Duration Question / Clarification

[Kettlewell]

Hi.

2 scenarios (might be same answer)

1) I have a task with 2 sub tasks. Each sub task is 2 hours long.
Task displays 202 hours (I expect 4). because each of my sub tasks is
about a month apart, the task is showing from start time to finish
time. How do I get my 4 hours to show up.... partly for visual, and
partly it kills my resources.

2) Recurring tasks... 1 task per month for 1 hour duration, I expect
only 12 hours of resource duration, but is showing as 1881 hours

How do I get the actual hours to show, and not the start to finish
date times?

Thanks

Matt Kettlewell
Kettlewell Enterprises, Inc

 

[Darrell]

Matt,

You appear to be confusing duration (how long it takes) with effort (the
amount of work required). If you want to see the effort (in you example - 4
hours) you can insert the "Work" field to display this information. You could
also change your duration filed to display in days so that it is easier to
distinguish the difference between duration (displayed in days) and effort
(displayed in hours). Your task would then show a duration of about 25 days
yet only 4 hours of work. The same is true for your recurring task, it would
show only 12 hours of work.

Darrell

 

[Kettlewell]

Thanks Darrell.

That was it.

So how useful is the duration field on a project for something like a
monthly meeting thats only 12 hours/year ... for us,I can't see the
need for it, but are there other scenarios where it would be useful?

Thanks for helping the (obviously) new guy starting out on Project.

Thanks

Matt Kettlewell
Kettlewell Enterprises, Inc

 

[Darrell]

Matt,

Duration probably has little use with recurring meetings since you set the
number and frequency of the recurrences based on how long you want the tasks
to occur - meaning you already know the duration <grin>. Always glad to help
where I can.

Darrell

 

[Steve House]

Duration is key for scheduling resources since it is only during duration
time that work will take place (except when overtime is assigned). The
idea of scheduling is to decide when and on what the resources need to be
working in order to drive the project to completion and git 'er done. The
only time work can happen is during the time that resources are physically
present and that is refelcted in the working time calendar. So Duration is
the amount of time the resource COULD be working on the task between when
the task starts and when it finishes. Work, OTOH, is the amount of time the
resource is physically active doing something on the task. You schedule by
time, you pay for work. I like to think of it crudely as duration measures
time while work measures sweat.

Sometimes duration and work are the same, sometimes they're not. A painter
is painting a room, starting Monday at 8am and finishing Friday at 5pm,
spending his full workday on the job each day. Duration=40 hours, work=40
hours. Two painters spend the say ful week on it. Duration=40 hours,
work=80 man-hours. Back to one guy, but now he does 1 hour Mon on a primer
coat which must dry overnight so the painter leaves while it's drying.
Tuesday another hour on a second primer coat, Wed an hour on the first
colour coat, Thur an hour on the second colour coat, and Friday all day on
the job doing all the fine detail work. Duration=40 hours but Work=12
man-hours. In terms of the question "If we can start painting on Monday,
when will we be done so we can start laying carpet and hanging drapes?"
duration is the key metric. In terms of the question "How much will it cost
me to paint that room?" work is the key metric.