Duration Display Issue

[Mark E. Read]

Helping a client with a weekend calendar issue, I may need some more help...
This is Project 2007 pre-SP1 (no updates)

We've got two 100 hour tasks lasting through a weekend, and the work (100
hrs), resource units (100%) and start (Friday) and finish (Monday) dates all
agree, but the duration seems to indicate a strange number (like 12 days or
2.5 weeks) rather than the expected three days indicated by the difference
between start and finish.

The standard day is 8 hours in Tools>Options.

The task is using a calendar set to working time from 12AM to 12AM, and the
calendar was added AFTER the plan was built.

Any thoughts? I have a screen capture of the duration, work start and
finish to illustrate my conundrum if anyone would like to see. Is there
something broken with the duration display? Is the calendar exception
throwing off bad data? Am I missing something?

Thanks!

 

[Rod Gill]

You have 100h of work. Project converts that to 12.5d. At 100% units the
duration is therefore 12.5d. Project takes you start date and looks at the
calendar for the assignment (or uses Standard Calendar if no resource
assigned) and works forward until 100h of working time has been found. T 24h
per day this will be 4.06 calendar days.

So Project is showing exactly what it should. Always remember that duration
is in working time. Maybe you should re-enter the duration to be 100h
instead of the 12.5f.

--

Rod Gill
Project MVP

Project VBA Book, for details visit:
http://www.projectvbabook.com

NEW!! Web based VBA training course delivered by me. For details visit:
http://projectservertraining.com/learning/index.aspx

 

[Steve House]

Your definition of "1 day" is each 8 work hours. Your calendar says work
proceeds without interruption around the clock. The time period between
midnight to midnight therefore encompasses 3 standard days as you've defined
them.

Always keep in mind that Project works with durations converted into hours
and minutes to the nearest 1/10 minute. It allows us to use units like
"day" and "week" purely for our convenience but those are not equivalent to
the units with the same names you see pictured in your day-planner's paper
calendar.

 

[Mark E. Read]

OK... I think I get it now. So even though I am thinking about calendar
days, the Duration column is looking at my definition of day (8 hours) in
Tools>Options, and telling me that I have 12 of them crammed into the poor
weekend. So my duration is correct, and my start and finish are correct,
it's just that my head is a little bent. That's okay. I'm used to that.
Thanks for the clarification.

As an extra credit question, is there a field for a calendar duration, or
would a formula be able to convert a raw duration into calendar days for
display purposes?

Your definition of "1 day" is each 8 work hours. Your calendar says work
proceeds without interruption around the clock. The time period between
midnight to midnight therefore encompasses 3 standard days as you've defined
them.

Always keep in mind that Project works with durations converted into hours
and minutes to the nearest 1/10 minute. It allows us to use units like
"day" and "week" purely for our convenience but those are not equivalent to
the units with the same names you see pictured in your day-planner's paper
calendar.

--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Helping a client with a weekend calendar issue, I may need some more
help...
This is Project 2007 pre-SP1 (no updates)

We've got two 100 hour tasks lasting through a weekend, and the work (100
hrs), resource units (100%) and start (Friday) and finish (Monday) dates
all
agree, but the duration seems to indicate a strange number (like 12 days
or
2.5 weeks) rather than the expected three days indicated by the difference
between start and finish.

The standard day is 8 hours in Tools>Options.

The task is using a calendar set to working time from 12AM to 12AM, and
the
calendar was added AFTER the plan was built.

Any thoughts? I have a screen capture of the duration, work start and
finish to illustrate my conundrum if anyone would like to see. Is there
something broken with the duration display? Is the calendar exception
throwing off bad data? Am I missing something?

Thanks!

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

In a formula use Datediff function. It ignores Project calendars.
HTH

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project MVP
http://users.online.be/prom-ade

OK... I think I get it now. So even though I am thinking about calendar
days, the Duration column is looking at my definition of day (8 hours) in
Tools>Options, and telling me that I have 12 of them crammed into the poor
weekend. So my duration is correct, and my start and finish are correct,
it's just that my head is a little bent. That's okay. I'm used to that.
Thanks for the clarification.

As an extra credit question, is there a field for a calendar duration, or
would a formula be able to convert a raw duration into calendar days for
display purposes?

Your definition of "1 day" is each 8 work hours. Your calendar says work
proceeds without interruption around the clock. The time period between
midnight to midnight therefore encompasses 3 standard days as you've
defined
them.

Always keep in mind that Project works with durations converted into
hours
and minutes to the nearest 1/10 minute. It allows us to use units like
"day" and "week" purely for our convenience but those are not equivalent
to
the units with the same names you see pictured in your day-planner's
paper
calendar.

--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Helping a client with a weekend calendar issue, I may need some more
help...
This is Project 2007 pre-SP1 (no updates)

We've got two 100 hour tasks lasting through a weekend, and the work
(100
hrs), resource units (100%) and start (Friday) and finish (Monday)
dates
all
agree, but the duration seems to indicate a strange number (like 12
days
or
2.5 weeks) rather than the expected three days indicated by the
difference
between start and finish.

The standard day is 8 hours in Tools>Options.

The task is using a calendar set to working time from 12AM to 12AM, and
the
calendar was added AFTER the plan was built.

Any thoughts? I have a screen capture of the duration, work start and
finish to illustrate my conundrum if anyone would like to see. Is
there
something broken with the duration display? Is the calendar exception
throwing off bad data? Am I missing something?

Thanks!

 

[Steve House]

As Jan said. The proper term in "Project-ese" for what you want is "Elapsed
Time." Duration is defined to only count working time as set by the Project
or other governing working-time calendar. Clocks on the wall and Outlook's
appointment calendar don't measure duration at all - they measure elapsed
time.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

OK... I think I get it now. So even though I am thinking about calendar
days, the Duration column is looking at my definition of day (8 hours) in
Tools>Options, and telling me that I have 12 of them crammed into the poor
weekend. So my duration is correct, and my start and finish are correct,
it's just that my head is a little bent. That's okay. I'm used to that.
Thanks for the clarification.

As an extra credit question, is there a field for a calendar duration, or
would a formula be able to convert a raw duration into calendar days for
display purposes?

Your definition of "1 day" is each 8 work hours. Your calendar says work
proceeds without interruption around the clock. The time period between
midnight to midnight therefore encompasses 3 standard days as you've
defined
them.

Always keep in mind that Project works with durations converted into
hours
and minutes to the nearest 1/10 minute. It allows us to use units like
"day" and "week" purely for our convenience but those are not equivalent
to
the units with the same names you see pictured in your day-planner's
paper
calendar.

--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Helping a client with a weekend calendar issue, I may need some more
help...
This is Project 2007 pre-SP1 (no updates)

We've got two 100 hour tasks lasting through a weekend, and the work
(100
hrs), resource units (100%) and start (Friday) and finish (Monday)
dates
all
agree, but the duration seems to indicate a strange number (like 12
days
or
2.5 weeks) rather than the expected three days indicated by the
difference
between start and finish.

The standard day is 8 hours in Tools>Options.

The task is using a calendar set to working time from 12AM to 12AM, and
the
calendar was added AFTER the plan was built.

Any thoughts? I have a screen capture of the duration, work start and
finish to illustrate my conundrum if anyone would like to see. Is
there
something broken with the duration display? Is the calendar exception
throwing off bad data? Am I missing something?

Thanks!