microsoft project 2007

[Norma]

When creating tasks that the dates are not consecutive, see example below.
We have Soccer Wall tasks that occur on 1 day on non-consecutive dates
thoughtout the start and end period. the start date is 1/5/07 and end is
02/26/07 and work is done for 16 days within the period but the header where
the tasks roll up reflects work being done for 37 days. Is there a way we
can have the header reflect that within the work span that work only occured
on 16 of the 37 days? hope this makes sense.

Soccer Walls 37 days Fri 1/5/07 Mon 2/06/07
"Put up soccer walls, 1 day Fri 1/5/07 Fri 1/5/07
Break down soccer 1 day Mon 1/8/07 Mon 1/08/07
"Put up soccer walls, 1 day Fri 1/12/07 Fri 1/12/07

 

[Jim Aksel]

A summary task maintains a duration from the start of the earliest
subordinate task through the finish of the latest subordinate task. In this
case, the duration is 37 business days (assuming M-F and no holidays).

Since Duration is a calculated field for a summary task, the best you can do
is apply formating rules to it.

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Jim
It''s software; it''s not allowed to win.

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for FAQs and more information
about Microsoft Project

 

[Norma]

Jim

Thanks so much for the reply, can you be more specific on how to apply
formulating rules?

 

[Jim Aksel]

Tools/Options/View (tab) allows you to change date format
Schedule tab.
Under Scheduling options for, in the Duration is entered in box, click a
duration unit.
To use this setting in future projects, click Set as Default.

You are also free to change the fonts, etc. using Format.

However, it will always evaluate to the equivalent of "37 days"
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If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim
It''s software; it''s not allowed to win.

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for FAQs and more information
about Microsoft Project

 

[JulieS]

Hello Norma,

Have you considered showing the Work field in addition to the duration
field? As Jim notes, duration is the span from the start of the
earliest task (Put up soccer walls) to the end of the last subtask (Put
up soccer walls). By using work (and you can format the work field to
show in days) you can se the 16 days of work which has been scheduled
across the 37 day duration.

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

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional information
about Microsoft Project

 

[Norma]

Jim

Let me ask you this, I found some data that you can change the calculation
of summary values to sum which would take the sum of all nonsummary values
underneath the summary task. Would you know how to do this. That sounds
like something that may work for us. Thank you very much

 

[Steve House]

Jumping in here if I may, I'm not aware of any way to do this. You can
create a calculated field that contains a that's numerically equal to the
duration value and you can sum the calculated field into the summary task
but that is going to give you an incredibly distorted and misleading plan.
"Duration" is defined as the amount of calendar working time between when a
task starts and when it finishes, regardless of whether work proceeds
continuously or not, and it is very different from Work which is the amount
of time that observable physical work actually takes place. What you are
trying to do here is to redefine the language and use the word "duration" to
mean what is really the work. Assuming we work Project's Standard calendar
of 8am to noon and 1pm to 5pm Mon-Fri, if I have a task that starts on
Monday at 8am and has activity for 1 hour, then pauses until Friday
afternoon where it resumes at 4pm and goes on for another 1 hour until the
job is finished at 5pm, that task's duration is 40 hours while its work is 2
hours. So don't try to make your own definition of duration, use the Work
field when you need to see the work - it's only a mouse click or two to add
to the table - and it'll all work out properly for you.