Duration Units

[BurnChrome]

Hello all, pretty new to Project so I appreciate the help on remedial concepts.

Project 2k3

I have:
hours per day: 8
hours per week: 40
days per month: 20

First, the Duration column converts groupings of hours to portions of days.
I would like to only display the items in terms of hours.

Second, kind of a side note... I have the following lines items:

Line item 1 - .38 days
sub a - 3 hrs
sub b - 3 hrs

how is 6 hours out of 8 an hour work day .38 days?

Also, I have:

Master line item 1.25 days
sub 1 - 2 hrs
sub 2 - 1.25 days
sub 2.a - x
sub 2.b - y
sub 3 - .38 days
sub 3.a - 3 hrs
sub 3.b - 3 hrs

I truly have no idea how that works. To get the master line item duration I
would expect the total to be the summation of all its child nodes' durations,
which in turn is the recursive summation of all its child nodes.

How does 1.25 days = 2 hours + 1.25 days + .38 days?

Thanks again for your help in this matter, I am probably just missing how
this works.

 

[JulieS]

Hi BurnChrome,

My answers are in-line with your questions.

Hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie

Hello all, pretty new to Project so I appreciate the help on remedial
concepts.

Project 2k3

I have:
hours per day: 8
hours per week: 40
days per month: 20

First, the Duration column converts groupings of hours to portions of
days.
I would like to only display the items in terms of hours.

Run the Format_Duration macro. Tools >Macros >Macro...
Format Duration
Select hours from the drop-down.
Click Run.

Second, kind of a side note... I have the following lines items:

Line item 1 - .38 days
sub a - 3 hrs
sub b - 3 hrs

how is 6 hours out of 8 an hour work day .38 days?

If sub a & sub b tasks are not linked, then the duration of the summary task
is not the sum of the durations of the subtasks. The duration of a summary
tasks is the amount of time (in working time from the start of the earliest
sub task to the finish of the latest subtask. So 3 hours out of an 8 hour
day is .38 - actual .375.

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi BurnChrome,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

You might like to have a look at my series on Microsoft Project in the
TechTrax ezine at this site: http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc or this:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMFrame.asp?CMD=ArticleSearch&AUTH=23
(Perhaps you'd care to rate the articles before leaving the site,
Thanks.)

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[BurnChrome]

Sweet thanks JulieS, I found the macro, looking good now.

Now I get how the duration works. If I have two sub items, 1 hrs and 2hrs,
the parent line item is going to be 2 hrs because they both start at the same
time and the parent takes the start and end date of the items and gets 2 hrs,
not 3 hrs.

So my question would be how to associate the sub items in a way so the
parent line item's duration is not based on the start and end time, but the
summation of the durations.

So basically the units of work are not dependent on each other
chronologically, a user complete the items anytime they like and update the
line items actual start date and actual end date.

Thanks a bunch for the help. I can't wait to get the basics of Project down
so I can use it in the Foundation Server I have setup.

 

[JulieS]

Hi,

Glad to know the guidance thus far has been helpful and thanks for the
feedback.

Your description of summary task duration is correct.

I am guess that you are actually more interested in *work* at the summary
task level than duration. If, as you describe, the tasks are not dependent
upon one another and can both start at the same time, then linking the tasks
finish to start to force summary duration to be the sum of the subtask
durations not suit what you need.

If you have assigned resources to the tasks, you can add the work column
(field). The work field for a summary tasks is the sum of the work for the
subtasks. As your users update the project with actual work, the summary
tasks will have both scheduled work (as long as you have baselined) and
actual work for the subtasks.

Hope this helps. Please let us know if you have further questions.

Julie

 

[BurnChrome]

Ok this is sweet.

I have Work, Actual Work, Start, Actual Start, Finish, Actual Finish. The
Work and Actual Work line items propagate to their parents, and the dates all
work properly.

Thanks a bunch for your help.

 

[JulieS]

Hi BurnChrome

You are very welcome and thanks for the feedback.

Julie