Noob question on monthly duration...

[Harlan]

To begin, I am a patent attorney wishing to use Project to manage my
patent portfolio. Based on a recommendation I bought, "Show Me" for
Project 2003, which is very helpful and highly recommended.

To that end, here is what I do: I put a start date of 11/25/2003, and a
duration of 24 months (i.e., 2 years). The app calculates the finish
date as 9/26/2005.

What I need: if I place a date of 11/25/2003, and duration of 24
months, the finish date should be 11/25/2005.

Please help.

Thanks in advance.

 

[John]

To begin, I am a patent attorney wishing to use Project to manage my
patent portfolio. Based on a recommendation I bought, "Show Me" for
Project 2003, which is very helpful and highly recommended.

To that end, here is what I do: I put a start date of 11/25/2003, and a
duration of 24 months (i.e., 2 years). The app calculates the finish
date as 9/26/2005.

What I need: if I place a date of 11/25/2003, and duration of 24
months, the finish date should be 11/25/2005.

Please help.

Thanks in advance.

Harlan,
Unlike law, Project works on very specific defined parameters. Although
24 months might seem like a straightforward period of time, it is
basically defined in one of two ways in Project. An entry in the
Duration field is by default measured in working time. Working time is
defined by a specific calendar. Further, Project has a specific setting
which defines a working month. Go to Tools/Options/Calendar tab. Midway
down on the Options window you will see the definition for a working
month. The default value is 20 days - that is, working days. Twenty is
the default because that is the average number of working days in a
typical month.

Project can also work with elapsed time which is defined as 24 hour
days. So, in your example, enter 730ed. That will give a 2 year spread
between the Start and Finish dates. Generally it is always better to
work in days when an exact calendar duration is desired.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[JulieD]

Hi Harlan

the definition of "month" is found in project under tools / options /
calendar ... and by default is set at 20 days (ie there are approx 20
working days in each calendar month). - which is why project is calculating
the 24 months the way it is ... however,

the first problem i have with your question is i find it difficult to image
a "task" that takes 2 years to do ..(and this may just be a lack of
understanding of your industry on my part), but if you're scheduling a
series of tasks to achieve an outcome, where each task is (as far as
possible) broken down into 1 resource type doing the 1 task, i can't see
what task you could have a task that takes all day, every day, 7 days a week
for two years.

the second problem is that project basic purpose in life is to schedule
things .. therefore, you tell it what needs to be done (ie the tasks) how
long each one takes (ie the duration), what the sequence is (the linking
between tasks), who is doing the task (ie the resource) and what their
availablity is and the project's job is to schedule the performance of that
work .. which means basically as far as possible dates should not be entered
in project in the start & finish columns that you see in the gantt chart.

however, having said that you can achieve what you want by typing in the
duration column 731ed and setting the start date to the 25 Nov 2003.

 

[Harlan]

JulieD,

I am trying to use one Project "file" for all patent projects. So,
each application I write will be a new major task that is broken-down
into component or sub-tasks. I want to do this so I see all
applications on one page. If you have a recommended way to accomplish
this, I would enjoy hearing it.

As for my industry, here is a sample: I file an app on June 1, 2005
that sets a filing date (f/d), where many key events are caluculated,
e.g., 12 months prior to f/d for prior art, 18 months following f/d for
publication, or 20 years following f/d for patent term expiration.

Another way I think I can accomplish what I want is to hide the
duration column, and not concern myself with it - just plug-in start
dates, and end dates.

Can I add a column titled "due dates", and use that in addition to the
Finish column?

Thanks in advance,

Jim

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

"Just plugging in start and end dates" is going to get you into a world of
hurt in short order because that approach is 180 degrees opposite from the
way Project is designed to behave. You don't tell Project those dates - it
tells them to YOU. Project's reason for existence is to take the inputs
Julie described to you and tell you when you need to schedule the work, NOT
to take the work schedule you envision and simply illustrate it for you in a
zippy Gantt chart. The items it is tracking is not deadlines (though it
does do that) or time periods (it does that also). What it is tracking is
physical activity done by a person. Deadlines for an application filing and
the like are not what it tracks - what it tracks is the 6 hours of a
secretary's workday spent typing that application up and it schedules it so
that it is done in time for the filing deadline but starts after the
research you need to do in order to prepare the information that has to go
into the application. In turn it takes your estimate of the length of time
that research will take and the date you can start on it and lets you know
when you should tell the secretary to be ready to start typing. In short,
it looks at when your process can get underway, your estimates of the number
of man-hours of labour each step along the way is going to take, the logical
precedence relationships between the steps, and the availability of the
people who will be doing each step, and tells you when to schedule them.

 

[Brian K - Project MVP]

JulieD,

I am trying to use one Project "file" for all patent projects. So,
each application I write will be a new major task that is broken-down
into component or sub-tasks. I want to do this so I see all
applications on one page. If you have a recommended way to accomplish
this, I would enjoy hearing it.

As for my industry, here is a sample: I file an app on June 1, 2005
that sets a filing date (f/d), where many key events are caluculated,
e.g., 12 months prior to f/d for prior art, 18 months following f/d
for publication, or 20 years following f/d for patent term expiration.

Another way I think I can accomplish what I want is to hide the
duration column, and not concern myself with it - just plug-in start
dates, and end dates.

Can I add a column titled "due dates", and use that in addition to the
Finish column?

Thanks in advance,

Jim

I would work out the list of tasks in the process first. Then work out
the relationship between them (the filing task MUST occur 15 days prior
to the XX task). Then you can put in a date for the first task in your
process (Customer contacts attorney?) and then the network can give you
the timeline as determined by the logic you have predetermined.

I agree with Steve here that just entering dates will likely cause you
more trouble than just doing this all by hand!

I dearly hope that my book did not lead you to believe that hand
entering the dates would be the way to go here!