Duration does not properly add

[jzis]

I have the following plan:

TASK NAME DURATION
Testing 5 days
Pre test 10 days
Pre test 5 days
Pre test 10 days
Pre test 5 days

The Summary task (Testing) duration does not properly add the sub task
durations. How do I get is so that "Testing" properly adds to 30 days?

Thank you.

- - - jzis

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi Jzis

When you enter the tasks like this and do not tell Project in which sequence
they should be executed Project assumes they all start the same day.
And when I go to work today, and you go to work today, what is the duration
of our common effort ? exactly, 1 day, not two.
Duration is the time from start to finish.
So it doesn't necessarily add up.

I'm not sure why youy want them to add up - there may be two reasons, and
for each of these Project needs some input:

- You want these tasks to be planned in sequence: then mink them together in
the order they should be executed. If they are all linked in sequence,
duration will be the sum of the durations. If there is any overlap, it
won't.

- You want to add them up because durations in your mind represent work, and
you want to add up the workdays. In that case assign a resource to the task,
and insert a collumn "Work" which will nicely add up the days.

But NO, DURATIONS DO NOT NECESSARILY ADD UP.
HTH

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Durations are not additive. The duration of Testing will be the time
between when the earliest PreTest starts and the latest PreTest ends. It
will be 30 days ONLY if the subtasks occur in sequence with no overlaps or
gaps. Also check in the Tools Options Calcualtion page to make sure it's
set to Automatic - from your message, Testing should be 10 days, not 5.