Fixed Duration Question

[Steve Lundwall]

I set up a Fixed Duration task for two hours. It is a meeting. I assigned
myself at 100% Units and the Work field calculated to 2 hours. Fine. I also
assigned someone else for 100% because they would be there for 2 Hours as
well. I reported back using PWA that I 'worked' it for 2 hours. When I
accept it into the Project it changes the duration of the so called Fixed
Duration task to 3 hours and 30 minutes and it changes my Units to 57% but
leaves my Work at 2H. Huh?

Okay, I give up. How do you set up a Meeting like this without Project
changing your duration? Thanks.

(Is this the 'New Math?)

Steve

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Steve:

Did you uncheck the box for "effort driven" when you set the task to fixed
duration? You're not really providing enough detail to explain the behavior,
so I'm taking a stab in the dark. How did you enter the time against the
task?

 

[Steve Lundwall]

Gary, Thanks for the interest. Let me try to give more detail because I
cannot get Project to leave my setting alone and let me define a 2 hour
meeting that two people attended.

I set the original task up and unchecked Effort Driven. I put in a Start
date of 1/24/2006 1:00 PM and End Date of 1/24/2006 3:00 PM. I assigned two
people (myself and one other) at 100% Units each and it calculated to 2H for
each of us. I Published it. I went into PWA and put in 2h on the day of the
meeting and hit Update to send to Administrator. I went to PWA as
Administrator and Accepted the update. The other person has also did the
same. MS Project has changed the duration to 1/24/2006 1:00 PM and End Date
of 1/24/2006 4:30 PM. It has set our units (for both of us) to 57% and
changed the work for both of us to 1.15 hrs.

Huh?

If I change it to an End Date of 1/24/2006 3:00 PM which is what I
originally set it up as - it changes the Duration to .27. If I change the
Units to 100% for each and the Work to 2h it changes the end date to
1/24/2006 3:51 PM . Huh?

Instead of trying to figure this out, maybe it could be better answered this
way. If you were going to set up a 2 hour meeting as a task and assign two
people to it, what would your Resource settings be? What would you set and
would you let MS Project calculate?

Person 1 Units? Work?
Person 2 Units? Work?
Would you set the Start Date and Time and End Date and Time?
How would you set duration for a 2 hour meeting or would you let it be
calculated?
Would effort driven be on or off?
Would it be fixed duration, work or units?

Maybe if you explain what you would do to set up a two hour meeting for two
people as a task within a project I can see what I did wrong. Thanks.

Steve

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

It looks like a miscalculation that could be caused by a calendar/working
time mismatch.

What is the current version and service pack level you're using?

 

[slippymississippi]

It looks like a miscalculation that could be caused by a calendar/working

time mismatch.

I agree with you that there's a miscalculation here. The
miscalculation is that Microsoft thought they could attach an
enterprise back-end to Project and have it actually work.

I experience the same problems. Set up a meeting, a multi-person task,
a milestone, anything. Record hours to it in the timesheet view, and
it changes the duration of your task.

I have heard that Jira (open source product) actually performs some of
the functions of Microsoft Project and Requisite Pro, all of the
functions of Bugzilla, and directly interfaces to Test Director. Has
anyone in here attempted to use Jira to satisfy these ends?

 

[Steve Lundwall]

The current version of Project Professional is 2003 (11.2.2005.1801.15) SP2

Project Server is 11.1.2004.1707.15 which would make that SP1. Would Project
Server SP2 solve the problem?

Thanks.

Steve

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Steve:

If it's related to a bug, then applying the SP might help. Somehow, I expect
that it's not bug related. Instead, there may be other factors causing this.
For instance, if you and the other resource had different calendar
availability, or if the one of you had hours booked during those time slots
or maybe a lunch break in between. Is the system changing the actual work
value? If not, then it's a scheduling conflict.

 

[Steve Lundwall]

Gary, I'll check those items out but I really doubt it. We are early enough
in the process we don't have a lot of projects in and most things are still
consistent and defaulted. For example, we all have the same work calendar.
Granted it is 7.5 hours a day and it 37.5 hours a week which tends to screw
up calculations - or at least it looks like that but I will check it out.

Maybe as a test I could set up another one in a Test project. Under normal
circumstances, how would you set up a meeting for two people for two hours
with specific start and stop times? What settings would you use? I'll give
that a try and see if it behaves the same way.

Thanks.

Steve

 

[Steve Lundwall]

Updated to SP2a. Set up a whole new project and set up a meeting for four
people for two hours duration. We were all 100%. The first person reports 2
hours against it and it changes the duration to 7.5 hours.

Gary, please, how would you set up a meeting of four people for two hours
and make sure it didn't change the duration?

Steve

 

[PK Consulting]

Did Gary ever get back to you on this? I'm pulling my hair out over this one.

PK Consulting.

 

[Nana]

I think the problem is with the way project work rather than being a
bug. I have experienced a similar problem and i think you are setting
the task incorrectly...

1. It is not recommended that you manually change the start and finish
dates as this will "anchor" the dates (one of them or both) thus making
them unmovabble.

2. With a fixed duration non-effort dirven task, project should split
the task equally btn the resources assigned to it. The problem comes in
when the task was assigned to resources as a different task type (or is
effort driven) and then the task changed to fixed duration. Project
will treat this task with a task type that is was the first time a
resource got assigned to it.

For resoulution to item # 2, if no time was entered fo this task,
delete it and create a new on correctly, otherwise zero out the
duration remaining on the task and create a new task with a duration =
the remainder of the old task and assign it accordingly

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

PK:

Apply the task usage view and zoom into days over hours and then hours over
minutes. I think this might help explain the duration changes.