Task Duration

[LJH]

Hi

Can someone help me? I am new to MS Project, and managing my first project,
but the duration of tasks is giving me some strange numbers For example...

Duration
Task 1 37.94 days
Task a 1 day
Task b 1 day
Task 2 6.31 days
Task a 1 day
Task b 1 day
Task c 0.5 day

What have I done to cause this, and how can I fix it without project
automatically recalculating all of the other dates?

Many thanks in advance
Lisa

 

[Gordon Blair]

Hi Lisa,

Assuming that all settings are as default (Tsk Type = Fixed Units etc), what
happens is the Summary Task Duration + time elapsed from the start of it's
first subtask to the end of it's last subtask. This won't neccessarily add
up, as some of your tasks may overlap or (in your example case) have gaps
between them. This needn't be a problem as long as you treat a summary task
as intended (don't assign resources to it that could be assigned to it's
subtasks).

Hope this helps,

Gordon

 

[Gordon Blair]

oops finger trouble... summary tasks = elapsed time from start of fist sub to
end of last sub (not +, that would be silly)

 

[John]

Gordon,
Well, not quite. Duration for a Summary line is the difference in
Working time (not elapsed time) between the Start of the earliest
subtask under the Summary and the Finish of the latest subtask under the
Summary. The difference is calculated in minutes so the first "suspect"
for fractional hours in a Summary Duration is that either the earliest
subtask does not start at the beginning of a workday (i.e. default 8:00
am) and/or the latest subtask does not finish at the end of a workday
(i.e. default 5:00 pm).

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP