How can I track duration and effort hours in Microsoft Project

[Mesha]

Hi,
I'm fairly new to project and am in the process of creating a few small IT
project plans. I have a lot of tasks that require monitoring over a several
day period. A particular task may take 8 effort hours to complete, but will
take a resource 3 days to complete. I know how to show the 3 day duration,
but how can I show these effort hours at the same time?

 

[Rob Schneider]

Project has different ways to define a task. They can be fixed duration,
fixed units, or fixed work. (You perhaps have not noticed this since
your default task type is what's being set).

Your task that you define sounds like fixed work (8 hrs), with a
duration of 3 days. This means, that if you define it as a fixed work
type of task, and define the duration, Project will compute for you the
resource "units" required, e.g. 8 hrs / (3 x work hours per day).

I could write more about this here, but I think you'd be better off
reading about this in a good book on Project, or check out the resources
in Project's Help file, especially the Project Map and the Project
Tutorial. Also, search help for "project triangle".

 

[Mesha]

I understand the fixed work / duration concept. I guess I was asking my
question wrong. I need to know how I can show in a particular view in
project that the task is scheudled to take 8 hours to complete. I know how
to show if it is a fixed work task, but I would like to be able to show how
long the fixed task is scheduled to take not just the word "fixed task". I
only see a way to show what the duration is equaled to what what the start
and finish dates are.

Mesha
New Jersey

 

[Rob Schneider]

Mesha,

If you display the field "duration" on the view, does this work?

 

[Mesha]

When I display the field duration it displays the calculation of how many
day's the task is going to take. What I'm looking for is how to show a field
that also tells me how many effort hours are needed within that duration.
The duration of my task might be 5 days, but the effort hours needed within
thoes 5 days might be 8hours. I'm trying to show both.

 

[JulieS]

Hi Mesha,

Add the Work field to the task table to show effort.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie

 

[Mesha]

that's what i was looking for!
Thanks

 

[JulieS]

You're very welcome Mesha and thanks for the feedback.

Julie

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

A thought occured to me while reading your message thread. You state "the
task might take 5 days but the effort hours needed ... might be 8 hours."
How are you coming up with the "5 days" figure for the duration? You sound
like you already know it will take 5 days but where did you come up with
that information? If the amount of work required was 8 hours and you were
planning to assign it to one resource, wouldn't the logical first guess for
the duration also be 8 hours?

Duration is the estimated time between when the first bit of work is
performed and when the last bit of work is performed. It is the time the
work is actually expected to take, not the time between when it can start
and the deadline for the latest it ought to be complete. If I have a task
that could start as early as first thing Monday and is due on Friday
afternoon, will take 8 hours of work and when I start it I'll work on it
continuously until it's done, that is a 1 day duration task, not a 5 day
duration task. It only becomes a 5 day task if the expectation is that I'll
do a little bit first thing Monday and then set it aside for a while, doing
a little bit here and a little bit there thoughout the week until I finally
finish it Friday afternoon. But as the PM this expectation runs counter to
my objective of getting the project done as soon as possible. As PM, it's
my responsibility to drive the schedule and set the individual task
objectives, not the resource's. Unless there's some specific reason why the
resource can't devote their full attention to it - like I also need them
working on something else at the same time - I'm going to go to them and say
"I need you to get this done on Monday if it's at all possible - is that
okay?" because to meet my delivery schedule I can't let it just hang there
in limbo waiting until the resource is in the mood to do a little work on
it. We have downline tasks that can't start until this one's finished and
we need to git 'er done and deliver this puppy to the customer! <g>

Just a few thoughts - hope they help