when all the
tasks are being done at the same time. A bunch of 5 min tasks,
unlinked, no matter how many there are, take 5 min. If you have 12 5
min tasks, and they are linked, they take 60 min.

Hope this helps in your world.

 

[Andre Bal]

Problem is that the same task has a different duration in the bar when it is
unlinked, or linked.

Obvoiusly I understaand doing things paralell shortens duration. I an just
talking about 1 single task here that increases in duration when it is given
a predecessor.

Andre

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

You could stop having the people guess and send me the file at
jandemesATprom-ade.be
I'm sure I can tell you what.
Greetings,

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

 

[Jack Dahlgren]

Two things to look at:
1) from tools menu, view tab, select a date format that shows minutes.
Otherwise you are guessing about when a task ends.

2) Right click on the gantt chart area and select "layout" make sure that
the "round bars to whole days" option is not selected.

Other than that, have someone look at the file itself. It probably can't be
debugged from your description.

-Jack Dahlgren

 

[Steve House]

Remember non-working time enters into the picture. Imagine 2 2-day tasks
starting on Wednesday - their bars will cover Wed and Thur. Now I link them
FS. Task 1's bar will cover Wed and Thur, Task 2's bar will cover Fri, Sat,
Sun, Mon. While the elpased time from start to finish for task 2 has
increased from 2 days to 4, its duration has not actually changed and
remains at 2 days, Sat and Sun not counting in the duration numbers because
they're non-working days. I'll bet something like that is what you're
seeing in your project. You can't count on the total length of the Gantt
bars as representing the duration and only the duration.

 

[Andre Bal]

Stop: When setting other timescales (hours and minutes), the duration shows
correct!.

So it seems to be a grafical / display issue.

As far as i am concerned the problem is solved.

 

[davegb]

Remember non-working time enters into the picture.  Imagine 2 2-day tasks
starting on Wednesday - their bars will cover Wed and Thur.  Now I link them
FS.  Task 1's bar will cover Wed and Thur, Task 2's bar will cover Fri, Sat,
Sun, Mon.  While the elpased time from start to finish for task 2 has
increased from 2 days to 4, its duration has not actually changed and
remains at 2 days, Sat and Sun not counting in the duration numbers because
they're non-working days.  I'll bet something like that is what you're
seeing in your project.  You can't count on the total length of the Gantt
bars as representing the duration and only the duration.

Good call, Steve!