total duration column

[Phanindra]

HI,
I have two tasks.
I have multiple tasks, i am getting the duration of the tasks but i want to
sum all the sub tasks and show the sum of the days at main task level, which
field i have to use?

Ex:
one task - 20-May-2010 to 25-May-2010 - 5 days
two task - 21-May-2010 to 28-May-2010 - 6 days.

I want to show 5 + 6 = 11 days in a new column at Upper task level. How to
do that.

 

[JulieS]

Hello Phanindra,

A couple of comments -
- The duration of summary tasks as you have discovered is not the
sum of the duration of the sub tasks. Because your tasks overlap
from 21-May through 25-May, Project will calculate the duration
of the summary task as the number of working days between 20-May
through 28-May. You note that 20-May to 25-May is 5 days
duration -- but I only count 4 days assuming Saturday and Sunday
are nonworking days. I agree that 21-May to 28-May is 6 days --
not counting Saturday and Sunday. Do you have a resource
assigned to the first task who has Saturday or Sunday as a
working day?

- If you have resources assigned, do you really want the sum of
the work, not the sum of the durations?

- You can have Project sum durations if you choose to given my
comments above. Add an custom duration field (Duration1) and
customize the field with the formula [duration]. Set the option
for group or summary rows to sum.


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

 

[Steve House]

Your logic is flawed. The duration of a "main task" (ie, summary task) is
NOT the sum of the durations of its children. The duration of a summary is
the amount of working time between when the earliest child starts and the
latest child ends. In your example, the duration of your "main task" is the
time period from the start of the day on 20 May until the end of the day on
28 May. Since there's a non-working weekend in there that doesn't count for
duration, the correct duration for your "main task" is 7 days (Thur, Fri,
Mon, Tue, Wed, Thur, Fri). What you're looking for is not a total duration
but rather a total work. Your first task has 4 man-days of work and your
second task has 6 man-days. Work is additive so your main task has a total
work of 10 (not 11) man-days of work involved (assuming one resource on each
task each booked 100%).

Assuming the default standard calendar, note that the duration of your first
task is not 5 days but 4 - the 20th, 21st, 24th, and 25th. Since Sat and
Sun the 22nd and 23rd are non-working days, they don't count in the
duration.