Fixed Duration

[PK Consulting]

I have seen a lot of questions about fixed duration but I don't see a final
resolution. This is our situation:

1 - SP2 installed on the clients, whatever the server version before SP2A on
the server
2 - We use managed time frames
3 - Fixed duration tasks, with effort driven off, no constraints. These are
production type tasks so the durations go from 2/6/06 through 3/30/07
4 - We use an enterprise resource calendar so no Project Managers have the
ability to block out a plan resource calendar
5 - When time is recorded in PWA, we will see the durations change - the
time is recorded in May so we aren't anywhere near the completion date. This
is a sporadic problem and we can't figure this out.

Any ideas?

PK Consulting

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

PK:

Using managed time periods indicates that you're very concerned about
preserving the exact work record, however using Fixed Duration tasks
indicates that you're not very concerned about the duration record.
Unfortunately, Project doesn't separate the two and is not capable of
treating them as separate calculations. So, when time gets recorded outside
the planned schedule, durations will change. Your frustration indicates that
you need to study the scheduling algorithm a bit more.

To help you understand what's happening when you observe a duration change,
work with both the task usage and resource usage views and zoom in as far as
hours over minutes to see how and where, (and hopefully understand why) the
software distributes the time the way it does.