setting duration of task based on cost of project

[j9cleme]

Hi and HELP
Just started using Project in a cabinet making shop. The management has
typically used the total price of the project to estimate the duration of the
tasks. For example, if it is a $10,000 project then the blueprints and shop
drawings show take approximately 8 hours.

Does Project have a way of setting the duration time of a task based on the
price of a project?

Any help will be greatly appreiciated.
j9cleme

 

[davegb]

Hi and HELP
Just started using Project in a cabinet making shop. The management has
typically used the total price of the project to estimate the duration of the
tasks. For example, if it is a $10,000 project then the blueprints and shop
drawings show take approximately 8 hours.

Does Project have a way of setting the duration time of a task based on the
price of a project?

Any help will be greatly appreiciated.
j9cleme

You could use a calculated field to get the duration based on the total
cost, but you'd either have to manually copy it to the task's duration
field or write a macro to do it for you. Probably more trouble than
it's worth. Unless you have a lot of these, easier to calculate with a
calculator or with Excel.

Hope this helps in your world.

 

[j9cleme]

Thanks davegb. That's pretty much what I though, but wanted to be sure there
wasn't another way to accomplish it.

J9

 

[tonyzink]

Hi j9cleme --

From a Project Management perspective, it sounds like your management

is doing things backwards. Although this is easy for me to say because
I'm not in your shoes, perhaps you could try to implement some positive
change and use the tool in the way that it was originally intended...
as a dynamic scheduling tool that you can use to forecast project
timing, cost / profit, and resource needs.

How do the people in your shop determine the cost of a job? Why not use
MSProject to calculate it, rather than trying to shoehorn a schedule
into an arbitrary cost estimate? If you can estimate the amount of
effort (work hours) required to complete a job, then you may actually
be able to calculate realistic job costs which ultimately drive the
profitability of the shop.

(400hrs estimated work) * ($20/hr) = $8,000 cost => $2,000 (20%) profit
on a $10,000 cabinet job

Want $3,000 profit?

($8,000 job cost) + ($3,000 profit) = $11,000 price

Also keep in mind that when using a tool like MSProject, there is a
distinct difference between Duration and Work (effort). Duration is
defined as the number of work days between the start date and finish
date of a task. However, Work represents the actual number of hours
spent working on the task. So for example, a task might start on Monday
and end on Friday (Duration = 5 days), but the resource might only work
on it half time, spending 20 hours working on the task during that
week.

Good luck!

Tony Zink
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