Changing effort

[jpas1954]

I have a user who is running Project 2000. She has all fixed duration tasks,
each showing duration and effort. She wants to change only duration. When she
does, it changes the effort. When she manually changes the effort, it flips
back to the original duration. So she can't make any changes. She sent me her
schedule. I am running 2003 and it warns me, then allows me to make these
changes. Is it her version or is it something in her setup that governs this?

 

[Andrew]

If she's changing duration, the task should not be fixed duration. Tell her
to make it Fixed Work, then have her change duration. She should get the
result she wants.

If she wants to change effort, tell her to keep it Fixed Duration.

If one variable is fixed, you shouldn't change it unless you want
unpredictable results.

-A

 

[davegb]

If she's changing duration, the task should not be fixed duration.  Tellher
to make it Fixed Work, then have her change duration.  She should get the
result she wants.

If she wants to change effort, tell her to keep it Fixed Duration.

If one variable is fixed, you shouldn't change it unless you want
unpredictable results.

-A





- Show quoted text -

Work, Duration and Units (of resource) are related by the formula
D=WxU. If work is in hours, and duration in days (defaults), then the
formula becomes D=WxU/8.

Project tries to keep this relationship between them. That's what's
happening to your friend. Each type of task is intended to deal with
certain situations that occur in real tasks. For instance, Fixed
Duration is for tasks whose duration is not effected by adding more
resources or work, like permitting. With Fixed Duration, if you change
Work, Units will change to keep this balance, and vice versa. If you
change Duration, the Work will be adjusted, as your friend is seeing.
Sounds like she wants a certain amount of work over a specified
duration. Try entering them both at the same time and see if that
works. There is nothing wrong with changing the duration on a Fixed
Duration task, but you have to understand what the software is going
to do and how to "outsmart" it.

Once a task has been set up one way, it's hard to get control of all
this. In some cases, I find it easier to delete the task, then
recreate it with the settings I want. Be sure to make a note of any
other fields, particularly links, before you do this.

Hope this helps in your world.

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi jpas1954 ,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

You might like to suggest she has a look at my series on Microsoft Project
in the TechTrax ezine, particularly #11 on task types, at this site:
http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc or this:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMFrame.asp?CMD=ArticleSearch&AUTH=23
(Perhaps you'd care to rate the article before leaving the site,
Thanks.)

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

wrote:

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

You should verifyy whether the tasks aren't set to 100% finished.
Shame and scandal, I know, but Project ignores the fixed duration setting
for finished tasks.

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf