Dates and hours keeps changing automatically

[ahlroth]

Hello,

I have a problem that is making me somewhat crazy. Whenever I change,
for example the hours of an activity, everything else chenges
automatically. I know what the different tasktypes are and what they
mean but there is something else related to this. The activity for
example is 85 hours long, 11 days long and the resource units should be
about 100 percent, nothing special, but I just cant get these three
parameters to have these numbers. There are alot of activities in the
projectfile so there are some dependencies somewhere that are affecting
my activities.

I know that there is not a standard way of solving this but I guess
this happens alot and maybe there are some tips when these problems
occur that I could use?

Thanks for your help.

Regards,
Nicklas

 

[John]

Hello,

I have a problem that is making me somewhat crazy. Whenever I change,
for example the hours of an activity, everything else chenges
automatically. I know what the different tasktypes are and what they
mean but there is something else related to this. The activity for
example is 85 hours long, 11 days long and the resource units should be
about 100 percent, nothing special, but I just cant get these three
parameters to have these numbers. There are alot of activities in the
projectfile so there are some dependencies somewhere that are affecting
my activities.

I know that there is not a standard way of solving this but I guess
this happens alot and maybe there are some tips when these problems
occur that I could use?

Thanks for your help.

Regards,
Nicklas

Nicklas,
I guess I'm a little confused. You indicate you understand Project's
task types yet you are perplexed that Project is dynamically
rescheduling your plan when you make changes. It sounds like Project is
doing exactly what it should.

The example you cite says an activity is 85 hours long, 11 days long and
resource units are "about" 100 percent. It's not apparent which is
supposed to be the task duration and which is the work content. Changing
any one of those parameters, along with task dependencies, will change
the schedule. Given the uncertainty of what you really have in terms of
schedule file structure, it is very difficult to give specific help.

I suggest you get some training on how Project works. That training can
be self paced, (see fellow MVP, Mike Glen's tutorials on our MVP website
at, http://project.mvps.org/links.htm), or via actual class (for example
see, http://msprojectexperts.com).

John
Project MVP

 

[Jim Aksel]

First, 11 days at 100% is 88 hours, not 85 if you use the defaults.

Work=Units% x Duration

You change one, the others go for a walk too. The task type will hold one
constant for you (unless you rekey the value).

Perhaps the simple fix is to make the task type Fixed Duration. If the
Effrot driven check box is UNchecked, then adding resources will ADD total
work to the task. Otherwise, if the box IS checked, adding resources divides
the remaining work amongst all the resources in accordance with their
assigned units%.
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Jim

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