Why do weeks equal 5 days?

[elbyc]

I'm planning a launch date of a new product. One of the tasks is set
to 4 weeks duration. It starts on June 12 but ends on July 4. How can
I set the weeks so that weekends are included? It should end on July
10.

 

[Jonathan Sofer]

You need create a special working calendar that has the weekends as working
days and then apply that calendar to the tasks that will be worked on over
weekends. You can apply calendars to tasks in the Task Information screen
on the Advanced tab.

If the entire schedule should be on this calendar, you can apply the
calendar at the project information screen under Project>Project
Information.

FYI, if you assigned resources to a task, the resource calendar will
overwrite the project calendar. If you assign a task calendar, you can also
check the box "Scheduling ignores resource calendar" to force the task
calendar to overwrite the resource calendar.

Jonathan

 

[elbyc]

You need create a special working calendar that has the weekends as working
days and then apply that calendar to the tasks that will be worked on over
weekends.  You can apply calendars to tasks in the Task Information screen
on the Advanced tab.

If the entire schedule should be on this calendar, you can apply the
calendar at the project information screen under Project>Project
Information.

FYI, if you assigned resources to a task, the resource calendar will
overwrite the project calendar.  If you assign a task calendar, you can also
check the box "Scheduling ignores resource calendar" to force the task
calendar to overwrite the resource calendar.

Jonathan






- Show quoted text -

Thank you - I just got some help from a colleague. I should have
stated more clearly that although no work will be done on weekends, I
want the duration of 1 wk to last 7 days.

In fact, the problem was that I had my work week set to 35 days. That
is true for our offices when scheduling resources, but doesn't work
for planning the project. I copied the duration column into Excel,
changed the work week to 40 hours and copied the duration column back,
and it worked.

 

[Dave]

It may be helpful to you to know that you can use the concept of
'elapsed' time in Project. So if you enter a duration of 1 emo it will
be one elapsed month rather than 1 working month. Of course,the length
of the elapsed month will depend on how may days you have set a month to
be which is not the same month to month.

 

[elbyc]

It may be helpful to you to know that you can use the concept of
'elapsed' time in Project.  So if you enter a duration of 1 emo it will
be one elapsed month rather than 1 working month.  Of course,the length
of the elapsed month will depend on how may days you have set a month to
be which is not the same month to month.






- Show quoted text -

Thanks - that is interesting, didn't know about that one.

 

[Steve House]

Work only proceeds on the project when resources are present to do it.
Progress halts during nonworking time and so as far as the time required to
complete the project, non-working time doesn't count. The "duration" of a
task (or an entire project, for that matter) is not its total elapsed time -
it's the amount of WORKING time required. A task beginning 02 June and
ending 30 June has a duration of 21 days, not 29 days, because each of the
weekends during the month are days off and so do not count for the duration
of work. For the same reason a task that starts Monday at 8am and ends
Friday at 5pm has a duration of 40 hours (with the Standard calendar) and
NOT 105 hours. While you can fudge it so weeks count as 7 days, not 5 days,
by changing the calendar, that means that when a resource starts a task the
first Monday in June, they won't take any days off at all for the entire
month. If that's what is really going to happen, fine. But make sure it
describes physical reality before doing it.

 

[Steve House]

Of course if you use elapsed time it implies work proceeds 24/7 and no one
ever gets any time off, not even a meal break. Machines work like that but
people don't.

You stated ealier that Project's normal definition of duration doesn't work
to plan the project. Of course it does, in fact it's about the only
reliable way to come up with a schedule that can successfully predict the
outcomes of the management decisions you make. You need to schedule all the
activities that need to take place to bring your new product online. But as
I said before, activities only take place when the people responsible for
them are physically present and working. Planning your project around their
scheduled working time is the only way an activity schedule makes sense. If
activity X takes 3 days of work and it starts on Monday, it will finish Wed,
3 workdays later. But if it starts on Friday, it will finish Tue, 5 elapsed
days but still 3 workdays, later. Using elapsed days will give a schedule
that is a highly inaccurate representation of what is actually physically
possible.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

It may be helpful to you to know that you can use the concept of
'elapsed' time in Project. So if you enter a duration of 1 emo it will
be one elapsed month rather than 1 working month. Of course,the length
of the elapsed month will depend on how may days you have set a month to
be which is not the same month to month.






- Show quoted text -

Thanks - that is interesting, didn't know about that one.